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A good article. I'm genuinely surprised to find out that women aren't supposed to like beer. Here in the PNW, the gender divide at tastings and at my favorite bottle shop (run by a woman, natch) is split right down the middle. Also an interesting thought--women brewmasters instituting...

I love pitching the yeast. I get kind of sentimental about it, because I made this nice home for them and they're going to live out their lives and die there because I chose them. Of course they don't give a damn about me as long as I feed them. So it's just like having a cat. A lot of cats...

Just like all the shops around here, I'm going to be breaking out the Christmas supplies. :D Gotta get an early start on a barleywine.

Fall and spring. Don't have to do anything to modify the temperature and I'm all about eliminating as much hassle as I can--unless it's fun hassle. Temperature fussing is not fun hassle.

Too many variables; your own taste is the best judge. Start light and adjust.

Not when I'm using four or five spices--that's two and a half tablespoons of dry spice, minimum. Chopped ginger and citrus peel are extra. Anyway, OP, what type of beer are you planning to make? Spiced brown, barleywine, something else?

Apparently I like my beer a LOT spicier than normal; for five gallons I use at least a teaspoon, sometimes a tablespoon, of my primary spice with at a teaspoon or more of the complementary spices. You can always add, so you probably want to take it easier than me. Consider the properties of...

You seem pretty quick to convict the yeast there, and I'm not sure it's even a major factor. Next time, use toasted oak and hang the chips in a bag?

Dump it. Plants like beer and don't care what it tastes like. You do.

Why not start out with plain hop tea, so you can taste them in isolation first? EDIT: ha, beat to the punch. Must be a good idea. :)

If only that were true! I'd get my chart done in a second if it meant seven years of lovely sours.

Considered lambics and meads, perhaps? You don't get more Stone Age than leaving a bucket of fruit squish or honey water around until magic (i.e. wild yeast) turns it into booze.

The saucy lad at my local brewshop corrected me when I went in to pick up supplies for a black IPA and informed me that it was, in fact, Cascadian. And then he gave me a 10% discount on the hops. Good enough for me! (the PNW tree octopus occasionally forages in hop fields and actively prefers...

Got a batch in the secondary with pumpkin right now, actually! It's just about ready to bottle. There's been pumpkin added at every step so far. It's my first pumpkin brew but god knows I've consumed enough of them--pumpkin is really mild in flavor. The pumpkin flavor in the finished beer seems...

Pride's the best seasoning. To me, my beer is delicious. Maybe I'm being insufficiently self-critical but screw it. It tastes good. There's lots of it. Down the hatch.

An extract will probably have a blend of peppermints and some vanilla in it. Likely nothing that will get in your way. You don't always want a real flavor, sometimes you just want the best parts of the real flavor. :D I'd take commercial ginger flavoring over ginger essential oil any day--I...

I've made a mint beer by making a bunch of strong mint tea and using that to top off the wort. The result wasn't candy-caney at all, much more herbal. Unless you're looking for that I'd recommend extract or essential oil. (don't boil the oil, it'll vaporize.)

Whichever one you are, no doubt. Go brew.

I've seen pumpkin amber ales, brown ales, porters, and stouts, and while different they were all tasty. Consider the roasty, squashy flavor a pumpkin adds to a beer and figure that any beer which agrees with that sort of flavor might as well get a pumpkin tossed into the recipe for grins. The...

It sucks not to be given a chance, it really does. Especially when you've put money and plenty of good, honest labor into making something and all you want is for other people to enjoy themselves--it stings like hell to be told that it's not good enough. It IS rude. It is. But it's rudeness...