I was excited to get a text from my sister on Saturday featuring the image above and the message, “Who is your FAVORITE sister???” 😂 She put up a Contributing Factor (CF) sticker at Stone Silo Brewery in Damascus, Maryland, a brewery where my brother-in-law, Adam, is a member. He and my sister love visiting…
A Little Help from My Friends at California Coast Beer Company A huge thanks to Frank and Blake at California Coast Beer Company! I continue to bounce brewing questions off both of them, and I appreciate their willingness to share their knowledge and experience. Even at their scale, running a 10-barrel brewing system, the fundamentals…
Bottling Day for the Paso Pioneer Ale Today was bottling day for the Paso Pioneer Ale, which I brewed on September 4. The wort spent 10 days in the fermentation vessel, with the beer dry hopped four days after fermentation began. Unlike my Inspired Paso Ale, I actually remembered to add the priming sugar before…
The Tape on the Tank: Brew Day Lessons from Pioneer Days IPA Going into brew day, there was one nagging piece of information I couldn’t shake. I spent hours dialing in the water additions for the reverse osmosis water I was using — linking my water profile to Brewer’s Friend, cross-referencing numbers, trying to get…
Atascadero, Round One: Wild Fields Brewhouse The last two weeks I’ve been able to review two more breweries in SLO County. After finishing off Paso Robles, I headed south to “A-Town” — otherwise known as Atascadero. Last Sunday, we checked out a car show at Lake Park, then headed over to Wild Fields Brewhouse at…
Contributing Factor Brewing Goes International — Edinburgh, Scotland Contributing Factor has officially crossed the pond. My sister — longtime FPL Beer Club “beer mule” — finally repped the sticker at her go-to spot: Salt Horse Beer & Burgers, 57-61 Blackfriars St, Edinburgh. If you’re in town, go track it down. Find the sticker, win… something….