Where we share everything we learn along this journey
Back in 2018 we wrote a blog post called Water Chemistry: The Science of Brewing an Epic Beer, where we talked about the importance of water in the brewing process. Despite being plain on the eye and palate, water is actually a complex chemical beast, consisting of salts, ions and minerals, that must be analysed and tweaked during the brewing …
2020 was a year that was both incredibly challenging but also incredibly rewarding in the world of Black Hops. It was a tough year for a lot of people, so it’s with a lot of gratitude that we provide this summary of the year that was. Of course this would all not be possible without the amazing support of all …
Limited release beers have always been a big part of who we are. Last year we decided to do a monthly major limited release into bars and bottleshops and in 2020 we kept that tradition going. In 2021 we aren’t going to be doing it this way so in this post we thought we’d celebrate the 12 beers in our …
When it comes to craft beer, the saying ‘drink fresh’ is a good adage to drink by. And this is especially the case when it comes to beers that contain a strong hops flavour profile, such as Pale Ale’s, Hazy’s & IPA’s. Previously on the blog we’ve published an article called ‘How To Make Sure You Are Drinking The Freshest …
“How do you come up with beer ideas”? This is by far the most common question we get asked, and to be honest we haven’t done the best job at answering it. Until now.
As part of an ongoing series of posts on the Black Hops Blog, we’ve gone into the nitty-gritty of how we brew particular styles of beer. So far we’ve talked about how we brew: Hazy IPA’s Low Gluten Beers Sour Beers Now it’s time to get back to basics and talk about brewing so-called ‘classic’ beer styles, in particular Lagers. …
After knowing each other for years and many beer-fuelled nights together, Black Hops Brewing is putting a ring on Semi-Pro Brewing Co. and making the relationship official, giving one of South East Queensland’s favourite independent breweries a Brisbane home. From 26 October, Semi-Pro Brewing’s 10 hl production space and 100-seater taproom in East Brisbane will become Black Hops Brewing’s Brisbane …
Packaging and distribution is the final phase of our beer production process, following on from the brewing and cellaring phases. Previously on the blog we’ve gone into detail on our canning and packaging processes: In this post we covered off what we use for our canning and packaging solutions and how they operate across both our sites. And in this …
Last week I put out our first 6 of our Top 11 lessons building Black Hops and in today’s post I’ll go through the final 5 lessons and some thoughts on navigating the brewery valley of death. 6. Don’t Get Too Creative But Also Get Very Creative We’ve learned a few lessons when it comes to being creative with our …
Our book Operation Brewery details all of our various decisions before starting Black Hops. A lot has changed since we started and we’ve learned many valuable lessons. In this post I’ll go through 11 of the most important lessons we’ve learned in the last 6 years. We started with a home brew in 2014 and eventually our own small $400k …
