Sometimes you must snatch greatness from the jaws of “whoops.” Last summer, while teaching a brewing class, I lost focus and the mash got lightly scorched. To save the day, I turned to my “brewer’s pantry.”
Apparently, stupid people miss the original (pre-legally-neutered) Four Loko. For these people, Gizmodo.com released a recipe involving energy tablets, malt liquor, vodka and Kool-Aid. But we are homebrewers—we can do better!
The hybrid Steam yeasts (aka “California Common”), which were pioneered by Fritz Maytag and yield lager characteristics while fermenting at temperatures up to 65°F, require extra work to maintain an odd temperature range and therefore serve as a perfect test of your control.
Many brewers put a lot into a beer that misses the mark because the temperatures changed during fermentation or it wasn’t given enough time to ferment and age. To prevent the heartbreak of releasing a beer before its time or too late, Christian Lavender created The Home Brewing Calendar.
It’s best to pitch your beer cold and let it rise slowly to suppress the early formation of obnoxious esters and fusels. This recipe for a Belgian-style Tripel benefits from the chilly start.
Coffee and dark-roasted Stouts or Porters are a perfect marriage of flavors, but … screw expectations. Yes, the extract makes a great addition to a sweet Stout, but let’s have some fun! How about Jolted Toasted Oat Amber?
New Zealand’s nascent craft brew scene is just beginning to impact hop development and thus most of the older kiwi hops are still primed for lager styles. Our recipe this month is a lager spin on my single-hop test beer.
I won’t brew this beer for a while, but it will yield a rather charming oatmeal cookie ale with a sweet raisiny note and a spicy compliment to the fatty oats. The little kick of ginger provides warmth and peppery sweetness.
Westvleteren Trappist Ales to make US debut in 2012; scientists decipher genetic code of Brettanomyces yeast; SABMiller purchases Foster’s Group; House Bill 4061 legalizes homebrew sharing at Michigan meetings; and Prohibition Pig to open in place of The Alchemist Brewpub.
Although New York is typically considered to be on the cutting edge of just about everything, homebrewing has taken a lot longer to reach the Big Apple than other parts of the country. But Josh Bernstein says New Yorkers are more than making up for lost time.
It’s clear from history that beer and bread, brewing and baking, have always been intimately connected. Old-World recipes for beer-making combined fresh grain with crumbled loaves of dense storage bread, like the Sumerian bappir. The beer we’re using is made with the bread we’re baking.
If you’re in the mood to re-create what Thanksgiving might have been like in its earliest years, you could try your hand at making your own beer to share with friends and family, and to have a toast with when the last Thursday of November rolls around.
It turns out the Mayans shared an obsession with us: chocolate. But they weren’t chomping on Cadbury bars; they drank their chocolate in a bitter, foamy liquid. Sound familiar?
Don’t rush into making “Mega Imperial Stout with Chocolate Espresso Cherries and Szechuan Peppercorns” before you understand your surroundings. You and your beer will be better for it.
Craft beer drinkers, like brewers, want to be challenged. From Chipotle Ale to peanut butter and jelly beer, we never know what will pleasantly surprise us, and the true craft beer drinker will try anything once.
Labels typically have been where most of the creativity has gone, but a Houston man has just made it a lot easier for brewers to make their mark, literally, with customized, digitally printed bottle caps.
Today, my sister’s craft beer conversion is complete. A request recently came across the wire—help her design a Pumpkin Ale (another favorite) that she could brew.
Following the National Homebrewers Conference, I have a shockingly large supply of empty kegs. Thanks to this odd duck of a situation, I can dedicate a 3-gallon keg to the fine art of sparkling water.
Infusing brews with a story and meaning is great fun and adds texture to the homebrewing process, but sometimes, the memoriam hits a little too close to home.
