I got a little friendly flack for posting content from other blogs, videocasts, etc. Fair enough. But I thought I would point out and review a few blogs that I religiously follow – and have made it onto my blogroll.
Appellation Beer / Stan Hieronymous : If you don’t know of Stan or at least his books, you should. Appellation Beer explores beer writing, and links to various other topics and blogs that I would otherwise miss out. Google Appellation so you understand the word, then visit Stan’s site regularly. Always engaging discussions on the business, branding and culture of beer. Why should you follow this? Insights into how the rest of the world views US beer culture and legitimate watches on how traditional (and the new) cultures are changing.
Beer and Wine Journal / Chris Colby & James Spencer: Both names are well known and respected. Colby for his tenure at BYO, viking nature and all around experimental personality. James for the Basic Brewing franchise. Many of us viewed the DVDs from Basic Brewing. While Chris is the predominant writer, the occasional update from James comes through. Chris/James explore a lot of brewing related material – with lots of speculation followed by experimentation to confirm or deny the supposition. There are great recipes and concepts and the focus spans from extract brewing to advanced all grain. A disclaimer: Chris lives not too far from me, and we have become friends. That should not harm his reputation in any way… mine of the other hand, well…
Brülosophy / The Brülosopher: A very active brewer, experimenter and blogger. While NSFW at times, the exBEERiments are always interesting and often entertaining. Marshall is constantly poking at brewing myths and often reviews (and encourages) homebrews. The exBEERiments are directed by readers and drive right to the heart of a matter, recently looking at Primary vs Secondary fermentation procedures. You will find Marshall active on both AHA Forum and Homebrewtalk.
SeanTerrill.com / Sean Terrill: A now inactive blog, I keep hoping that Sean will start posting again. Sean takes a very engineering approach to many topics, and his work on Batch Sparging, Refractometer Correction, Starter Calculations, etc. continue to inform the homebrewing community. Sean remains very active on the AHA Forum. He is not a fan of Chico yeast…
The Mad Fermentationist / Michael Tonsmiere: Mike, with the release of American Sour Beers, and with the dedication of his blog to all things wild and sour fermentation has become extremely respected. He also consults for Modern Times Beers in San Diego on their wild beer program. Even if you do NOT like sour beers, Mike’s attention to detail and culinary approach to brewing is valuable. His advice, encouragement and quirky approach to brewing has been an inspiration.
There are many other great beer blogs, but these are the few I keep coming back to time and again. Something else… some of these guys need your support. They are their primary or secondary (see what I did there?) incomes. For the cost of a few pounds of malt, you can help these folks continue to pursue writing and bringing great recipes and information!
Cheers and Prosit, Matt
Hmmm… this disappeared from yesterday. And the format is screwed. Will fix, again.