When I first started building my own recipes, I had a bad habit of adding too many specialty malts. A little crystal malt. A little biscuit. A little aromatic. Maybe some victory. Maybe a touch of chocolate. Maybe something dark “just for complexity.” At the time, it felt like that was what recipe creation was supposed to be. More ingredients meant more depth, more character, and more creativity. These days, I’m starting to think the opposite. I want fewer ingredients used more intentionally. That’s the idea behind building a house ingredient spine for Hop & Harp Brewing. What I Mean by an Ingredient Spine An ingredient spine is the core set of malts, hops, and yeast that I can use across several beers. Instead of treating every recipe like a brand-new project, I want to build from a familiar foundation. The beers can still be different, but they should feel related. They should taste like they come from the same little home brewery. For the English-style beers I’m working on, that...
One of the things I want to get better at as a homebrewer is brewing with the seasons. For years, I mostly brewed whatever sounded good at the time. There’s nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you just want a pale ale, a stout, or a weird experimental beer and you brew it. But now that I’m getting more intentional with Hop & Harp, I want the beers on tap to feel like they belong to the time of year. A dark mild or porter makes more sense when the weather turns cold. A pale ale or wheat beer feels right when summer is coming. Märzen belongs in the fall. A lager should probably be around all year if I can manage it. That’s the idea anyway. This year, I’m starting from nothing on tap, so the first goal is simple: get the pipeline moving. The Starting Point My draft system should be ready in early to mid-June, so I’m planning the first few beers around that. I want three taps going, with a mix of easy-drinking, seasonal, and traditional styles. The first few beers in the lineup are...