Homebrewstuff.com

Yeast - Let's Get Started!

"Healthy yeast allows you to fully ferment the beer, avoid off flavors, and lower the chance for infections. You’ve spent several hours crafting what may be the best beer you’ve ever made, why chance ruining that?"

Stringing up the Hops!

"I’m going to briefly cover a few points about hop plant growth: from planting and stringing hops up on a trellis, to reading plant health and harvesting."

The holidays are over, the sun is staying out a little longer each day, and it’s still bitterly cold out…..must be January! I haven’t put out a post in a while but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been brewing. Currently the Eisbock is cold conditioning and I’ll be freeze distilling it in just a few weeks. First, my buddy and I are going to practice freeze distilling on his Apple Wine. I’ll have the full write up in about a month.

The fermentation is done and now it is time to bottle the fruits of your labor.  This is no time to cut corners, unless you plan to skipping bottling and going straight to a keg.   But just like the brew day you will need to be clean and sanitary with everything that will come in contact with your beer.  It is not a good feeling to do everything right on your brew day.  Wait few weeks for fermentation and then skip a few key processes in bottling and end up with a flat or off flavor beer.  So be patient make your check list and check it twice as you prepare to bottle your beer.  The equipment you will need is as follows. (Measuring cup, Small pot, Bottling bucket, Racking cane or Auto Siphon, Bottle filler, Capper, 50+ 12oz bottles, 50+ Bottle caps, Corn sugar.)

At my local brew store yesterday, I was asked about upgrading to all grain brewing. The home brewer in question is relatively new to home brewing and thought all grain was the key to cheaper and better beer. While all grain is less expensive in the long run it does not necessarily make better beer. Malt extract has come a long way since the early 80s. The two things all grain brewing does are open up the choice of ingredients and give you more control. While I couldn’t make brewing any cheaper for him, I outlined how to achieve better beer without the expense of moving to all grain.

This is a wonderful way to prepare a turkey for Thanksgiving, It yields the most flavorful & moist turkey I have ever had.  In addition you have the "Cool Factor" of cooking your turkey with Beer!

Brewing is a simple process that anyone can learn. My intent of this blog is not to be an in depth lesson on how to brew, but rather a 10 step quick reference guide to help you prepare for your brew day. If you are not familiar with the brew processes and why you do each step a certain way I suggest you do some research and seek advice from experienced brewers before starting your first batch.

Where did the summer go? It sure got cold out pretty quickly (and this is great for home brewers). If you have read much of my previous posts you know I stress the importance of fermentation temp control.  In the heat of the summer months it is often difficult to keep the wort cool enough, but in the winter it’s much easier to keep it warm. The other reason I love the cooler months? Garage lagers.

Every few months it is important to review the previous posts. I brew everything I post here but normally I get the blog post out prior to being able to sample my work. Sometimes I want to update you on my experiences, sometimes I notice an error after the post has been published.

It’s time for an experiment and you get to decide what I’m going to do! Vote for your favorite choice and I’ll make it happen.