Brewing Techniques and Advice


Make Your Best Weissbier

Brewing your best Weissbier includes a series of don’ts: don’t forget the rice hulls, don’t grow up a yeast starter, don’t oxygenate the wort, don’t cold crash. Here’s what to do for a crowd-pleaser of a beer for these dog days of summer.

Sour Mash Secrets

Why bother with sour mashing? Aside from mastering a new technique, the biggest advantage is that you can blend with sour mash.

The Hunt for Wild Hops

For most brewers, hops are typically purchased through massive multiyear contracts from far away farms in the Pacific Northwest. But for one rugged brewer in New Mexico, hops harvest is time to hit the trails and canyons of the state’s high country.

Mocktoberfest

Missed the window for brewing an Oktoberfest beer for your Oktoberfest party? No problem! Mocktoberfest to the rescue.

Make Your Best Imperial (Or Double) Beer

Josh Weikert takes a relatively straightforward style—Helles—and “upscales” it into a double/imperial version, so that you can get a sense of the kinds of considerations in play and an approach to dealing with them.

DIY: Beer Engine

Want to have your own cask ale on tap? Jester Goldman shows you have to build a fairly simple version of a beer engine and then explains how you can pretty it up.

Ingredients Definitely Matter, Don’t They?

Floor-malted base malts are prized for their rich, aromatic flavor that is far more intense than is usually achieved by industrial malting procedures. Here’s a closer look at what makes them different.

Adding Flavors to Your Stout

Here are some tips for adding flavorings to your homebrewed stouts.

Make Your Best Festbier

Festbier, the beer actually served at Munich’s Oktoberfest, is related to Oktoberfest but a definitely distinct style. It’s a pale lager with a clear Pilsner malt biscuit bent, with some additional toasted malt flavors in support. Here’s how to brew one.

Become a Kettle Sour Expert

Meet your new friend, Lactobacillus, and learn the ins and outs of kettle souring.