The following recipe was of my own design for our Brewminaries cereal beer showcase, pouring mid-August. I chose Honey Smacks and decided to make a brown ale to showcase the cereal and for nostalgia reasons, since when I was in Syracuse we used to drink J.W. Dundee (Genesee) Honey Brown fairly often, it being a […]
beer
Breaking the rules: Grodziskie, a Polish smoked wheat beer
Of all the beers I’ve tried over my life, for better or worse, none is more indelibly stamped into my brain than the Kosciuszko Polish Smoked Wheat from Yards Brewing in Philadelphia. Nearly ten years later I still remember its intense smokiness. Brewed alongside their popular Ales of the Revolution series honoring Washington, Jefferson, and […]
DIY: Hand-Pump Beer Line Cleaner
We’ve all been served from a dirty draft line at some point, leaving us with a flat, soapy flavored beer lacking any of the usual hops “bite” or maltiness that we remember. Since I pieced together my minimalist kegging setup, I have left StarSan no-rinse sanitizer in the lines to avoid this, hoping that the […]
Carlsberg Brewery, a simple surprise
Carlsberg, a beer known for its unobtrusive presence at many English pubs. Its name is vaguely German-sounding, yet this flagship brew is definitely not a typical malty Bavarian lager. Instead it’s clean and refreshing, yet nothing fancy. Which is fitting, because the Danes are not quite German and have a rather clean, refreshing, and well-designed […]
Brewing 101: Making a Very Clean Soup (The Brewing Process)
If you enjoy cooking and you also enjoy drinking beer, you will likely enjoy beermaking. The basic brewing process is as simple as following a recipe for soup, albeit a very clean soup — essentially boiling water, steeping grain, and adding hops, keeping things sterile, then waiting. This piece will teach you how to begin. […]
Brewing 101: Building the Brewhouse (Equipment)
The beer brewing toolkit consists of a handful of inexpensive items, a few of which you likely already have in your kitchen. The list below is a comprehensive accounting of all the tools you’ll need to start out. Like any hobby, the more obsessed you get, the more money you can end up spending, though […]
Brewing 101: Suppliers
Cover image by Pierre-alain dorange (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons Finding out where to buy your homebrewing supplies the first time around can be a chore. Luckily, there are hundreds of homebrew shops, both online and brick-and-mortar. I tend to buy my equipment online and my ingredients locally to support the local […]
Brewing 101: Grocery Shopping (Ingredients)
This is second in a introductory series about homebrewing and I’m starting with the basics, ingredients, equipment, and process before delving into more complex topics. If you’ve ever talked to a German about beer, you’ll have been told that beer has four, and only four, ingredients: water, hops, yeast, and malted barley (sometimes wheat). Not […]
Brewing 101: Today is Brewing Day (Introduction)
Somewhere I heard a mention of the hobby, and it sounded like a mix between playing with a chemistry set and cooking soup. I had to try it. Way back in grad school I decided on a whim to try my hand at homebrewing. It turns out, home-brewed beer can be tastier and even cheaper […]
Hydration and Fermentation: The Beers of Barbados
In Barbados it may be expensive to get a bite to eat, but the same can’t be said about a cold beer, which is never more than $1-2.75 US. The taste is reminiscent of Mexico or other Caribbean countries: brands that I have never seen or heard of, yet flavors that I definitely have. On […]