homebrewing

Cornelius (corny) kegs $45 each or $40 each if you buy 4+ UPDATE (SOLD) 5 gallon (SOLD) 2.5 gallon All are ball lock All kegs have been cleaned (PBW soak, scrub, rinse), post and dip tube o-rings replaced with brand new o-rings, lid o-rings cleaned. Pressure tested and no leaks. Let me know...

Okay, so, I am making a hard root beer. I am going to use a regular root beer recipe and pitch my yeast like I would normally do with any other beer. Then I will allow it to ferment, and I will back sweeten with the appropriate amount of sugar for priming and xylitol for sweetness. My question...

Let’s face it, most of us have jobs and other obligations that can sometimes make it hard to find the time to brew. So, brewing usually happens on the weekends. But what happens when life gets in the way, weekends fill up, but you still want to brew beer? Here’s a method to simplify the brewing...

Being a fan of hoppy beers, I’ve tasted a lot of different expressions of IPA, IIPA, Session IPA, and in it sboom, the specialty IPA’s like White IPA, Red IPA, Rye IPA and, one of my favorites of that list, Black IPA or Cascadian Dark Ale. This style, according to the BJCP Guidelines, was...

In my last article about gelatin, I explained how it works (physically and chemically) and proved that a short boil does no harm to it, busting a common brewing myth. After multiple positive responses, I decided to do an experiment to bring more light into another commonly discussed, gelatin...

One of the beers that made me enter the hobby of brewing was a nice and fluffy Paulaner hefe-eeissbier. It was the first hefeweizen I tasted and I fell in love instantly with the style: phenolic, estery, wheaty, refreshing, bubbly… simply delicious. Since then I tried to brew some examples of...

We’re in the depths of winter and folks might erroneously assume that fresh wine making produce was incontrovertibly thin on the ground. You’re invited to think again. So, with the wine cellar in likely need of substantive input, where does that leave us with several idle months ahead before the...

With half of my family originating from Bavaria, I’ve been exposed to wheat beers from a young age, and would often proudly pour them for members of my family. I remember the unusual glasses, the lively bubbles, and the golden color of the cloudy liquid underneath a thick creamy head. It was a...

I’ve spent a lot of time researching recipes for homebrewing, and everybody claims to have the best recipe that you need to try for yourself. I find this optimism refreshing since online reviews and comments are usually negative, but I also think homebrewers tend to be too optimistic about their...

Beer is one of those beverages that has an important trademark: it is bubbly, effervescent and bright. CO2 is imparted by beer conditioning (by adding priming sugar) or by forcing CO2 into a keg, this element has a huge impact in our favorite brew, and can give very specific characteristics just...

Five liter kegs have been used for a long time. You can get them empty for you to fill with your homebrewed beer, cider, or soda. Or, you can buy them filled with beer and reuse the container after you drink the beer. They hold 1.3 gallons of beer, or 169 ounces. That’s equal to 10 pints or 14...

The original London Porter was a smoked beer which utilized exclusively British Brown malt, smoked over Hornbeam. There was until fairly recently a general consensus that it was in its original form a mixture of a ‘mild’ beer (actually a ‘fresh’ or ‘green’ beer) and a ‘stale’ (or mature beer...

If you've frequented any online homebrewing forums in the past few years, you've undoubtedly noticed the increasing popularity of Brew In A Bag, or BIAB. This method of one vessel, no sparge brewing leads to a much simpler brew day with less time spent on the mash and sparge as well as fewer...

When I first started reading about brewing in earnest, I noticed that the words written about malting were rarely favorable, more often veering toward discouragement. Tedious, labor-intensive, and lengthy were the consensus; it requires too much space and immaculate hygiene, said home-brewing...

Starting your own lab at home can be rewarding and fun. Not only does it provide a more in-depth understanding of how yeast and other microorganisms function, but it can be fun at the same time. Now if being extremely sanitary and always on the alert for risk of contamination isn’t your thing...

Whether "New England Style" (NE style) pale ales and IPAs are in fact new styles are a matter of some debate. While there are breweries outside of New England and even the northeast creating them, the style is most prevalent in New England. What isn't debatable is the impact these beers are...

Pleased with the HLT/heat exchanger project shown in a previous article, my friend Rick asked me to help him with his MLT build. We used the same techniques and many of the same components for this phase of his three vessel brewing system. This was the simplest kettle of the project, requiring...

Bottling day brings you even closer to your brewing goal of having your very own handcrafted beer to enjoy and share. Bottling can either be a pain or painless. Learning through the pain process I have a few ideas to share so your brewing day experience will be something to enjoy. What you will...

It has been a year since I started brewing my own beer. In that time, I went from extract to all-grain, learned how to keg my beer, built a keezer, bought and used a fermentation chamber, installed an RO filter for water, and learned how to manage water additions, along with a host of other...

Unless you were fortunate enough to have an experienced brewer bring you into the world of home brewing, odds are your first batch was on a very basic setup. For me it was a partial extract batch brewed in a borrowed stockpot, on the gas stove-top of my old college house. A simple yet effective...