making beer with... a coffeemaker

CC BY-NC image by TSalon via Flickr

Here's an oldie but a goodie from Southern Fried Science, entitled "How to brew beer in a coffee maker, using only materials commonly found on a modestly sized oceanographic research vessel". The post includes detail instructions, such as the required tools ("an electric drip coffee maker with hot plate, a coffee filter, 2 1-liter sample jars, 2 handkerchiefs, 2 rubber bands, and a source of clean (preferably R/O) water"), ingredients (dry cereal for grains, Vegemite as an option for malt), and a step-by-step recipe. The end result is noted to be as follows:

A cool, smooth brew, flavored with whatever you found. It may be very bad, it may be good. It will be beer.

'nuff said.

decoding flavor

CC BY-NC-SA image from Abu via Flickr

Right. This blog! I have it. There are plans, etc, etc.

There's a lovely piece on CraftBeer.com that has a nice breakdown about what goes into how we arrive at describing "flavor" when it comes to beer. While nothing new, it provides a good framework for understanding why experience is key when it comes to describing what we taste, in more ways that one. Slainte!