What’s Brewing At Brülosophy? | COVID-19

Author: Marshall Schott


Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined living in a time when toilet paper was a hot commodity, kids were removed from school for months, and people were being implored to keep a safe distance from each other. I’ve read and heard the word “unprecedented” more times than I can count over the last week, and it’s true– regardless of your take on COVID-19 and how it’s being handled, we all have to deal with this very weird and unfamiliar situation, one that is sadly bound to have a negative impact on many in the beer and brewing industry.

Nearly every weekend, I spend at least a couple hours knocking a few back with friends at the House Of Pendragon taproom, an activity I trust most of you out there can relate to. But this won’t be happening anytime soon due mandated closures. I’ve heard from a number of people in the industry recently including brewery owners who are understandably anxious about the future of their businesses, bar staff who have been or are at risk of getting laid off, and organizers forced to cancel events they’ve been planning for months, all because of COVID-19.

It sucks so fucking bad.

I’ve also been contacted by quite a few folks asking how Brülosophy will be affected, and the reality is, it’s led to a bit more anxiety than I’m used to experiencing. The fact of the matter is, a big part of what we do is supported by sponsors, many of whom are really struggling because of COVID-19. Moreover, while we don’t sell our beer to consumers, we do rely on others to evaluate what we brew in order to get the data we then share with all of you. A good portion of this data is collected in public settings like brewery taprooms and homebrew club meetings, which we don’t currently have access to. And of course, to keep the risk of spreading the virus as low as possible, we will not be hosting large tasting sessions at our homes for the time being.

As shitty as this is, the Brülosophy crew sees the value in continuing to provide interesting brewing content and discussed ways we can adapt during these trying times. Obviously, we won’t be able to serve our beers to as many people as we’d like, but I think we’ve settled on some temporary solutions that will suffice. Here’s our plans for each main series once we’ve published the articles that we already have data collected for.

exBEERiments

Our goal for every xBmt is to have a minimum of 20 people participate in the triangle test before analyzing and sharing the data. This is what we’re known for, it’s our bread and butter, and hence making major changes is pretty scary. But we have to, so we put our heads together and decided to go with an approach many have requested over the years.

Rather than serving the triangle tests once to multiple blind tasters, the contributor who brewed it will take a minimum of 10 semi-blind triangle tests. When reporting the results, we’ll also go into more detail about the contributor’s impressions and experience with the beer. If the opportunity is there based on recommended safety practices, we’ll also include the results of a taster blind to the variable who also completes multiple trials.

We’ll be sure to indicate the xBmts completed in this manner and plan to return to them once life is back to normal.

Short & Shoddy

I’ve been handling the majority of this series and will continue to do so. Seeing as we publish one Short & Shoddy article per month, my hope is it won’t be impacted for very long. For the few batches we plan to publish during this pandemic, I’ll have just a few participants evaluate the beers using recommended social distancing guidelines, then include more personal feedback from each taster in the articles.

The Hop Chronicles

We recently upped The Hop Chronicles (THC) series to twice monthly, and thanks to Paul’s charming personality, he usually yields 30+ participants. Similar to the Short & Shoddy series, we’ll be replacing blind taster data with more anecdotal impressions from both Paul and myself. Given the circumstances, we may have to reduce the frequency with which THC articles are published for a short time.

Brü It Yourself

The beautiful thing about the Brü It Yourself (BIY) series is that it doesn’t involve any formal data collection, rather we just share the beer with a few friends and write about our thoughts. For this reason, we may actually increase the frequency of these articles until things blow over. If there’s anything interesting you’d like to see us brew, drink, and write about, please do not hesitate to let us know!

The Brülosophy Podcast

Producing a podcast isn’t the easiest or cheapest feat, but as I’ve tried to make very clear over the years, we’ve been able to do it thanks largely to the support we get from sponsors and Patrons. Unfortunately, due to brewery closures and such, I understandably expect to lose some of this support, which will put us in a precarious position. At this point, we’ve no plans to stop producing the show and will do our best to weather whatever storms may come our way as a result of COVID-19.

Support What You Love

I’m not typically one to give advice, in fact I generally try to avoid it, but I’ll make an exception here…

If you love brewing, craft beer, and all that comes with it, please do what you can to support those who have worked so hard to make it what it is today. Don’t stop brewing! What better thing to do when while sheltering in place like I’ve been ordered to do here in Fresno? Contact your local homebrew shop to check on options for purchasing stuff, place your online orders for ingredients and gear, and don’t forget to pick up growlers of delicious beer from your favorite local breweries who have been forced to close their taprooms.

If you’re a fan of what we do here at Brülosophy and want to play a part in helping us stick around, become a Patron by making a pledge of as little as $1 a month, and on top of keeping us going, we’ll give you a cool reward as well.

This thing won’t last forever, we will get past it. Stay safe, stay cool, drink great beer… we’re all in this thing together.


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17 thoughts on “What’s Brewing At Brülosophy? | COVID-19”

  1. A kind word from a medic brewer to the brewing community. Don’t drink your isolation away. Covid19 causes liver damage. It’s not well published. But I guarantee you. Drink in moderation brewers.

  2. Thanks for this! You have some great ideas to get us through the chaos. And what a great time for short and shoddy, paticularly if you can’t get the perfect ingredients. I might even have enough random wort in my freezer (for those starters I hate to make) to conjure up a 3-gallon batch with that unlabeled yeast in the back of the frig. Cheers!

  3. Matthew Reichert

    Perhaps Jersey and Tim, now being learned men, can be a part of the blind tasters and rate exbeeriment beers on a scale of 1-10 of juniper.

  4. Great thoughts Marshall, definitely support your local HB stores and watering holes! A couple thoughts, I definitely agree with Dr Neil’s comment about moderation. Don’t drink if you feel the least bit sick and don’t go crazy if you feel well. Also seconded Matthew’s suggestion on the Jersey and Tim Juniper scale.
    My suggestion for the Brü it yourself would be to revisit the no chill method. After reading Matt’s article, I was inspired to give it a try myself. Although it is still in the fermentor, the brew day process was shortened and I saved at least 10 gallons of water. One thing you could examine is the shifting of hop timing 20 minutes later in the boil for hoppy beers. Maybe you could combine no chill with a short & shoddy for a supper short brew day? Any content you can get out during this time will be met with support.

  5. Also, this would be a great time to brew beers that are ready to drink quick and some that need some time to age if you have extra brewing time on your hands. IMO

  6. With all the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and having to adjust to changing circumstances quickly, it seems almost impossible to plan to brew right now. My community doesn’t have a traditional LHBS, but when the time is right I’ll patronize small LHBS’s elsewhere I’ve ordered from in the past.

    I’d also like to do what I can to support local breweries that have taken a massive hit with their taprooms closed. I tend to agree with much of the criticism of growlers as a packaging format, but under these circumstances I plan to get some growler fills to lend some support my local breweries.

  7. Not to sound paranoid or doomsday-ish, but speaking of moderation, it might be a good idea to brew in moderation as well, in case things go to shit more than they already have. I strongly suspect that a full country-wide, national-guard-enforced lockdown is coming our way, so going to the grocery store will not be possible. I keep a sizable inventory of grains at home, which are a back-up food supply. In fact, dinner tonight at my house is 2-row casserole with a hop salad. Might also need to make the propane last.

  8. You know what I’ve seen gain in popularity is virtual happy hours with friends and coworkers since we’re ll working at home. Might be fun if you guys set one up so we could all “hangout” and shoot the shit.

    1. Marshall Schott

      We actually do this once a month for Patrons pledging at the $10 level. It’s happening this evening, in fact!

  9. Hey Marshall, I read/listen a lot but don’t really comment. We met in New Zealand (at the Free House, Nelson) and had a few beers. I’m a big admirer of the work you do, and although I’m in the brewery-doing-it-tough category so can’t afford to flick you any jingle, I can say kia kaha (stay strong) and let you know I’m with you in spirit! It’s a weird time, but there will always be demand for great content, and that’s what you and your crew provide. Take care man.

    1. Marshall Schott

      Appreciate you reaching out, Greig. That’s was a super fun night. Cheers to everything working out for the best!

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