Export Lager: A Long-Distance Love Affair
For at least a thousand years, the ability to brew beer in excess of local needs and ship it off to distant drinkers has been a valued source of both prestige and cash. Beer is a serious claim to fame...
View ArticleNight Train to Lublin Export Lager
5 gallons (19 liters) Recipe calculated at 75% efficiency Original Gravity 1060 (14.8 °P) Bitterness: 49 IBU All-grain recipe: 7.5 pounds European two-row pils malt 2 pounds US six-row lager malt 10093...
View ArticleBotanic Brews
I’m not much for soda pop. To my taste, most of it is bland, mass-market stuff lacking in real character or subtlety. But in researching old beers, I’ve seen references to earlier “soft” drinks, not...
View ArticleTwo Botanic Beauties
Mr. Clarke’s Dandelion Stout 5 gallons (19 liters) 2.5 oz (71 g) fresh dandelion leaves,* chopped 2.5 oz (71 g) crushed, peeled fresh ginger root 0.5 oz (14 g) balm (Melissa officinalis) herb, dried 1...
View ArticleBeer Marches On
It’s spitting sleet. The sky is a sheet of lead. The wind, damp and raw, burns the flesh. But amidst the gloom of March, there are signs of the unstoppable change of the seasons. Birdsongs share the...
View ArticleStrasbourgeois
Strasbourg-style Bière de Mars. c. 1850 (after Lacambre) 5 Gallons (19 liters) OG: 1062/15.2°P Alcohol: 5.5%/vol Bitterness: 32 IBUs Color: pale amber (10 SRM) Yeast: a European ale strain. All-Grain...
View ArticleFreestylin’
For most brewers, our notions of beer are strongly shaped by classic beer styles. Beers like pale ales, stouts and bocks are convenient landmarks, beacons of stability in a sea of possibilities. We...
View ArticleJust Because I Can Springtime Doppel Alt
5 Gallons (19 liters) OG: 1067/16.3°P Alcohol: 6.0%/vol Bitterness: 50 IBUs Color: deep gold (8 SRM) Yeast: a kölsch or other German ale strain. All-Grain Recipe (calculated at 75% efficiency) 10 lbs...
View ArticleA Certified Success
I have to confess to not being much of a Boy Scout. Actually, I went directly from being a dutiful Cub to the shabbiest excuse for an Explorer that you ever saw, blithely skipping the whole merit badge...
View ArticleBeyond Brahma
Our image of Brazil is exotic, tropical, and utterly wild, but there is a good deal more to this huge and varied country. There is jungle, but there is lots of rich agricultural land. It snows in the...
View ArticleRoll Out the Barrel
Everything old is new again; that’s one of the great things about the craft beer revival. Creative brewers feel quite free to take the elements of the past and build any kind of modern beer they can...
View ArticleOld School Fool American Pale Ale
5 gallons (19 liters) Original gravity: 1055/13.6 degrees Plato Alcohol: 5 to 5.5 percent by volume Bitterness: 55 International Bittering Units Color: Medium amber Yeast: Ballantine’s/Chico strain...
View Article25 Delicious Years of Homebrew
In 1980, a homebrew shop, if you could find one, was an unkempt corner of a wine-making shop or Italian hardware store, a few dusty cans of English malt extract crowned by wrinkly packets of dying...
View ArticleThis Beer is Your Beer: In Search of a New American Beer
We in this country are boastful to the point of annoyance about our technological prowess, but we have long nurtured an inferiority complex about the artistic merit of our aesthetic creations. Since...
View ArticleShiverey Winter Saison
5 Gallons (19 liters) OG: 1065 (15.5 degrees P) Alcohol by volume: 5-5.5% Bitterness: 43 IBU Color: deep amber Yeast: Saison Wyeast 3724 or White Labs WLP 565 All-grain recipe calculated at 75%...
View ArticleBurton Ale: IPA’s Shadowy Cousin
Burton-on-Trent is famous as the home of England’s most famous beer style, India pale ale. Since before 1800, IPA has spread it’s influence all over the brewing world. It’s a rare brewery in today’s...
View ArticleNo Hurt in Flirtin’: Burton Ale
5 Gallons (19 liters) OG: 1085/15.5°P Alcohol: 8–9%/vol Bitterness: 65 IBUs Color: medium amber Yeast: Saison Wyeast 1057 (derived from the US brewery Ballantine’s, which once brewed a Burton ale) or...
View ArticleSingle-Minded about Hops
One thing you can say for sure about the home- and craft-beer revolution is that it has elevated hops from a bit part to a starring role. Whether the hops are spicy, floral, piney, resinous, citrusy or...
View ArticleHop Boppin’ Daddy Single-Hop Ale
5 gallons (19 liters) OG: 1055/13.6 degrees Plato Alcohol: 4.8–5.3 percent by volume Bitterness: 60 IBUs Color: Medium amber Yeast: Wyeast 1056 or White Labs WLP001. Both are descended from the famous...
View ArticleJump on the Brew Wagon
Not to make a big deal out of it, but when I started to brew we had to crush our malt with big flat rocks, climbing splintery telephone poles in our skivvies to harvest brown, pea-sized hops that...
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