Ahhh the holidays! For me the time between Thanksgiving and New Years is always a huge rush. There’s always year end stuff to wrap up for work, on top of all the shopping and traveling. It can really burn you out.

But every year I do look forward to taking a break and bellying up to
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Most people show up with a bottle of Chardonnay or Pinot Noir to Thanksgiving. Snore. Bring something a little different and break out a few nice beers! In fact, I have read that pilgrims drank beer, not wine, at the very first Thanksgiving. A brewery was one
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I was lucky to be in Maui this past Labor Day weekend for a good friend’s wedding. When I got there I checked out the beers in the market and noticed a few from the locally brewed Maui Brewing Company. Since I had a few extra days I decided to check the place
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It’s Sunday, and the weather is fantastic. I’m biking through Dyrehaven (north of Copenhagen) to visit some friends, and have a direct view across the treetops with no highways, 7-Elevens or skanky suburban straight people in sight. The air is clean and all you hear is the wind in the leaves. And, of
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Everytime I head back east to visit friends and family I am always asking around to find out what good beers people have been having in the area. Some of my friends have been talking about the elusive Pumking Ale from Southern Tier Brewing Company in Lakewood, NY.  This seasonal brew
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By CJ, Umamimart’s Official Beer Scientist Originally posted on July 30, 2010

PREFACE Keg It! Part 1

Once you have all the stuff you need covered in Part One, the only thing left to do is get the beer into the keg, which is what I will be
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I went for a lazy summer holiday to the Bavarian capital of München to visit two school friends, both of whom I’ve known for over 20 years. Oh yes, we’ve been lazing around together since we first met at boarding school, talking and eating 24/7, and
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PREFACE Keg It! Part 1

Once you have all the stuff you need covered in Part One, the only thing left to do is get the beer into the keg, which is what I will be covering in this post.

The process to keg your beer starts at the
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Met up with fellow Umamimartians last week at The Trappist, a Belgian beer bar in “Old” Oakland, downtown. I made SF folks come out to the East Bay– and they actually did! On a school night! Such trickery.

The thing is,
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Bottling is the most painful and tedious task in the brewing process. The main benefit of kegging is that it is far less work than bottling. Several years ago, I got so sick of peeling labels off the bottles, sanitizing and cleaning them, filling them, and
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