Date: September 2012
Designing Your First Homebrew Recipe
Digital and Plus Members OnlyOnce you feel comfortable homebrewing with pre-written recipes, it’s only natural to wonder how to formulate an original recipe of your own. With a little up-front planning and research, you can successfully start coming up with your own original beer. Decide your objective The first step toward putting together a recipe idea is to decide
Jack and Ken’s Ale — Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Ale Collaboration clone
FREESierra Nevada put together this recipe in collaboration with Jack McAuliffe from New Albion Brewing (1976–1982) in Sonoma, California using raw materials available in the late 1970s. This was one of four Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Collaboration Ales.
The Alchemist, Ninkasi Brewing Company, and Stone Brewing Company: More Brown Than Black IPA clone
Digital and Plus Members OnlyThis collaboration black IPA shows off a big fruity, spicy, herbal hop profile.
21st Amendment Brewery and Ninkasi Brewing Company: Allies Win the War clone
Digital and Plus Members OnlyThis collaboration English strong ale came to be thanks to 21st Amendment’s Shaun O’Sullivan and Ninkasi’s Jamie Floyd, who had been friends since brewing together in the 1990s at Steelhead Brewery. Both brewers had won GABF medals for their versions of this style, and decided to brew one together using local ingredients.
Build a Bottle Washer/Sanitizer
Digital and Plus Members OnlyI built this bottle washer to help out with the huge task of bottling in my homebrewery (and also for my home winemaking efforts). As any homebrewer can agree, anything that can be done to make bottling time easier is worth it. Instead of washing each of the bottles one at a time, with this
Understanding Yeast Metabolism
Digital and Plus Members OnlyYeast are microscopic, unicellular fungi that are capable of converting various types of sugar into ethanol and other byproducts. Yeast take in sugars and anaerobically (without oxygen) metabolize them to produce energy, additional yeast cells, ethanol, carbon dioxide and other metabolic byproducts: Sugar + Yeast → More Yeast + Ethanol + Carbon Dioxide + Metabolic
Late Extract Additions and Impact on Hopping
Digital and Plus Members OnlyMany authors (including me) recommend that you do a full wort boil (5 gallons/19 L if that is to be the final volume of wort at pitching) when brewing with malt extract, having added all the extract at the beginning. That’s a good rule of thumb, for it ensures a proper hot break, and means
Drewrys Brewery: Celebrating History with Cream Ale
Digital and Plus Members OnlyIn 1933, when the United States was deep in the throes of the Great Depression, patience with the thirteen-year-old “noble experiment” of Prohibition had waned. It had turned millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens into scofflaws and provided a huge source of income for organized criminals who were only too happy to cater to the public’s
Running Wild Fermentations at Home
Digital and Plus Members Only“I remember several years ago Jean Van Roy at Cantillon telling me, ‘You can spontaneously ferment in the United States, but, keep in mind that it probably won’t be the same way we do it here. You might have to come up with your own program.’ In the case of Allagash they’ve pretty much been able to
Troubleshooting Homebrew & Avoiding Common Mistakes
Digital and Plus Members OnlyIn the early years as a rookie homebrewer, there were many times where I poured myself a beer from a newly readied batch and said, “You know, this didn’t turn out quite how I expected.” Most of these variations were fairly minor and the beer was still quite good, just different than anticipated. Admittedly there
Collaborative Craft Beer Clone Recipes
Digital and Plus Members OnlyIn the brewing world, everything typically starts off with a beer. So, you and your homebrew buddies sit around sampling the latest from your cellar, and the words start flying: “This is great.” “What type of hops is in here?” “Which yeast strain did you use?” “Can I have another?” “We should brew together.” There
Yeast Problems, Fermentation Temperature & Oxidation: Mr. Wizard
Digital and Plus Members OnlyQ I’m an extract brewer (that also steeps) and I recently noticed a bunch of white spots on top of my brew (which was a wheat recipe) after I transferred it to the secondary. I thought it was mold forming but read that it’s probably “yeast rafts” or flocculated yeast clumps. The beer turned out