Brew day is the most fun when making beer, second only to the drinking itself. There are those that are gung-ho about bottling and ready by the time the airlock stops bubbling. They get carried away and bottle too early. Here is a best- and worst-case scenario. Bottling too early could result in broken bottles: …
What Happens if You Bottle Your Homebrew Too Early? Read More »
For intermediate to advanced brewers, mashing is an integral step to making better beer in their pursuit of great beer. There is no mash without a clean vorlauf. Whether store bought or homemade, mashing and extracting raw wort is key to the process. Vorlaufing (recirculation of the mash liquid for clarity) is an essential element …
You Should Recirculate (Vorlauf) Your Mash. Here’s Why Read More »
According to some…the Germans, there can only be four ingredients in beer. Barley, hops, yeast, and water. They speak from a position of authority as they are arguably the world’s preeminent lager brewers. What about the yeast? Dry yeast is stable, dependable and the quality has dramatically increased in recent years. Liquid yeast is cultured …
Dry Yeast vs Liquid Yeast: Which One to Use for Homebrewing? Read More »
Grain bags are used on two levels: beginner/ intermediate and advanced brewing. Brewing with grain bags is often the first step to upping your brewing game. The Brew-in-a-Bag (BIAB) method, wherein all-grain brewers place all of their mash in a bag, mash, sparge and boil in one vessel, eliminates the need for mash-tuns, lauters and …
Do I Squeeze My Grain Bag or Not? Answer to the Eternal Debate Read More »
Home brewers are full of questions. It comes with the territory. One that comes up regularly: Is it OK to top off my wort with water? Well, that depends. Yes and no. For extract brewers it is routine and expected to add water to concentrated wort. For all-grain brewers, it may be Ok, but the …
Is Topping off Wort With (a Lot of) Water a Good Idea? Read More »
Raw wort can tell you a lot or a little about your beer. This partly depends on how developed your palate is at that moment. It will hint at what sort of beer it will be, subtle characteristics to reveal how quenching or delicious its potential. Raw wort hints at the characteristics of a beer. …
What Should Raw Wort Taste Like? How Much Can You Tell From It? Read More »
Your brew session is wrapping up. Whether one hour for a beginner or eight hours for an advanced all-grain brewer, the next stage is the same. You must cool your wort and quickly. Your window for effective cooling is 30 minutes, 40 minutes at the absolute outside. You can cool your wort by adding cold …
When it comes to homebrewing beer, Brew-in-a-Bag (BIAB) can be one of the easiest and most efficient ways to homebrew beer if you’ve never done it before. BIAB bags take the guesswork out of adding your grains and extracts and instead let you focus on other technical aspects of the brew such as temperature and …
Sparging is the process of spraying or pouring 170°F water onto mash to collect or rinse out any residual sugars left in the mash pile. While there are three different ways to sparge, they all follow similar steps and processes of pouring brewed water over your mash pile until the sugar is fully collected. People …
What Is Sparging In Homebrewing? And How Do You Do It? Read More »
Brewing with an electric stove is not the preferred method of making homebrew, but it is definitely doable and can even be an advantage with smaller batches of beer. If you enjoy brewing, being able to brew on an electric stovetop gives you the freedom to brew year-round without interference from the elements. But how …
Brewing Beer on an Electric Stove / Burner: Pros and Cons Read More »
For the avid or amateur homebrewer, storing your brewed goods in a growler may seem like a quick and convenient idea. They can store the volume of several smaller 12 or 16 ounce bottles, saving time and effort. However, you will need to be careful with the type of growler you use and use a …
Filtering homebrew beer is a much different practice than the filtration processes undertaken by most commercial breweries. In homebrew, mechanical filtration and kegs are often overshadowed by microbrews and bottle conditioning. Homebrew is filtered by following these steps: Adding fining agents to the kettle Performing a secondary fermentation Performing a cold crash Racking the beer …
Step-by-Step: How to Filter Homebrew Before Bottling Read More »
Brewing beer is a craft. Who knows what kind of opportunities it may lead to? Whether it’s going to be a hobby or business venture, you want to make sure that your beer isn’t flat. These are six common reasons why your beer has no carbonation. And I am going to dig into these reasons …
A beer recipe is only as good as the ingredients that you will be fermenting. For some, the unique earthy taste of mushroom beer is a delicacy that goes well with many different types of meals. Ultimately, brewing beer with mushrooms gives the undeniably distinctive flavor and the scent of umami, which is challenging to …
Brewing Beer With Mushrooms? Yes, Here Are 4 Recipes! Read More »
Adding fruit to homebrewed beer is one of the best ways to add nuanced layers of flavor to an otherwise dull growler, and there are many kinds of fruit that are well-suited to be added into beer and pair well with several types of beer. Fruit can be added to homebrew in many different forms …
How to Add Fruit to a Homebrew Beer: All You Need to Know Read More »
The main reason that people start making beer at home is usually a hobby. Home brewers claim beers taste the same as the ones you buy, if not better. And making your beer is an enjoyable and satisfying pastime. It also takes less time than you might think. Pressure barrels are incredibly useful during the …
Many mistakes can be made during the homebrewing process that can turn a potentially clear beer into a hazy beer. While haze doesn’t detract from the flavor of a beer (although it can be indicative of spoilage in some cases), it isn’t usually a desired trait in many beer types, either. Refining homebrewing practices to …
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 …
