Meet Shawn Connelly, Beer Philosopher (Part II): Brewing

November 10, 9:18 AMCarbondale Craft Beer ExaminerMarika Josephson

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Label for Shawn Connelly's award-winning Dualism Baltic porter

This is the second part of a three- part interview series with Shawn Connelley, the Beer Philosopher. Sure, Shawn has amassed a national following in his work with the Aleuminati and the new Beer Connoisseur Magazine, but for all of us Southern Illinoisans, he’ll be that thoughtful guy at the door when we walk into Kindling, talking us through a Monday night beer tasting.

In the first part of my interview, Shawn told me about his roots in Southern Illinois, and the gateway beers that made him an inveterate craft beer drinker. Now we chat about homebrewing.

• Check out the rest of the interviews!

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CCBE: Do you brew your own beer?

SC: Uh huh. I’ve been brewing, off and on, for about 12 years now I guess. I really enjoy it. I can honestly say I learn more about beer from brewing it than from anything else I do.

CCBE: I only recently started homebrewing, but had the same experience within about 30 seconds of tearing open those bags of malt and hops. My nose has become infinitely more attuned to the distinct smells and flavors of beer, just from brewing it myself. What was one of your most memorable batches of home brew gone awry?

SC: I’ve been pretty fortunate in that regard. Chalk it up to my tendency toward the obsessive/compulsive, I guess. Probably my biggest error, especially early on, was my lack of understanding of how specialty grains worked in homebrew. I’d often either steep the grains too hot, or I’d basically wring out the grain bag in an attempt to get everything I could out of the grains and into the wort. The problem with that, of course, is that both errant techniques will almost result in unwanted astringency in the finished beer. The classic case of “if I knew then what I know now” I suppose. I still have a few bottles of a beer that suffered from this mistake. Cellaring can minimize the tannins, so my hope is that it’ll be pucker-free one of these days.

On a recent batch, I had a floating thermometer basically explode in the brew pot. I was doing a full wort boil on my propane burner and I guess there must have been a hairline crack in the thermometer. It shattered and left shards of glass and little lead weights in the bottom of the wort. I didn’t realize it until I neared the end of the boil, but it was too late for that batch. Between the tiny bits of glass and the lead, I figured that was one dangerous beer.

CCBE: Yes, and thank God you avoided mercury poisoning. What about one batch turned truly awesome?

SC: Well, my biggest accolade was just received recently. I’m in the habit of submitting some of my beers to Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP)-sanctioned beer competitions throughout the U.S. I like to get the score sheets back from the judges since the offer an objective opinion and are valuable for troubleshooting and improving a recipe. Anyway, I sent a couple of bottles of my “Dualism” – a very strong Baltic porter aged on American oak that that was soaked for a couple of months in Chambourcin wine – to a strong beer competition in Georgia. Not only did it end up taking 1st place in its category (specialty beer), it placed 3rd in Best of Show. I was pretty proud of that one, especially since the beer was purely an experiment. I really didn’t expect it to come together like it apparently did. That’s all I need … more encouragement to brew!

CCBE: It doesn’t take much. I made one good batch the first time around and now I’m hooked for life. What are you working on now?

SC: I actually don’t have anything brewing at the moment. I have some random ingredients I’ve been contemplating throwing into a true frankenstein beer, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. I have too much of a propensity to be style-conscious. Sort of like how a musician who is formally trained might seldom deviate from the established scales and modes, I have a hard time breaking out of the style parameters I have in my head. I need more jazz in my beer-making, I suppose. I think I might just brew a big, hoppy IPA next, though. I’ve been brewing malt-bombs and Belgian-style beers for a good long while now and I haven’t brewed an IPA in forever. I’m really digging some of the high alpha acid Pacific Northwest hops right now, like Centennial and Simcoe – so that may just be what it’ll be. I grew my own hops this last summer, so maybe I’ll dry-hop the beer with those. We’ll see.

CCBE: I want to try growing hops next summer--we’ll have to compare notes. Would you suggest that other local home brewers enter contests as well?

SC:. Absolutely. For my money, this is the best way to get objective opinions about your beer. Your friends will always tell you your beer is good, even if it’s not. Trained beer judges will be kind, but honest. Often they’ll tell you what they think might be an area or two for improvement, as well, and this is always valuable. Which ones? Really any event sanctioned by the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) will assure you’re putting your beer in front of qualified judges. I look at the AHA website to find events that I think might offer the categories that fit the beer I want to submit and go from there. It’s really very easy and well worth the cost of a couple of bottles, the entry fee and shipping.

CCBE: Where do you get your equipment—are there resources in the area?

SC: I buy almost all of my equipment – and ingredients – online. I probably use Northern Brewer most often, but More Beer is another good company. Both of these have very reasonable shipping rates and their products are fresh, which is hugely important for homebrewing quality beer. As far as local resources are concerned, the only local sourse is Old Town Liquors in Carbondale. They have a modest selection of equipment and ingredients. The problem, for me, with Old Town is that a lot of their stuff sits on the shelf for a good long while. For this reason, I don’t buy much in the way of ingredients there. They have been handy in a pinch when I need something simple like priming sugar or a new hydrometer or airlock.

You never know what may happen when making a batch. Stay tuned tomorrow for Shawn's thoughts on writing about beer on his blog and as the Beer Styles columnist for Beer Connoisseur Magazine.

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You can read Parts One and Three of this series this week and get to know more about Shawn Connelly on his blog, Beer Philosopher. If you’re a craft beer drinker looking to connect with other people in your area, or others who just share in the joy of good beer, head over to the Aleuminati, the not-so-secret society of better beer drinkers. And don’t forget to read Shawn’s weekly column on beer styles at Beer Connoisseur Magazine—it will be a little dose of zymurgical philosophy for your week!