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What are the yeast strains that can handle low 50s? Wyeast Koelsch, Nottingham, and...?

Howdy, I recently acquired a new fridge and put the old one in the garage. I'm using it for brewing. I don't have the ability to customize and fiddle with it. It does exactly what it does. My experiments with it on the first batch indicate I can keep things between 40-50 degrees in there...

Oh, easiest way to deal with processing Piloncillo is to put a tablespoon or two of water with the pilon of sugar into a NutriBullet and let it go for about five minutes. The engine heat and the powerful blade with the liquid to smooth it out will make easy work of that chunk of tasty sugar. It...

I've done a lot of brewing with Piloncillo, as it is cheap and easily available where I live at a very high quality. (Hooray for South Texas!) It is a fairly neutral sugar, though it will impart some color. I've made even very simple beers with piloncillo and never had a "Boom, piloncillo all...

Lacking blood oranges, I used texas ruby red grapefruits. Came out fantastic. Pick your favorite or best available citrus and it will be very good.

Check out www.hopville.com and plug in your recipe, and style of beer, and it should tell you if you're within range of the style. There's a couple great beer brewing tools out there.

I'm sipping a simple, all-grain American-style Brown ale with Northern Brewer for bittering, and a flameout addition of much Smaragd hops, and it's a really fantastic combo. I could really see Smaragd pairing with one of the funkier, earthier bittering hops, like Cluster or Willamette, because...

Howdy, My wife's mother is from Grenada. When my wife sipped an Oatmeal Stout Porter I made, she said, "It tastes like beer." (She's not a beer drinker.) Then, she asked if she could make eggnog with it. It's a Caribbean beverage of choice I've observed and enjoyed from Trinidadian, and...

That's the process, gd. I take it two or three degrees hotter than target to start just because of the long mash. I haven't had haze problems with most batches, particularly lately as I've done this more. The thing about the long mash is timing. I don't have unlimited time to brew, and it's...

My actual efficiency was around 86% and my temp was 156 to start, placed into a per-heated oven at 170 (my lowest). Every batch gets more efficient, too. The first time was something like 60%. I'm on my seventh batch, now, and it keeps getting higher. I'm not actually trying to make high abv...

I am sure this has been mentioned before, but it merits repeating. Brew-in-a-bag done with an overnight mash - in my case, a 3 gallon batch of small batch - gets consistently huge efficiency. Today was a real surprise. I aimed for 1.062 and ended with 1.078. I am hoping to get better at...

I used less than 5% in a Wheat ESB, recently, and it's almost overpowering with molasses flavor. It's very... different. I don't not like it. It is drinkable, and it is beer, but it is very distinct and it is not something I think I would do twice! But, again, a very small percentage of the...

Howdy, I've been making lots of BIAB simple wheat beers lately and settled into a simple 50/50 ratio of two-row to red wheat, generally 3 pounds of each grain for 3 gallons of wort. I've been using flaked oats at different amounts and not noticing much difference between 10 percent and 2...

I just finished a bottle of an all-Cluster American Wheat that really impressed me with the fruity, spicy, and just slightly dank flavor of this which is now my favorite American C-hop. It is a versatile hop! I've yet to encounter the catty complaint I see all over the intertubes. I have...

I've been loving BIAB. One thing I've been doing, now that I'm all-grain, is home-toasting malts, and making my own crystal malts from base malt. With the BIAB method, I'm doing small batch beers of 3 gallons, max. It isn't difficult to make 6 or 10 ounces of brown malt or home-made crystal at...

Just a followup note to add that the beer came out great. I'm pretty hooked on this home-toasting thing, now, and I've even started making my own crystal malts from base malt. It isn't exactly like crystal malt from green malt, but that's also sort of why it's so nifty, because it has a...

I picked up Cluster and Styrian Celeja on sale in a pound. Cluster does not deserve the catty reputation. It is a fantastic hop. Smaragd is also a personal favorite. Im still undecided about celeja. It is pleasant and hoppy but has little complexity in my uses so far.

*cough* cracked coriander is nice, too, for a citrusy flavor, in wheat beers. Add a little chamomile for complexity - but just a little!

The thing is not the cheap beer. It's cheap beer. Whatever. The thing is that the premium beer is made with a cheap beer mindset, and sold like like its DogfishHead or Stone. I wouldn't mind buying a cheap beer knowing I was going to go for cheap beer. I mind buying a mid range or expensive...