Danielle Lawson

The first thing I did was a five-gallon batch of mead that I split into single gallons in secondary to play with fun flavors. My husband had been brewing for a few years at this point, and was on his second batch of mead, so he helped me out a lot. The flavors I made were plum, 'pecan pie', apple and strawberry with rose petals. The pecan pie was probably the best one.

It’s a tie. - Big O Tatties, a sweet potato casserole inspired Wee Heavy. I’d wanted to make a beer based on my aunt’s casserole recipe (before you ask, she makes hers with pecans, not marshmallows) and with the help of another homebrew Facebook group I’m in, I decided on a Scotch Ale for the base. It turned out to be accidentally smoked because my oven doesn’t work, so to caramelize the sweet potatoes I used our smoker. This was a neat addition for about two months, and then it went weird. - Plum Out of Control, a plum pale ale, so named because when I added the plums to the secondary I roused the yeasties a bit too much and at around 4 a.m. the airlock came flying off and I was smacked in the face with plum from across my bedroom! This one was fun because in addition to the Cascade hops that the recipe (from The Homebrewers’ Recipe Guide) called for, I also added rose petals and heather tips. I also added champagne yeast, because I had some on hand, when the pale ale yeast seemed to have stalled in the primary. This all led to a light and bubbly pink beer that was perfect for floating the river.

Thankfully the last one didn't become a fail, it was close though! I have to say my biggest fail was my attempt at watermelon mead. If you've tried to brew anything with watermelon then you know what I'm about to say. It started out smelling so good, until one day, it did not. Apparently watermelon rots faster than the yeasties can make alcohol to preserve it, and it went from heavenly to sickening so fast. I had looked at so many homebrew forums and YouTube videos before trying this, to see how much fruit I'd probably need per gallon, and not a single one warned me.

Oh, that's tough. I could list my favorite styles for you but to keep it simple let's say I'm at Bull & Bush, I'm definitely going to start with a Smithwicks.

Sadly, nothing. I haven't really had the time to brew in the last year or so. But I have a brew in mind for my next: I've been foraging dewberries and mulberries that grow in our yard for a couple years and I think with this year's crop I should have enough in my freezer to finally do it. I'm leaning towards a wheat ale using the berries. We also have a yucca plant that's blooming right now, if I can dry out the petals I might use that for the bittering. AND I want to set aside at least a gallon of it to do a wild fermentation (or use some of the juniper berries from our trees). Basically I want a beer that tastes like our yard during spring.

To brew? I'm not sure if I've made something that strictly adheres to their guidelines, lol. To drink? Probably an Irish Red. If a brewery has one on tap I'm getting it.

It looks a lot like a storage room, a kitchen and/or my back porch, haha. All of our equipment and other goodies are in our storage room (which I can proudly say you can easily get in and out of now). If I'm doing a mead, wine, cider or an extract brew I'm in my kitchen, and if it's all-grain then we're set up out on the porch with my Clawhammer BIAB system. Sadly, it's only been used once so far because after I got it mine and my husband's work schedules sort of stopped cooperating and I'm still a bit intimidated by it to attempt a solo brew day.

As I mentioned many times, playing with flavors is my favorite. I look through cookbooks and how ingredients work together in a dish and think, "I wonder if that would work in a beer." I am a creative by nature. I love to make things and to share them. Brewing is another way to do that.