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Trappist ales are as complex as they are sought-after. Get tips to brew your own Trappist-style ales from the homebrewers who won gold in the Trappist ale category of the 2017 National Homebrew Competition.
Two advocates for low oxygen brewing explain the theory and reasoning behind it, plus share best practices to limit oxygen exposure in the brewing process.
Think brew-in-a-bag (BIAB) is just for small stovetop brewdays? Think again. Here is the equipment and other considerations to brew mega BIAB batches.
Trappist ales are as complex as they are sought-after. Get tips to brew your own Trappist-style ales from the homebrewers who won gold in the Trappist ale category of the 2017 National Homebrew Competition.
Similar to Trappist single, Tafelbier is a low-gravity session style beer with a nice Belgian character in the background that is a great beer to drink on brew days when you need to keep your wits about you but would also like to have a few beers. It also has a quick turnaround, so it’s perfect for brewing when you need a beer for a fast-approaching event.
We decided on a simple grain bill for our dubbel to allow the yeast to express that Belgian character of fruity esters and some spicy phenols in the aroma that so many of us enjoy when we first take a sip of a well-made dubbel.
This tripel has a standard grain bill and a process like our Belgian dubbel with one twist —the addition of Weyermann Abbey malt. The Abbey malt gives the finished Tripel more malt character that the best commercial examples in Belgium all have.
We keep the IBUs on the low side for this beer in relation to the style because we like the hops to take a backseat to the rich malt and yeast characters in this beer. The more this beer attenuates and dries out the more the hop flavor will come through in the final flavor.
This saison is very dry, with a balanced lemony tartness from the yeast. Flaked wheat adds complexity, body, and smoothness. Rye adds complexity, mainly in the form of spiciness. No aroma hops are used in this version, which focuses on the yeast and grains. For more hop character, I would recommend dry hopping with a noble hop variety or a moderate amount of Motueka and/or Nelson Sauvin.
While saison is a Belgian beer style, it is rarely brewed there. Explore the history of saison and get tips to brew your own classic saison from a Belgian brewer who is trying to restore its popularity in Belgium.
Seeking a crispness to a beer style with the addition of rice? Save time by skipping the cereal mash and use an alternative like flaked, malted, or extract rice.
Outside of bittering additions, adding hops during the boil is inefficient as many of the essential oils and positive attributes being sought are lost to heat. Instead, save those hops for whirlpooling or dry hopping.
. . . on a crisp, London-gray, November day, more than 500 amateur brewers headed to a warehouse venue in Bethnal Green for the inaugural Brew Con London.
While there are tons of designs for fermentation chambers to be found, this build incorporates smart design, a clean look, and repurposed equipment to create a unique system.
While these approximations are reliable enough for classic hopping techniques and amounts, hopping has evolved to be more varied and aggressive.
If there’s one piece I can recommend for yeast propagation, it’d be an Erlenmeyer flask. An Erlenmeyer flask is easy to close from contamination and take accurate measures in.
Burton ale was the beer that originally put Burton on the map, beer-wise. It pre-dates IPA, and was a big export beer to the Baltic countries from about 1740 to 1822.
A Burton ale is a rich, malty, bitter, warming beer that has a comforting feel about it, which does make it a good winter beer. However, it traditionally was served year-round when tastes differed.This recipe was based on Burton Ales being brewed during the pre-WWI era.
Brewing and enjoying a quality session beer seems to be overshadowed these days by the big hop bombs and high ABV beers. So let’s go back to the fundamentals of what makes session beers so enjoyable and how to approach brewing this category of beer.
The initial aromas are all herb, with a low floral and fruity hops aroma underneath. I didn’t perceive much in the way of grist aromatics until I took my first sip, and then it all really came together. The rich malts lingered on the tongue and the savory herbs filled the nose, with peppery phenols accenting everything beautifully.
Homebrewers need to chill there wort after the boil, but there is no correct way. Learn the pros and cons of various methods of wort chilling along with the different techniques to chill the wort down to yeast-pitching temperatures.
