The quality of your beer hinges on the yeast and handling it properly—but it need not be difficult. From our Illustrated Guide to Homebrewing, here’s what you need to know about types of yeast and how to manage them so that your fermentation goes to plan.
Helmed by authors Michael Tonsmiere and Scott Janish, Sapwood Cellars’ shared focus on hop-forward beers and oak-aged mixed fermentations was a given. However, over the past four years, they’ve pushed into new territory and found spaces for even more creative exploration.
These cool customers have co-evolved with us as brewers and drinkers, traveling and prospering while producing some of the world’s most popular beers. Behind these yeast strains and their important differences, there is a unique genetic story.
Matt Van Wyk cut his teeth on barrel-aged beers in Chicago in the ’00s, but with Alesong—in the bucolic winery-filled hill country of the southern Willamette Valley—he and cofounder Brian Coombs have built a brewery focused solely on barrel-aged beer.
From design to decoction to coolship to cellar, Dovetail owners and master brewers Hagen Dost and Bill Wesselink dig into the details of how they produce their acclaimed lager, Kölsch, and weissbier.
Aficionados view Gabe Fletcher of Alaska’s Anchorage Brewing as a master of modern barrel-aged barleywine, epitomized by the highly sought-after A Deal with the Devil. Here, he lays out his philosophy and methods developed over the years.
Sponsored
Tracking what’s happening inside your fermentors in real time is the best way to know when you have an issue with your yeast, what’s causing it, and how to fix it—ideally, without losing beer. These data curves help demonstrate how.
Opening your fermentations to a wider array of yeasts and bacteria can add great complexity to your beers. It can also add complexity to your brewing process—but the challenge is both surmountable and rewarding.
Live Oak founder Chip McElroy and head brewer Dusan Kwiatkowski explain why shallower horizontal tanks have a treasured place in their fermentation cellar.
Altstadt head brewer Craig Rowan shares advice on sanitation, pitching, and fermentation control for a great Munich-style helles—tips that could apply to virtually any type of lager.