When I decided to start home brewing, the prevailing thought for me was “I’ll make my own beer so I don’t have to spend $20 on 4-packs anymore.” Well, as any experienced...
With the knowledge and tools we have available to us today, home brewing has gone from a purely commercial idea in the United States to something we can do on our stove top or porch. With the right knowledge and tools anyone can learn to create delicious beer at home while spending as little (or as much) as you want on equipment.
Brewing beer at home is not hard, but to make a truly great beer takes a little extra information and know-how, but this learning experience is what makes homebrewing a fun hobby.
A few months ago, I decided that force carbonating my kegs from inside my kegerator was beginning to be too much work. The single set of CO2 lines weren’t quite long enough to stretch outside the fridge for proper...
As a home brewer, how you’ve chilled your wort has probably gone through a few iterations over the years. If you were anything like me, you started with an ice bath, then quickly upgraded to an immersion or plate...
A hop spider has become one of my most indispensable home brewing products. I use it for every home brew, and it has more than paid for itself in ease of cleanup time and wort savings. What is a Hop Spider? A hop spider...
Brewers and drinkers alike know all about the most popular hops in use today. These hops are used everywhere and so well known due to a couple primary reasons: First, as IPAs have grown to be almost half of every...
I – like many homebrewers – started out as an extract brewer. It was far and away the cheapest way to get into the hobby and see if it was something I wanted to spend more time and money on. After my second...
Experimental hops are hops that are still working their way through the viability phase of their breeding program. We as brewers are taking advantage of the end result of what is typically a multi-year process. Before...
When brewing a hop-heavy beer like an IPA, brewers know that at lest half of their budget will be taken up by the hops. Varieties like Galaxy, Citra, Sabro and Nelson Sauvin all break the bank when it’s time to...
Hop shoots are the new asparagus. They look similar, and have a similar taste, but they come from very different plants. Hop shoots are the green tips of the hop plant, which are harvested from the parts of the plant...
When you mash your grain bill, you create sweet wort. You’ve probably tried this wort before adding beer yeast and noticed that it is extremely sweet, almost like a watered down syrup. These sugars are what the...
When you first started brewing beer, your only option for storage after it was done was likely to be bottling. Bottling is messy, takes a ton of time and those bottles… oh so many bottles. Now, I agree that any...
The first time I had Stone’s Xoceveza, I was blown away. I was in San Diego last year on a business trip and decided to try something different. The smooth, complex flavors were perfectly melded into a stout that...
We’ve all been there. You spent hours brewing your next favorite batch, and mistakenly pumped it full of too much carbon dioxide (CO2). Overcarbonated beer makes it taste too sharp on the tongue, is wasteful due...
So you’ve decided to make your first sour beer. There are a few ways to properly sour your beer, but it all depends on your timeframe, the amount of sourness needed and the subtle flavors you are trying to capture...
Its fall in the Northeast. Leaves are starting to change, pumpkins are for sale at road-side stands and fresh-pressed cider is available at just about every store in the area. Up until now I’ve only ever home...
Hops are the flowers that are grown on the female plant’s bines. They resemble little green pine cones and can be dried or used fresh in brewing beer. In order to grow hops yourself, you will need to purchase or...
CTZ is an acronym for Columbus, Tomahawk, and Zeus, three trade names owned by various private corporations for what is essentially the same variety of hop. CTZ ranks among the most widely grown hops in the United...
The Citra hop is by far the most popular hop used in IPAs, and is one of the most grown hops in the United States. It is the foundation of new-age beers right alongside hops like Galaxy, Simcoe and Mosaic. However...
Alpha acids (α acids) are chemical compounds of the Humulus lupulus (or hop) plant. These acids are found in the resin glands of the flowers of the hop plant and are the source of hop bitterness. Alpha acids mostly...
The primary bittering components of hops are the three alpha acids: Humulone, Ad-Humulone and Cohumulone. Combined, these three are collectively known as the alpha acid percentage (AA%) of the hop. Cohumulone levels are...
2020 has been quite the year. Sure, it started off benign enough. In late January, we had the first cases of COVID-19 reported in the US in Washington state. By March most of the country was shutdown and in economic...
When creating a recipe in a tool like Brewer’s Friend, if you type in “2-row” into the “fermentables” section, you are presented with what seems like an endless list of different products...
I have an obsession with trying as many craft beers from different breweries as possible. My vacations are filled with constant checking of Untappd maps to find local breweries no matter where I’m at. I am also a...
There are infinite ways to use hops in home brewing. No matter how you are using them right now, there is always one question that keeps popping up: Should you contain the hops using a bag or hopper, or just let them...
Update: The first version of our data-driven hop substitute tool is here! The old hop substitution charts we’ve been using for years as home brewers are all wrong. I have a strong suspicion that most hop...
Whether you are looking for a hop that suits a particular style, or just have a flavor you want to feature in a beer, picking the best hop for the job is paramount. All hops have their unique combination of flavors and...
Every craft brewery is looking for the next way to distinguish their beers from the masses. One of the easiest ways to do this would be to utilize new hops that are now just starting to hit the commercial market...
Beer hops come in all different shapes, sizes, flavors and aromas. Some hops are used to only add flavors and aromas to the final beer, while others add bitterness and stability. Lately, a lot of hops are now being...
Off flavors can come from anywhere in the brewing process. DMS stems from an incomplete boil. Diacetyl or “Green Apple” off-flavors come from various infections that usually occur during fermentation...
When I started home brewing, I didn’t bother dealing with my water. If it was drinkable, I was told, then it is good to brew with. Many home brewers probably started out the same way. However, water chemistry...
Hefeweizen is a type of weiss beer, translated from German means “white beer.” Made up of at least 50% wheat, Hefeweizens are characterized by a strong presence of banana and clove aromas and flavors. In fact, the...
Mashing is a brewing term for the hot water steeping process which hydrates the grains being used, activates the malt enzymes, and converts the grain starches into fermentable sugars. Different temperatures...
A lot of people love homebrewing their own beer. Even more love drinking it. The craft beer boom over the last decade has brought a huge influx of people into the industry. Just look at the number of microbreweries that...
Mashing is a fairly straightforward process. You let your grains soak in hot water for about an hour to extract as much sugar from them as possible. There are ways to complicate the mashing process by adding decoction...
Nothing is worse than emptying an entire CO2 tank with a leaky keg. I luckily noticed my keg’s leak when I attached a spunding valve which quickly got up to pressure during fermentation in my cornelius keg, but...
Pitching two or more beer yeasts into the same batch is a great way to develop unique tastes in your home brews. By combining yeast, you can create a yeast profile that is not only your secret, but produces a unique...
For centuries, there was no uniform method was ever put in place for describing the flavors and aromas of specific hops cultivars in beer. As the commercialization of hops grew in the late 20th century, so did the wild...
Extract brewing is the perfect way to get your feet wet with home brewing. This wonderful hobby will not only provide you with delicious beer that you can drink, but also deepen you understanding of the craft beer...
Despite searching for well over an hour, I cannot find any statistics showcasing the popularity of different strains yeast used in the US. If such a list existed, and we limited it to Ale strains, we’d expect to...
The idea of growing and using your own hops is enticing. You want to save money, get into “wet hopping” and simply enjoy using products that you’ve grown yourself in your brews. Hop plants (humulus...
Denny’s Favorite yeast is said to be a common “house” strain across the US, however with the limited amount of information we were able to find on it, we doubt it is as widespread as its made out to be...
Kveik (“yeast” in Norwegian) strains have all originated from farmsteads of Norway. They produce unique flavors and ferment cleanly at unbelievably high temperatures. It’s this lack of necessary temperature...
58% of the top hundred recipes on BrewersFriend.com suggest a 60-minute boil time. 31% of them ask you to spend 90 minutes of your life boiling wort. How important are these times? What happens if you shorten them? We...
The Chico strain of yeast is the driving force behind the craft beer boom we all find ourselves in today. Chico is likely the most used yeast strain in craft beer in the whole country. “Chico” History and...
Fermenting your homebrew under pressure has tons of benefits. From a reduced need for temperature control to natural carbonation to reduced oxidation… pressurized fermentation should be a tool in every...
Anti-foaming agents are used to control wort boil overs or krausen blowouts during fermentation. There are a couple different brands that make beer specific anti-foaming agents and a few over-the-counter ones that work...
Hops from the Southern Hemisphere have such unique flavors and aromas, they have quickly become some of the most sought-after hops in the world. The rise in popularity of these hops have been in large part due to the...
It’s about that time of year. If you are a homebrewer that has an affinity for fall, then you also probably love when Oktoberfest beers become available. Oktoberfest – or Märzen – used to be my...
Some beer styles require a haze such as Hefeweizens, Wits or Hazy IPAs. However, people brewing these styles are not who this article is for. There are some style purists that need to have their Lagers crispy, their...
There are a few different major strains of ale yeast that hail from England. One yeast in particular – and the focus of this article – is the “Boddington” strain. This strain of saccharomyces...
“Conan” is arguably the strain of yeast that launched the New England IPA style into orbit over the last decade. Most yeast strains are all part of the same species (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), but they each...
When you start fermenting inside a corny keg, the one alteration you need to make to your keg is with the dip tube. In a normal keg, the dip tube extends to the very bottom in order to extract every last drop of the...
If you ferment inside a corny keg, you will need a spunding valve to release the pressure as the yeast go about their job eating up sugar and producing CO2. A spunding valve is made up of a pressure gauge and a pressure...
First you started homebrewing, but bottling got tedious. So you then switched to kegging. You either bought a kegerator or built your own keezer and happily served your own beer out a draft system. Hopefully you...
When a batch of beer comes out too sour when it shouldn’t be, it’s an extremely disappointing outcome. A batch that you had just spent $50 on ingredients, 3-5 hours brewing and two weeks waiting for it to...
I wanted to do the math to see if getting my own quality grain mill would be worthwhile, and how long it would take for me to earn my money back on one. Right now, I order all my grain pre-crushed by either Northern...
You can still see some references of these names around. Untapped and BeerAdvocate profiles, old articles or databases online and even the breweries themselves often misuse the old names of some of the most common hops...
If you’ve read this site for long enough, it should have become obvious that I love IPAs. Well, I am also obsessed with the hops that go into them. As I started to brew my own beers and stretch into creating my...
This summer new focus on a trend has emerged called ‘Hop Water’. This new drink is at its core water and hops, and is billed as “an IPA-inspired refreshment that’s zero-alcohol, zero...
Brew-in-a-Bag brewing is very similar to what is commonly labeled “All Grain” brewing, but instead uses a nylon bag in place of the mash and lauter tuns. However, any recipe that calls for “All...
Social media has helped the common folk interact with celebrities, politicians and athletes unlike never before. Well, at Beer Maverick, our celebrities include the brew masters from some of our favorite breweries...
One of the largest complaints from those homebrewers that try to clone their favorite beer is that the color just doesn’t seem right. Here we dig into why this happens and what you can do to ensure you have the...
When I started brewing IPAs, I came across CRYO Hops on NorthernBrewer.com and thought to myself “Why would anyone pay double for these types of hops?”. Well, after surrounding myself with everything craft...
There are two lines of thinking about session beers: It is nice to be able to enjoy a couple beers without getting wrecked.If you are going through all the trouble to brew it, make it worthwhile. To date, I ‘ve...
if you are anything like me, you decided to get into homebrewing because you love craft beer and wanted to see how easy or hard it was to do it yourself. We don’t necessarily have this hobby to save money, but we...
Every item added to your beer will change its color slightly. Since grains are by the largest percentage, it is expected that they have the most impact on your final beer’s color. Most grains in their unmalted and...
The first sign of oxidation in New England IPA is color darkening. After that, you start noticing that the hop aroma and flavors seem a bit more muted than they were originally. Finally, you start to get to the worst...
There is a lot of information available online about homebrewing. It’s been a hobby for hundreds of years so there has been a lot written and talked about it online. It can be information overload for any new...
Kveik has taken the homebrewer community by storm over the last few years. It was first introduced to the masses back in 2015-2016 by Lars Garshol and MilkTheFunk. Lars primarily (re)discovered this Norwegian family...
Hops are used to provide stability, bitterness, flavor and aroma in beer. They come in a variety of options that range from fresh off the bine to a syrupy extract. I’ve always had questions surrounding which was...
When I started out homebrewing, I bought a kit that included everything I needed to make my first brew. There is nothing wrong with doing that, and in fact I would still recomend that be one’s first purchase when...
All beer homebrew recipes have a large percentage or all of their mash consisting of what is called their “base” malt. Most recipes also have a smaller mash percentages of grains and other additives called...
Whether you’ve decided to keg your homebrew or ferment inside a keg, the first thing youll need to do is find a couple used kegs. By far the cheapest and easiest to find are the old soda kegs, or otherwise...
When yeast ferments beer, it produces over 500 different compounds. Many of these compounds give beer its characteristic flavor and aroma. However, one of these compounds that is usually considered undesirable is...
Dry hopping refers to any hop addition after the wort has been cooled. These additions are usually done in the primary or secondary fermenters, or directly in a keg. These hop additions are done cold-side to prevent the...
New England IPAs – or Hazy IPAs – all have that distinct thicker mouthfeel that any fan of the style has come to love and expect. If you are a homebrewer making your own NEIPA, you’ve undoubtedly brewed a...
Yeast is essential to your beer, but it is also one of the most expensive ingredients if you aren’t careful. Traditional liquid beer yeast will run you about $8-12 a pack, with some higher gravity beers requiring twice...
For those that keg their homebrew, there will always come a time when you would like to either share or save off some of your wonderful elixir in a couple bottles. This is made easy and possible with a tool called a...
Hops provide bitterness, flavor and aroma to beer. If you’ve viewed enough beer recipes you’ve without a doubt seen terms like Whirlpool, FWH, Flame Out, and Dry Hop thrown around. These hops go into your homebrew beer...
Brew-in-a-Bag (BIAB) bags are meant to be reused. One way to get the most mileage out of your bag is to clean it properly. BIAB Nylon bags are very thin and feel like they are one small scratch from ripping apart. When...
Building your own immersion wort chiller is a fun project that will take you a few hours, but will be worth it next time you try to get your hot wort down from 212 F to 70 quickly. This wort chiller will usually get my...
I started my homebrewing using extract kits however I never really had any luck in getting beer that I would be happy to drink. I decided to give all grain brewing a try as it was mentioned that taking that as the next...
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Chris