Recent innovations in homebrew?

[northcal]

I've been making home brew for about 10 years. When I started I didn't know about brew forums, just the local HBS and friends or family that brewed. I brew all grain using sparging/false bottom & propane burners.

Since I joined here, I've noticed lots of recent innovations in homebrew like brewing in a bag, electric brew, new styles of beer, various ways to use pellet hops, lots of new inventions/gadgets to make brewing easier, and so on.

I wonder what you all think are the most beneficial newer ideas to come to homebrewing?

I am really amazed with the electric brew builds I see on here and also with the ready to buy stainless stuff for sale these days vs. 10 years ago. Seems like lots more options for getting into the hobby than back then.

What do you think?

 

[BeastMaster]

More people in the hobby resulting in more options and better prices from vendors. Even in the few years I've been brewing options have increased greatly.

 

[bajaedition]

best stuff new?

or just redily available?

well I guess you could say it was new because it is common now.

better fermentation vessels than glass carboys
stir plates

I think a lot of stuff has evolved with a number of guys brainstorming together on the internet. Like electric brewing, and that manufacturers have started to offer stuff we had to build ourselves because the hobby has grown.

bit Better fermentation vessels, ones you can open up and clean out easily, drain the yeast out of, rack from a side port. and inexpensive stir plates are the best items I think that have come down the pike in the last couple of decades

 

[Teromous]

I think that using plate chillers and pumps is pretty handy and cuts a lot of time out of the brew day.

RIMS and HERMS are pretty cool, I don't know if you ran into those when researching electric brewing or not.

There's a lot more variety in extracts available now, like you can get Marris Otter, rye, and even sorghum!

They've even come up with new malted grains, such as Briess Midnight Wheat.

Blichmann are coming up with great new things you can buy like the Hop Rocket.

 

[unionrdr]

I like all the different grains & extracts available now. Besides all the new hop varieties,& those from around the world now available here. And the gadgets that make brew/bottling day quicker & easier. Over & above greater availability & knowledge.

 

[MichaelBrock]

I don't know how long it has been around but I think the cooler mash tun must certainly have changed the face of home brewing. Going from having to maintain a temperature by heat control to simply using a cooler was a big step. As a batch sparger, I'll throw that out as a relatively recent innovation.

 

[passedpawn]

I started brewing about 12 or 13 years ago. I was horrible. What I did was ridiculous. I made beer though. All I had was Charley P's Joy of Homebrewing and a hard-to-digest Homebrew Digest online.

When I finally found HBT, everything changed.

 

[downtown3641]

I've only been brewing for three years. But, from hearing the old timers talk, I think the most significant development in the last 10 or 15 years is the number of people who've become involved in the hobby and the ability to easily communicate with each other over the internet. From this has come this sense that there is no one right way to brew beer. There is a seemingly endless combination of equipment and techniques available to fit everyone's skill level and budget. This allows everyone the ability to make good beer and likely helps keep people involved in the hobby. Because we have a larger market of home brewers, there's a market for ingredients of greater quality and variety.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Home Brew mobile app