K. Florian Klemp

September 26, 2013 | Recipes

Abbey and Trappist Beer

There should always be a spot reserved in the cellar for abbey and Trappist beers. Though the brewers of these beers may be considered idiosyncratic, it would be fair to say that they have largely settled on a few loose ...

September 26, 2013 | Stylistically Speaking

Baltic and Imperial Porter

Porter in all its forms may be one of the more misunderstood and underappreciated of all beer styles. Common porter was the dominant brew on the planet during the cusp of the 18th and 19th centuries, bringing rock-star fortunes to ...

July 1, 2013 | Stylistically Speaking

Belgian Witbier

Take a moment and raise your glass to the brewing revivalists, without whom we’d not be in such a great place. In North America, we laud kindred spirits Fritz Maytag, Jack McAuliffe, Ken Grossman and Jim Koch, among others, for ...

July 1, 2013 | Recipes

Untangling Hops

A relative latecomer to brewing, hops have come to define beer to many. To some, they are an obsession; to others, the perfect counterpunch or complement. Seldom, though, are they an afterthought. For homebrewers, hops are one of the more ...

May 1, 2013 | Stylistically Speaking

Barley Wine

Our perception of extreme beers has changed immensely over the recent period of enlightenment. To many, the extreme has become the status quo, given the availability of sour, wild, strong and über-hopped brews. But the original extreme beer among revivalists ...

May 1, 2013 | Home Brewing

Rhenish Hybrids

The distinction between top- and bottom-fermented beers is familiar to all homebrewers, but the term “hybrid” is often met with curiosity. And while many of our styles were forged by the clash of ingredients, technology, and local and outside influences, ...

May 1, 2013 | Recipes

Rhenish Hybrids

The distinction between top- and bottom-fermented beers is familiar to all homebrewers, but the term “hybrid” is often met with curiosity. And while many of our styles were forged by the clash of ingredients, technology, and local and outside influences, ...

March 1, 2013 | Recipes

Great Grains: Mash or Steep?

Friends often ask me to review their brewing recipes and strategies. With all-grain brewers, this usually amounts to minor tweaking of ingredients and proportions. For extract-steep and partial-mash brewers, though, I encounter common issues with regard to grain utilization, tricky ...

March 1, 2013 | Stylistically Speaking

Munich Dunkel

Those of us “experienced” enough to remember the beer wasteland before the brewing Renaissance cut our teeth on rather pedestrian European imports. Mostly, they were English or German in origin, with the odd Belgian bauble. There was no special release ...

January 1, 2013 | Stylistically Speaking

Bière de Garde

We, as beer lovers, are constantly being introduced to the next great infatuation, permutation or trend as the brewing industry rapidly rambles on....