By Ken Weaver
Published March 2012, Volume 33, Number 1
To earlier generations of brewers, the microscopic beings responsible for fermentation typically arrived on the scene in the form of a family’s trusty brewing stick, the dank, wooden crevasses pocking the walls of a farmhouse, or straight from thin air, carried along within the currents of cool nightly breezes. While a growing number of traditionally minded brewers in Belgium, the U.S., and further abroad still rely on wild yeasts and bacteria for their spontaneously fermented creations, people today usually encounter yeast as a pack or vial from one of the two main yeast labs, or (just as often) as that murky glop appearing unannounced from a bottle of homebrew. Read More…
By John Holl
Published November 2011, Volume 32, Number 5
Unless it asserts itself by, say, fizzing up your nose or aggressively dancing on your tongue, it can be easy to forget about carbonation in beer. Sure, when light filters through a glass and highlights the tiny bubbles as they appear at the bottom it offers a visual moment of enjoyment as they flitter to the surface. Carbonation is the spark of beer; it delivers aroma while effectively stirring it as you drink. It contributes to mouthfeel and its existence (or lack of) can help to establish a brew in its proper category. Read More…
By Randy Mosher
Published September 2003, Volume 24, Number 4
I was talking to one of our newer brew club members a few weeks ago. He and his pals have been brewing like crazy fools (in the good sense), and they’ve really been trying to upgrade their beers in terms of recipes and techniques. For the most part, they’re making headway. But a taste of their newest brew revealed an unwelcome acidity, and the conversation turned to cleaning techniques. The next batch will reveal whether we’ve solved their problem.
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