Chris
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...
Are All Barley Pale 2-Row Malts the Same?
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...
Top Recipes to Homebrew the Most Iconic Hazy IPAs Ever
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...
Should You Use a Hop Spider or Muslin Bag?
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...
Your Hop Substitutions are Wrong!
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...
Picking the Most Intense Hops on the Market Today
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...
Ten Hops to Watch Out for in 2021
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...
All Types of Hops: Aroma, Noble, Bittering & Dual Purpose
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...
Hop Induced Off-Flavors
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...
How to do Water Calculations Without Paying for a Test
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...
The Complete History of the Hefeweizen Yeast
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...
How Various Mash Temperatures Impact Your Homebrew
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...
Beer Blogging is a Labor of Love
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...
Understanding Protein Rests in Mashing
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...
How to Fix Leaky Corny Kegs
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...
What to Expect When Mixing Beer Yeasts
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...
The Science Behind Identifying Hop Aromas
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...
The Top 15 Hop Producing Countries [Updated September, 2020]
The majority of the world's hop production is concentrated between both the northern and southern 35th and 55th parallels.
Tips & Tricks to Extract Brewing
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...
The Complete Guide to the “Pacman” Strain of Yeast
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 Ultimate Guide to Growing Fresh Hops
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...
The Complete Guide to “Denny’s Favorite” Yeast Strain
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...
The Complete Guide to the Hornindal Kveik Yeast Strain
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...
Why Are Boil Times Typically 60 Minutes Long?
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...
Analyzing the USA Hop Production Statistics of 2019
In January 2020, Hop Growers of America released their 2019 Statistical Report on the state of hop growing and production in the United States. The 2020 report should be due out in January 2021. The report as full of...
The Complete Guide to the “Chico” Strain of Yeast
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...
Guide to Fermenting Homebrew in a Corny Keg
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: FermCap, 5-Star Defoamer & Others
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...
Southern Hemisphere Hops: Superlatives Edition
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...
Key Ingredients For Any Oktoberfest Beer
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...
Every Single Way to Clarify Your Homebrew Explained
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...
The Complete Guide to the “Boddington” Strain of Yeast
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...
The Complete Guide to the “Conan” Strain of Yeast
“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...
Keg Fermenting: Floating Dip Tube vs Cut it vs Bend it. Which is Best?
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...
Build Your Own DIY Spunding Valve for Corny Keg Fermentation
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...
The Complete Guide to Replacing and Cleaning Keg Lines
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...
Why Does My Beer Taste Sour?
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...
Should You Buy a Grain Mill?
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...
Why the Equinox, Denali and Stella Hops Changed Their Names
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...
The Most Common Hops Used in IPAs (2020 Edition)
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...
What is Hop Water?
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...
Brewing-in-a-Bag (BIAB): Tips, Tricks and Advantages
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...
Homebrewing Tips Given by The Top Brewmasters in the Country
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...
Why is My Homebrewed Beer Too Dark?
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...
The Case to use Cryo Hops (Lupulin Powder) in Every IPA
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...
Homebrewing Hazy Session IPAs Like a Pro
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...
Over 100 Commercial Beer Clone Recipes From the Breweries Themselves
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...
Understanding SRM and Lovibond Beer Colors
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...
How to Reduce Oxidation of New England Hazy IPAs
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...
The 3 Most Common Homebrewing Myths Dispelled
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...
My Experiences with Hornindal Kveik After 4 Batches
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...
What’s the Difference? Fresh, Whole, Pellet, Hash, Lupulin and Extract Hops Compared
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...
Comparing All 5-Gallon Batch Steel Fermenters
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...
What’s the Difference? Golden Promise, 2-Row and Maris Otter Base Grains Compared
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...
Swapping Pin Lock Corny Kegs to Ball Locks
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...
Controlling Diacetyl in Beer
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...
Understanding Everything About Dry Hopping
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...
The Many Ways to Achieve a Fuller Mouthfeel in your NEIPA
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...
The Art of Saving and Stretching Your Expensive Beer Yeast
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...
Tips and Tricks for using a Beer Gun to Fill Bottles from a Keg
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...
All About Hop Additions in Homebrewing
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...
Caring for your BIAB Nylon Bag
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
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...
Brew-in-a-Bag Brewing on a Budget
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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