Tiny Bubbles

A little history on how we discovered the existence of carbonation. A fun Friday read.

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Transformation

This article is definitely a deep dive into the world of hops. It’s worth the read though if you have any interest in how hops affect beer, especially in the longer term. Cool stuff.

Science!

This is a deep dig into the science of better beer but man is it cool.

They stop at various universities and talk to lots of people and in the end, I have to say that I’m a little amazed that I can produce beer in my own home. There’s so much out there to get into and even the scientists suggest that the process is pretty complex.

Fortunately, I don’t have to do that process. I just have to add yeast to wort and chemistry does the rest.

The New Keg

This article on the new use of plastic kegs brings up complicated things for me.

On the upside, the beer lasts longer. That’s not something that I feel should be easily dismissed, alongside the benefits of reduced weight for easier shipping, and less fuel being used to get product to market.

The downside is that plastics just aren’t as renewable as metal is. While the company claims that these new kegs are recyclable, I can’t help but feel dubious.

Still, it’s a pretty interesting innovation and if the net benefit is positive, then that’s pretty cool.

Hop Fermentation

Just another reason to love science: They’ve discovered that adding hops to the beer after fermentation is apparently complete, can lead to some further fermentation process!

This news is more interesting, admittedly, for brewers and homebrewers (like myself) than it might be for the lay person but as a homebrewer, I might be able to use this information to plan how my beer might turn out or what might result because I’ve added hops to the beer in secondary.

Recipe Resurrection

They’ve found new ways to uncover evidence of brewing in Mesopotamia.

Longtime readers of the blog know that I have a thing for science and the use of this science to see how people made beer so long ago is absolutely fascinating to me.

 

When You Do Good, We Use The Blue Pen

I know that, as part of the craft brewing wave, exalting the works of craft breweries on all the levels that they do work to make a better product is important.

But. When the big corporations do something right, let’s give them credit. And this? This is something they did right. (It’s also super interesting to me and a little sciencey so it hits all those notes for me).