Welcome to Beer and Gardening Journal

Welcome. Today, I’m launching this website that will, as the name implies, cover two topics — beer and gardening.

Malt, hops, water, and yeast — in the hands of skilled brewer, that’s all it takes to brew beer.

My coverage of beer will mostly consist of how-to brewing articles aimed at home brewers. I will also post some general beer appreciation articles. As the successor to Beer and Wine Journal, there are already almost 600 articles on beer and brewing here. (There are fewer than 10 wine-related stories, which should be a tipoff as to why I changed the name and focus of the site.) I have been a homebrewer for over 30 years and have published 3 books — and literally hundreds of magazine articles — on brewing. I will continue to cover beer and brewing in a way that I intend to be accessible to beginners, but with enough advanced content to keep long-time brewers engaged.

Tomatoes and melons are a few of my favorite garden vegetables

On the gardening side, I will cover both vegetable gardening and growing native plants to attract pollinators. Over the years, I have grown a lot of different types of vegetables. These include tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, watermelons, cantaloupes, sweet corn, green beans, snap beans, broccoli (and most of the other major _Brassica_ vegetables), and others. More recently, I have begun growing native plants to feed the native bees and other pollinators in my area. In Beer and Gardening Journal, I will discuss these as well as pest management and plant diseases.

Native flowers blooming in my garden

This spring (2023), a major focus will be on growing plants to attract and host monarch butterflies. I have set a goal to raise and release 240 monarch butterflies in 2023. My previous record, set in 2021, is 77. I will, of course, be growing milkweed to feed the caterpillars. I have several species growing in my garden already and will add two more new ones in the spring. I will also have numerous native plants flowering when the adult monarchs arrive. These will draw the butterflies into the garden where they will discover the milkweed. Throughout the Texas stage of their migration, I hope to have at least three types of flowers in bloom at three different heights.  I will have weekly posts updating my progress on this once the monarchs arrive.

The number of monarch butterflies in the main North American population has been declining since the 1970s.

I will also discuss growing poisonous plants. Poisonous plants are fascinating, often beautiful, and — grown responsibly — they are not a threat to anyone. (When’s the last time someone ate leaves from your garden?) Each has its role in nature, too. For example, my monarch butterfly project relies heavily on milkweeds, which are poisonous. Also, roughly half of the plants in my garden that attract hummingbirds are poisonous.

Castor bean, foxglove, and larkspur are wonderful plants. They are, however, toxic.

At my home in Bastrop, Texas, I have an in-ground garden and several container gardens — or one large container garden spread out over multiple locations, if you prefer. In addition to being an avid gardener for over 20 years, I have a PhD in biology and an amateur interest in botany. As such, there will be a fair amount of science-heavy posts including those on botany, garden insects (both pests and predators), garden spiders, plant diseases, pest control (esp. for those wanting to avoid or minimize the use of synthetic pesticides), GMO plants, and plant development, and evolution. As with the beer content, I will strive to make the science-heavy posts accessible and relvant to all gardeners, without “dumbing down” the material. So if you are serious about gardening, you will learn things.

Here’s to beer! Here’s to gardening! Here’s to beer and gardening. Skål!

In the beginning, I will be posting a variable number — most likely 3–4 — articles per week. I will initially post more gardening articles, as the site already has 600 beer pieces, but that will even out over time. So please bookmark this page and stop by often.

Cry Censorship and Let Slip the Flying Dogs of War

Four beers good. Two beers better. Don’t believe it.

Free speech and beer are two topics that are near and dear to my heart. So, I wanted to depart from Beer and Wine Journal’s usual homebrewing— but mysteriously not winemaking — content and write an opinion piece.

To start things off, and just so everyone is clear, the current kerfuffle between Flying Dog and the Brewer’s Association (BA) is not a First Amendment issue. The government isn’t trying (or succeeding) to censor anyone, so nobody’s Constitutional rights are being abridged. Secondly, the BA is a private group. As such, they can make whatever rules they want (within the bounds of legality). Thirdly — and this will be the main theme of this article — all groups that give themselves the power to make rules will continue to make rules until they run into opposition. Any group that has the ability to tell others what to do will attract people who like telling others what to do. And those who really like making rules will likely rise to a position of leadership. In turn, the people who like bucking rules will resist them. As Kurt Vonnegut would say, “And so it goes.” [Read more…]

I’m Writing My Second Book

My first book features 101 homebrew recipes, covering all major beer styles. It also makes a great fly swatter.

These days, I’m spending most of my time writing my second book. I’ll have much more to say about this later, but for now I can say that it is a brewing book, but not a recipe compilation like my first book. [Speaking of my first book (pictured here), Amazon has dropped its price to $13.10. I don’t have anything to do with how Amazon prices the book, so I have no idea how long it will remain at that price. But it’s basically half price now, so I thought I’d mention it. It’s also on Amazon’s top 100 list for Beer, so I’m pretty excited about that.]  [Read more…]

Reddit AMA on Thursday

screen-shot-2016-10-14-at-12-50-57-pmI have a Reddit AMA scheduled for 9:00 am Central on Thursday. “AMA” stands for Ask Me Anything and among the things you can ask me are questions about my new book, “Home Brew Recipe Bible” (2016, Page Street), Beer & Wine Journal, anything brewing related, or . . . anything. (I hope that narrows it down.)  [Read more…]

Of Homebrews and Hurricanes

screen-shot-2016-10-04-at-3-02-28-pmHomebrewers on the US’s East Coast know that Hurricane Matthew is projected to skirt the eastern seaboard, dumping lots of rain on coastal cities. Florida is already warning residents to prepare for the possibility of power outages and perhaps the need to evacuate some areas. All residents in the possible track of the storm should be ready to take precautions. Luckily, as a homebrewer, you have a leg up when it comes to storm preparations. [Read more…]

Last Day to Pre-Order Book

DSCN3853Today is the last day to pre-order my new book, Home Brew Recipe Bible.  The pre-order price at both Amazon and Barnes and Noble is roughly 10 bucks off the cover price — just $14.52. Tomorrow, September 20th, the book will be officially released and (I presume) the price will go up. Thanks to everyone who has already pre-ordered. Some details of the book are given here.

Home Brew Recipe Bible, by Chris Colby

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My book, sitting near the edge of my garden, for no apparent reason.

Earlier this year, I wrote a book. Now, I am excited to say that it will be released soon (Sept. 20). Here’s a brief description of it.

The Home Brew Recipe Bible includes 101 beer recipes — 97 from me and one each from James Spencer (Basic Brewing Radio), Denny Conn (coauthor of Experimental Brewing and Homebrew All-Stars), Dan Ironside (author of Idiot’s Guides: Homebrewing), and Mark Schoppe (two time NInkasi winner). The recipes cover all the major beer styles, including stouts, porters, pales ales, IPAs, strong ales, lagers, sour beers and others. It also contains a few adventurous beers brewed with unusual ingredients — including my Frost Giant Jule Øl, a winter warmer that is spiked with aquavit (a Scandinavian liquor spiced with caraway), and my Beelzeboss saison that uses the soda pop Mt. Dew as part of the brewing liquor. [Read more…]

Beer and Wine Journal Turns Three

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Grapes?

Beer and Wine Journal is now 3 years old. James Spencer — host of Basic Brewing Radio and Video — and I (Chris Colby) launched this site in late June 2013 and since then, we’ve posted over 540 articles on beer, mead, and wine. (If you read our site, you know it’s like 99% beer, 1% mead and there was a wine article once. Plus, there’s the occasional food article.) In 2016, we’ve been hovering around 20,000 readers a month and this number continues to trend upwards.  [Read more…]

Upcoming Articles on BWJ

SetHeight130-logo-transparent-400There’s been a bit of a lull in Beer and Wine Journal (BWJ) recently, but that’s turning around starting now. In the past couple months, I have put the final touches on my book manuscript, assisted the photographer for a week in shooting pictures for the book, and — just last week — went to New Zealand for the first New Zealand Homebrew Conference (NZHC). Now I’m back home and have a bunch of articles planned for BWJ. Here’s what’s coming up in the next few weeks.

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Two Brew Days

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Pale ale (left) and porter (right) on Saturday. I’ve protected the fermenting beer with T-shirts over the fermenters, but took them off for the picture.

I’ve been busy lately. In November, December, and the first part of January, I was writing my first book — a collection of homebrew recipes with additional information about the techniques or ingredients featured in each recipe. I spent 9 hours a day, 6 days a week (7 near the end) writing and revising the manuscript. It’s scheduled to be published in October.

I’m biased, of course, but I think it’s going to be a useful book for homebrewers. In any case, I was excited to have the opportunity to write it and I hope everyone enjoys and benefits from it.

Two weeks ago, the photographer came out to my house and shot the pictures for the book. As part of that week, I brewed two beers, with him documenting every step. Here’s a quick recap of those brew days.

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