By Randy Mosher
Published March 2009, Volume 30, Number 1
It’s spitting sleet. The sky is a sheet of lead. The wind, damp and raw, burns the flesh. But amidst the gloom of March, there are signs of the unstoppable change of the seasons. Birdsongs share the air with the heavy perfume of well-rested earth. Trees flush a ghostly green, preparing to burst forth with new life. For brewers, these signs announce that warmer weather is approaching, and it’s time to get the last batches of serious beer in the tanks, luxuriously pouring resources into a beer that will sleep all summer to be tapped as a celebration of the harvest, a reward for work well done and part of the grand cycle of seasons.
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By Randy Mosher
Published November 2008, Volume 29, Number 5
For at least a thousand years, the ability to brew beer in excess of local needs and ship it off to distant drinkers has been a valued source of both prestige and cash. Beer is a serious claim to fame in the otherwise unexceptional towns of Burton-on-Trent and Pilsen.
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By Randy Mosher
Published March 2008, Volume 29, Number 1
What’s black and white and beer all over? It could only be a dark witbier. It’s a lip-smacking sundae of a drink: soft and creamy, overlain by a gentle cocoa roastiness, topped off with the fruity complexity of a Belgian yeast strain. It is profound and fascinating, but at around 6.5 percent alcohol, it won’t knock you over, important if you’re interested in a second one. If you’re not yet familiar with this style, you’re missing out.
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By Randy Mosher
Published November 2006, Volume 27, Number 5
Food magazines must love this time of year. Throngs of unconfident cooks, dreading the duty of roasting the ceremonial family bird, look to the latest issue of Bon Vivant for step-by-step directions that will produce the plump, caramelized icon on the cover. Great, problem solved. But what to drink?
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By Randy Mosher
Published September 2006, Volume 27, Number 4
As homebrewers, we are often called upon to brew something special to celebrate a milestone: a wedding, a graduation, or just surviving another year in the cubicle. When the audience is entirely beer-maniacal, anything goes. But the real test of a brewer is to please those used to cold, chilly and canned, while upholding your homebrew oath to always brew something interesting. It’s a balancing act that requires the brewer to deconstruct the beer preferences of his or her audience and assemble a subtle, but compelling, recipe.
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By Randy Mosher
Published July 2006, Volume 27, Number 3
As a visual artist, I have always been excited by color. And even though the computer has mostly replaced physical media, I often make a wistful detour through the paint aisle in the art store on my way to buy the boring pads of paper and pencil leads I actually use to do my work. In the homebrew shop, however, there’s no wistfulness, and no need to hold back in the malt aisle. There I see a rainbow of possibilities, and fill my cart accordingly—until it groans.
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