Date: September 2023
Understanding Mash Thickness
Digital and Plus Members OnlyYour liquor-to-grist ratio impacts mash enzyme stability, wort fermentability, first wort gravity and volume, sparge water requirements, decoction and step mashes, and much more. Learn more about this often overlooked aspect of all-grain brewing.
Alternative Mashing Techniques
Digital and Plus Members OnlyExplore three historical mashing methods from different regions — parti-gyle (England), step mashing (Germany), and decoction mashing (Czech Republic) — and learn how they may benefit your own homebrews.
Double-Decocted Czech Dark Lager
Digital and Plus Members OnlyThis beer is in the style of U Fleků, the best-known Czech example of this style, and uses the mash schedule from that brewery. It is a little different from the common schedules that I use. When pulling decoctions, take about 1⁄3 of the thick part of the mash to heat in your decoction kettle. Maintain the main mash at the current rest temperature until the decoction is finished. The recipe uses a slow, traditional lagering schedule.
Step-Mashed Kölsch
Digital and Plus Members OnlyIt is possible to produce a Kölsch in less time, but Kölsch yeast is notoriously difficult to clear because it is a powdery yeast. Giving it sufficient classic lagering time does help it clear, and it also helps reduce some of the sulfur notes produced by the yeast. Kettle finings or post-fermentation clearing agents (even mechanical filtration) is recommended if the beer isn’t fully clear. Kölsch should be a brilliantly clear beer, so please pay attention to this important part of the style.
Parti-Gyled English Pale Ale and Light Mild
Digital and Plus Members OnlyCreate two recipes, but use the same grist for both. For the second batch, change the brewhouse efficiency setting to one half the first recipe (in this case, 65% and 32%). Each recipe has different sugars, hops, and yeast. But read the recipe — these beers are blended before they are fermented! You will likely have to adjust this recipe after brewing to use your system efficiencies based on your sparge techniques.
Hop Water
FREEHop water is the perfect beverage for those times where you can’t drink alcohol but still need your hop fix. Learn the secrets to brewing a great hop water with basic ingredients and equipment homebrewers are sure to have on hand.
Hop Water Recipe
FREEA refreshing hop water that uses brewing yeast to maximizes flavors through the process of biotransformation.
American Beer, as it Was
Digital and Plus Members OnlyRecently rediscovered brewing journals from a large Connecticut brewery dating back more than a century can teach us a lot about how beer was produced. Get an inside look at the journals and some of the popular recipes of the pre-Prohibition time.
Home Pale Lager (1915)
Digital and Plus Members OnlyHome Brewing Co.’s Assistant Brew Master Alphonse Gosch gives no information as to whether this beer was lagered at low temperature. He does say the beer was racked to casks after eleven days, which suggests it was not further processed.
Home Pale Ale (1913)
Digital and Plus Members OnlyHome Pale Ale (1913) (5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)OG =1.049 FG = 1.009 IBU = 24 SRM = 3 ABV = 5.2% There is very little difference between the historic Home Brewing Co.’s Pale Lager and Pale Ale in terms of OG and FG, and the Pale Ale is just slightly more bitter than the Pale Lager.
Home Golden Age Ale (1910)
Digital and Plus Members OnlyHome Golden Age Ale (1910) (5 gallons/19 L, all grain)OG = 1.082 FG = 1.015IBU = 80 SRM = 5 ABV = 8.8% This is by far the Home Brewing Co.’s biggest and hoppiest beer and is one that we have brewed on a 20-barrel scale at Brewport. The hops were added in portions at
Home ULIA Porter (1904)
Digital and Plus Members OnlyThis was a one-off brew that may look to have been a little harsh due to the quite high proportion of black malt and the low level of pale malt, but it proved to be a very nice brown porter when I reproduced it. My research has not turned up the meaning of “ULIA.”