Date: October 2015
Coffee American Rye Ale
Digital and Plus Members OnlyThis combines the spicy flavor profile of you basic rye ale and adds a shot of coffee to boost the complexities found in the beer’s profile.
Build an Indoor Vent Hood
Digital and Plus Members OnlyWhen you decide that you’re ready to brew inside the comforts of your home, you will need to find a way to exhaust the condensation from your boil. You could go out and buy a commercial kitchen vent hood, but most of them are usually a far reach from a homebrewer’s budget. When I was
Harvesting Homegrown Hops
Digital and Plus Members OnlyGrowing your own hops is a fun way to make your homebrew a little more homemade and can provide the freshest hops in your beer. We’ve run plenty of articles on how to grow hop plants (Humulus lupulus), so we’ll skip that here and instead focus on tips for harvesting and processing the hops as
Kodiak Island Brewing Company: Oktoberfest clone
FREEThis traditional Oktoberfest is a classic take on the German style, featuring an amber color and sweet, malty notes.
Experimenting with Cider
Digital and Plus Members OnlyAs every devoted homebrewer knows, hard cider can be boring to make. You need only two ingredients for cider — apples and yeast — and starting a batch requires just five minutes and a fermenter. Where’s the creativity? Where’s the excitement without a six-hour brew day and hundreds of dollars of stainless steel? Luckily, a
Homebrewing with Chocolate
Digital and Plus Members OnlyI believe it was Fred Eckhardt who first put the idea into my mind that chocolate could go well with beer. My reaction was that this was nonsense and that adding chocolate to any beer would simply spoil both the beer and the chocolate! I have loved chocolate all my life, and beer for almost
Brewer’s Thumbprint: 5 Homebrewers & 1 Recipe
Digital and Plus Members OnlyI’ve always been curious about whether or not it’s truly possible to “clone” a beer on a homebrew scale. Consider the number of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale or Stone IPA clone beers you’ve sampled at club meetings that barely resemble the beer they claim to have copied. My thinking has always been that certain factors and details end
Brewing Better Belgians
Digital and Plus Members OnlyBelgian ales are complex and elegant. They’re my favorites to homebrew and drink. One issue I’ve had, however, is finding a Belgian beer that’s less than six months old in the United States. My Belgian-style homebrewing is therefore based on the aged examples I could get. What’s a workaround for this dilemma? A Belgian
Troubleshooting Homebrew
Digital and Plus Members OnlyModern homebrew has improved greatly since I first began brewing in the mid-1990s. Better ingredients, equipment, and information has led homebrewers to avoid many of those formerly commonplace mistakes and produce commercial-quality amateur craft beer. Yet there are some common mistakes that still show up, even among good brewers. However, by focusing on a few
Crafting Coffee Beers
Digital and Plus Members OnlyCoffee and beer are two of the most popular beverages in the world. Both have complex flavors and aromas and can be found in a wide variety of styles. Even better, coffee and beer work great together. It’s time to liven up your homebrewing with the addition of this long-loved, flavorful, and stimulating bean! In
Fresh Malt Extract is Best
Digital and Plus Members OnlyPicture the scene: You walk into your local homebrew shop intent on brewing a great batch of beer this weekend. Grabbing some extract off the shelf you notice it’s dusty — typical of many homebrew shops where grains are milled daily. It’s hard to say how old it is. “Didn’t they change labels on this
Hop Shelf Life & Egg Finings: Mr. Wizard
Digital and Plus Members OnlyQ I have a random assortment of leftover hops in the back of my freezer that is about a year old. I always freeze the unused portions right away so they don’t have a lot of room temperature time. I’d like to use them up and I am wondering if I should use them strictly