Articles
Chocolate Clones
We’ve collected chocolate beer clone recipes from six of our favorite breweries. Together, they show just how different chocolate beer recipes can be.
Yeast Pitch Blends
With the advent of monoculture brewing in the late 1800s, most breweries around the world have slowly moved away from their traditional yeast blends in favor of single-strain brewing. Drew and Denny advocate for going back to blended pitches.
Sugar Syrups
While they can be time consuming, making them isn’t hard. Get the scoop on using and making your own sugar syrups for your brews.
Kellerbier
Kellerbier is the beer of choice throughout much of Germany’s Franconia region. Yet, it is difficult to define kellerbier as there are hundreds of examples that may be pale or quite dark, and taste equally unique. Learn about the history of these young, unfiltered lagers from a brewer who spent a decade at the source, plus tips on brewing your own at home.
Traditional German Sours
Go into a brewery or craft beer bar with a decent tap list and there’s a pretty good chance you’ll find a fruited Berliner weisse or Gose. The styles have been revived over the past decade or so, however they are almost always brewed using the quick kettle-souring technique. To make a more complex version you need to revert to traditional techniques including mixed-fermentation, extended aging, no-boil, and bottle conditioning. Michael Tonsmeire shares how to bring these techniques to your homebrewed versions.
Thiol Boosting with Grape Skins
Released a couple of years ago, Phantasm powder is a revolutionary product made from thiol-rich Sauvignon Blanc grape skins. Learn how to get the most from Phantasm in your next brew.
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.
Concept Beers
Once your mind is set on brewing a new take on a beer, the next step is to design the recipe. Drew and Denny offer up their best advice on taking a concept for a beer and making it become a reality via the most direct route.
10 Must-Haves for Pros and Amateurs
The scale is different, however there is a lot of crossover in commercial craft brewing and homebrewing. A pro brewer who still keeps his mash paddle busy at home shares the pieces of equipment he couldn’t brew without, no matter the size of the batch.
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.
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.
A Kettle/Fermenter Conversion and The Time Traveling Brewer Has Some Advice
A homebrewer obtains a beast of a stainless steel tank and is looking to modify it into a brewing kettle and fermenter. Mr. Wizard walks him through the steps he recommends. Also, take a trip back to brewing in medieval times and the advice a modern brewer could take away from it.
