Even now, in the dregs of winter, it’s time to gear up to compete. April marks the start of homebrewing’s championship run—the AHA National Homebrew Competition.
When determining the Best of Show, four or five experienced judges and brewers grab chairs and enough glasses to run a tavern for a night. With beers flying quickly, the judges have scant moments to sniff, swirl, swallow and form an opinion.
With hop prices coming down and the world missing a good “East Coast” versus “West Coast” battle, maybe it’s time to fire off your own salvo in the IPA wars.
Whether it’s lighting your shorts on fire, snipping off a piece of finger or proving a thick Irish skull tougher than a garage door, danger abounds. The beer gods demand the occasional blood sacrifice, so take your lumps and enjoy the brew.
On water alone, brewers use roughly 20 gallons for every pint of beer in your fridge. Toss in electricity, fuel for heating, sewage-effluent loads and the masses of spent malt, and you can see why sizable breweries are looking to cut back.
March’s Märzen recipe replaced the über malt “effect” with a charge of melanoidin malt. This time, we’re skipping the shortcut and doing a double decoction. Get stirring!
Remember—keeping the beer flowing is the goal. Do whatever it takes. Cut all the corners you need. Short boil or mash? Sure! Extract? Sure! Yeast with no starter? Go fer it. If it gets the beer made, do it.
To say that O’Fallon Brewery is a collection of homebrewers might be an oversimplification, but it is not that far from the truth. That is not say that the brewery is amateurish—it’s not. Rather, the brewers and the atmosphere of the brewery is one of innovation and, yes, passion for beer.
Beer Wars reaches the Big Screen; South Carolina microbrewers fight for their right to sell; Penn Brewery staying home; Possible Texas plan to allow buying beer direct from brewers; A tale of two Budweisers; and homebrewing legalized in Utah.
This month’s recipe is the result of many years of traditional Märzen brewing. Every spring, I brewed a batch of Märzen to squirrel away until the Falcons’ Oktoberfest.
If you find yourself trapped in a beer wasteland, do not despair, for there is hope. Like Virgil leading Dante through the pits of Hell, let this guide lead you safely to survival in an otherwise uninhabitable clime.
Notice the abundance of chocolate-infused Stouts and Porters? Beyond the color connection, chocolate intertwines naturally with roasted malt’s coffee bite. Mocha, anyone?
There are fun legends about mead, but they’re probably all bunk. What is legendary, is just how quickly they’re brewed. I routinely brew my meads at a sleepless 3 a.m. and hit the sack at 4 a.m.
Each June, in a different city, the folks at the American Homebrewers Association mix up this magical brew to put on the National Homebrewers Conference, the greatest floating homebrew party around.
When we first visited with John Carnett back in the fall of last year, he was the proud papa of an all-inclusive homebrewing system that he built himself in his home shop. Now, see how it’s grown up.
