Date: September 2013
Mow the Damn Lawn
FREEWhen a summer thirst quencher is what you are looking for . . . look no further. This is the recipe that made Annie Johnson the 2013 Homebrewer of the Year.
Double Pipe Wort Chiller
FREEThe selection and performance of wort chillers (heat exchangers) is a generally well-documented topic in homebrewing. However, most of the information available on wort chillers applies to the use of immersion, coiled
Attenuation & Flocculation for Beginners
Digital and Plus Members OnlySo you’ve finished the boil, cooled the wort, pitched your yeast and put your fermenter in a quiet place to let the yeast do what it does best — turn that wort of yours into miraculous, wonderful beer. Over the next week or two the yeast will consume the sugars in the wort to create
Annie Johnson: Homebrewer of the Year
Digital and Plus Members OnlyThe 2013 Homebrewer of the Year is unique in a lot of ways. For starters, Sacramento, California’s Annie Johnson is the first woman to win the American Homebrewing Association’s coveted award since 1983. She’s also African American — the first to ever win in the history of the competition. And she won with a light
Theory and Practice of Lautering
Digital and Plus Members OnlyLautering is the act of separating sweet wort from spent grains. The act of lautering wort is physically very similar to filtration. The flow of wort through a grain bed can be thought of physically as a type of filtration (liquid flowing through a “filter bed” of grain). The basic principles of filtration were established
Brewing Consistently
Digital and Plus Members Only“Play it again Sam” This quote is often used, but actually was never said in the film Casablanca (look it up if you don’t believe me). I have used it here because I am going to talk about brewing consistently, which is in part brewing a beer that tastes the same as the beer you
Legal Homebrew Recipes from Alabama & Mississippi
Digital and Plus Members OnlyAlabama and Mississippi homebrewers celebrate as the 49th and 50th states to legalize homebrewing Craig Hendry is completing his 45-minute commute to work through interstate traffic in Jackson, Mississippi by the time 8 a.m. rolls around most Monday mornings. But this July 1 — the day a law legalizing homebrewing in the state of Mississippi
Reusing Homebrew Yeast
Digital and Plus Members OnlyAs the popularity of homebrewing has grown over the last 20 to 25 years, so has the availability of quality brewing ingredients, especially yeast. Gone are the days when old school hobbyists had a choice between only packets of dry ale or lager yeast. You want to make a dry Irish stout? There’s a yeast
Homebrew Yeast Pitching Rates
FREE“Brewers make wort, yeast make beer.” It’s a saying I’ve cited so many times over the years, I’d have stopped repeating it long ago if I didn’t like the sound of my
Brewer’s Yeast & Brett Fermentation Flavors
Digital and Plus Members OnlyYeast cultures have flavor. Ever tried one? An unfiltered beer with yeast in it therefore will have yeast flavor. But what about filtered beers? Yes, those beers have yeast-derived flavors too. Yeasts synthesize flavors during fermentation, and many of these flavors stay in the beer, even when the yeast is removed. Yeasts do this in
Mash Mixers & Batch Sparging: Mr. Wizard
Digital and Plus Members OnlyQ I used to get 75-80% mash extract efficiency with my previous equipment but I have been getting at least 90% since I started using my homemade mash mixer. I have read that mash efficiency is supposed to be more a function of grain crush and lautering, but now I think the continuous mixing of
Los Muertos Brewing’s Agave Maria Amber Ale: Replicator
Digital and Plus Members OnlyDear Replicator, My wife and i visited Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in early March. I figured I could survive on Bohemia and Negro Modelo, so You can imagine my surprise that there was an actual brewpub in town. We visited Los Muertos the first day and I went back several times. They had an amber ale