December 2017
Project
Build a Keg Washer
The only thing worse than cleaning bottles is cleaning kegs. Make this keg washer to simplify the task.
Recipe
Bombing Range Brewing Co.’s Medusa Dry Hopped Pale clone
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.
Recipe
Mexican Lager
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.
Recipe
Oskar Blues Brewery’s Pinner clone
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.
Recipe
Oskar Blues Brewery’s IPA clone
Pleasant and drying bitterness brings citrus, melon, pepper, and wine grape aromas and flavors alive in this exclusively Australian-hopped, West Coast style IPA.
Recipe
Oskar Blues Brewery’s Death by Coconut clone
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!
Recipe
Oskar Blues Brewery’s Beerito clone
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.
Recipe
Oskar Blues Brewery’s Dale’s Pale Ale clone
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!
Recipe
Shoreline Brewery’s Seven Red Rye Ale Clone
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.
Article
Learn the Rules of Pitching
There are few things more defeating to a homebrewer than to check on the fermenter containing sweet wort crafted two days earlier, only to find no signs of life in the fermenter.
Mr. Wizard
Hydrometer Isn’t Reading Correctly
The short answer to your question is that this offset is linear, and you can simply subtract 0.004 from the measured density at 60 ˚F (16 °C) to correct for the error
Mr. Wizard
Setting the Record Straight on Mash pH
There are some answers that I write where I know that I am stepping into a gray area, and my very brief sidebar about pH jumped square in the middle of the
Article
AmeriCAN Revolution: Oskar Blues Brewery Clone Recipes
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.
Article
One Batch, Many Beers: Experiment with Split Batches
I spent 10 years homebrewing batches of 5 gallons (19 L) and smaller. I reasoned that I was already brewing more beer than I could drink, so why buy a larger mash
Article
Pressurizing Your Fermenter: Tips from the Pros
Brewer: Mike Gleason, Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers in Framingham, MA There is a lot of buzz surrounding the use of a spunding valve on fermenters these days throughout the homebrewing community. Some
Article
When in Barbados, Brew Local: Brewing a Cassava Ale
Working as a chemical engineer and Assistant Brewer for AB InBev, I get to make some of the world’s finest beers using high-tech equipment. But I often wondered how my engineering skills
Article
An Introduction to Step Mashing
The move to all-grain for the homebrewer has been made easier in so many ways over the past decade. Better access to equipment and information has changed the game. The ease of
Article
Mexican Lager
When I recently wrote about grisette being a type of saison, I hadn’t expected to write a similar column about lagers but I keep getting questions that spark my interest. This time,
Article
Neomexicanus Hops
Hops are the defining ingredient of the American craft beer movement. But most of the popular aroma varieties that define styles and set trends originated in Europe, and though now grown here,
Article
Spend Less, Brew More
There’s a persistent and mythical justification that revolves around homebrewing that I’m sure most of us have presented to our significant others, families, or ourselves at various points in our brewing career,
Article
Under Pressure: Capturing CO2 During Fermentation
There are some who say that a beer whose entire fermenting and aging life is maintained at positive pressure — around 15 psi —tastes much better. Dr. Chris White of White Labs believes that not only pro
Article
Avoiding Off-Flavors
Understanding basic recipe design concepts and off-flavors are key skills to have as you travel down the path to become a better brewer.
