When New Zealander Peter Eastwood started his homebrewing business in 1989, most homebrewers used extract kits for their ease of use and ubiquity. Despite swift growth in the local market and expansion to Australia in 1995, Eastwood wanted more. He felt that extract kits, while effective and easy, were missing a key cog in the quest for true craft beer. Thus, the idea for the Grainfather took root.

Eastwood believes The Grainfather is the answer to making true craft beer at home: “People can make good beer with extract kits or with partial grain kits, but if they want to make craft beer they should be loving it and they should be working over it and they should be keeping in touch with it right down to the brewing process.”

The Grainfather started off as an “embryonic idea” of converting the highly industrialized manufacturing process for all-grain brewing into a compact homebrewer’s kit.

According to Eastwood, “the original concept was really just a boiler with a way to mash inside it,” but the idea evolved and he refined the design into what the Grainfather is today: “an advanced kit that pretty much emulates what most commercial batch brewing is about and allows people to do it at home with the same control, or better control, than what a lot of brewers can get.”

If you've seen the Sam Adams commercial with founder Jim Koch plunging facefirst into a handful of hops, it's probably Hallertau Mittelfrüh, a hop of such legendary aroma that Koch once took out scratch and sniff magazine ads with its distinctive scent. 

The story of the Hallertau hop is as tangled as the bine itself, but it is generally agreed upon that the first documented act of hop cultivation took place in the eponymous Bavarian locale. The year 736 is often cited, but as any drinker knows, dates get fuzzy; especially after a millennia.

Some things haven’t changed – Hallertau remains among the top hop-producing regions in the world. But what exactly is a Hallertau hop? It’s largely a matter of nomenclature.

The original hop of the Hallertau is known as Hallertau Mittelfrüh or Hallertauer Mittelfrüher, in reference to the region and the time of season it is harvested, “middle-early”. Regarded as one of the five Noble hops and by many as the ideal German lager hop, it provides a distinct peppery spice along with herbal or citrus notes and a pleasant bitterness.

Unfortunately, this trailblazing breed is on the decline due to low crop yields and susceptibility to disease, particularly the fungus verticillium. As a result, Hallertau Mittelfrüh is being supplanted by similar, hardier breeds or different varietals entirely.