Author: Marshall Schott

Without question, 2020 has been the weirdest and, as overused as the word has been, unprecedented year of my life. I’ll never forget the time I was sitting at the House Of Pendragon bar having a few beers with a group of friends when the owner, Tommy, got a message telling him to shut the place down. It didn’t feel believable. I’d certainly heard about Covid-19, but this was the point that made it feel more serious than I’d been taking it, admittedly.

As the entire world began to stay-at-home, I realized this was going to keep us from doing what we’re most known for, which is collect data from participants. Not only were the breweries and taprooms we frequent shutdown, but homebrew club meetings were cancelled and it wasn’t safe to have groups of people over to our homes. To put it simply, I was afraid Brülosophy might not be able to weather this storm.

Here we are now, coming up on a year since this all started, and I couldn’t be more pleased to say we made the best of a shitty situation. As excited as we are to get back to normal as soon as possible, we’re committed to continuing to produce our brand of brewing content with the hope of providing a pleasant distraction during these awkward times.

One exciting development this year is the start of an entirely new show on the Brülosophy network called The Brü Lab where contributor Cade Jobe interviews brewing scientists about research they’ve completed. We’re incredibly excited about this show! If you’re a fan of Brülosophy, this podcast is going to be right up your alley. Go listen to the introduction episode now and be sure to subscribe so you know when we start releasing weekly episodes!

Now, without further ado…

| THE BEST OF 2020 |

The Brülosophy Podcast

Since the start of 2020, we’ve released 48 episodes of The Brülosophy podcast and will soon be dropping our 170^th episode. Based on monthly downloads, listenership of The Brülosophy Podcast has grown over 30% since the same time last year, which the show averaging a total of around 100,000 downloads per month. Here are the episodes that were downloaded the most in the last year.

1. Episode 124 | exBEERience: Lager Fermentation
2. Episode 122 | Brüs Views: Hazy IPA
3. Episode 120 | Brü & A #11
4. Episode 142 | Short & Shoddy: New England IPA
5. Episode 121 | Purging Keg Headspace

Interestingly, this list includes an episode from all of the series’ on the show, a sign that mixing things up a bit has worked in our favor.

exBEERiment Articles

Brülosophy started in 2014 with our exBEERiment (xBmt) series, which continues to be our highest traffic web content, with each article typically racking up over 10,000 views within a couple weeks of being published. Here are the 5 xBmt articles with their original date of publishing that were viewed the most in 2020.

1. The Gelatin Effect | 1/5/15
2. The Mash: High vs. Low Temperature | 10/12/15
3. Dry Hop Length: Long vs. Short | 10/26/2015
4. Under Pressure: The Impact Of High(er) PSI Fermentation | 4/27/2015
5. Grain Comparison: Pale Malt (2-Row) vs. Pilsner Malt | 8/28/2017

Considering how popular hazy IPA has become over the last few years, it’s incredible to me that our first look at the impact of fining with gelatin is consistently our most popularly viewed xBmt article.

The Hop Chronicles Articles

The Hop Chronicles series is intended to provide specified information on individual hop varieties based on the perceptions of regular craft beer drinkers.

1. Sabro (2018) | 5/2/19
2. Mandarina Bavaria (2018) | 3/5/2020
3. CTZ (2018) | 1/2/2020
4. Strata (2018) | 9/5/2019
5. Waimea (2018) | 1/16/2020

This is the one series we put on hiatus due to Covid-19, as we felt data from only the brewer wouldn’t be good enough. Thankfully, we have started brewing and safely collecting data for The Hop Chronicles again!

Short & Shoddy Articles

The purpose of our Short & Shoddy series is sort of twofold in that it’s where we focus specifically on certain styles while also seeing how they turn out when brewed using less than traditional methods.

1. German Pils | 1/23/2020
2. Double IPA | 2/13/2020
3. Vienna Lager | 1/24/2019
4. Munich Dunkel | 4/2/2020
5. Altbier | 5/28/2020

Originally intended to be an infrequent experimental side-project, this monthly series has become quite popular, with folks around the world using the term “short & shoddy” to describe their own abbreviated brewing processes.

Brü It Yourself

Whereas the good majority of what we do is data based, we started the Brü It Yourself series as a way to share interesting stuff we’re up to that doesn’t involve data collection. We think of it as our way of paying homage to some of our favorite brewing blogs.

1. BrüClaw Berry Hard Seltzer | 5/14/2020
2. Sparkling Hard Beer Cider | 12/14/2017
3. Great Deceiver Golden Stout | 3/12/2020
4. Elevenses Pastry Stout | 11/28/2019
5. Dragon Blood Wine | 4/16/2020

The fact an article published halfway through the year that covers how to make flavored hard seltzer got more views than any other Brü It Yourself to date is fascinating. Love it or hate it, hard seltzer is here to stay, and I’m certainly not complaining about that!

Product Reviews

While not a main focus for us at Brülosophy, we occasionally review products we think kick ass and might be helpful to other brewers.

1. BrewZilla/Robobrew 120v Electric Brewing System | 6/11/2020
2. Clawhammer Supply 240v Electric Brewing System | 8/20/2020
3. Bräu Supply Unibräu V3 All-In-One 120v Electric Brew System | 1/9/2020
4. Clawhammer Supply 120v Electric Brewing System | 8/15/2019
5. Spike Brewnig FLEX+ Fermenter | 6/13/2019

Anyone else noticing a trend? Referred to by some as the “third wave of brewing,” electric brewing is all the rage right now thanks to innovation and a consequent reduction in prices.

Informational Articles

In between xBmts, The Hop Chronicles, Short & Shoddy, and Product Reviews, we occasionally publish other articles of an informational nature.

1. Sparkle & Fizz: Carbonation Methods | 5/12/16
2. Using A Corny Keg As A Fermentation Vessel | 5/7/2020
3. 7 Methods For Reducing Cold-Side Oxidation | 5/10/2018
4. Using CO2 From Fermentation To Purge Serving Kegs | 7/9/2020
5. 5 New Products To Improve Your Brewing Experience | 9/10/2020

The interest in reducing cold-side oxidation is sure to lead to improved beer for all!

Recipe Pages

For as much hate it gets in certain online forums, my unconventional take on a classic Munich Helles was yet again viewed more than any other recipe on the site, for the 3rd year and counting.

1. Munich Helles
2. Best Blonde Ale
3. Tiny Bottom Pale Ale
4. (m)Oktoberfest
5. May The Schwarzbier With You

Pages

As far as static webpages go, we don’t have too many, and these are the most viewed of the year.

1. exBEERiments
2. Quick Lager Method
3. The Hop Chronicles
4. The Brülosophy Podcast
5. Short & Shoddy

For the first since Brülosophy started, our DIY on harvesting yeast from starters didn’t make the top 5 most popular pages. While it’s possible instructions are simply no longer necessary, I can’t help but wonder if this is because brewers are using Imperial Yeast and don’t feel the need to make starters as often.

On To 2021!

Thanks again to all of our readers and listeners for keeping us going. The new year has a lot of cool stuff in store that we’re super excited about. All the best to you and yours!

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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