Jen Blair Jen Blair

I Tried It: Calculating My Malt Bill By Hand

Like most people, I rarely rely on my own knowledge to recall anything and I almost exclusively rely on various software, apps, and algorithms to determine how I move through my daily life. This reliance naturally extends to my homebrewing.

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Jen Blair Jen Blair

I Tried It: Beer & Halloween Candy Pairing

As an adult, some nights I spend my time looking over open enrollment paperwork, trying to decide which plan really feels like "me." Other nights I tell my husband not to fill up on dinner because we have seven different kinds of candy to pair with beer while we watch Stranger Things 2.

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Jen Blair Jen Blair

I Tried It: BJCP Beer Judging Exam

I held out on becoming a BJCP judge for a surprisingly long time for someone who is obsessed with getting points and advancing ranks. There are plenty of times, even for me, when I want to just. drink. a. beer. Not evaluate it.

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Jen Blair Jen Blair

New Years Resobrewtions: Halfway There

Now that the year if halfway finished (what? how did that happen?), I decided to revisit my seven beer-related goals for 2017 about which I wrote at the beginning of January. 

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Jen Blair Jen Blair

I Tried It: Beer Gummies

Lately I've been seeing gummies popping up made of wine, booze, and now beer. Curious about how to make them, I started researching recipes. As it turns out, beer gummies are super easy and quick to make.

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Jen Blair Jen Blair

I Tried It: Extract Brewing

The very best way to think of the difference between extract brewing and all grain brewing is to think of the difference between using a cake mix and baking a cake from scratch.

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Jen Blair Jen Blair

I Tried It: Backwoods Bastard Vertical

There are a lot worse things you can do on a Tuesday night than drink a four year vertical of Backwoods Bastard from Founders Brewing Company. Like anything else, because four bottles of this delicious barrel aged Scotch Ale is a pretty sweet Tuesday night. 

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Jen Blair Jen Blair

How I Asheville

Ah, Asheville - the place that makes everyone who visits look at local job openings and contemplate what it would take to move there. Usually while drinking a beer.

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Jen Blair Jen Blair

I Tried It: Wild Brews by Jeff Sparrow

It will likely surprise no one that I routinely won the "Most Book Reports" award when I was in elementary school. I regularly cashed in my Book-Its points for personal pan pizzas at Pizza Hut, wearing my giant purple Book-It pin as I chowed down on my pizza.

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Jen Blair Jen Blair

I Tried It: Stout Beer Barbeque Sauce

So smoky, so barbeque saucy, and so firm. Truly, I think I could turn any tofu skeptic into a tofu believer with this tofu and barbeque sauce combination. I served it with green beans and pimento mac and cheese, which is pretty amazing in itself, but the ingredient list is not for the faint of heart (among other ingredients, the recipe calls for a literal stick of butter and a quart of whole milk. It also lists the cheese needed in pounds, so...probably not for anyone counting calories.)

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Jen Blair Jen Blair

I Tried It: 100% Brett-Fermented Homebrew - Part 1

I imagine that the trajectory homebrew has taken in my household is akin to parents with babies - at first, everything has to be clean and sanitized nearly to the point of being sterile to protect your offspring/homebrew; after awhile, though, you realize that your baby will live even if it eats Cheerios off the couch cushions and that your beer will still be drinkable even if you forgot to sanitize the scissors you used to cut open your yeast packet.

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Jen Blair Jen Blair

I Tried It: Beer Judging

"Meh" is not acceptable feedback for competitions. Or anywhere, really - stop leaving "Meh" as beer feedback, everyone

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