Big Ideas for Small-Scale Craft Brewing: Don’t Miss a Full-Day of 10 Live Online Seminars at the 2026 NanoCon. Register now and Save 25%!
Dale Katechis needed a plan. It was 1999, and Oskar Blues Grill & Brew, the cajun-style joint he’d founded two years earlier in tiny Lyons, Colorado, was struggling to bring in customers.
The only thing worse than cleaning bottles is cleaning kegs. Make this keg washer to simplify the task.
This beer from Bombing Range Brewing (Richland, Washington) had limited availability but was easily one of the best using MedusaTM that I personally had. Founder and Head Brewer Mike Hopp describes it as a smooth, easy drinker with huge stone fruit and apricot flavors and aroma.
A sub-style of the International Pale Lager, Gordon Strong provides a nice example of the way a Mexican Lager could and should be brewed.
Pinner targets quaffability on multiple fronts – with smooth but apparent bitterness, just enough mouthfeel and an array of hop flavors that are not only supported by the malt, but married to it. Tropical citrus, light pine with a toasted malt accent.
Pleasant and drying bitterness brings citrus, melon, pepper, and wine grape aromas and flavors alive in this exclusively Australian-hopped, West Coast style IPA.
This porter is packed full of intense malt flavor and then infused with pure liquid cacao and loads of dried coconut. A balance of intensities!
Inspired by the clean amber lagers of Mexico and melded with malt flavors in Munich dunkels, this lager shows off what a maltster can do, and packs it in an easy-drinking 4.5% beer. Beerito is all about a complexity of subtle flavor with underlying tones of chocolate, caramel, walnuts, and toasted grain.
Dale’s Pale Ale is an iconic American pale ale, balancing caramel and biscuit malt and fruity, citrusy, piney hops. The first craft beer in a can comes with a little extra oompf at 6.5% ABV — just enough to cap off a solid day in the mountains!
This beer comes by its name honestly, with seven malts in the grist, four of which are rye malts (or five if you opt for chocolate rye). The malts pair nicely with noble hops and American hops to double-down on the fresh floral aromas and adds some bright citrus tones as well.
Mexican lagers have their roots in the 1920s and have gotten a fair amount of interest in recent years.
Understanding basic recipe design concepts and off-flavors are key skills to have as you travel down the path to become a better brewer.
