Author: Marshall Schott

Over the last few years, we’ve made a point to publish an article where we go over some interesting Brülosophy related info, which we’ll absolutely be doing here, but first things first– we are beyond excited to announce that Brülosophy is finally starting a YouTube channel!

Soon after I began publishing content on this website, fans and early contributors started pressuring me to start a podcast, which happened in 2017, and it didn’t take long after that for those same people to encourage me to move into video. Fully understanding my own limitations, in terms of both video production and time, I knew I didn’t have the chops to consistently produce the quality of video I would desire, especially compared to the number of excellent brewing related YouTube channels that are currently out there.

Lucky for us, Martin Keen of The Homebrew Challenge channel made the decision to halt what he was doing so that he could put all of his effort into The Brülosophy Show, which will be similar to what he was already doing, just with a Brülosophy spin. We’re incredibly excited for this new adventure and hope you all are as well. If so, head over to The Brülosophy Show YouTube channel now then subscribe and click the bell so you’re sure to be notified when we drop new episodes!

Before we get to our annual “best of” list, there are a few other things I want to focus on first. For a few reasons, we’ll be publishing episodes of The Brülosophy Show every Thursday, which means we’ll be moving the content we have been publishing on Thursdays (The Hop Chronicles, Short & Shoddy, Brü It Yourself, and stuff like this) to Fridays. With The Brülosophy Podcast and The Brü Lab, this means we’ll be pushing out some type of new brewing content every weekday!

The only way we’re able to do this is through the dedication of the Brülosophy contributors, and we’re stoked to announce a few new members to the crew– Will Lovell and Jordan Folks. In addition to being excellent brewers, both Will and Jordan have played some role with Brülosophy over the last couple of years, and we’re lucky they agreed to take on the often painstaking task of brewing for xBmts and other projects.

Alright, without further adieu…

| THE BEST OF 2022 |

The Brülosophy Podcast

Over the last year, we published 49 episodes of The Brülosophy Podcast, meaning we only took 3 weeks off; while we commit to a minimum of 46 episodes per year, we always do what we can to surpass that goal. While the majority of our listeners live in the United States, good portions also come from Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, and Sweden. The most downloaded episodes that were released in 2022 are as follows:

1. Episode 224 | exBEERience: Carbonation Methods
2. Episode 219 | exBEERience: Speaking The Language Of Brewing & Beer
3. Episode 233 | AvgBrü Reviews #1: American Pale Ale
4. Episode 229 | Short & Shoddy: Czech Premium Pale Lager
5. Episode 220 | Brü & A #21

When looking at the most downloaded episodes since we started The Brülosophy Podcast in 2017, the top 3 are from our exBEERience series– Lager Fermentation (#124), Designing Beer Recipes (#205), and Water Chemistry Adjustments (#197). This is interesting because in a recent survey of our listeners, most endorsed the xBmt series as being their most preferred.

The Brü Lab

Despite having to take time off to tend to a new kiddo early in the year, Cade released 49 episodes of The Brü Lab, which similar to The Brülosophy Podcast, is more than we allot for. Giving a voice to the hard-working professionals who are actively helping us to better understand brewing and beer, The Brü Lab has covered some fascinating topics this year, and while some of it can go pretty deep, Cade has a way of making it simple enough for any brewer to digest.

These are the episodes released in 2022 that were downloaded most this year:

1. Episode 050 | The Cause Of Haze In Hazy IPA w/ Scott Janish
2. Episode 051 | Flavor Chemistry: Sensory Evaluation & Human Perception w/ Jeff Dailey
3. Episode 044 | Yeast Dependent Haze w/ Dr. Laura Burns
4. Episode 055 | Hop Bitterness And Polyphenols w/ Dr. Martin Biendl
5. Episode 056 | Applying The Science: High Hop Loads w/ Jordan Folks

Hops and haze were seemingly the name of the game! If you haven’t subscribed yet, go do it now wherever you listen to podcasts so you’re notified when new episodes are released!

exBEERiment Articles

The exBEERiment (aka xBmt) series is what Brülosophy is most known for and continues to be our most popular web content based on the stats. Here are the 5 xBmt articles that were viewed the most in 2022.

1. The Gelatin Effect: Impact Fining With Gelatin Has On An American Pale Ale | 1/5/2015
2. Mash Temperature: Low vs. High In A German Pils | 1/10/2022
3. Hop Stand vs. Dry Hop In An American IPA | 9/12/2022
4. Grain Comparison: Maris Otter vs. Golden Promise In A British Golden Ale | 1/17/2022
5. Fermentation Temperature: Saflager W-34/70 In A German Helles Exportbier | 2/8/2016

For the 7th year straight, our original xBmt on fining a hoppy American Pale Ale with gelatin, which was published nearly 8 years ago, got more views than any other article on the site. This, despite how popular non-clear beer styles are these days.

The Hop Chronicles Articles

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

1. Idaho 7 (2020) Pale Ale | 6/23/2022
2. Citra LUPOMAX (2021) Pale Ale | 6/9/2022
3. HBC 586 LUPOMAX (2021) Pale Ale | 5/19/2022
4. Amarillo (2021) Pale Lager | 11/3/2022
5. McKenzie (2021) Pale Ale | 4/7/2022

After taking a bit of break from this series due to Covid lockdowns, we were excited not only to get back to publishing 1-2 Hop Chronicles articles per month, but we also introduced a version where we have tasters evaluate a pale lager that was more modestly hopped.

Short & Shoddy Articles

Originally intended to be an intermittent experimental side-project, the Short & Shoddy series has become a Brülosophy staple, with brewers around the world using the term to describe their own abbreviated brewing processes. These are the 5 Short & Shoddy articles most viewed in 2022:

1. American Lager | 7/28/2022
2. Czech Amber Lager | 9/22/2022
3. Rye IPA | 6/2/2022
4. Kentucky Common | 5/12/2022
5. American Wheat Beer | 7/23/2020

All but one of our most viewed Short & Shoddy articles were published this year, the only holdout being American Wheat Beer, which was was published over 2 years ago.

Brü It Yourself

The Brü It Yourself series was started as our way to share interesting stuff we’re up to that doesn’t involve data collection. Similar in many ways to the content put out by some of our favorite homebrew blogs, this is our outlet for being bit more creative.

1. H-brü-O Hop Water | 2/11/2021
2. Japanese Rice Lager | 5/13/2021
3. Double Trouble Raspberry Hibiscus Saison | 1/6/2022
4. Double Dry Hopped Tiny Bottom Pale Ale | 7/14/2022
5. BrüClaw Berry Hard Seltzer | 5/14/2020

Our articles on making non-alcoholic hop water and Japanese Rice Lager maintained their positions this year, despite being published over a year prior. A couple newer articles made their way on the list, though our initial attempt at a super easy hard seltzer continues to be quite popular.

Product Reviews

We don’t tend to publish to many product review articles, for a number of reasons, and when we do, it’s always for stuff we actually use ourselves and think others may benefit from. These were the most commonly read Brülosophy product reviews in 2022:

1. Tilt Wireless Hydrometer & Thermometer | 1/13/2022
2. BrewZilla/Robobrew 120v Electric Brewing System | 6/11/20
3. Clawhammer Supply 240v Electric Brewing System | 8/20/20
4. Ss Brewtech Unitank | 4/25/19
5. Penguin Chillers Glycol Chiller | 10/15/2020

Interest in modern brewing tech including electric brewing systems continues to remain high, which is understandable considering how much it can simplify the brewing process.

The Brü Club xBmt Series

A few years ago, we offered members of The Brü Club a unique opportunity– if you put the effort into designing, brewing, and collecting data for an xBmt, we’ll publish it on the site for all to see. These were the most viewed articles from that series in 2022:

1. Yeast Comparison: Omega Yeast OYL-071 vs. Saflager W-34/70 In A German Pils | 3/3/2022
2. Impact Using Powerade Zero Instead Of Water Has On A Witbier | 8/25/2022
3. Impact Of Pressurized Warm Fermentation On A German Helles Exportbier | 7/21/2022
4. Yeast Comparison: LalBrew New England vs. Safale S-04 English Ale In A Hazy IPA | 9/24/2020
5. Impact Of Pressurized Warm Fermentation On A Munich Dunkel | 8/30/2018

It seems there’s some interest pressurized warm fermentation of lager styles, as well as the way different types of yeast strains impact beer.

Informational Articles

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

1. The Brewing Of Non-Alcoholic and Ultralow Alcohol Beer: Methods Made Simple | 11/11/21
2. Sparkle & Fizz: Carbonation Methods | 5/12/16
3. Using A Corny Keg As A Fermentation Vessel | 5/7/20
4. 7 Methods For Reducing Cold-Side Oxidation | 5/10/18
5. A Year Of No-Chill: Lessons From A Secret xBmt | 2/9/2015

While the top 4 articles were all on the list last year, it’s interesting that our old article on one brewer’s experience using the no-chill method for a year got so much attention this year.

Recipe Pages

While we reserve our private recipes as rewards for Patrons of Brülosophy these days, we shared a number of recipes in the past.

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

For the first time in years, my unconventional Munich Helles recipe was overtaken by my incredibly simple and delicious Blonde Ale recipe, the name of which was in reference to my personal attempts… not a comparison to other Blonde Ale.

Static Pages

We don’t have too many static web pages on the site, but of those that do exist, these were the most viewed of the year:

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

This list didn’t change at all from 2021 to 2022, and the fact our page on harvesting yeast from starters failed to break the top 5 yet again seems to indicate perhaps waning interest in this cost-saving measure.

On To 2023!

All of this was made possible by the support we receive from our readers, listeners, sponsors, and especially the Patrons of Brülosophy – thank you all so much. We look forward to all that’s ahead and wish everyone reading a very happy and healthy 2023!

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

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