Wick's Home Brew: Archive

Two Sides of the Schwartz (2012 Home brew #1)

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com Recipe: Two Sides of the Schwartz Brewer: Wick Asst Brewer: Style: Schwarzbier (Black Beer) TYPE: All Grain Taste: (30.0) Recipe Specifications ————————————— Boil Size: 8.49 gal Post Boil Volume: 6.24 gal Batch Size (fermenter): 6.00 gal...

Jan 25th

2 tags

Cooling Your Wort

I find chilling your wort a major time-consuming part of your brew day. I would say it takes at least an hour to get my wort down to pitching temperatures. Even longer in the summer time when groundwater temperature is higher than your pitching temperature. Like every beginning home brewer, I started with the ice bath method in my kitchen sink. This worked really well while I was extract-brewing...

Nov 15th

6 tags

Golden Triangle Area and Mississippi Craft Beer...

Last night I volunteered at a beer tasting in West Point. Anthony’s Good Food Market hosted the event. This sparked a question of mine. What does the Golden Triangle have to offer when Mississippi Craft Beer Week comes around? With last year as the inaugural year for MS Craft Beer Week, the GTR area has plenty of venues that are more than able to host these events. Who is...

Jun 24th

3 tags

Home Brewing Lessons Learned #5

I don’t know if you follow me on Twitter (@wickdawg) or not and saw my tweet about two of my beers submitted to the National Homebrew Competition receiving 1st place. So as I prepare my beers for the final round submission I am going to document my lessons learned day by day as the deadline approaches. Lesson Learned #5 - Patience If you know me on a personal level, you know my patience comes...

May 16th

5 tags

Home Brewing Lessons Learned #4

I don’t know if you follow me on Twitter (@wickdawg) or not and saw my tweet about two of my beers submitted to the National Homebrew Competition receiving 1st place. So as I prepare my beers for the final round submission I am going to document my lessons learned day by day as the deadline approaches. Lesson Learned #4 - Brewing, while it’s fun, it can be a lot of hard work. I enjoy...

May 15th

3 notes

3 tags

Home Brewing Lessons Learned #3

I don’t know if you follow me on Twitter (@wickdawg) or not and saw my tweet about two of my beers submitted to the National Homebrew Competition receiving 1st place. So as I prepare my beers for the final round submission I am going to document my lessons learned day by day as the deadline approaches. Lesson Learned #3 - Yeast Viability I have become adamant on using Jamil’s Yeast...

May 10th

6 tags

Home Brewing Lessons Learned #2

I don’t know if you follow me on Twitter (@wickdawg) or not and saw my tweet about two of my beers submitted to the National Homebrew Competition receiving 1st place. So as I prepare my beers for the final round submission I am going to document my lessons learned day by day as the deadline approaches. Lesson Number 2 - Preparing for a Brew Session. I wanted to show you that I do actually know...

May 9th

4 tags

Home Brewing Lessons Learned #1

I don’t know if you follow me on Twitter (@wickdawg) or not and saw my tweet about two of my beers submitted to the National Homebrew Competition receiving 1st place. So as I prepare my beers for the final round submission I am going to document my lessons learned day by day as the deadline approaches. Lesson Number 1— TAKE GOOD NOTES! Especially if you enter your beers to...

May 7th

2 tags

A Sudden Change

Found in a book gifted to us called “The Jest Book” by Mark Lemon. It’s an old book. After some a Google search it seems to be published in 1909. Wow! The book is falling apart. Trying to be careful with it. But I wanted to share this “jest” with my beer friends. CDXIX. — A Sudden Change. ONE drinking some beer at a petty ale-house in the country, which was...

Apr 19th

crookedoutlook-deactivated20110 asked: I was wondering if the complete brew kit from williamsbrewing.com is a good buy or not.

I've done a fair amount of research on boilers, fermenters, airlocks...etc and it seems to be the best deal so far.

Would you recommend it? and if not what would you recommend?

Mar 6th

8 tags

Letter to My Representatives about the MS Gourmet...

To get us started off the four bills that are being introduced in this years Legislative session are: Gourmet Beer Bills Senate Bill 2064: Beer; increase the amount of alcohol that it may contain form 5% by weight to 8% by weight. Author: Senator David Baria House bill 744: Beer; increase by 3% the amount of alcohol that it may contain. Author: Representative Bobby Moak Homebrewing Bills Senate...

Jan 19th

2 tags

Beer I've Enjoyed

Call me a beer nerd/geek/enthusiast/idiot, whatever you want to call it. I have enjoyed drinking a lot of beers. I have tried to document everything I have drank, if I am out and about I don’t usually whip out the cell phone to snap a pic. But my ole lady loves to take pics of the food we eat. I like to take a picture of the beers I drink. I sat down and tried to use Photoshop. I am not at...

Jan 15th

4 tags

2011 Brewing Wish List

This will be an updated blog throughout the year. But after listening to a lot of podcasts from The Brewing Network, especially The Jamil Show or Can You Brew It. Which ever one, it is a great podcast and if you are a home brewer (which I would believe you are if you are reading this) it is a great resource. I would recommend that every home brewer listen to these guys. The other show from them I...

Jan 11th

3 notes

Let Mississippi Drink Good Beer →

Dec 3rd

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/dining/ba... →

I know it’s not local to MS. But good tips to the young craft beer drinker.

Oct 7th

http://www.santaynezvalleyjournal.com/archive/8/40/... →

Maybe one day I can grow up to be like these guys.

Oct 7th

http://www.examiner.com/beer-in-national/pumpkin-be... →

Papa Charlie tells us about the wonderful pumpkin beer. I myself am about to brew one next weekend to have in time for Thanksgiving.

Oct 6th

BillyBrew's Beer Brats →

I love to cook and I love beer. Check this out. Hmm, sounds like great tailgating food.

Oct 6th

1 tag

Aug 26th

3 tags

Dunkelwick

Well my latest homebrew I have cracked open was my Dunkelweizen aka Dunkelwick. This is going to be my first true crack at evaluating my own homebrew. What can I do to make it better. Everyone that has tried has liked it, sometimes I wonder if they are just being nice, or just wanting me to supply them with beer. Otherwise it does feel good when you get compliements on a beer you brewed yourself....

Aug 24th

6 tags

Beer Mississippi Moving in the Right Direction?

One month ago you could have asked me if the craft beer movement in Mississippi was moving forward? One month ago I would have told you not yet, that a few Mississippians are working on it. I know I don’t do as much as I should for the craft beer movement here in my fine state, but I know the want to is there. Living in Starkville, one would think a booming college town would have an...

Aug 2nd

2 tags

May 29th

5 tags

Batch #5 Update

Good ole Southern heat peaked into the mid 90s this week making me worry about how my fermentation on batch #5 is going. The t-shirt wrapped fermenter and fan method that people told me about on Twitter is working like a charm. Everyday I check the temperature of my carboy and it is hovering 68-69 degrees with an ambient temperature of around 75 degrees. Thank you Twitter people for chiming in and...

May 28th

4 tags

65-65-65-6.5 India Pale Ale (Batch #5)

I have been reading this book “Microbrewed Adventures” by Charlie Papazian. Great read. Describes each brewery he visits and respective brewer as an adventure in the craft beer industry. This guy has got to have one of the best positions/job (if you can call it a job) ever! I often wonder what his source of actual income is, but he is one of the pioneers of the home brew movement. But...

May 25th

4 tags

Hank's Hefe Weizen (Batch #3)

The ole lady and I along with another couple went to the Suds of the South beer fest in Tuscaloosa, AL in March. Great! Great! event I must say. Had a handful of southeastern brewers there. Lazy Magnolia (Kiln, MS), Terrapin Beer Company (Athens, GA), Sweetwater Brewery (Atlanta, GA), Good People Brewing (Birmingham, AL), Back Forty Beer (Birmingham, AL), Highland Brewing Company (Asheville, NC),...

Apr 29th

5 tags

Sweet Stout (Batch #2)

Looking at the Northern Brewer catalog I stumbled upon a sweet stout kit. Having become found of some stouts I decided this would be batch number two. It is suppose to have a creamy mouth feel, nice chocolaty body. A great after dinner beer. I was able to bottle 44 of them and have drank two of them. Not to shabby if I say so myself.

Apr 29th

4 tags

My First Batch

The recipe for my first batch of my very own home brew was intended to be a Fat Tire clone. Well, I do not believe that has happened. With the chocolate malts that were steeped into the beer it made for a mighty dark beer. When I first watched this process happen in July when we brewed up this recipe it sure enough smelled like a Fat Tire, but it did not look like one. Who says looks matter? Well,...

Apr 28th