Not to make a big deal out of it, but when I started to brew we had to crush our malt with big flat rocks, climbing splintery telephone poles in our skivvies to harvest brown, pea-sized hops that reeked of creosote. The only reliable guidebook was written in ancient Armenian and was missing more than... View Article
One thing you can say for sure about the home- and craft-beer revolution is that it has elevated hops from a bit part to a starring role. Whether the hops are spicy, floral, piney, resinous, citrusy or herbaceous, American brewers just love hops to pieces, and are constantly finding new ways to showcase them in... View Article
5 gallons (19 liters) OG: 1055/13.6 degrees Plato Alcohol: 4.8–5.3 percent by volume Bitterness: 60 IBUs Color: Medium amber Yeast: Wyeast 1056 or White Labs WLP001. Both are descended from the famous Ballantine’s strain and are classic for American pale and IPA. Many British ale strains may be suitable as well. All-grain recipe calculated at... View Article
Burton-on-Trent is famous as the home of England’s most famous beer style, India pale ale. Since before 1800, IPA has spread it’s influence all over the brewing world. It’s a rare brewery in today’s hop-crazed America, that doesn’t brew one.
5 Gallons (19 liters) OG: 1085/15.5°P Alcohol: 8–9%/vol Bitterness: 65 IBUs Color: medium amber Yeast: Saison Wyeast 1057 (derived from the US brewery Ballantine’s, which once brewed a Burton ale) or White Labs: Burton Ale Yeast WLP023. With a strong beer like this a starter is strongly recommended. All-grain recipe calculated at 75% efficiency All... View Article
5 Gallons (19 liters) OG: 1065 (15.5 degrees P) Alcohol by volume: 5-5.5% Bitterness: 43 IBU Color: deep amber Yeast: Saison Wyeast 3724 or White Labs WLP 565 All-grain recipe calculated at 75% efficiency All grain recipe: 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms) Belgian or German Pils malt 5 pounds (2.3 kilograms) Belgian or German Munich malt... View Article
We in this country are boastful to the point of annoyance about our technological prowess, but we have long nurtured an inferiority complex about the artistic merit of our aesthetic creations. Since the days when small-town opera houses staged crude pastiches compared to the glittering spectacles staged in Europe, our insecurity has festered, encompassing a... View Article
Everything old is new again; that’s one of the great things about the craft beer revival. Creative brewers feel quite free to take the elements of the past and build any kind of modern beer they can imagine. As you may know from flipping the pages of this fine magazine, the beer barrels are rolling... View Article
For millennia, we were primarily an agricultural people. The ebb and flow of the seasons determined much of the rhythm of human culture. In our developed world, agriculture still occupies a lot of land, but the space it occupies in our collective psyche has shrunk almost to nothing.
