Baja Blonde, Amargator, Rio Bravo

As I go through the Mexican craft beers available at The Beer Company I'm finding my preference is a pretty narrow list. Most of the cra...

Pulque, Pulque, Pulque

Going to the tianguis or outdoor market every week becomes a regular routine for me while living in San Miguel. I can get the best selectio...

A Homebrewer In San Miguel

Homebrewers in Mexico are few and far between so I was excited to be invited to one of the local cervecero's house for a few samples of ...

Cucapa, Queretero And Calavera Brewing

This is the first set of Mexican craft beers that I've tasted after making a visit to The Beer Company. I plan to review as many as poss...

Mexican Sunset Beer

After the long haul to Mexico (17 hours), sunset on the rooftop of the Antigua Capilla hotel was the perfect place and time for a large bot...

Mexico Yet Again

The trip out of San Jose airport was too easy. I purposely scheduled our arrival anticipating the clusterf*ck that is always going on at the...

The Launch Of The 'Gringado' Blog

Just when I thought I had nothing left to say, I'm launching a new blog. As Susan and I head south for the winter, we thought it would b...

Thanksgiving Road Trip

I've been busy with family stuff recently, along with getting ready for another trip to Mexico. These events are taking up a lot of my b...

Brewing School Changes

There will be some changes to the brewing classes this coming spring. I've found that the five week course is too labor intensive and cu...

Lager Yeast Starters

It's time once again for me to get ready to leave the country for a few months and in preparation for my absence I want to have forty ga...

Straffe Hendrik Tripel

Near the top of my list of favorite beer styles is the Belgian Tripel. I can't get enough of these beers and regularly have a homebrewed...

More Brewing Disasters

Part I As a homebrewer, you come to expect a certain number of brewing hassles, tragedies and disasters to occur as time goes on, but when y...

Steeping Grains Or Partial Mash

A subject came up between myself and another homebrewer regarding the difference between using steeping grains in an extract brew and the us...

Cone Top Beer Cans - Sort Of

The interest in beer cans instead of bottles predates prohibition, but the challenge for manufacturers was finding affordable materials that...

Stone's Cherry Chocolate Stout

While I was purchasing the beer at Bobby's Liquors for my recent beer tasting class at Cabrillo College I splurged by getting a bottle...

Beer Tasting

I don't know where to begin, except to say that there are no simple answers. So, I'm posing this question to you who happen to stumb...

Competition Results For SC County Fair

Congratulations to all of the competitors in this years Santa Cruz County Fair homebrewing contest. The following are the results from this ...

Drake's Brewing - Barrel House

I had an excellent afternoon sampling a hand full of beers at Drake's Brewery barrel room yesterday. I headed up the 880 to San Leandro...

Two Steps To A Better Mash Efficiency

Three simple words, crush, crush, crush. Wait, that's one simple word three times. Regardless, this is the number one thing you can do i...

Lambic Brewing For Club Project

I'm contributing ten gallons of beer to the Zymurgeeks homebrew club barrel project this week. This is  a lambic style beer that will b...

Brewer Geek Alert

When I stopped off at my local homebrew store (7Bridges) the other day, they were in the middle of pelletizing some whole hops.  I was fasc...