Making Beer


Frugal Brewing: Choosing a Thermometer

New brewers will brew better with a good thermometer.

Brewing with Friends

Splitting the brew day with a friend—the cost, the labor, and the beer—can be a win-win situation. Aside from sharing the load, you can get a creative boost from the joint effort.

5 Tips for Competition Brewing

If it’s honest impressions of your beer you’re after, entering a competition is an excellent way to get feedback from trained judges.

Breaking the Sugar Habit with Kräusening

Even if we pay lip service to the ideal of the Reinheitsgebot, we often overlook it every time we bottle: priming with corn sugar is a clear violation. Take an example from German brewers and keep it legal with a technique called kräusening.

Fermentation: Glass or Plastic?

The debate over which is better is as old as the hobby itself.

Prepping Used Barrels for Aging Beer

Here are three things you need to know about prepping a barrel for aging beer.

Brewing with Mushrooms

Through some trial and error, Eric Reinsvold and the UNC Fungi & Algae class created a successful beer with porcini mushrooms.

Water: The Overlooked Essential

Alas, water is to most IPA drinkers as “Arrested Development’s” Ann Veal is to Michael Bluth (that is, the thing that’s always around yet you’re constantly forgetting about). And yet, water is essential to every IPA—every beer, in fact.

Mad for Mead, Part 1

More and more craft-beer brewers are fermenting their own mead. Kyle Byerly covers everything you need to know about making mead in this 3-part series.

Accessible Brewing

With a little ingenuity, we can make our homebrewing more accessible to those with physical limitations.