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| Memorial Day Murph, 2025. I’ve made a ton of progress even since then |
Beers included: Tuckerman Pale Ale
Purchase date: 6 September 2025
Purchase price: $16.99
Initial Impressions
When I resolved to start this 12x12 series, and earlier deemed the 12-pack the workhorse of the beer fridge, I wasn't sure if I specified 12-pack cans or not. Even if I had, I still would write the post. Either way I am glad that Tuckerman Pale Ale is the first 12-pack of bottles to be featured.
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| This time I gave the beer a name. |
Beers included: Summer Style, Day Drifter IPA, Harpoon IPA, Camp Wannamango
Purchase Date 3 August 2024
Purchase Price $18.99
I didn't set out to buy seasonal sample packs all summer, but summer has always been my favorite beer season, and I found a few I was excited to see.
Beers Included: Brooklyn Summer Ale
Purchase Date: 3 August 2025
Purchase Price: $16.49
Initial Impressions
As much as I prefer the written word, the digital world is moving more toward video all the time. Over the years I have very lightly dabbled in video production. I have no patience for video editing. With that in mind, I went on Facebook Live on Big Brew Day thinking that might be an easier pivot to video when I brewed this batch.
The tl;dw about the brew is I designed a Helles-recipe that borrowed slightly from my cream ale recipe, the beer got two weeks in primary fermentation before being racked to a keg for keg-conditioning and lagering.
I was happy to pick up a fresh crowler of Notch Zwickel directly from the brewery for my side-by-side.
More and more craft brewers are making American-style lager. It used to be that craft beer was positioned as an alternative to bland, yellow beer. Other than responding to consumer tastes, what does craft American-style lager have to offer? Are craft brewers making better lagers than the largest lager brewers in the world? If so, is the quality difference significant enough to justify a higher price?
Let’s put it to the test.
Discontinued beers can be a funny thing. Sometimes they are romanticized by many. Sometimes they are remembered by a few. One beer a lot of friends my age miss that is otherwise forgotten about is Samuel Adams White Ale.
Consider Sam makes numerous Belgian witbiers, I never understood why their original White Ale was discontinued and never brought back. Then after doing some research I found out that White Ale used TEN different spices and botanicals: orange and lemon peel, dried plum, grains of paradise, coriander, anise, hibiscus, rose hips, tamarind, and vanilla. That probably explains it then.
Beers Included: Summer Ale, Pilsner, Blueberry Ale, Blood Orange Ale
Purchase Date: 21 June 2025
Purchase Price: $15.99
Wachusett is always a brewery I've had a soft spot for. In an era before Untappd, one of my early craft beer memories was the inside flap of one of their sample packs was a post card. I cut off the flap, reviewed the beers in the 12-pack, stuck a stamp on the piece of cardboard and mailed it to the brewery in exchange for a prize. The keychain bottle opener I received in the mail was on my keyring for several years.
Beers Included: Sierra Nevada Summerfest
Purchased: 6 June 2025
Price: $19.99
After my recent batch of Spring Training Stout, here I'm brewing another one of my house recipes I haven't written about in ten years.
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| Look at those beautiful corn flakes. |
Like Spring Training Stout, Crackerjack Cream Ale is one of those beers I ask myself why I don't brew more often. Bearing that thought in mind, this still was not a brew I had penciled in for the summer this year. I brewed this for two reasons. Firstly, I committed to making a ten gallon batch and needed to propagate a specific yeast strain. I figured that strain would work really well in this beer. Secondly, my friends from Maine Malt House launched a direct-to-consumer website for homebrewers. Their craft malt is will be perfect in this recipe.
Beer Included: Summer Ale, Porch Rocker, American Light, Blueberry Lager
Purchased: 31 May 2025
Price: $17.99 minus $5 rebate
I didn’t want to review two Samuel Adams 12-packs in a row but I won’t lie, scanning a QR code to receive a $5 rebate swayed me. I was probably going to pick this one up at some point; the rebate nudged me to do it now.
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.
Beer Included: Samuel Adams Juicy IPA
Purchased: 2 May 2025
Price: $17.99
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| I first saw the new Juicy IPA at Fenway Park |
Purchased: 24 April 2025
Purchase Price: $20.99
When Australian Sparkling Ale was the style pulled at random for my club, the North Shore Brewers first in-club competition of the year, the reaction was “huh?” and “what?”. That is because nobody had ever tasted or brewed an Australian Sparkling Ale.
That’s is partially true. I brewed an extract kit from Northern Brewer back in 2015. While my initial tasting notes were positive, I recall not finishing the batch and dumping some of the bottles. The recipe kit has since been discontinued. The Pride of Ringwood hops used in the kit and by Cooper’s Sparkling Ale are also no longer available from any homebrew retailer in the US at least that I could find.
Back to the drawing board it was.
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| Hello, friend. |
Back when Jennie was still involved in brewing, she enjoyed coming up with beer names as much if not more than brewing or recipe development. In those early days the plan was to come up with seasonal beers like we were Sam Adams. An Irish Stout that would be ready for St. Patrick's Day named Spring Training Stout was just too perfect. Of those early seasonal brews, this is the only one that has stuck.
Beers included: Eliot Ness
Purchased: 15 March 2025
Purchase Price: $17.99
Inspired in-part by a recent video on Tree House Brewing’s YouTube channel, I decided to do my own Irish Stout tasting. That and finding a bunch of singles at my local Total Wine.
I intended to make an Instagram reel or maybe even a TikTok video of the tasting. I ended up talking about each beer for 3-4 minutes which was way too long for either platform, so I posted the full video to my Facebook page and to YouTube.
Off camera I jotted down some quick thoughts in a BJCP format like I do with my commercial beer and homebrew side-by-sides. The difference here is since I wanted to choose a favorite is I actually scored the beers using the BJCP 0-50 scale. Since these were all commercial beers, my scoring was probably harder than it would be for a homebrew competition.
12x12 is a new series dedicated to reviewing 12-packs of 12 ounce cans or bottles. Inspired by my guide to garage beer, 12-packs are often the workhorse of the beer fridge. The beer you bring to a cookout or grab on the way to a party. This series honors craft flagships, seasonal classics, and imported examples of classic styles.
Beers included: Thunder Funk IPA
Purchased: 1 February 2025
Purchase Price: $19.99
Initial impression: After reviewing a sample pack for my first 12 x 12 review I wanted to review a 12-pack of one beer. I picked this 12-pack up at a liquor store in Salem with a modest craft beer selection. I was on my way back from Notch. Having some IPAs in the fridge would be a nice contrast to the cans of lager I had just picked up.
As part of my Brew Year's Resolutions, I wanted to grow the site's social media presence a bit. The Facebook page is handicapped a bit since it is marked as "Alcohol Related" which means the page can't join groups. Instead I have joined a couple groups under my personal profile, where I will occasionally share content from the site or the site's pages.
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| Racking a recent batch to a secondary. |
In one of these groups I recently joined, a new brewer dared to ask about racking or transferring your beer to a secondary fermenter. Racking, or transferring beer out of a primary fermenter into a secondary vessel is one of those traditional homebrewing practices that fell out of favor. Now the prevailing opinion is that racking to a secondary accomplishes very little if anything, while exposing your beer to oxygen and a greater risk of contamination. Most of the replies to this new brewer rejected the practice out of hand.
That gave me an idea to link to my post about the topic. Then I realized this is never a topic I touched on in this space. I have the Mandella Effect even with my own work sometimes.
In 2025 is there ever a need to rack to a secondary? My answer: sometimes!
When I worked for Muntons’ since-closed US Sales Office, almost all of my efforts were to grow our presence in the craft beer market. I did exhibit and speak at some homebrew events, most notably Homebrew Con, but otherwise I didn't focus too much on the homebrew side of the business.
One homebrew-related project I spearheaded that never really got off the ground was a range of recipe kits for the American market using Muntons range of malt extract. As opposed to hopped extract kits, these kits are the type of recipe kits an American brewer would buy at a local homebrew shop.
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| The "iconic" Red Can Range. |
The kits would have included a mix of liquid and dry extract, most would included steeped specialty malt or grains for a partial mash, as well as hops and style-specific dry yeast.
12x12 is a new series dedicated to reviewing 12-packs of 12 ounce cans or bottles. Inspired by my guide to garage beer, 12-packs are often the workhorse of the beer fridge. The beer you bring to a cookout or grab on the way to a party. This series honors craft flagships, seasonal classics, and imported examples of classic styles.
Beers included: House Lager, Post Shift Pils, Extra Layer, Dark As Hell
Purchased: 16 December 2024
Purchase Price: I forget
Initial impression: Looking forward to circling back to two of Jack’s Abby’s core beers, two classic lager styles, and trying two new winter lagers
