Fermentation is the exciting part of beer making. It is where all the action happens. For ales it lasts 7-14 days on average. For lagers, much longer, 21-40 days. Belgian yeasts are also unique organisms and their fermentation can last 14 days to 6 months…yes, I know. When exactly is it finished? Fermentation is finished …
How to Tell When Fermentation Is Done Without a Hydrometer Read More »
Hitting your target OG (Original Gravity – amount of fermentable sugar in raw wort) correctly is like most things home-brewing, easy to learn about, taking time to get right. The good news is that you have a lot of latitude when brewing beer. It is your beer; you are the judge and the jury. If …
My Original Gravity Is Too High, Is It Bad? What Can I Do? Read More »
Pitching the right amount of yeast is one of the most important elements in making homebrew. Both over and under pitching can affect the beer’s flavor and overall quality, so it’s important to get it right. But what happens if you need to add more once the fermentation process has started? It’s possible to add …
Honey is a versatile ingredient in food used throughout the world. It is used to sweeten foods and drinks with its unique flavor. As with many other ingredients, though, honey can have an impact on the chemistry of your homebrew that you should consider before using it in your recipe. What happens when you add …
Mashing is the key that unlocks real beer. When you make the jump from extract to all-grain brewing you have made a fundamental jump in skill and awareness. In no way will I detract from the efforts and fine beer made from extract. For beer hobbyists, it is a fine realm to dwell within. Mashing …
I have always used a bottling bucket to transfer my beer more easily to bottles. It was an old converted plastic fermenter fitted with a spigot and made priming and packaging more streamlined. Some people prefer minimalist set-ups, so the question remains: do we really need the bottling bucket? Bottling buckets are an easy to …
Have you wondered if you can convince your friends that you’re doing your gut a favor by homebrewing beer with probiotics? Although you have torturous memories of terrible stomach aches from college after a night out with beer, you may be surprised to find out the answer. Depending on the method of brewing, beer can …
If you’re a big fan of beer and homebrew, then commercial kegs have probably crossed your mind a few times. When people think of kegs, they think of distilleries and bars, and a large party. But if you are frequently brewing your beverages at home, a larger container might make more sense. Here’s the information …
Part of the fun of brewing your own beer at home is experimenting with the variables to change up your results. If you’re thinking of how to increase the alcohol content in your next batch, there are several ways to achieve this. I’ll review a few of the options along with their pros and cons …
10 Effective Ways to Make a Homebrew Beer Stronger Read More »
The Northern Brewer 1 Gallon homebrewing kit I acquired got me back into the homebrewing game after I had experimented with the 1-gallon Brooklyn Brew Shop kit a couple of years ago. When I purchased it, I was still very much a beginner and started to re-learn from there. Since then, I’ve used this kit …
Review: Northern Brewer 1 Gallon Homebrewing Kit, Is It Worth Your Money? Read More »
Brewing beer is an adventure from start to finish. At least that is how I viewed it. The smallest task is as vital as the largest, most complex. Such is the case with priming sugar. We add priming sugar upon packaging to bring life to our beer, bring bubbles and naturally carbonate. What happens if …
Added Too Much Priming Sugar? How to Save Your Beer Read More »
The standard batch of home-brewed beer is five gallons. A question you may ask yourself, is five gallons too much? Can I brew one-gallon batches instead? There are pros and cons to both approaches. I will guide you through. While Five gallons is the standard size for a batch of homebrew, some choose to go …
1 Gallon vs 5 Gallon Home Brewing – Is Bigger Better? Read More »
An early question but major step for any brewer is, how Can I make my own beer recipe? Home brewing beer consists of multi-leveled challenges. It is easy to learn and difficult to master. One could easily spend 10 years or more learning all there is to know, and still have things to discover. Making …
Making beer is the fun part. Now comes the work, you must package it. The last detail remains, priming the beer; that is adding a bit of sugar at packaging so the yeast can create CO2, your bubbles. What is the best method, carbonation drops, add sugar directly, or other? Corn sugar (dextrose) and fizz …
Fizz Drops vs. Priming Sugar: What’s Best for Homebrewers? Read More »
When you first get started with homebrewing beer, it’s crucial to start with easy beers. Not only does starting with something complicated increase your chances of making a mistake during the brewing process, but you’re also more likely to brew something unpalatable if you start playing around with experimental ingredients and additives without knowing some …
The 12 Easiest Beers to Homebrew: A Guide for Beginners Read More »
When you begin researching how to brew beer, you will discover that there are a few different ways you can homebrew. The difference in each process is mostly how the base of the beer is made and what you do with the mash or grain pile to collect the sugars at the end. This affects …
All Grain vs Partial Mash vs Extract: Pros & Cons Read More »
For beer enthusiasts, homebrewing may seem like a reasonable way to take their passion to the next level. Sensibly, underaged brewers probably want to know if they can legally brew beer under the age of 21. After all, 21 is the legal age required to drink alcoholic beverages, so it would be logical to assume …
Can You Brew Beer If You Are Under 21 in the USA? Read More »
Sometimes we worry about our beer fermenting well, and healthily. It can ferment too slowly or finish prematurely. There is a third issue, one which also perplexes, over-attenuation. Your beer’s final gravity goes lower than desired. Over-attenuation is when beer ferments too aggressively. It dries out and its flavor profile is thrown out of balance. …
Over-Attenuation, Why and Is It Really a Problem? Read More »
Craft brewers have been revolutionizing the way that beer is made for decades. There have been popular beers made from all types of fruit, vegetables, and even meat products. But beer brewed from bananas? It sounds like a joke! Surprisingly, though, it can be done! The basic process of brewing banana beer can be done …
Yes, You Can Brew Beer From Bananas – Here’s How Read More »
If you’re running out of brewer’s yeast and eyeing your sourdough starter as a replacement, you’re not alone. This idea crops up in homebrew forums from time to time, and everyone is wondering how it will turn out. You can brew beer using a sourdough starter, but it takes experimenting to produce the flavor you …
Even though I’ve heard beers negatively compared to water, even the highest quality craft beer is over 95% water. While other ingredients may have the reputation of giving beer its flavor, such as the grains, hops, or yeast, water may be, hands down, the most important ingredient. What type of water should you use to …
Choosing Water for Brewing Beer: A Very Important Guide Read More »
Homebrewers are mostly using sugar to add desired flavors and to carbonate their beers. But you may be wondering what types of sugars are best and what do they add to your homebrews. The best sugars for homebrewing are ‘simple’ sugars because they are the easiest to break down and manipulate in the brewing process. …
The Best Sugar to Use for Homebrew – and Why It Matters Read More »
Cloudiness may not affect the flavor, just the look or aesthetic of the beer. Cloudy beer is caused by several factors. Luckily most can be avoided with good brewing practices. There are 3-4 main culprits causing cloudy beer. The two main ones are chill haze and yeast. A more troubling one is bacterial infection. With …
If you’re interested in starting to brew at home, you may have run into some confusion about how much yeast you need to make a successful brew. Using an insufficient amount of yeast can result in suboptimal beer flavors. If you look online, you might find incredibly complicated calculations, opinions, and recommendations that are overwhelming …
How Much Yeast Do You Really Need for Home Brewing? Read More »
When brewing homebrew beer, the mash is the part of the process where the grains in the beer are mixed with hot water and heated through, converting the grains to starch. The process of mashing begins the fermentation process that inevitably leads to an alcoholic beverage. Beer cannot be mashed for too long, but if …
If you’re a craft beer enthusiast, you may have wondered if you could brew beer in your own apartment. The answer is: you absolutely can! Whether you live in a tiny studio or a penthouse, you can be enjoying the satisfaction of a homebrewed beer in a few simple steps. This article will outline in …
Can You and How to Brew Beer in an Apartment: a Complete Guide Read More »
A heavy rolling boil is essential for a clean beer. 90 minutes is the optimal time, however, a shorter boil is acceptable. You must carefully tailor your brew session to your specific time and spatial constraints. 60-minute boils are suitable for the dense extract worts of beginner to intermediate brewers. For advanced brewers, high-volume 90-minute …
As a beer lover and a prospective or current homebrewer, one question that may pop up is – Can bottle caps be reused batch after batch of my homebrew? You can reuse bottle caps for homebrewing needs. Only when it is possible to refit a cap to a bottle properly. When a bottle cap is …
Racking is a term that is thrown around often in brewing circles, but those who are new to crafting beer may not be sure what it entails. When most people hear the word “racking,” they think of pool tables rather than beer. In homebrewing, racking means to siphon beer from a primary container into a …
Keeping a homebrew log can be incredibly helpful for any brewer looking to brew more efficiently and produce better beers. By carefully logging your methods and recipes, you’ll be able to identify the trends that lead to success, as well as flag those that lead to less than ideal results. How do you keep a …
How to Keep a Homebrew Log and Improve at Beer Making Read More »
So, you’re experimenting with craft brewing, but can you re-bottle homebrew? Beer is bottled after the end of the fermentation process, but if you interrupt the finishing process, you risk changing the flavor and carbonation level of your brew. Re-bottling homebrew is not a recommended technique. When you open an unfinished beer, you introduce oxygen …
Can You Re-Bottle Homebrew After Priming and Bottling? Read More »
The airlock is one of the most important pieces of equipment for home brewing. New homebrewers may get overwhelmed by the choices, worry about the process, or forget this critical piece of equipment. Properly using and maintaining an airlock through the fermentation process is key to great results in the finished product. An airlock is …
Making homebrew is an acquired skill, and you are likely not going to master it the first time around. In fact, some homebrewers might need several attempts before being successful. Adding too much water is one mistake you can make when trying your hand at brewing your own nice, cold beer from the comfort of …
What to Do If You Added Too Much Water to Homebrew? Read More »
Beer infection and contamination is a frustrating reality. Good brewing habits help avoid it. Also, there are must-don’ts during the process wherein the beer is not purely infected but affected where off-flavors take away all pleasure and enjoyment. Our hopes, so promising at first, are dashed! Beer infection happens to homebrewers at every skill level. …
Is My Homebrew Beer Infected? 7 Ways to Avoid It Read More »
After cooking beer, perhaps one of the most mundane chores in beer making, is cooling your wort (pronounced wert– raw unfermented beer). Proper and expedient cooling is a critical step. If we skip it, we may disrupt the 1st most critical stage of beer making, the multiplying and respiration (multiplication) of the yeast. When wort …
Why Do You Need to Cool Your Wort Quickly? 3 Effective Methods Read More »
Homebrewing is a fantastic hobby for all beer lovers. It allows you to understand how the brewing process works, and it also allows you to experiment to find your taste preferences. If you are new to homebrewing and not sure where to begin, there are homebrewing kits that you can purchase to point you in …
Do Homebrew Kits Ever Expire? Is It Safe to Use out of Date Kits? Read More »
Beer, like any food or beverage, does have a shelf life. If handled properly, your homebrewed creations will last many weeks and even months. Spoiled beer will not hurt you, it just tastes bad. Homebrew and Craft-Brewed Beer stay drinkable for many weeks and even months if handled and stored properly. 60 – 90 days …
Yeast is one of the most critical ingredients when brewing your own alcoholic beverages at home. The use of different strains of yeast, even with all the other ingredients being the same, can impart different flavors in the finished brew. No one yeast will work for all recipes. Always choose a good quality yeast that …
What Are The Best Yeasts for Homebrewing (and Why!) Read More »
Fermentation is arguably the most important part of brewing. This is the process by which yeast transforms malt sugar into ethyl alcohol. And I believe the technical term for finished product is, “YAHOO!!!” The result of fermentation is this relaxing beverage with toasty, bready flavors and perhaps the bitterness, spicy and floral characteristics contributed by …
Primary and Secondary Fermentation in Beer: What’s the Difference? Read More »
Homebrewing is typically for personal consumption or for people who are learning about how to brew. There are only a few ingredients needed to make beer at home – malts, water, yeast, and hops. Some people like to add sugar, as well. When there is too much sugar added to your brew, and it has …
What to Do if You Added Too Much Sugar to Homebrew? Read More »
