Homebrewing is a breeding ground for tiny recipe tweaks and entirely new tastes. But there are only so many variations you can put your favorite brews through before the process gets a little stale. Right in time for the holidays, we discovered Wood Thumb—an online retailer for all things wooden and awesome. Among their curated offerings of wooden products (like this tie), we stumbled upon a game to toss into your beer brewing regime. Most of us can agree that beer is great, but what's even greater is when someone finds a mathematical and design-savvy way to mess with homebrewing like Wood Thumb has.
Roll & Brew is a dice game for homebrewers. The game comes with a brigade of dice that dictate the ingredients for your next go-round, and the recipes have been professionally created and approved so you don't worry about ending up with strange brew. Wood Thumb's in-house brewer and founder, David Steinrueck—who studied under some of the world's most renowned brewmasters in Munich, Germany—took on creating the algorithm that insures you'll get a standout brew each time.
The entire set is made up of 13 dice—three for grain, three for hops, three for weight, two for time, one for yeast, and one random ingredient die. The random ingredient is for those who are looking to try out an entirely new blend with a featured element. For example, it might direct you to add a pound of honey or two ounces of a spice of your choice. The dice come with an instruction booklet tucked into a 16 oz. pint glass capped with an "emergency" coaster.
This is something I'm wishing I would have caught wind of sooner to include in my additions to our holiday gift round-up. It looks good, seems to have a completely legitimate system (we haven't tried it, so we can't make any promises) and helps make your beer brewing more adventurous. There isn't much to dislike. And even if it does turn out a crummy batch, you can attribute it to a bad roll. Blame averted.
You can purchase Roll & Brew on Wood Thumb's website.
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