It started with a single sentence: "It's easier than you think." That was enough to send Jon and Ed down a four-year rabbit hole of grain bills, hop schedules, yeast starters, and cold garage brew days.
We started with kit beers and close-to-zero knowledge. We learned by doing — and by drinking the results, good and bad. Over time the recipes got tighter, the techniques more intentional, and the beers genuinely delicious. By the end we'd brewed everything from Czech Pilsners to Imperial Belgians, from classic Cascade Pale Ales to a Gingerbread Pumpkin that probably shouldn't have worked but absolutely did.
This archive is the full record: 104 batches, every grain and hop addition, every note scrawled in the margin. The brewing stopped in 2016, but the recipes are here forever.
The Brewery
Every batch was brewed on a modest all-grain setup in a Chicago garage, typically in temperatures that ranged from "perfect" to "why are we doing this." The setup grew over time — from extract kits to all-grain, from plastic buckets to glass carboys, from guessing at temperatures to proper thermometers and a refractometer.
The name? Bayou Dog came from the neighborhood and a dog that probably deserved more credit than he got.
The Process
