God bless you Google.  The fine folks at Mississippi State University’s student newspaper The Reflector searched “Starkville” and “beer” and found us.  Starkville isn’t regarded as a city with a craft brew culture, but we’re trying to change that.

If you’re a fan of good beer, made with care and flavor, we’re awful glad to meet you.  I hope this site piques your interest and you give homebrewing a shot.  It’s not difficult, humans were brewing long before the wheel.  The flavor will make you kick yourself for the years you’ve wasted drinking watery swill from the big American breweries.  Homebrewing really separates the beer connoisseur from the beer consumer. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 38% [?]

Hoptober Golden Ale is a great new seasonal for the Fall from New Belgium Brewing.  They brew it with a combination of Centennial, Cascade, Sterling, Willamette, and Glacier hops.  Man I love hops.  This sixer was smuggled to me across state lines for the MSU/Florida game.  You’re probably going to have to make a run to Tennessee or Colorado to get your mitts on one though.

Popularity: 25% [?]

In homebrewing the time it takes your boiling wort to chill down to a temperature safe for pitching your yeast is a time of great danger.  Wort is a nice warm medium loaded with sugar.  It’s the perfect place for nasty, foul tasting bacteria to flourish.  The longer your wort hangs in the danger zone the more likely you’re going to have an infected sour mess on your hands.

A wort chiller is essential for successful homebrewing.  My chiller is an immersion design that is dropped right into the steaming hot wort.  It’s made of copper and has as connector at each end for water supply and drainage.  A chiller does a good job of taking the temperature of your wort down close to groundwater temps.  On it’s own it just isn’t fast enough. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 100% [?]

This awesome brew from Abita brewing in our neighboring state of Louisiana is illegal in Mississippi due to it’s 8% alcohol by volume.  An Andygator, a shrimp po-boy from the Veranda, and the Saints winning on TV makes for a damn fine Sunday afternoon.

I had to buy this in Tennessee and smuggle it back across the state line.  The antiquated restrictions on beer in Mississippi are truly ridiculous.  You can find out more on the beers you’re missing and what you can do to change that at RaiseYourPints.

Popularity: 76% [?]

I’ve been reading about Apfelwein (German apple wine) on Homebrewtalk.com for a while now.  Everybody talks about how complex the flavor is.  There are more than a few stories about the medicinal effects of its 8.5% alcohol by volume too.

I’ve always wanted to make some but I never seemed to have the extra corn sugar or yeast on hand.  An order to Austin Homebrew remedied that and I mixed up my first jug of Apfelwein last week.  After working through four batches of homebrew mixing up a bottle of Apfelwein is just too easy.  Here’s the recipe:

What you’ll need

5 Gallons of preservative free Apple Juice – Preservatives will hamper the fermentation.
2 pounds of Dextrose (corn sugar) in 1 lb bags – An online homebrew shop like Austin Homebrew is your best bet.
1 packet Dry Montrachet Wine yeast – Again at Austin Homebrew. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 63% [?]