Unusual ways extreme craft brewers are pushing beer boundaries

An interesting look at extreme craft brewers: 

We’ve got extreme sports, extreme makeovers, and now: extreme beer. 

A six pack for over 90 bucks? A beer you can only buy on one day a year? A stout with a dizzying 50 percent alcohol? These examples -- and many more -- are just a few of the mug-tipping exploits of extreme-beer brewing, the latest craze to hit the craft beer market.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/01/10/extreme-beer-here-craft-beer-makers-push-bounds-brews/#ixzz2HbBRmL2Q

An English Brown to end the year

It feels good to brew again. I missed it. When you're on the road more than 150 days in a year it's hard to find time to brew when you want to. Invariably when you get home from a trip there are things that need to get done around the house and other life moments that get in the way.

When I'm on the road I try to plan for my next brew. I had planned on brewing at the beginning of December but I was deployed for a train derailment. I finally had the chance to brew right before Christmas.

I HAD planned on brewing a stout for the winter with lots of coffee in it but I accidentally bought sweetened coconut flakes instead of unsweetened. One glance at the recipe pointed out I was wrong on that end. Add to that the list of ingredients on the coconut...I really don't want propylene glycol in my brew...sorry.


So I decided to brew the English brown recipe I had lying in wait.

I'm still working out the best ways to do certain parts of the brew process. I've got my mash in fine but I seem to have issues holding my rest temperature sometimes. I may have my lautering and sparging process. This time I used a steaming basket suspended above my pot and trickled the wort into the grains. IT seems to have worked better but only time will tell. I'm not completely happy the the setup but I haven't seen anything that would fit the bill.

I am still using an ice bath to cool my wort and I'm not thrilled about that either. I'm bound and determined to get an immersion chiller but I think I'm going to have to build one myself.

This time around brewing went well and seemed easier. The mash in and out and the sparging went well it seems. I got a good yield off my sparge and my final wort boil. I didn't boil off some of my wort like I have in the past.  I recently got a new funnel/filter for my carboy filling. It worked but the screen was quickly filled and clogged. I cleared it but anytime I have to put something into my wort after it's chilled I get worried about contamination. We'll see if anything gets screwed up.

The brown is quietly doing its thing in the closet right now and should be ready for bottling Sunday...Last brew of the old year and first bottling of the new year. Great way to start things off.

A look at the manufacturing of a British icon Fuller...

CNN goes behind the doors of a infamous British brewery and takes a peek at how it is bottled and distributed.

Independent breweries becoming big business

Beer is a $95bn yearly business in the United States. In the past year, however, corporate brewers have lost more of their market share to smaller, independent breweries. Some experts say this is a long-running trend. Al Jazeera's John Hendren reports from New York.