introduction

hello all. all the previous posts were brought over from my "notes" in my facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/david.j.halpin1?ref=profile). by urging from my wife i decided to make an official blog.

i have been making beer for about six months now. there is a book out there, Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff and John J. Palmer that i am using as i guide. in the book are recipes for 80 styles of beer. the recipes are broken down into three categories: beginner, intermediate and advanced. within each category, the styles are listed alphabeticly.

my goal, is to brew every one of these recipes, in order alphabetically, from easiest to most advanced. so far, i have been brewing beer about every three weeks. if i can keep up this pace, i will be on track to finish Brewing Classic Styles in about another four years. the finished product, blog-wise anyway, will be a sort of "julie and julia"-esque type of thing, but for beer. beermaking-wise, it will be a journey through the landscape of craft brewing, an art all but lost in the united states due to prohibition, now making a comeback just within the last 20-30 years.

in addition to john and jamil's Brewing Classic Styles, my beer brewing journey will be accompanied by the brewing bible, john palmer's How to Brew, an invaluable resource to all homebrewers. palmer's engineering and metallurgy backgrounds give great insight into the beer making process. i will also be using the latest version of the BJCP Styles Guidelines for Beer, Mead, and Cider to inform and enhance the decisions i make regarding the recipes i come across in Brewing Classic Styles.

in this process i will attempt to entertain and inform. being highly opinionated and quick to irrational avenues of thought, i will in no way shape or form be attempting to persuade you in any direction. i hope everyone enjoys what they read.

cheers!