Date: December 2018
The Trap Door Keezer
Tap towers can be a design challenge for home draft system builders. Enter the trap-door lid design, allowing access to the keezer without having to move the tower.
Hop Shelf Life, Keg-Conditioning Beer and Planning a Nano’s Cellar
A reader is interested to know about the ageability of well stored hops and whether buying last year’s, discounted hops may be a sound investment. Also learn about what makes recently brewed beer, green beer and a nano’s cellar plans.
Iced Warsaw Porter
A reader from Poland tells the tale of getting inspired to ice his Warsaw Baltic porter during one particularly cold winter stretch.
Improve Quality and Consistency
To brew great beer you need to start with a good recipe, know how to evaluate your beers, and then understand the cause and effect of each ingredient and technique so you can improve the beer the next time you go to brew it.
The Role of pH in Brewing
pH plays a role in every step of the brewing process — from the time you mash in, all the way through to the final beer that fills the glass. Take a closer look at pH throughout the brewing process.
Home Malting
Malting barley at home may sound like a lot of work, but it’s actually pretty easy and doesn’t require much equipment you don’t already own. Once you have the malting process down, you may want to even grow your own barley. Jon Stika walks readers through the steps.
For Whom the Bell’s Pours
From modest homebrews to one of the most iconic craft breweries in North America, Bell’s has grown tremendously while staying true to its roots over the last three decades. Learn about the history, beers, and brewing techniques from Bell’s. Plus: 5 Bell’s clone recipes.
Bell’s Brewery’s Quinannan Falls clone
Quinannan Falls is a dry-hopped India pale lager that possesses a crisp, dry bitterness you would expect from a German Pilsner, but the use of highly aromatic Simcoe® hops from the Pacific Northwest evoke the fragrant pine forests that inspired this summer seasonal beer from Bell’s.
Bell’s Brewery’s Hopslam Ale clone
Starting with six different hop varieties added to the brew kettle and culminating with a massive dry hop addition of Simcoe® hops, Bell’s Hopslam Ale possesses the most complex hopping schedule in the Bell’s repertoire.
Bell’s Brewery’s Amber Ale clone
The beer that helped build Bell’s, Amber Ale features both toasted and sweet caramel notes, balanced with herbal and citrus hop aromas. Capped by a clean bitterness, it’s incredibly versatile with food, but very tasty on its own.
Bell’s Brewery’s Oberon clone
Oberon is a wheat ale fermented with Bell’s Brewery’s signature house ale yeast, mixing a spicy hop character with mildly fruity aromas, often causing many to assume there is an addition of fruit or spices. The addition of wheat malt lends a smooth mouthfeel, making it a classic summer beer. Oberon is one of Bell’s best-selling beers, even though it’s only available from March-August each year.
Bell’s Brewery’s Two Hearted Ale clone
Two Hearted Ale is one of the defining American-style India pale ales. This beer is bursting with aromas ranging from pine resins to grapefruit notes from the use of 100% Centennial hops.
