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, there are a few that are defined by their own duality. California common and cream... View Article
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 concerns that are often glossed over in brewing instructions.
In a funny sort of way, homebrewing has come full circle. Thirty-four years ago, our country’s 39th President, Jimmy Carter, signed H.R. 1337 which effectively legalized homebrewing nationwide. And now, shortly after another presidential election, our 44th President, Barack Obama, has released to the public his recipe for the first beer ever brewed on the... View Article
In a funny sort of way, homebrewing has come full circle. Thirty-four years ago, our country’s 39th President, Jimmy Carter, signed H.R. 1337 which effectively legalized homebrewing nationwide. And now, shortly after another presidential election, our 44th President, Barack Obama, has released to the public his recipe for the first beer ever brewed on the... View Article
I have always had a particular fondness for the emphatic malt character, smoothness and underlying elegance of noble hops in ordinary German biers. I was especially enamored with bocks and that pure expression of malt. Bocks are beers of extraordinary finesse in spite of their fortitude. Brewing them at home can be something of a... View Article
Fall always offers a chance to kickstart that homebrewing motor. We can take advantage of the cooler fermentation temperatures and move from heat-slaying brews to something more rich and substantial to pair with invigorating weather and culinary traditions of autumn. Of course, Thanksgiving is the culmination, a grand finale to the harvest and an ushering... View Article
Hobbyists thrive on rapport, with like minds sharing knowledge, triumph and struggle, reminiscing about wide-eyed beginnings and visions of the great frontier ahead. Homebrewing engenders much camaraderie, but inevitably it can also uncover some philosophical divides.
I am an unabashed lager lover. My first beer epiphany came from a glass of Hacker-Pschorr Dunkel in the mid-1970s. A few years later, homebrewing brought the giddy realization that I could brew my own. Much has changed on the homebrew front in the past 25 years, making the chasm between commercial and homebrewed lagers... View Article
No brewing culture mirrors that of the homebrewing community quite like that of Belgium. The romantic perception is that Belgian brews are closer to their agrarian and monastic roots. Romantic and idiosyncratic, it is a parallel universe that homebrewers can relate to since their own creations are based on personal whim and unconventional ingredients, not... View Article
