This was a very fun interview talking with two of the coolest female homebrew podcasters out there. I talk with Laurie and Tyler the hosts of the Brew’d Up Podcast about their love of home brewing and the Real Housewives. I guess I now need to make Skeeter Pee.
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Show Transcript
AI created it will have many errors.
Colter: Welcome back to homebrewing DIY the podcast that takes on the do it yourself, aspect of homebrewing gadgets, contraptions, and parts. This show covers it all. On this week’s show, we’re talking to Lori and Tyler of the brewed up podcast. We’re going to talk to them about their views on brewing their, how they found their club.
And how they started their podcast. It’s a really great fun show. This was a really, really fun show. So I invite you to stick around and have a listen. But first I’d like to thank all of our patrons over at Patreon. It’s because of you that this show can come to you week after week, head on over to patrion.com forward slash homebrewing DIY.
Another way to support the show is by writing us a review head on over to pod chaser.com or you can, if you’re listening to us. Apple podcasts. You can just scroll to the bottom of your app, leave us a five-star review and your review is going to help others find the show. Another way to support the show is head on over to coffee.
That’s Kao dash F I Ford slash homebrewing DIY. And there you can give one time support. It’s all of these little ways of supporting the show that keep us coming to you week after week. And of course, the last way to support the show is head on over to our website. That’s homebrewing, diy.beer, and there you can use our sponsor banners.
You can shop at adventures and home brewing. You can get a brew bag@andabag.com or you can buy brew father and in doing so, they know that we sent you and therefore support the show in turn. I have to say, I am really excited about how much response I’ve had for the iron chef of beer that we’re going to start doing here next month.
I just talked to a brewer today who has sent out his batch of beers that we’re going to taste. So the first one to show up at my doorstep is probably the first one we’re going to record. It is going to be a once a month show, but I’ve had enough response that I think I’m good to go for the next six or eight-month. And I’m pretty excited about it. That being said, uh, if you are interested in participating, the rules of the show are going to be essentially your, the iron chef is essentially a commercial example that is listed in the BJC P examples. We’re going to taste one of those beers. And we’re also, side-by-side going to taste the home brewed beer, and we’re going to see which one is actually the one that is better.
Uh, you will be tasted by to be JCP certified judges. One will be Ryan pack Meyer. The other one will be a rotating judge based upon all kinds of criteria, but we are excited to get these shows together and put them out. So keep an eye out for the Beer competition episodes from homebrewing DIY. So pretty excited.
I also want to let everybody know that there will not be a podcast episode next week. I may just drop in an older episode, just so that something pops up in your feed, maybe something from the beginning of homebrewing, DIY, just so that at least if you, if you want to have something to listen to over the holiday, I know that we’re not.
A majority of the people that listen to this podcast are in the United States, but this is a global show. And so, you know, The United States has Thanksgiving and it’s on a Thursday and I am actually taking next week off completely and spending it with my family in lockdown here in Colorado. But I am excited about taking a break from all of my work and all of my podcasting and just kind of spending time with the kids, the wife.
So just note, there will possibly be an episode that is a rerun, but there will not be a new episode. The last kind of announcement that I have today is get your Homebrew hacks in the last episode of the show, which is the 26th of December is going to be our annual Homebrew hack show. That is where you talk about that tip or trick that you do for your brew day to make it easier or some sort of gadget that you’ve built. That’s made your brew day easier, whatever it is we want to know, and we want to read it on the air. We’re going to get some really nice gifts.
We’ll probably give everybody homebrewing, DIY stickers. If you send your information, we’ll send them to you. But the idea is that, Hey, send over your home brewing hacks to us so we can get them the cutoff date for that is going to be December 15th. I think that should be enough time for us to get everything put together and then we will get together and we will go through and record all of your different Homebrew hacks. And that will be the show on December 26th.
Just so you know, this is one of our more popular shows. If you, which you don’t see the stats, but it’s definitely one of our most listened to shows. Since this show is inception. So the Homebrew hack show is always a good time. So excited about the holidays and excited about the Homebrew hack show.
All right. We’ve got to jump right into it though, because this is a pretty long conversation where I had the ladies from the brewed up podcasts. So let’s head on over to there.
I’d like to welcome a really cool duo to the show. This week we have Laurie Gutierrez and Tyler Sadler. They host the brewed up podcast and welcome to the show.
Tyler: Thanks for having us.
Guest 2: Thank you happy to be here.
Colter: The reason I ask you ladies on, the show is I have listened to your podcast a bunch of times. And first of all, I want to point out that I love your show. It’s it’s so cool to listen to you. Talk about brewing and yeah, I’d love to talk a bit about your backgrounds as brewers. Let’s start with Tyler and maybe talk a bit about your history.
Tyler: Sure. So my history is actually pretty short. I hadn’t really been into craft beer, until maybe a couple of years ago, I had the classic like I really didn’t party in high school and college. I started partying and it was mostly like crappy beer PBRs, bud light, you know, like college shit. Sorry, can we curse on the spot or go?
Colter: Okay.
Tyler: Okay. So I was drinking beer a lot in college, but really until after I graduated was when I started drinking quote-unquote craft beers. I think the first craft beer I was into was lock Anita’s IPA. And I was mostly drinking it because it was cheaper than cocktails at the bar. And so I started that and then in terms of brewing and when I started brewing is when I really started to explore all the different beer styles. I had no idea that so many existed.
And so I started brewing January of 2018 and just Scott, uh, uh, Northern brewer, like a starter kit, five gallon starter kit of like an Amber ale. Brewed that bottled it, tried it. And I was like, damn, that’s actually pretty good. I was like, the tastes like it doesn’t taste like chorus light, you know, it’s when you have that first revelation of like beer, doesn’t always have to taste like P and Nick, you also made it.
So it was cool. And so after that I got really into it and I always, I always say this story, but like five gallons is a lot for one person. And, but in my mind I was like, that’s the smallest batch? Um, cause it was just like what people said online or whatever. However you want to put it. But five gallons was like the smallest batch.
So. I did that a few times. And I was like, Oh man, like 50 bottles of beer in my fridge. Like I’m the only one drinking. It says too much. So I actually stopped for maybe like six months. And then that following January in 2019, I started to do one gallon all-grain and that was, I mean, the process was a little bit longer, obviously, but it was so much easier to.
To maintain and also drink. I would make like a cute little eight pack. And then shortly after that is when I joined the Soquel set of acetyl. So that obviously helped my brewing get a lot better. And since then I’ve been like non-stop brewing and yeah, it’s been, it’s been a fun ride so haven’t been brewing for long, but. I’ve been bringing a lot.
Colter: And one of the cool things is when you join a Homebrew right club, you, you get, you get somebody to share your beer with, right. And you get good feedback. I think for me, the feedback I get from my home brew club is something that is priceless, it helps me understand that I make good beer or I make a bad beer, which I do make bad beers often I will admit, but the, the reason is, is because I’m the guy who always, I’m the guy who shows up with some weird experimental beer that I’m just like, Oh yeah, I just tried to do this. And we’ll see if it turned out, you guys are my Guinea pigs. Right?
Tyler: So I think we both are kind of similar, you know? Yeah. I like to try all sorts of stuff. That’s fun!
Colter: Well, Laurie, why don’t you give us a bit about your background and how did how’d you get into brewing and you do a lot of ciders and Meads as well, right?
Laurie: Yeah. Not, not a lot of meats. I’m doing like my third or fourth one right now, but a lot of ciders, I guess I went to school in Chico, Cal State Chico. So I always like craft beer, I loved wine, nor Cal. Then I bought my husband an IPA kit and we made it and it was really fun. And it was like, Oh, Hey, it’s kind of good and then we repurposed it to make cider. Then it was like, I Homebrew I pay is good, but have you had Homebrew cider and it’s even better because it’s so easy.
I just never really stopped, but I also really didn’t. I was just making the same stuff over and over again, just for personal consumption and then sometimes experimenting and then joined Soquel service Ceros. And didn’t really have a community. Like my husband liked it. My, my girlfriends liked it. I was like, they’re drunks.
They don’t know anything. And when you give it to like a serve at a festival or, you know, you meet other homebrewers that you don’t know that they don’t really give a shit about you. And then you’re like, Oh, this is good. Then you’re like, okay, I want to keep doing it. And then being in that club being like one of the only site people had made ciders, but I would, I had just stuck with it, but then I started brewing and then bring.
We kind of got like a girls group together in the club and started brewing. And so that was really fun. Met other women. And I mean, I’m a little sexist, I would prefer to get my information from women. So yeah, it was, it was good that we kind of got each other, right. I hate asking men questions, but then that’s what we, that’s what we’re doing.
And then I trust Brad Smith, I downloaded beer. And I know this is a grandfather. I shouldn’t say that. Sorry, is that.
Colter: Does that I have no allegiance to any brewing software. You are totally okay. I own a copy of Bruce beer Smith is okay.
Laurie: It made sense to me. I’m also like I’m very rustic, I don’t really have a temperature control. And I could give to sh you know, I I’m all over the place. I never write things down. I’m very inconsistent. So like that. The kind of brewer I am,
Colter: uh, man, I, I was totally going to jump in there because you, you said that you made the same recipe over and over again of your cider and, and it was personal for years.
And to me, when you do that, you kind of start to make a consistent product. When it’s that same. I call it my house beer. I have a house beer that I’ve made the same recipe for forever. And for me that, and of course that beer is like rock solid. It’s always the same. Right. And. And when I, and this is a personal opinion, you could not agree with me.
But for me there are two types of brewers out there. There’s the brewer. That’s always just, I made this beer. The next beer I’m going to make is that beer and the next beer air, I’m going to make it. So they’re all over the board. And then there’s the brewer that has made the same five or 10 beers. They make them year in and year out and they make them consistent in his help.
Neither way is the wrong approach. I’m more of the first approach. And I have a couple go-tos, whereas I have guys in my club that I have one guy that he brews with the seasons and he only brews until summer and then heb rews exactly on the same rotation every year. And it, he even branded all of his bottles and beers to the, to the T.
So in my mind, that’s, that’s what I always kind of imagined. And so it’s funny that it, then at the end, you’re like, Oh yeah, but I’m inconsistent.
Laurie: So very inconsistent.
Tyler: She goes with the flow. She goes with the flow. Yeah. I go with the flow. If I have an idea, like I’ll try to execute. And then, I mean, now that I’m brewing, usually during the, during the boil I’ll assemble, I don’t even call them. Like, I’m not pressing. I’m not like sometimes I’ll get fresh juice. I’m really, I’m assembling a cider. I mean, I got my store-bought juice. I’ve got a packet of yeast. Boom. It’s done in the boil. There’s like an episode of Housewives on, in the background. It’s very, like, I almost think like I am really using like the same bottles that I’ve always been using. I keg now too, but my, my bottles are like, if these bottles could talk, you know what I mean?
Colter: Housewives of OSI.
Laurie: What, what’s your. I mean, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Colter: Well, so randomly I saw salt Lake. It was, yeah. So randomly I’m from salt Lake and I am good friends with one of the Housewives. So yeah, I, so by history is I used to do, I I’ve done restaurant sales for years and years and years. And the very first restaurant I ever sold in my entire life was to one of the real Housewives of salt Lake city. For her first restaurant. So kind of nice,
Tyler: nice flex there, you know?
Colter: Yeah. Yeah. So kind of, kind of crazy, but yeah, let’s, let’s talk a bit about, so we’re a DIY show, right? And, and. I am. Sure. All of you have done some sort of DIY projects in your brewery.
I know that, like for example, Tyler just recently got a Kegel, which is probably the King of DIY projects when it comes to the a, they’re not, it’s not as easy. You got to get some tools out and then, but then B. It’s something that’s going to last you for life. Like you’re never getting re like your Kegel will brew with thousands of batches of beer before it wears out.
So let’s, let’s talk a bit about like, you know, why you went to a bigger kettle, what was the reasoning behind it and how did you do it?
Laurie: Yeah, so I had purchased a really nice classic eight gallon pot for myself, for Christmas, I guess. I think it was last year. And all my friends are like, why are you getting the eight?
Just get 10, get the 10. And I was like, nah, I’ll be fine. I’ll be fine. And then, you know, over so many brews, he pass, I’m like, literally just the, you know, after you sparked and everything, it’s like right at the rim. And boil over is we’re becoming just a lot to deal with. Like, I would have to stand over the boil, boil kettle for, you know, you just want to like, leave it.
You want to, you know, once the heartbreak starts going, you settle that down. You kind of want to like leave, but that would never be the case for me. I was like, okay, I gotta, I have to get a bigger kettle because this is too much. And so I was playing around with the idea of purchasing like a nice, you know, 10, 15 gallon, like, you know, SS brew tech or whatever.
There’s so many brands, but, but you know, so many of our members in the club use kegels and I was like, man, maybe I should just look into this kegel thing. So I did, I found one that was super cheap on Craigslist, which is where. Honestly, I’ve pieced together my brief through Craigslist and offer up like really cheap findings and it was actually already converted. So that was the best part. I think I got it for like, at the end of the day, probably got it for like 12 bucks.
Colter: Oh man! smoking.
Laurie: Now he gave me two CA he gave me two converted kegels and an immersion chiller for like $30. I was like, Cool.
Colter: Do the immersion chiller copper alone is worth more than that.
Laurie: Right? So I was like set to go. I even gave that like the second Kegel away. Cause I was like, you know, but so I didn’t convert it myself, but recently it’s so funny that you say this is literally last weekend and I think I hit you up on Instagram. I was like, I need some way to measure the volumes in here. I have no idea what’s going on.
My efficiency’s off. Like it’s all over the place. And. I think you posted something about someone etching. Yeah. And so I’d been looking into that and I was like, ah, you know, I’m not an electrician. I don’t know how batteries work.
Colter: Yeah. Doing the electrolysis etching on the side of the, in the inside. You don’t, you want to know the easy way to do it without electricity is get a stick. And you get it on a flat surface and you fill it up with one gallon and the dip.
Laurie: The stick can draw a line and then sticks are like so hard to find. So I actually forced my friend who I knew would be like, good at something like this. I was like, can you please just come over and start the process and I’ll finish it.
He’s like, all right. And so I now have an edge Kegel and it was so funny because. We did the gallon thing. I was so dumb and I use like, like just a normal water jug of to, to measure it. And those things are not a gallon. I’m just saying for anyone out there don’t use that. It’s like a gallon and a quarter. It’s crazy. My mind was blown.
Tyler: Wow.
Laurie: Yeah.
Colter: They’re they’re, they’re not really a gallon. Yeah, I have, I actually have an old brewing bucket that has lines in it. And so that’s what I use for my measures. Yeah. And every time I don’t use that, my efficiency gets thrown off because my system is built to me, filling my kettle up with that bucket.And so it’s funny how . Don’t get me wrong. Yes. Water in the bucket.
Laurie: And then you put the bucket, then you pour the water
Colter: Into the pour the water, the kettle. Yeah. But I also, yeah, but I, but, but I also, I will say that I use only distilled water in my brewery. So it’s like, I’m just sitting there pouring gallon jugs into it, and then I get it up to where I need it to, and then I just dump it in.
It’s not like. Yeah, it’s not like.
Tyler: I don’t know. My mind was blown because we filled at 13 gallons and I was like, this doesn’t seem right. This is almost at the top. And so anyway, so then I was using a Brut bucket, measured it again, it was super off. So he dumped all those 13 gallons, remeasured, everything. It was crazy, but I was able to add the 15 gallon. So I’m stoked to use it.
Colter: You know, that sounds like every home group that sounds like every Homebrew project in the world, right? It’s like, you think it’s going to be so easy and then it becomes a long project. You go down.
Tyler: And then you do it. And you’re like, Oh, I. Missed, but it’s like, yeah. For something you have to, you have to do that. Right. Or else it’s like why even the whole point is that it has to be measured at least a little bit properly. So it was worth it, I guess, in the end.
Colter: Laurie, tell me a bit about your system and what, what, like, for example, obviously when you’re brewing ciders, it’s pretty much, you’re just going to get it into your fermentor and add yeast to it. What does your beer system look like?
Laurie: I’m bringing a bag. And I also like to brew, I still brew extract as well. So yeah, my P I, and I also do, I kind of keep it at three gallons, the occasional five gallon recipe, but three gallons, mostly I will say something that’s been coming in handy a lot is my electric cuddle.
And I’ve been using it more for sanitation purposes and. I used it when I made Mead recently, that was very helpful to have it. And actually everyone, I got like a little group, a small safe group of people got together with masks on the outside. Our friend like had like 60 pounds of honey and we were just going to like, you know, assemble the Medes and measure it.
And then he had all these, all the nutrients and stuff. So it was cool to use that. And I use an immersion blender, and I was like, very pleased. I felt like that was very DIYish of me to just cut. And no one told me to bring an electric kettle or an immersion blender. I just, I just rolled with it, and then everyone used it. So it was cool.
Colter: Yeah. And to be honest, I’d kill for all of those things. If I was making a meade, it’s just, it’s it’s little things like that, that can, that can make it so that it’s, I mean, you’re, you’re trying to dilute 60 gallons of 60 pounds of honey between how many kettles it’s like. Yeah. Just makes it easier.
Laurie: No, it was a no brainer. And then it’s always nice when you like impress someone who like thinks they’re like a bad-ass.
Tyler: Especially when it’s a guy,
Laurie: I’m just kidding. I’m going to great. So, yeah, that was cool. And then, then I was just like, you know what, this electric cuddles like, I’m, I’m like, I’m a mom. I’m like, I’m a domestic artists obviously. And I’ve been following I, my house is a mess and it drives me crazy. But to help my brain, I’ve been following an Instagram cleaning page and the woman always is like boiling water, boiling water. And I was like, okay, lady. So I’ve been using that electric kettle a lot. I was able, I feel like to accelerate getting my water up to temperature just by kind of, you know, doing a gallon of that and adding it and sanitizing, like I said, so it’s been kind of cool.
Colter: How big is your electric kettle?
Laurie: It’s it’s two liters, maybe.
Colter: Oh, so like your like little electric plugin, the walls kind of kettle, like, yeah. That’s awesome. I, every time, so I’ll give you what I was thinking until I just figured that out is that, you know, I always think in my mind, like in Europe they have these like tea urns that can like boil water. Right. And you can like plug them in the wall. They kind of look like maybe a smaller version of like a robo brew or something like that.
But without all the baskets and stuff in it, and they have like a little black, you know, kind of thing on the bottom and. It’s funny. That’s how come like in Europe? Electric brewing is kind of everywhere because of that and there, and, you know, power out of the walls two 20 and not one 10. So it’s easy to boil water.
So when you talk to Europeans, which we have a ton on the show, they’re always like what you guys use, propane burners.
Laurie: What’s up, you’re up?
Tyler: You know, what I will say is recently I have, we have quite a few people that do electric brewing. And there’s just been some crazy blackouts out here in LA. I don’t know.
I think it may be, it’s just like the heat thing or the energy thing, but the power goes out and then they’re, they’re screwed. They can’t do anything. Yeah, you’re done. Like with propane, it’s like, Oh crap. Okay. At least I can drive down the street and go get like a new tank, but. Well, the electric brewing, you’re kind of like SOL. That that’s happened quite a few times recently and it, it kinda made me a little scared to jump to electric, but I don’t know I get the appeal, but that that’s kind of tripped me out a little.
Colter: But I’ll have to, you know, I’ll, I’ll, you know, Well, then you’ll get to talk, Laurie. I will have, you know, that you, Tyler are the first person that has actually brought me a negative two electric brewing. And I love it because usually it’s everybody going, Hey, electric brewing, this is the way of the future. You should be doing this. Right. And so that never, but. We don’t tend to have problems with our power here in Colorado. And so I count on one hand how many times the power has gone out in the last three years, but,
Tyler: I literally came home tonight with a notice on my door. Like, Hey, your power is going to be out between 11 and 2:00 PM on Friday, just letting you know. I’m like, okay.cool. I hope you don’t like power then. Luckily, I’m not fermenting like a lager right now because
Laurie: Oh, shoot. Yeah, no, I’m good. I’m good.
Colter: Matt should be in a brewery and that your money is riding on that, right? It’s like,
Tyler: Oh, just a few hours. It’s fine.
Colter: Laurie, what were you going to say before I interrupted you? I’m sorry. Ask.
Laurie: Well, where do people in Denver brew or you bring like indoors or outdoors or.
Colter: Yeah. So I have gone electric this year. I’ve got a mash and Boyle. Actually, what happened is my neighbor had one and he. Built this crazy electric brewery out of a brew block system that like we’ve done entire podcast episodes on.
It was pretty cool. And then when he was done with that, and he was like, Hey, you want this mash and boil. It was like, fine. And I actually just sold my kegel in the last two months and it was a sad day because I’ve brewed so many batches on that thing. And very same, same type of story as Tyler’s. I actually got mine for 25 bucks off of a guy who was moving to California in Utah. And he was like, Hey, I have to get rid of all my brewing equipment. And he sold me two kegels. He sold me a one with a sight glass. That was his liquor tank. And then he sold me one that was his boil kettle. And then I ended up just the hot liquor tank away. Cause I didn’t need it. So cause I brewed it back.
Laurie: Do you use that indoors or outdoors indoors?
Colter: I, it I’ve actually brought it indoors and I’ve just burned in my kitchen. One thing that people don’t know about Colorado is the weather here is actually surprisingly pretty nice. Even in the winter. I would say 60 degrees is pretty common here. It’s not even throughout the winter though. We do have some cold days, but for the most part, you can squeeze a couple of brew days a month in pretty normally, and do that side of the night.
Tyler: Lately I’ve been waking up. It’s like 40 degrees. Geez. Where am I?
Colter: You’re in LA. It shouldn’t be 40 degrees ever.
Tyler: 6:00 AM. I was like, I was going to go out for a run, but I was like, nah,
Colter: Well, let’s talk a bit about like the fact that I will admit when I listened to your show, it just screams LA to me. And, and maybe it’s because I traveled a lot for work and my past history. And as part of that, I just feel like, eh, you know, my, my story of LA is always like, Yeah, I’ll totally say it. Whenever I go to LA, I feel like I have a conversation about what we want to do.
And all it has to do is around traffic. It’s like, ah, yeah, we could do that. But then we’ll just sit and traffic, like, that’s always the answer to everything. Right? So, but that being said, I do, I do feel like that there, there is a really. Big LA tinge to your podcast. And I love it. I, I like that you guys kind of talk about the local scene. You talk about the club, you talk about the people you brew with. And to me, I think it just gives it a lot of flavor, for me. What do you think that, like, that scene brings into your podcast?
Tyler: I mean, LA is definitely one of the most diverse places you’ll ever go. And so, and diversity is, you know, across the board and the breweries that are out here.
There’s so many breweries. Obviously. I know there’s a ton of breweries in Colorado, but there are, there are, there are a good amount of breweries out here in LA and. A lot of them are producing a lot of the same stuff, a lot of different stuff. So we’ve got a nice variety, which is cool. And it gives us a lot of like, it just gives us a lot of stuff to try.
There’s no way I feel like we’ll ever get through most of the breweries in LA. There’s always something new. And so. Just in terms of like the craft brewery scene there’s there is so much to discover. And then with our, with the home birth home brewery scene, I think because we’re in this specific home brew club that we’re in, we’re able to get a ton of different exp like home brew experiences.
So. So Cal side of Assetto started as like a predominantly Latino based home brew club. Now there’s all different races, genders, et cetera. And it is super diverse compared to a lot of the Homebrew clubs that it exists, you know, even out here in Southern California. So I think in terms of just the different experiences.
We’re able to encounter different people. We’re able to talk to and in just like our own personal experiences, you know, living in LA Laurie lives in like a totally different like area of LA than I do. And it sounds crazy to someone who doesn’t live here, but she’s like, All the way in South LA and I’m all the way in the Valley.
And those are two very different parts of LA. So it’s cool. We’re close, but there’s a lot of differences between our experiences
Colter: As we were talking about traffic, right. It would be a very, it would probably be quite the John to probably only about 20 or 30 miles away from each other, but probably a couple hour drive to get there.
Tyler: Right? Yeah. We have not seen each other in person a lot. Over the past year, but no, actually.
Laurie: Maybe you have, but it’s just this weekend.
Tyler: Oh, that’s true. That’s true.
Laurie: I think that the reason why like LA comes through, I could see that is because we try to make ours. Like it’s very experiential. It’s very like, this is what I’ve experienced.
And so that’s just kind of where we’re coming from. We’re not, you know, like we could probably. Do a little more research about certain things before we start talking about them on a podcast, but why, why would we do that? Why wouldn’t we just talk about like, you know, some brewery would anyway, I, I think that’s where it comes from, or just really speaking from experience and that’s kind of our world right now.
And also fun fact when we were like talking about the length of our podcast, we’re like, let’s make it like. 35 45 minutes. That’s like the average commute in LA. So we were kind of thinking not, not too long. Just something you could tune in, you get there. You’re at work and then you’re, you’re done. And it’s been working so far.
Colter: Yeah. That’s awesome. What, one of the things that you just mentioned was like the diversity and I will admit my Homebrew club is all men. There’s just, there’s no real diversity specifically when it. It, it it’s, it’s not shocking. And actually, I think it’s actually kind of a black eye on the, on the Homebrew scene in general, right?
To me, the way I look at it is I think that diversity in general brings different perspectives to some of the same problems. And I think that those different percent perspectives, because to me, home brewing, there’s no right or wrong way to do any of this. Right. I think that there’s, there’s too many people that are heavily dogmatic on things and I’m more of like, Hey, relax and have a home brew. Does it taste like shit? Great. Well, let’s drink it. Right. So shocking on that. Right.
Laurie: No I love it.
Colter: So for me, that, that to me is something that I, I personally really want in, in my home brew club a lot, if you were, you know, kind of talking right to a home brew club, that’s all guys, right. Or, you know, specifically, you know, all. Older white guys, right. That I would say that’s probably what you would say is the diversity of most Homebrew clubs. What kind of things could we be doing to help diversify a bit? And you know, what kind of outreach would you say we should be doing?
Laurie: Connect with your female friends, connect with your significant others, your coworkers, your female friends, and say, Hey, do you want to come and brew with me?
I mean, That’s how it all starts. Is someone kind of giving you that in. And I think at first brewing seems very insider and I, you know, no one wants to step into something where they don’t feel like they know anything or they, you know what I mean, especially if it’s supposed to be for fun, but I think it comes down to that.
Like, Hey, come let me come show you. Like, it’ll be really fun. And then help that person get a kit and then give them all your old stuff. And then, you know, check in on them. I that’s what I would say.
Tyler: Yeah. I mean, a lot of, definitely a lot of the females that join our club or paired up with a guy, you know, and some of them get more involved than others, but that is definitely an in for, I would say a lot of the females in our club, but I mean, it’s tough. Like. It’s, this is like a really tough question because it is, it is kind of based on the individual too, at the end of the day, you know, like.
Colter: I do agree with that as well.
Tyler: Yeah. It’s like, for me, I’m kind of an independent woman per se. And so I went to a, I went to a meeting all by myself. I didn’t know anybody. But it was cool because Laurie was there. Flora, Sarah flora was there, her friends were there. And so there was actually a nice, at least a little group of women there. And then obviously the guys were cool, but it does help. It definitely helps when there’s women there. Cause like even I hear stories at the beginning or at the beginning of our club that girls did walk in and they walked right back out.
Cause it was like all guys and they were like, eh, but it, it takes time. I would say. Try to, like Laurie said, you know, reach out to your friends, but it definitely is something that takes time. But look, women drink beer. It’s like no secret.
Colter: Yeah. You know, so I’ve been trying to get my wife to drink my beer. For 10 years and she just is now having it, but that’s, that’s just my personal issue. And my, my actual goal is to make a beverage that my wife will drink. And that’s kind of a, and I’ve tried everything. I’ve tried very light sparkling Meads. I’ve tried ciders. I have tried, I haven’t tried making wine and I did it really shitty job of it.
And I need to try to drink. She likes to drink white claw.
Laurie: That’s tough dextrose out.
Colter: I know I get out of what I need to do is just take some water, carbonate it, throw vodka in it, and she’ll drink that all day.
Tyler: Sounds perfect to me, alcohol and to home brew.
Colter: Yeah, me too. But yeah, it’s just, well, and she’s even said to me, she’s like, yeah, if you make a, if you make me some hard seltzer, I’ll drink that. And I’m like, Oh, I just didn’t do it.
Tyler: Try it out. It might be fun.
Colter: I don’t know. I know I, you know it, but for me, it’s like, uh, every time I, and I get this question a lot on the podcast where people email me and be like, Hey, do you have a great hard seltzer recipe? I’m like, yes. Vodka, water. Carbonation it like we’re homebrewers you don’t have to like, you know, a brewery actually has to brew something, right?
There’s a, there’s a, like a law on the books like federally, but like you can’t just throw vodka and things. Cause then you have to be distillery. So they have to actually attempt to brew something. Whereas like you’re at home, there’s nothing stopping you there. And like, if you want it to be clean, like why not? That’s the easy way.
Tyler: That’s true. I have a friend that works at a brew and he told me their whole process and yeah. Basically using dextrose and a ton of nutrients because there’s obviously no nutrients and dextrose. And I don’t know, it was very interesting. I was like, maybe I’ll try this at home. And I just haven’t gotten around to it, but yeah.
Colter: Skeeter P you guys ever made Skeeter P.
Tyler: No. Where have I heard that from though?
Colter: I actually, if you go back and listen to the original brew pie remix episode, I think that’s like episode six or seven on this podcast that the guest Lee Bussy actually gives us his Skeeter pea recipe. And I have the recipe downloadable there and he he’s like, it’s great for barbecues. And it’s basically like lemon juice. Yeah. And water and sugar.
Tyler: And Oh God,
Colter: Basically like.
Tyler: Very similar and you’re just like making the ABV sounds interesting.
Cotler: All right. I gotta look it up now. Hold on.
Tyler: I’m like Skeeter P. Maybe I heard it on Barilla SyFy or something.
Colter: Yeah. They made Skeeter P on brew loss fee. I remember that.
Tyler: Gosh, Skeeter. I wonder what ski, the only thing I could think of Skeeter is, is Doug from a, or a Skeeter from Doug that Nickelodeon show. Am I too young. Am I?
Colter: Yeah, I’m doug. Doug was on when I was a kid. Doug was on when I was a kid and I’m old. I’m always the oldest guy in the room, so. All right. And Skeeter P is 8.25 pounds of table sugar, 4.2, three pounds of lemon juice. Actually six pounds of lemon juice, another two pounds of table sugar because they do them in stages so that it stays fermentable through the whole process. They actually add 10 into it. Yeast, nutrient yeast, nutrient use nutrient, like it’s got like four yeast, nutrient additions.
He had sparkle Lloyd to it so that it cleared out and then Potassium sorbate to get it to stop. And then potassium, potassium, metabisulfite to get it to stop as well. All in secondary. Lots of sulfates in it.
Tyler: And this sounds like a future experiment for brewed up podcasts.
Colter: I don’t think Laurie wants to put that many. I don’t think she wants to put that many additives in her beer.
Laurie: what’s up with lemon. Like it, I really can’t get lemon to hang in there for too long. That’s the other issue? Like the flavor. Yeah, it just kinda has a funky taste after it. Yeah.
Colter: Yeah. Lemon is tough. No, I’m totally with you. That’s why you don’t see a lot of just like lemon beer. Right. And when you do,
Laurie: it’s not shelf stable.
Colter: Yeah. And when you do, it’s a lot of lemon peel, but you don’t see actual lemon itself, right. Because lemon peel will carry through and, and that’s actually where you get the lemon flavor. That’s why you do zest. When you make cocktails, right. You get more lemon flavor from the peel and the essence of lemon versus lemon juice, lemon juice is just acidic.
And guess what? Beer is acidic as well. And so when you go and add it to your beer, Right. You’ve got a pH of 4.1 with finished beer and that’s, you know, not making a sour beer. You’re, you’re basically, you’re taking an acidic beverage already adding something acidic to it. All it’s going to do is make it a little more acidic.
You’re not really going to get that. I mean, a good example would be when you’re adjusting your pH you’re adding lactic acid to it, right. Usually or eh, or you can even use citric acid to adjust your pH if you want. And it doesn’t really shine through. So these are my theories. Why I may be totally wrong are spot on.
Laurie: I don’t even like eliminate off out of the shelf. I drink lemon every morning. I love lemon stuff, but if it’s not fresh, it’s not for me.
Colter: Yeah. Hot lemon and a glass, a glass of hot water. Delicious. Isn’t it.
Laurie: Every morning?
Tyler: No! Hate it.
Colter: Let me guess coffee. Are you a coffee girl?
Laurie: I love coffee.
Colter: Me too.
Tyler: Delicious. I love coffee as well and beer as well.
Colter: So, so maybe what we should do is maybe I need to come on your podcast and I, we should do like some Skeeter P and then we should all taste it.
Tyler: Yeah, I’m down. I can I let you down? Well, let’s survive being shipped.
Colter: It’ll ship. It’ll ship. Anything ships it’s carbonated.
Laurie: You can each make a batch and then we could triangle taste.
Colter: That could be fun. I know. I get to tell you mine’s going to suck, but that’s okay. I’m okay with that.
Tyler: It doesn’t sound like the best beverage to ever exist, so I’m sure however, it comes out will be just, just fine as long as it’s like, as long as it’s like yeah. High enough grab or ABV. And does the job. We’re good to go.
Colter: Well, if you’re looking at 8.2, five pounds of sugar, it’s actually 10 pounds of sugar. Right? So you’re probably, yeah. So 10 pounds of sugar. If you’re looking at just convert that to like the same as just in my brain, I’m thinking you’re looking at around a six and a half or 7% alcohol there because right. You’re A, it’s going to dry completely out. It’s going to go to like 0.9, eight. Zero. Right. It’s not going to finish it like 10, 10. And if you look at like extracts, right, you get a 5% beer off of six pounds of extract. And so it has a recipe. I forgot. Let’s look, I didn’t look at, I didn’t get that far.
Champagne yeast leveling 70, 71 B I love champagne.
Tyler: I love wine and champagne. Yes. I love all the red star bubbles booze. Yes.
Colter: Yeah. So you’re looking at, yeah. I mean, this, this recipe is going to get you a Prehype beans. Yeah. Yeah. I would say it’s probably closer to like six or 7%.
Tyler: If you listened to our pod, you know, 6.5 is basically Imperial for me. So I, my, my range, my perfect beer, like ABV range probably is like four and a half to probably five and a half. Anything above that, I’m like
Colter: There’s nothing wrong with that. I’m from Utah land of 4% beer. Right. And so I was. I was raised on craft beer. That was like, Oh, Hey, this is an IPA. It’s 4%. So it wasn’t really an IP it’s session IPA.
But the idea is that they totally couldn’t make a beer that was over 4% and have it on draft. Yeah. That’s still to this day, you can not serve a draft beer in Utah. That’s over 4%. Yeah. Crazy.
Tyler: Wait, I have a question. You said you had a house beer that you make all the time. What, what style is that? I’m just curious.
Colter: You know, my house beer is actually just a straight up Lawndale, super easy. It stupid, stupid, easy. It’s like two rows, a little bit of like some cascade in it. and, and my hop hop additions in it are, this is how stupid, easy this thing is. And I do add a little it’s the why can’t I think of the name of it, the Dextra malt. Uh, what can I think of it?
Tyler: Like care pills,
Colter: Cara pills. Thank you. But yeah, so Al I had like. Half a pound of care pills in there just for some head retention. But then what I will do is it’s like one ounce of cascade at the beginning, and then maybe like some Centennial at the end, like in the last 10 minutes, it’s like that dumb and easy, but right up.
Tyler: Yep. Easy beer beers though.
Colter: Yup. And I shoot for it to be around 5%. It’s not, it’s nothing big. Like that’s sick. Yeah.
Tyler: I have a blonde recipe that has a little bit of Munich in there cause I’m a Munich horse, so
Colter: it’s great stuff. It tastes so good. So good. And, I specifically like the Munich 10, like if I’m, even if I’m doing a pretty light beer and just throw a little bit of Munich 10. And one of my tricks that I love to tell people is, Hey, you’ve got a light style of beer and you want complexity mixed in some mix, the base malts do like throw it like don’t you to row is in everything.
Right? Throw in, throw in some Maris otter throw in some, it just changes it up enough that people are like, Whoa, this is so good. And you’re like, yeah, you don’t know what, like three different bass are in here. So.
Tyler: Yeah. I started working at a home brew shop early this year, just on Saturdays. And it’s crazy the amount of grains and hops and yeast that exists. It’s almost overwhelming, but yeah, every now and then if I’m making someone’s recipe, I’ll kind of sneak a couple of grains and chew on it. And that’s how you kinda know that the flavor is it’s. I recommend every do that. Just everyone eats raw grains and you’ll know what flavors they’ll get for them. Yeah.
Colter: I have a quick question for you for you ladies, when you’re doing recipes, what are your, what are your theories? Right. So like, for me, I’m more of like keeping things in holes, right? Like, I like to keep things as close to a whole pound or half a pound. I see lots of recipes out there where guys are trying to do stuff where you, or you read them online and they’re like 10 of an ounce of this.
And you’re just like, no, no, no, no. Like that’s at least me personally. How do you guys build a re recipe?
Tyler: I mean, so I, I used to, we’ll try to keep it to like a pound or a pound and a half difference. So, you know, 10 pounds of this three pounds of this blah, blah, blah, recently, I will say I’ve been trying to do more percentages, like building a recipe on percentages, but I’m, I’m still pretty fresh to that, but I think that’s where bring software comes in.
And so you can kind of make the percentage, but yeah, it does come out to some really strange numbers. So it’s like, Oh yeah. He’s like, you know, 3.1, five ounces of this. And let me tell you, if you go to a home brew store and somebody making your recipe, they’ll be like this Dick, like
Oh, annoying. But at the end of the day, you’re like, okay, I gotta make sure I got to pretend like I’m making my own recipe. Right. But. When I see that, I kind of, I understand it now that it is people just trying to stick to percentages versus, you know, wait, so I get it. So I’m trying to, I’m trying to do more percentages recently
Laurie: For me. I, for the couple of five gallon batches I’ve done, I’ve rounded up, but if I’m doing a one gallon or three gallon, I’d try to keep it dialed in. But, um, Again, I’m not like I don’t write, I don’t take notes or like, you know, write on it or anything. And I’m still learning about beers and styles. So it’s, it’s not like I’m sensing that I’m off or that I give a shit to be honest. So it just depends.
Tyler: Yeah. It’s always, it’s always like, you know, is this 0.5, three ounces really going to make a difference, like right. It may not. It may, it may, but when you’re trying to make something consistent, I, I get where that craziness kind of comes from, you know, kicks in.
Colter: I could see where
Laurie: We’re not there yet.
Colter: Yeah. But I felt to see where Laurie talks about like doing a one gallon batch. I think getting more precise when you have very little. Room for error, I guess would be the word right there.
Laurie: Whereas like trying to fit everything in. Yeah.
Colter: Yeah. You’re trying to fit every, like you’re trying to fit five different grains into a one gallon batch. Right? I think you gotta be a little more precise. Whereas if you have a five gallon batch, even if I’m doing percentages, I’ll get close and then just round up to the nearest like quarter pound or half pound or something like that. Right.
Tyler: Style police are going to knock down your door and be like,
Colter: Hey. I don’t know, chocolate milk. You don’t sit on the internet and get comments sometimes.
Tyler: Not yet. Not yet.
Colter: I will say that for the most part, all of my comments are generally positive, but when I get a negative one, I’m like, Whoa, man. It’s beer. Yeah.
Tyler: I’ll tell you the craziest that we get the craziest recipes. And it’s been such an experience working at a home brew shop during COVID. Cause you know, usually, obviously, usually people would come in and make their own recipes, but because we’ve had to make everyone’s recipes and make them ready to go it’s you just really get to see how crazy people can be or how kind of like whatever people could be. There’s so many different personalities and at home break levels. Yeah, it’s crazy.
Colter: But that’s the thing I love about it. Right. It’s such a personal thing, right? It people, people, I actually think that people talk about. You know, beers, having certain flavors, they’ll always say like, you know, Hey, this has that extract flavor.
I think people have flavors too. I think that certain brewers have a certain flavor that they generally have. And, and, you know, like my beers taste like my beers. I can’t explain how or why, but they do. And you know, if I have Jim in my club and he brings beers, his beers taste like his beers and, and he’s the guy who bruises with the seasons. So trust me it’s as like his beer, but, but the idea is that that is kind of, for me, how I look at the, for, for when I talk to brewers and I’m drinking other people’s brew beers. That’s one thing I feel like is that people brew their own. I don’t know. It’s hard to explain.
Tyler: Yeah. Chase a whale and get real particular. And we know when you get your sh your stuff from the shopper, you’re gonna take it home and reweigh it. And double check everything, or you just going to brew it. It’s like cooking or any other types of art, you know?
Colter: Yeah. I, I love to bring it into and say it’s cooking and people, I there’s, there’s a reason why I listed this as a food podcast and not a hobby podcast, because in all reality it is food.
And, and so, and I’m a big cook. I cook a ton. I’ve worked in the restaurant business for a long time and had to work in kitchens and things like that. And so for me, it’s like, Brewing, just following the same recipe is cooking a pot of chili. Like they’re the same processes and yeah, I’m a little more geeky on the science side of it.
And I’ve built like my own fermentation chamber and got computers out in a soldering iron, but you know what people do that for smokers too. And so, Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And so it, to me like they all go hand in hand and that’s why, like you see a lot of people online that are like, Oh yeah, I brew beer, I smoked meat, I cure meat. Like all of that stuff kind of all goes hand in hand because it really is kind of hitting the same spot of the brain, right?
Tyler: Yes. We have a ton of meat people in our club. We have a whole, so we have us, we have a Slack for our club and we have a cooking channel and that Slack, I don’t know if you know what Slack is. It’s the messenger a thing
Colter: I use.
Tyler: Yeah. And there’s so many meat smokers, meat, and cookers. Laurie’s actually a Vonda bar chef to saying
Colter: She’s given his hand gestures like rock ons, excited about that. So let’s, let’s talk a bit about the podcast a little bit more so where I, if I am interested wanting to listen to your podcasts, where would I listen to it?
Tyler: All the platforms, baby, everything, the whole spectrum. We’re hosts. We’re hosted by anchor, but you can Google Spotify. Google. Wait, I already said that Apple. Yeah. Apple. Yeah. And actually we got the idea to go through anchor FM from you. So thank you.
Colter: You’re welcome. Just yes. Yeah, nothing like free podcast hosting.
Tyler: Right. I love it. I love it a lot.
Colter: Awesome. And then if, if I were you, you have a website or is just, just the podcast.
Tyler: We also have an Instagram page, the next best thing to a website, as far as I’m concerned, brewed up podcast on Instagram. And, um, I follow that. Yeah, you do good stuff. Yeah. All yours.
Colter: Awesome. Well, ladies, thank you so much for coming on homebrewing DIY. And like I said, If you guys want to have a fun homebrewing podcast to listen to, and it is fun.
You have to listen to the Brew’d Up podcast. I will say spell it, right. It’s B R E w apostrophe D. And it’s, you know, it’s not ed and because when you search for it, it doesn’t come up. If you don’t hit that. Pause scruffy, but that being said, make sure you check out this podcast. It is a good time. And ladies, thank you so much for spending some time with homebrewing DIY tonight.
Laurie: Thanks Coulter.
Tyler: We had we had, yeah, we had fun. Thanks for having us. It was a great combo and appreciate us having a song.
Colter: I’d like to thank Tyler and Lori for taking the time to come on. This week’s show. It was a great conversation. And I had a lot of fun talking to them. We. Just sat around and shut the shit. And it was a good time that being said, check out their podcast, brewed up. It’s on all the podcast services and follow them on Instagram and enjoy, enjoy a new podcast.
It’s really a fun one. You can find homebrewing DIY on all the socials we’re on Twitter, Instagram. And Facebook, all one word at home brewing DIY, gives us a follow. Could also send us feedback to a podcast at homebrewing, diy.beer. Also, if you head on over to our website, homebrewing, DIY dot ear, and hit contact and fill out the form that will find its way to my email box as well.
That’s it for this week. And we’ll talk to you next week on Homebrew. Yeah, .
