Sunday, May 18, 2025

Brew Day: Maximilian Lager (Vienna Lager)

The last Homebrew Con I attended with Muntons was 2022 in Pittsburgh. At the time Muntons had made a lot of exciting updates and additions to their range of homebrew products. The new Muntons Flagship Range featured more modern, American craft beer styles as opposed to traditional English styles. Also released was a range of Premium Malt Extract which included Maris Otter Pale, Wheat, Oat, Sour, Munich and Vienna Malt Extract.

I brewed 40 gallons of beer for the show and drove all eight kegs from my home outside of Boston to Pittsburgh. Marketing wanted to do a side-by-side of the Flagship Range Hazy IPA kit, the same recipe made as a partial boil/partial mash with the Oat Malt Extract, and the same recipe all grain. All three of the hazies came out great. The kit beer was noticeably the darkest of the three. The partial mash and all grain were very close. I also made a Passionfruit Sour with the Sour Malt extract; that was a recipe designed by the Muntons Product team.

With room for one extra keg, I suggested highlighting one of the other new extracts and ended up brewing a Vienna Lager. 

Monday, May 12, 2025

12x12 Review Samuel Adams Juicy IPA

Beer Included: Samuel Adams Juicy IPA

Purchased: 2 May 2025

Price: $17.99

Initial Impression 

I first tasted Samuel Adams New England IPA Jamaica Plain taproom in Boston back in 2017. This was before the beer was packaged for national distribution. At the time I thought the beer was excellent and if Sam could make an IPA that good at a lower price point than smaller taproom-type breweries, they would be onto something. Would people still buy a $20 4-pack if they could buy something just as good for less in a 12-pack? My comment at the time was "If I can find this fresh in stores its a game changer".

I first saw the new Juicy IPA at Fenway Park

That beer was eventually released in four packs, and I remember liking it if not quite as much as that trial batch. Then Wicked Hazy was released and now Juicy IPA is here. Is this the same beer that has undergone a second rebrand? The ABV and IBU of all three beers are the same. That doesn’t mean the beers aren’t all different in some way. I’ll be approaching this with an open mind. 

Sunday, May 4, 2025

Brew Day: North Shore Brewers 2025 Q2 Kellerbier

For Big Brew Day 2025 I did something a little different, went on Facebook Live during my brew day. I wanted to see what kind of engagement it would get and to see if it helped the page get any visibility. Video is not my strength, and I do not have the patience for video editing. 


Since Meta started deleting Facebook Live videos after 30 days, I uploaded the video to YouTube which made it easy to embed here. 

I shoot from the hip here talking about the recipe and process for this beer, and my system in general. 


Tuesday, April 29, 2025

12x12 Review: Allagash Variety Pack

Beers included: Allagash Lager, White, Hazy IPA, Tripel

Purchased: 24 April 2025

Purchase Price: $20.99 


Initial Impressions 

When I saw a couple months ago that Allagash was releasing a new pack I decided I would need to review it in this space as soon as I could find it. Allagash is a brewery that has always embodied everything that is right about craft beer. Allagash White is a beer that still transcends craft in that it attracts drinkers who aren’t beer geeks.