Articles
West Coast IPA
Clear, crisp, and packing a punch, the modern West Coast IPA offers drinkers plenty of hop character. Take a journey to Southern California where this style was born and has since been exported around the world.
Hitting Target FG, Knowing Your OG and Magnesium Salts in Beer
A pair of homebrewers are struggling to hit their target gravities, although one is focusing on final gravity and the other is looking at original gravity. The Wiz talks them through his thoughts on each topic as well as an anonymous brewer’s question on using magnesium salts in their brewing water.
Your First Homebrew Draft Beer
Being able to serve your beer on draft offers homebrewers several advantages. Learn how to get started kegging your beer.
Understanding Mash Thickness
Your liquor-to-grist ratio impacts mash enzyme stability, wort fermentability, first wort gravity and volume, sparge water requirements, decoction and step mashes, and much more. Learn more about this often overlooked aspect of all-grain brewing.
Alternative Mashing Techniques
Explore three historical mashing methods from different regions — parti-gyle (England), step mashing (Germany), and decoction mashing (Czech Republic) — and learn how they may benefit your own homebrews.
Hop Water
Hop water is the perfect beverage for those times where you can’t drink alcohol but still need your hop fix. Learn the secrets to brewing a great hop water with basic ingredients and equipment homebrewers are sure to have on hand.
American Beer, as it Was
Recently rediscovered brewing journals from a large Connecticut brewery dating back more than a century can teach us a lot about how beer was produced. Get an inside look at the journals and some of the popular recipes of the pre-Prohibition time.
Taproom Design
The design of your taproom can be a crucial element of how your business will operate in the long run. Architect Dustin Hauck provides insight for breweries-in-planning on some of the key components.
Brewlanthropy
Sometimes it takes persistence, patience, and gumption to help your greater community through charitable causes. But a homebrewer found out that the brewing community was gracious enough that all he needed was the gumption. He’s been on a whirlwind brewlanthropy tour ever since.
Averting Disaster
Nothing can ruin a homebrewer’s day faster than finding that they ruined a batch of their beer. Learn from others’ mistakes and ensure success with your next brew by reading these thoughtful ideas.
Weizenbock
While our understanding and categorization of the German wheat beer family has evolved over the years, the acknowledgement of a strong wheat beer called weizenbock has been relatively static. Maybe that is because the prototypical weizenbock, Schneider Aventinus, is truly a world-class beer that is widely available and is well-known.
Dry Yeast Advancements, Alternate Decoction Mash Purpose, and Heating a Fermenter
For decades dry yeast manufacturers have recommended brewers rehydrate their yeast prior to pitching, but that advice has changed recently. The Wizard explains why. Also, learn why a brewery may use decoction mashing to produce a light beer and ways to heat up a fermenter.
