Last weekend (on the 5th, actually), I brewed my first all-grain batch of homebrew, effectively taking my new mash tun setup on a test drive. Overall, I have to say it was fairly successful and ridiculously easy. I brewed a Porter, basing the recipe on a Black Butte Porter clone … Continue reading
This is the first Session where I didn’t have a post ready on the actual day of the Session (otherwise known as “Beer Blogging Friday”), which is a little disappointing (I was on a streak) but in the end I’m going with the words of Charlie Papazian: “Relax. Don’t worry. … Continue reading
The topic for the July Session has been posted, and is being hosted by the “virtual brewery,” Lug Wrench Brewing Company: Craft Beers Inspired by Homebrewing. How has homebrewing had an affect on the commercial beer we have all come to love? Feel free to take the topic in any direction your … Continue reading
When it comes to brewing with coffee, homebrewers have it good: small-scale brewing makes it easy and affordable to experiment in ways that larger commercial brewers can’t. For instance, you could split a batch into two equal parts for secondary fermentation and add two different types of coffee to compare; … Continue reading
My Hop Press article today documents my first steps towards actual all-grain brewing: Palmer’s How to Brew outlined “batch sparging”—also the “no sparge” method—which made it clear to me that all I really need is the mash tun, no complications needed. Batch sparging is simple: you mash the grains with … Continue reading
Being interested in beer and brewing, naturally I tend to wonder about the fermentability of various things, and for some reason I was curious as to what fermented molasses is called. Now, I of course know that molasses that has been fermented and then distilled is rum—but I wanted to … Continue reading
This is the latest in a series of articles about the economic impact of brewing your own beer at home. One of the things that inspired this series was a sort of challenge I had in mind: Would it be possible to walk into the Brew Shop with only a … Continue reading
This is the latest in a series of articles about the economic impact of brewing your own beer at home. One of the comments from the last “Brewing on the cheap” post mentioned all-grain brewing as “far cheaper” since you’re buying grain in bulk, and in fact an examination of … Continue reading
Returning to the series of articles about the economic impact of homebrewing, we re-examine previous cost estimates based on new information. When I started this series, hops at the local Brew Shop were selling for $5 to $6.50 per two-ounces of whole flowers, and that was what the various estimates … Continue reading
One event in particular is worth special note to be thankful for: when President Jimmy Carter signed the bill in February 1979 that made homebrewing legal in the U.S. This effectively launched a (home)brewing renaissance in the United States that can be traced in large part to Charlie Papazian‘s influence. … Continue reading