Many a crazy homebrewer has talked big about letting their neighborhood critters run rampant in their beer, harboring romantic images of the Senne River Valley. If you want to go naturally wild though, start small, and use Mother Nature to your advantage.
I didn’t need homebrewing and a love of craft beer to bring my son and me closer together, but because he suggested we make Wheaton’s Own Going To California Pale Ale, he ended up giving me the best Father’s Day gift of all time: something that brought me closer to my own dad.
If there’s any blessing that the odd endeavor of homebrewing has enjoyed, it’s been the law’s disinterest in pursuing legal action against such ragged misfits. However, with homebrewing and craft beer’s rise in popularity, the state’s unblinking gaze increasingly falls on our efforts.
Drone to drop beer to concertgoers; Alabama passes bill legalizing homebrewing; Modern Times Brewing sets Kickstarter record; more breweries switch up containers; and Oregon votes to designate brewer’s yeast “Official State Microbe.”
News of a fast and cheap way to explore the nuances of dry-hop character—pop open a Bud Light, drop some hops and re-cap it—has spread like wildfire. The great thing about this technique is the endless variety.
I first encountered Saison around 1997 at my local brewpub, and I’ve been deeply obsessed ever since. There isn’t nearly enough space in this column for all my thoughts on the style, but hopefully these notes on my brewing process will help make those notorious yeast strains work for you.
Most of Colorado’s breweries are more than 5,000 feet above sea level. But professional brewers at altitude are downright scientific with their methods. And the first thing they point to is the temperature at which they boil.
This month, we track an entry from a BeerAdvocate member through the 2013 Doug King Memorial Competition. In the middle of my panel appeared Ward’s Vanilla Chai Strong Milk Stout. It was rich, sweet and chocolaty with enough spice to balance a lactose-enhanced body.
Last month, we talked about getting clean in the brewhouse, but we left out one important step: the mantra of the obsessive home organizer—everything has its place.
The demands of a busy brewing season and a busy life make it difficult to keep a home brewery spic and span. Stay organized with a simple, eight-step methodology.
The exact composition of spices and meats in a brat vary. In Nuremberg, commonly believed to be brat’s original birthplace, we find salt, pepper, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, caraway and celery seed.
Our modern understanding of Stout revolves around blackness, coffee and chocolate. Somewhere along the way, we lost the original meaning: “strong.” Some brewers are reclaiming the term with attempts at White Stout. Cue the exploding brains!
A state of stunning landscapes and untamed wilderness, Alaska is often forgotten when surveying America’s craft beer boom. But from breweries approaching two decades in business to those that just celebrated their first anniversary, great beer and great people can be found in every Alaskan city.
American brewers have made a history of eschewing tradition. Damn the torpedos—more hops, more alcohol, more flavor, more everything. But there are some elements of tradition that maybe we should revive during this holiday season, like real ale.
Study claims glassware shape affects drinking speed; White House releases homebrew recipes; North American Breweries reportedly for sale; Carlton & United learns not to mess with success; and Pennsylvania craft brew pioneer Tom Pastorius passes away.
Harvest ales—beers with just-picked hops—are as old a tradition as you can find in the craft beer world, dating all the way back to the prehistoric year of 1996. This year, there was a concerted commercial effort to release fresh hops to homebrewers.
A manufacturing engineer by day, Permen applies the logic of inputs and outputs to homebrewing. As scientific as that sounds, Permen credits his Homebrewer of the Year win mostly to luck.
Homebrewers banned from pouring at St. Louis’ Heritage Beer Festival; Kentucky Brewers found a nonprofit guild; buy a round for friends anywhere with the BuddyBeers app; Breckenridge mulls options after growth plans squashed; and AB-InBev purchases Grupo Modelo.
