About

What is The Homestead of Beer About?

I made my first foray into home-brewing with an all-grain kit back in 2014, with very limited success, after two batches I went into hiatus. Only to be re-awakened in 2022. Most of what you will find here, will be British (and some European) style beers done with a Canadian and British Isles slant. Using my personal tastes, along with the guidelines from the Beer Judge Certification Program as my references, I brew one gallon at a time.

What’s Brewing

• The proposed schedule.
• The schedule is anticipatory only, subject to change on a whim.

Attribution

Some of the images used are designed by OpenMoji – the open-source emoji and icon project. License: CC BY-SA 4.0

For example, the logo I created was rendered from images from the awesome OpenMoji project. The Pig-Dog sentinels have become part of my self-branding exercise.

Flagship Beer

The flagship list is still a work in progress, although the two stouts have likely been locked in.

1. Irish Stout, right now my favourite recipe was for St. Patrick’s Day 2024
2. Oatmeal Stout, this recent recipe had an amazing chocolate/coffee/mocha flavour
3. Best Bitter, I ran short on base malts, and used a large amount of Munich Malt in a batch, and tasted really good, I even got compliments that it was quite possibly my best beer yet
4. English Porter, still in development, my recent brown porter is in serious contention
5. English IPA, still in development
6. TBD, although my Burton Ale from last year was impressive

Signature Beer

The signature list will likely change on a whim, although it’s a great start.

1. Strong Bitter, the Red Rye Bitter has great potential
2. Irish Extra Stout
3. Irish Red Ale

Series Explanation

I have had various themes and/or series since I started home brewing, usually identified after the fact. I have ideas for the future. Here is a mostly chronological list of past, present, and future series to shape my brew schedule.

1. Westfort Series – basically anything I brew at home.
2. Guest Brewer – when I had somebody help me brew.
3. Brew Fail – these were fails, which leads to my next entry.
4. Redemption Series – when I needed to prove I could do it right.
5. Redux Series – this is not a brew-fail, but more like a do-over, tweak, or adjustment on a recipe.
6. Helter-Skelter Series – times I threw together any end of inventory stock, added something on account of bad planning, and smashed together whatever to make a batch happen.
7. Mountain Portage Series – brewing at the trailer.
8. Exbeeriment Series – attempt an experiment in my beer brewing experience.
9. Ryetirement Series – brewing with rye in the grainbill in the spring of 2023 to celebrate retirement.
10. IPA 2023 Series – Through 2023, I dabbled with many IPA styles.
11. Summer 2024 – mostly low ABV British style ales for the summer.
12. Co-Fermentation Series – experimentation with two different yeasts simultaneously.
13. Winter 2025 – this one came after the fact, when I realised I brewed a lot of darker British/Irish style beer.
14. Flagship Series – Working towards six beers that will always be in rotation.
15. Signature Series – Developing my recipes that will be brewed with some regularity.
16. Evolution Series 2025 – this one is still being formulated, likely to take something that originated in Europe, and brew the versions that evolved from it, particularly in the New World. Stay tuned.