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    The Brewmasters - Colin Kaminski Of Downtown Joes Brewery

    Colin Kaminski started his professional brewing career in 1998 and since that time has written several magazine articles, including "Bring On The Heat" for BYO Magazine. Colin's articles have earned him the prestigious Beer Writer's Guild Feature of the Year Award and he also co-authored the...
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    Craft The Perfect Draft - Hazy Daze Stout

    As the Fall season approaches here in the Northeastern United States it brings with it the shorter days and cooler temperatures that signal the end of summer. In a few weeks the leaves of the deciduous trees in my neighborhood will start to change color. The same green leaves that provided...
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    Craft The Perfect Draft - Tips For Clearing Your Beer

    Whenever I transfer my wort from the kettle to the fermentor or my beer from the fermentor to a keg or bottling bucket I also see it as an opportunity to clean it too. Reducing the amount of trub your finished beer contains before packaging it goes a long way in preventing the formation of chill...
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    Craft The Perfect Draft: Chest Freezer Fermentations

    I have been using my BrewsBySmith Fermentation Kit for about nine months now and it has undoubtedly become an integral part of my brewing process. I've grown so attached to the way I can set it to accurately control the temperature of my fermenting beer that I won't ferment another batch of...
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    Craft The Perfect Draft Beer Gun Anyone?

    Over the years I had read plenty of mixed reviews about the Blichmann Beer Gun before actually pulling the trigger and getting one for myself. It seemed that the two most common complaints brewers posted about had to do with how beer bottled using the Blichmann Beer Gun could be under carbonated...
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    Craft The Perfect Draft - The 420 Special Wheat

    When someone asks which style of beer is my absolute favorite I half-jokingly tell them that I like all styles of beer, which in fact I do. From the moment I take that first cold sip of beer I start to single out everything I like about it. Perfect color, good carbonation, a lingering head...
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    Craft The Perfect Draft - What To Brew?

    You just had a party, some friends came over and you shared your latest batch of homebrew with them. Suddenly someone lets you know the keg's been kicked. You realize how busy your schedule is but you're going to have to brew another batch of beer and soon. It's happened to all of us at some...
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    Craft The Perfect Draft - Brewing Water Part 3

    This is the third installment in the Brewing Water series. The links below will direct you to parts one and two if you wish to read them to. Craft The Perfect Draft - Brewing Water Part 1 Craft The Perfect Draft - Brewing Water Part 2 Today we look at some of the easy to use tools that are...
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    Craft The Perfect Draft - Brewing Water Part 2

    This is the second installment in the Brewing Water series. The link below will direct you to part one if you wish to read it too. Craft The Perfect Draft - Brewing Water Part 1 Today we wade a little bit deeper into what goes on in the mash and how our brewing water can influence efficiency...
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    Craft The Perfect Draft - Brewing Water Part 1

    Every successful brew day begins with a well thought out plan based on a recipe using the perfect combination of grains, hops, yeast and the brewer's preferred brewing process. Of course the goal of every brew day is to brew the best tasting style of beer possible and to brew it as consistently...
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    Craft The Perfect Draft A Brewery Tour

    On a hot summer day in the late 1960s a friend of mine asked me to go for a ride and tour the Budweiser Brewery in nearby Newark NJ. I instantly agreed to go, what better way to spend a hot summer afternoon than cooling off inside one of Americas largest breweries. We had no idea then how beer...
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    Craft The Perfect Draft Mini-Kegs

    About three years ago the brewing bug had bitten pretty hard, according to SWMBO beer was all I ever seemed to talk about. I'll admit that hasn't really changed over the years, but I was surprised to get an EdgeStar Deluxe Mini Kegerator as a gift that year. After all I had just bought a new...
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    Craft The Perfect Draft 220 Volt Wiring

    As the seasons here in the Northeastern United States began to change and the temperatures started to fall I knew it was time to install an electric heater in the brew room. The brew room 'slash garage' is well insulated and the temperature inside managed to stay 10F degrees above freezing even...
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    Craft the Perfect Draft Quick Disconnects

    It happened to me right at the end of a boil for a ten gallon batch of English IPA. I'd been brewing on this electric BIAB system for several months and loved how easy it was to connect and disconnect the silicone tubing whenever I needed to. But when the line connecting the kettle to the inlet...
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    Craft The Perfect Draft Pump Up Your Brewday

    Sooner or later a day comes when many homebrewers decide to add a pump to their brewing system. At first most probably buy a small inexpensive pond pump to help recirculate their chiller water through some ice. Pumping ice cold water through a chiller really cuts down on the amount of time...
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    Craft The Perfect Draft - Irish Red Ale

    Brew day morning for me started out around an hour after sunrise on a cold and dreary Saturday morning. The night before I had collected fifteen gallons of reverse osmosis water in the large igloo cooler I use for preparing my brewing water. I had already picked up freshly crushed grains earlier...
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    Craft The Perfect Draft - Grow Your Own

    When planning to brew an Irish Red Ale a few weeks ago I decided to use White Labs WLP004 - Irish Ale Yeast to ferment it, that is until I found out my LHBS had none in stock. After investing so much time in formulating this recipe I already had my heart set on pitching nothing else, I wanted...
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    Craft The Perfect Draft - Testing The Waters

    When I bought a digital pH tester last year I knew at the time that in order to continue getting the most accurate pH measurements possible, a small amount of regular maintenance would be needed. The way I look at it having to recalibrate a pH tester once a month is a pretty small inconvenience...
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    Craft The Perfect Draft - Brew The Irish Red

    Finally, I have a few days off in a row and they couldn't have come along at a better time. The end of the year always seems to be full of things to do and not a lot of time to left to do them all. This year I'm thankful that my brew room and pilot system improvements have given me the control...
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    Craft The Perfect Draft - Control Your Temperature

    When I look back and think about all the hours I've spent reading about beer brewing over the years I can't believe there's still something out there that I haven't tried incorporating into my brewing process yet. One year my push was into brewing all grain, one year was all about yeast...
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