How To Brew A Saison: Farmhouse Beer at Home

saison or farmhouse beer being held up to the sun in a field of wheat

Crafting a great Saison is one of brewing’s most rewarding experiences. The style doesn’t have to be complicated, in fact, simple is often better. With the right philosophy, technique, and background knowledge, you’ll be crafting fantastic Saison in no time. Saison is a Belgian beer style bursting with complex flavor. Dry, spicy, and elegant, Saison … Read more

Small Batch Brewing: Micro-Homebrew

1-gallon glass fermentation jugs for small batch brewing

Homebrewing can be a bit of an investment. Making good beer requires time, money, space, and effort. There are many ways to brew great beer, some easier than others. Small batch brewing is one of the most straightforward and enjoyable homebrewing methods. Small Batch Brewing is brewing 1 to 3 gallons per batch instead of … Read more

Hop Extract: Loads of Lupulin

lots of syringes full of hop extract

Hops give beer its bitterness along with its distinctive floral, herbal, and fruity flavors. As an agricultural product, hops vary crop to crop and have a limited shelf life. Hop extracts provide a solution to these problems for brewers looking for more control over their brews. Hop extracts provide consistent and clean bittering to beer. … Read more

Tilt Hydrometer Review: A Data Nerds Fantasy

three differently colored tilt hydrometers to be reviewed

Keeping a close eye on fermentation is one of the most important things you can do to make consistently high-quality beer. The most useful measurements for brewers are temperature and gravity of your fermenting beer. Opening your fermenter to take readings can be time-consuming and have a detrimental effect on your beer. There are now … Read more

Fun with First Wort Hopping

first wort hopping with hops in the mash tun

First wort hopping was lost for decades, before being rediscovered in 1995. It’s a simple technique to try out and could have major benefits. First wort hopping consists of adding hops to the boil kettle as it heats from mash temperature to boiling. The extra time creates a stronger hop aroma, a smoother bitterness, and … Read more

Beer Ingredients: Essential, Non-Essential, And Weird

beer ingredients text overlayed on hops, malt, water and yeast shaped like a bottle of beer

Beer ingredients aren’t complicated: if you have four ingredients, you can brew a beer. Of course, diving deeper into each ingredient reveals intricacies and details. You could spend years researching each ingredient. The base ingredients for beer are water, grain, hops, and yeast. Brewers often add adjuncts for flavor, or compounds to clear the beer … Read more

Grainfather G30 Connect Review: A System You Can’t Refuse

grainfather g30 connect boiling wort

The popularity of all-in-one homebrewing systems has exploded in recent years. The Grainfather, one of the pioneers, remains at the top of its class in terms of quality and popularity. The Grainfather G30 Connect is the result of years of research and development. It represents the gold standard for single-vessel homebrewing systems. Sleek, well-built, and … Read more

How To Brew Incredible Extract Beer

beer ingredients including hops yeast and liquid malt extract

Brewing beer is where art meets science. Creativity mixed with process and chemistry help transform hops and barley into delicious beer. Many creative beer lovers shy away from homebrewing due to the complicated process and expensive equipment. What if we told you that you could start brewing beer, at home, with the equipment you already … Read more

The Best Grain Mills for Homebrewing

best grain mill for homebrewing malt

Choosing the right grain mill is an important decision for a homebrewer. Mills can be expensive but they’re a crucial investment to ensure consistent and great quality brews.  Where to buy: MoreBeer Monster Mill MM3 Also great Monster Brewing Hardware specializes in handcrafted grain mills that are made in the USA. The Monster Mill MM3 … Read more

Best Propane Burners For Homebrewing

anvil propane homebrew burner best propane burners for homebrewing

Propane has been the fuel of choice for homebrewers for decades. Efficient and inexpensive, propane’s power and flexibility make brewing a breeze. Whether you’re brewing 5, 10, or 20-gallon batches, propane quickly gets your wort to a nice, rolling boil. Out of all the propane burners on the market, we think the best burner for … Read more

How To Brew In A Bag

biab brew in a bag all grain brewing guide

Are you looking to make the switch from extract to all grain homebrewing? Or are you an all-grain brewer looking to simplify your brew day? Brewing in a bag may be what you’re looking for. Brew In A Bag (BIAB) is a simple, quick, and cost-effective method to brew amazing all-grain beer. Using very basic … Read more

Best Automated Brewing Systems

Automated Brewing Systems - Pinterest Image grainfather pico c pro

Brewing your own beer can be a fun and rewarding experience. But it takes knowledge and patience to transform raw ingredients into delicious beer. What if there was a way to automate this process and make brewing beer less labor-intensive? There are a growing number of options on the market for automated brewing systems. We … Read more

What Is The Best Brew Kettle For Homebrewing?

best boil kettle brew kettle boiler homebrew homebrewing

What’s up yeast geeks? Let’s talk brew kettles. The brew kettle is the powerhouse of the cell brewhouse. It is one of the most important pieces of brewing equipment you will buy. Regardless of whether you are an extract, BIAB, or full all-grain brewer, this is where you turn sweet wort into hopped wort and … Read more

What Is The Best Mash Tun For Homebrewing?

mash tun lauter sparge best homebrew

Do you think you have mastered extract beer? Then you might be ready for all-grain brewing. That means it is time to buy a mash tun but which one should you buy? In our opinion, the best mash tun for most homebrewers is the SS Brewtech InfuSsion mash tun. It is a beautiful piece of … Read more

What is a yeast starter?

yeast starter yeast plate cell count

If you are a homebrewer, you have at least heard of yeast starters. You are probably even thinking that you want to make one for your next batch of nutty Peanut Butter Porter or juicy New England IPA. This is a good idea. Actually, it’s a great idea. Yeast starters are an easy way to … Read more

Double Dry Hopped HopWards – American Pale Ale Recipe

two hoppy hazy beers in 8oz glasses

The year that was 2017 was my lightest homebrewing year in nearly a decade, I brewed a handful of 10-gallon HopWards batches to maintain beer on tap but very little worth posting about. To be honest, the beer that spawned this post was planned to be more of the same. It was brewed out of necessity, … Read more

Arsenal On A String – New England IPA Recipe

grapefruit candi syrup

Remember back in late 2015/early 2016 when the internet was all “Ewww gross, why is that IPA so murky” and some of us were all “Stop being so butthurt, its good AF”? Well, are those days are long gone? Of course not! Every brewery in the world is brewing NEIPA, but it is so widely … Read more

Solera Year 3 Tasting: Blueberries And Unblended

Blueberries coming out of a carboy from a solera brewed beer

Its Solera season ’round these parts, it’s time to taste some bottles from last year, brew top-off batches, and package some new variations. Every year before I plan out the next top off batch I like to sit down and taste through a few vintages, as well as pull a sample from the aging vessel … Read more

PhiLambic Solera Year 3: Top Off Wort

philambic solera in better bottle with bootleg biology sticker on it

Last week I shared the tasting notes for my two (plus) year old Solera and how things had been progressing to date. The sample I took was prior to bottling some unblended and racking some onto Blueberries. But before I actually racked and packaged the beer I had to brew the next top-off batch to … Read more

Tired Hands HopHands Clone Recipe Revisited

glass of hopwards, a clone of Tired Hands' HopHands

It has been over a year since I posted my recipe for the Tired Hands HopHands “clone”, and since that time I have re-brewed the beer somewhere between 10-12 times with small tweaks here and there. In light of some recent subtle recipe changes that myself and some others have made to the recipe, and with that … Read more

Brett Trois Riverwards IPA Tasting

brett trois ipa sitting on kegerator

As if 100% Brett fermented beers weren’t already misunderstood enough it turns out WLP644 Brettanomyces Bruxellensis Trois is actually Saccharomyces and not a strain of Brettanomyces. This is not breaking news to a lot of folks, and the point of this post is not to go into the specifics, the DNA sequencing stuff goes over … Read more

Riverwards IPA: brewing on a commercial scale

I recently had the opportunity to design and brew a beer with my friend, and head brewer, John Wible at 2nd Story Brewing Company in Philly. Back in April of 2014, I won 2nd Best Of Show for batch #1 of HopWards in the Philly Homebrew Cup, the prize was the aforementioned brew day. John … Read more

PhiLambic Solera Year Two: Top off wort

mesh sack of aged hops

Bottling the first pull of the Solera prior to brewing the top-off batch gave me the flexibility to make some changes to the wort composition based on the flavors and aromas I was getting from the beer. I did, however, brew this prior to tasting a finished bottle but my overall impressions did not change … Read more

PhiLambic Solera: Pull #1 tasting

bottle and filled glass of lambic beer

I am repeating myself here but it has been a painstakingly long wait to try the first bottle from my newest Solera. I decided to bottle the first pull straight so that I could get an idea of how things were going and determine what I would want to change for the top off batch. … Read more

Solera pull #1, bottling straight

pH Meter

It feels like a lifetime ago since I started this Solera Project in a Sanke keg. I have been really anxious to remove the first portion to bottle but I wanted to stick to my plan of waiting a full year to remove a portion. Now that a year has passed (plus 3 weeks at … Read more

PhiLambic Solera: Brew Day

lambic brew day

With my Solera Plan in place I prepped for the brew day, normally I will crush my grains a day in advance but I didn’t have the time leading up to brew day With everything weighed out, I filled the hopper in my mill and… the drill was dead, no worries I have a spare … Read more

PhiLambic Solera: Planning Stages

solera barrels

Ever since reading the Sour Solera Barrel post by Michael Tonsmeire, I have wanted to start my own project just like it. I kicked around the idea of getting a group together and filling a large 50-60 gallon oak barrel, but the logistics of getting everyone together to brew/empty/refill and not to mention store that … Read more