Date: January-February 2014
Icicle Brewing Company’s Priebe Porter clone
MEMBERS ONLYThe Priebe Porter is a classic representation of an American robust porter. The color is very dark brown but still displays nice clarity and beautiful ruby highlights.
Oak Alternatives for Beginners
FREEAging your homebrew in an oak barrel can add more dimensions to your beer by imparting complex wood characteristics such as vanilla, cloves, coconut, or caramel, but barrels are not ideal for
Build a Better Bottle Capper
MEMBERS ONLYOne thing I really like about the homebrewing hobby is that it allows me to build various gadgets and equipment that I can use in my basement brewery. I am constantly thinking of ideas that will either make a process easier or at least make it more enjoyable. Recently I came up with a project
Stone Brewing Co. 10.10.10 Vertical Epic Ale clone
MEMBERS ONLYIn October 2010, Stone Brewing Co. in Escondido, California introduced 10.10.10 Vertical Epic Ale, a one-time release. The Belgian strong golden ale was brewed with chamomile, and a blend of white wine grape juice — Muscat Canelli, Gewürztraminer, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc — was added during fermentation
Beer Styles and Statistics
MEMBERS ONLYThe concept of beer styles can be viewed in (at least) two different ways. One possible school of thought is that beer styles are merely ways in which people can categorize types of beer into pigeonholes. The mantra for this camp might be something like, “style boundaries are limiting and oppressive.” An opposing school of
Fining Beer for Clarity
MEMBERS ONLYFirst, what does “fining” mean? Well, this is another piece of brewer’s jargon, like “grain bill,” “knock-out” and calling brewing water “liquor” — indeed one 18th century writer records that anyone using the word water in the brewery would be charged sixpence (a significant sum of money in those days). Fining is the process of
Designing Your Own Beer Recipes
MEMBERS ONLYIf you asked me to create a cake recipe from scratch, I would probably stare blindly at you for a few moments before giving up. Yes, I know you can make a cake from some combination of sugar, butter, flour and flavoring, but honestly I would have no idea where to start on a recipe
Beer-Wine Hybrids
MEMBERS ONLYBeer and wine hybrids are bridging the gap between breweries and wineries
Extract 2-Hour Brew Day
MEMBERS ONLYI started homebrewing more than twenty years ago and I have followed a fairly classic learning curve in terms of my methods: Extract with sugar, extract only, extract with specialty grains, partial mash and finally all-grain brewing. Each time I felt I mastered a level I was very keen to keep trying to improve my
Munich Helles
MEMBERS ONLYby the numbersOG: 1.045–1.051 (11.2–12.6 °P) FG: 1.008–1.012 (2.1–3.1 °P) SRM: 3–5 IBU: 16–22 ABV: 4.7–5.4% Today’s craft beer world is full of creativity and innovation. There are many new, creative ideas coming to market and it is easy to imagine that every brewery is trying something new. However, a brewer friend of mine recently
Bad Lagers, Big Blowoffs & Barrel Use: Mr. Wizard
MEMBERS ONLYQ My lagers always contain a lot of sulfur and vegetative (like garbage or rotting vegetation) aromas that overpower the beer. My lager boils are typically 75 minutes, full rolling boil uncovered with overhead vent fan using gas plus electric heat stick augmentation. I use both liquid with stirred starters and dry yeast (all style-appropriate
Icicle Brewing Company
MEMBERS ONLYThe Priebe Porter is a classic representation of an American robust porter. The color is very dark brown but still displays nice clarity and beautiful ruby highlights.