Author: Marshall Schott

It feels like just yesterday I was reflecting on all that had occurred in 2015, yet here I am a full year later doing the same for 2016. I guess it’s true what they say– time flies when you’re having fun! As Brülosophy approaches it’s 3rd birthday, I find myself looking back at where I was and what was going before I decided to write down the stuff I’d been doing with my brewing. It’s incredible to me what all this has become and the opportunities it’s opened for me.

Instead of publishing a Brü’s Views as we usually do on the last Thursday of the month, I wanted to take some time to share some of my thoughts on how things went over last year as well as some stuff we’ve got coming up for 2017.

| A YEAR IN REVIEW |

A goal I set for 2015 was to publish 2 xBmt articles per month, which we not only accomplished, but surpassed by moving to weekly xBmt articles early this year. Given the fact each xBmt requires approximately 20 hours of time including brewing, data collection, writing, and editing, I was admittedly a bit anxious about committing to keeping up with this weekly pace. But we did it! With zero exceptions, we published an xBmt article every single Monday in 2016. And on top of that, we pushed out a second article every single Thursday. That’s over 100 articles in the last year alone. This would not be possible if it weren’t for the commitment of every Brülosophy contributor, each one who has dedicated the majority of what used to be a simple hobby to furthering what we know about brewing and beer. And for what? Not much. Ray, Greg, Malcolm, and Jake are deserving of so much credit for making Brülosophy what it is today!

Speaking of contributors, we’ve made a few changes over the last year. In May, I emailed a guy whose experimental brewing blog I’d come to enjoy to ask if he’d be interested in contributing to Brülosophy. After some thought, Jake Huolihan accepted and has quickly become an integral part of the crew! With his insatiable curiosity about brewing variables and commitment to the exBEERimental cause, I’m excited to see what Jake produces in the coming year. Also, a huge congratulations to Jake and his lovely wife, Lauren, who are becoming parents for the first time in May 2017!

On that note, Malcolm and his wife, Kim, had their 3rd child on December 27, 2016, a healthy baby boy named Malcolm Stephen Frazer. Join me in congratulating the Frazer family on their new additon!

Brülosophy was represented at various events in 2016, bringing our brand of dorky beer science to fellow brewers and friends around the globe. In March, Malcolm flew down to Brazil with John Palmer and John Mallett to speak at the 3rd annual Brazilian Homebrewers Conference. In June, both Malcolm and I attended Homebrew Con 2016 in Baltimore, MD where we gave a talk on Modern Perspectives On Traditional Methods, I participated in a homebrew bloggers round table, and we made a ton of fantastic new friends. I was fortunate enough to be invited by Hopsteiner to attend hop harvest in Yakima, WA in September, a trip that proved not only how little I knew about all that goes into preparing hops for brewing, but how rad that side of the industry is. Jake attended the Great American Beer Fest in Denver, CO where he interviewed a bunch of professional brewers about their processes. We also made numerous appearances on different podcasts and I spoke to a few homebrew clubs about our xBmts.

All in all, 2016 was packed with a ton of killer experiences that added to my conviction that this truly is the coolest hobby around. What’s in store for 2017?

| A YEAR IN PREVIEW |

We’ve got quite a bit planned for the upcoming year including some new projects we hope to implement and a few changes we think will make Brülosophy all the more fun.

To start, I’m stoked to announce that Brülosophy has accepted a partnership agreement with AB Inbev!

Just kidding. But we did setup a sponsorship deal with the American Homebrewers Association (AHA), an organization who has been dedicated to supporting homebrewers and growing this hobby since 1979. So how will this impact what we do? It really won’t, actually. Outside of making the AHA’s support of Brülosophy obvious to site visitors and allowing rights to republish articles, they won’t be involved much at all. We’ll maintain 100% control over the content we produce, the way that content is shared, and pretty much everything else. While nothing is set in stone, I’ve even talked with the AHA about the potential of tapping into their resources to make certain things we’re unable to do on our own possible. I’ve no doubt this is going to be a great thing for Brülosphy, the AHA, and those who enjoy what we’ve been doing.

I’m equally as thrilled to announce the addition of a new contributor to the crew, a person I’ve known for a few years who has proven his commitment to this hobby as moderator of the popular Homebrewing subreddit, Matt Del Fiacco! Matt is going to start by focusing specifically on The Hop Chronicles, ensuring articles are consistently published on a monthly basis and eventually perhaps more frequently. Once that’s chugging along nicely, Matt will likely help to start a new project I’m hoping to get going soon and/or jump on the xBmt train.

Attending brewing and beer related functions is important to us, as we truly believe the community is what makes this hobby as great as it is and love meeting new people. In 2017, I’m excited to be a guest at the 2nd annual New Zealand Homebrewers Conference in Nelson, NZ. The only unfortunate part of this is it occurs close enough to the Brazilian Homebrewers Conference that I turn down an offer to attend for the second year in a row. I’m bummed but holding out hope for a 2018 visit! We were invited to present at the Southern California Homebrew Festival in May 2017 and it looks like a couple contributors will be able to make it, though I won’t be one of them since it’s the same weekend as my daughter’s birthday. In June, Malcolm and I will be attending Homebrew Con in Minneapolis, MN where, given acceptance of our proposal, we’ll be sitting on a brewing science panel with our friends Denny Conn and Drew Beechum. It’s looking like a few other Brülosophy contributors may be in attendance as well, which will be the first time more than two of us are in the same place at the same time… things could get interesting. After the awesome experience I had on my trip to Yakima, WA, I’m really hoping to be able to make it up there again for hop harvest, perhaps a bit earlier in the year with some pro brewing friends of mine. Lots of stuff planned and I’m sure more will get added to the list as we progress through the new year.

Last but not least, we are in the planning stages of starting a podcast. This is something we’ve been talking about for awhile and we’re finally settled on giving it a go. Thing is, I’m obsessive about certain things and refuse rushing to put something out that sounds cheap and shitty. As anyone with any background in audio recording can attest, making stuff sound good doesn’t come cheap. Add to that the fact producing a podcast requires not just the time to record, but all that goes into preparing a quality show from organizing guests to editing. All of that to say thanks to those who have supported us by reading and sharing our articles, using our affiliate links, becoming a Patreon patron, disabling ad blockers, and buying our merchandise. None of this would be possible without you!

| TOP VIEWS OF 2016 |

It’s always interesting to me to see how each article we publish fares in terms of views. There are times I’m excited about a particular article that ends up being less popular among readers, while other times an article I thought was borderline boring explodes. What follows is the top 5 most viewed articles of 2016 separated into various categories.

xBmt Articles

For yet another year, the most popular xBmt based on its 40,000+ views in 2016 alone was The Gelatin Effect, which was originally published in January 2015. Coincidentally, the xBmt article that racked up the most views the day it was published in 2016 was focused on the impact of flaked oats on hazy NEIPA. It’ll be interesting to see how things pan out over the next year.

The Hop Chronicles Articles

With so many different hops available these days, it can be difficult to know what character to expect from certain varieties. We started The Hop Chronicles late last year with the goal of providing brewers something to reference when deciding on hops to use in their beer. The most viewed THC article in 2016 focused on a hop I absolutely loved, an experimental variety from the fine folks at Hopsteiner I suspect will continue to grow in popularity as brewers discover it.

Product Reviews

Since starting Brülosophy, we’ve published over 25 reviews of products we think are super rad, this year’s most popular being on the inexpensive yet immensely helpful MLT fabric filter by The Brew Bag!

Brü’s Views

The Brü’s Views series serves as a departure from our typically more equivocal approach with contributors sharing their unabashed thoughts and opinions on a wide range of topics. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most viewed Brü’s Views article was focused on a topic that has received quite a bit of attention of late.

Other Articles

We regularly publish other types of content on Thursdays in between The Hop Chronicles, Brü’s Views, and Product Reviews. Here’s a list of the most viewed “other” articles of 2016.

Static Pages

Pages are different than articles (or posts) in that they are static and generally don’t change. By a rather hefty margin, the xBmts page was viewed more than any other on Brülosophy (besides the homepage), racking up nearly 50,000 more views than the second place page.

Recipe Pages

Brülosophy isn’t really a recipe focused website, but we’ve made a few of our favorites public so that others can try them out for themselves. For the second year in a row, my blasphemous take on a classic German lager was viewed more than any other.

Without a doubt, 2016 has been an incredible year filled with interesting findings, new friends, and tons of great beer. I anticipate a fantastic 2017 and wish you all a…

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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| Read More |

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List of completed exBEERiments

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| Good Deals |

Brand New 5 gallon ball lock kegs discounted to $75 at Adventures in Homebrewing

ThermoWorks Super-Fast Pocket Thermometer On Sale for $19 – $10 discount

Sale and Clearance Items at MoreBeer.com

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