January-February 2025
Article
New Hops to Brew With
Hop breeders have been busy introducing brewers to new releases featuring aromas and flavors designed for specific beer styles. If you’ve blinked over the past couple of years, there’s a good chance you missed a few. Let’s look closer at some of the coolest new hop varieties.
Article
New Malts to Brew With
Maltsters around the world have been releasing exciting new malts available to homebrewers in recent years. It’s time we check in on what’s become available, including a number of heritage barley varieties, cutting-edge offerings, and even style-specific malts.
Article
Pro Tips for Brewing Barleywine
Four pro brewers recognized for brewing barleywine share their advice for homebrewers. From recipe formulation, brewing techniques, and aging this big beer style on oak (or not), they cover all the bases for how they brew barleywine.
Article
The Beer That Drinks Like a Wine
Fresh off his latest book Brewing Barley Wines: Origins, History, and Making Them at Home Today, Terry Foster shares the keys and five different approaches to brewing a great barleywine at home.
Article
The Home of Foam and Pilsner
We recap and share photos from a recent Czech beer adventure with BYO readers and Publisher Brad Ring.
Article
Jekyll Beer of Yesteryear
The first commercial beer in the state of Georgia was brewed more than 275 years ago. We share the story of this Colonial-era brew and a modern brewery’s
attempt at recreating a beer like it.
Article
Smog City Brewing Co.
New beer releases are cycled through breweries so often these days that a favorite one week at the tasting room may never be found again. That isn’t the case for this hoppy amber ale that Smog City has been brewing since opening in 2011. Fourteen years in and there’s no getting rid of a Sabre-Toothed Squirrel.
Article
Belgian Dubbel
Belgian dubbel will always have a place in Gordon Strong’s heart because it’s the first style he brewed all-grain many years ago. While the style hasn’t really changed since then, his approach to brewing this dry, dark, malty beer that gets a lot of its character from the estery/spicy yeast character.
Article
Conserving Water
Despite all the pithy bumper sticker jokes about “Save Water, Drink Beer!” the truth is that brewing beer is a terribly inefficient and water wasteful process. Between growing, cleaning, mashing, sanitizing, chilling
Article
The Hoppiness Project
A Bristol, U.K.-based organization is helping elderly dementia patients through beer. It started with the idea of growing hops and has turned into a series of sessions in care homes based around hops, pubs, brewing, and drinking culture that culminates in the production of a fresh-hopped beer available at pubs across the U.K.
Article
Stressing Yeast, Dough Balls, & Remote Brewing
The discussion of stressing yeast to increase phenolics for styles like hefeweizens has been around for a long time. The Wizard weighs in on if this is necessary and shares other options if you aren’t getting the aromas you want from your yeast. He also answers questions on preventing dough balls and offers up advice for homebrewing in environments where climate and remoteness prove challenging.
Recipe
Hanabi Lager Co.’s Haná Pilsner clone
Hanabi Lager is quickly gaining an international reputation for developing a new class of Pilsner- and helles-style lagers that are rich and complex in flavor, unusually so for these lager categories, into which they only loosely fit. They focus exclusively on rare and heirloom grains, brewing with them on their custom decoction brewhouse, and presenting them through the pure, cold-fermented lens of lager.
Recipe
Forgotten Star Brewing Co.’s Whistlestop Oatmeal Stout clone
This stout is rich and robust with a harmonious blend of roasted nuances and a delightful oatmeal sweetness that comes from two unique oat products — Simpsons Golden Naked Oats® and Gambrinus Honey Malted Oats.
Recipe
New Realm Brewing Co.’s Elani Cold IPA clone
This is the first recipe Geoff Belcher, Head Brewer at New Realm Brewing Co.’s Charleston, South Carolina, location brewed with Elani® as it provides a clean slate for the hop. The resulting beer is bursting with citrus and stone fruit flavors and aromas.
Recipe
Logboat Brewing Co.’s Rocket Shark Vista Flyer clone
This was the fifth iteration of Logboat’s rotating IPA Rocket Shark Series in which the brewers wanted to explore and experiment with Vista. “Rocket Shark Vista Flyer is a juicy IPA featuring a unique blend of hops for a layered taste experience. Vista, Nelson SauvinTM, and Huell Melon hops contribute notes of bright tropical fruit, white wine, big strawberry, and subtle gooseberry. An Ideal IPA for those who love a big, fruity beer with depth and nuance,” said Jason Woody, the brewer who designed the recipe.
Recipe
KISS Barleywine
This barleywine gets all of its fermentable sugars from malt extract. It’s easier and much less time-consuming than brewing all-grain barleywine.
Recipe
All Together Ale
This is the classic method for brewing barleywines — of an extended three-hour boil to reach the extremely high-gravity wort that will go into the fermenter. Note that the final beer will reduce from 6 gallons (23 L) at the start of the boil to 3.3 gallons (12.5 L) going into the fermenter (and around 3 gallons/11 L to be packaged).
Recipe
Silver Bluff Brewing Co.’s Jekyll Island Historic English Ale clone
“We didn’t have any recipes or records of the first beers brewed in Georgia at Horton House, but we wanted to create something that showed how beer in the 18th century could have varied from most beer today . . . The resulting brew is not a true historical recreation, but more of a historically inspired ale designed to give the drinker an idea of the ways in which these Colonial beers tasted very different from beer today.” – William Melvin, Head Brewer
Recipe
Smog City Brewing Co.’s Sabre-Toothed Squirrel clone
This hoppy amber ale features hop characteristics of pine, citrus, and herbal notes that pair perfectly with a maltier beer.
Recipe
Gordon Strong’s Belgian Dubbel
Belgian dubbel will always have a place in Gordon Strong’s heart because it’s the first style he brewed all-grain many years ago. While the style hasn’t really changed since then, his approach to brewing this dry, dark, malty beer that gets a lot of its character from the estery/spicy yeast character has.
Recipe
Trick or Treat
An award-winning homebrewed peanut butter stout.
Mr. Wizard
Avoiding Dough Balls
Dough balls are an undeniable nuisance to brewers of all sizes because the malt in the dough ball is not wetted and does us brewers no good. Unless you are stirring with
Mr. Wizard
Brewing in remote regions
From time to time, I take space in my column to write about something timely and exciting to share. Wilco’s dilemma is a challenge for me because there is a limit to
Mr. Wizard
Stressing yeast to increase phenolics
This is a great question that is perfect for a short answer. Contrary to my love of marching to my own beat, I do believe in following supplier suggestions. I would start
