So, our latest issue just dropped and—guess what?—we’re proud of it. As usual, its pages are packed with recipes, geeky rabbit-hole deep dives, brewer insights, and more.
Before I say more, indulge me in a quick peek behind the curtain: We put out these issues quarterly, but the creative process that gets one finished and off to the printers takes many more months—or, in some cases, years. We’re continuously talking through ideas with brewers, experts, our writers, and each other—researching specific topics, following these stories where they take us, and learning as much as we can... until we finally run out of time, and it all crystallizes into an issue full of things we probably didn’t expect when we first mapped out the issue themes.
That’s certainly the case with our Spring 2025 issue, which has plenty to offer:
- Kate Bernot gathers the latest thinking from some of the best on how to design big beers that taste great after barrel-aging—and we include a barleywine recipe from Chicago’s Revolution and a beefy base stout from Magnanimous in Tampa, Florida.
- Randy Mosher shares tips and methods for using sensory evaluation to know your malts more intimately, so you can make better beer with them.
- Josh Weikert relays insights and specific recommendations from award-winning pros on how to thoughtfully layer malts into porters, stouts, and other darker beers—and we include this All Access Recipe from Third Eye’s Kelly Montgomery. (And be sure to check out his new video course on building award-winning stouts.)
- South Africa–based Lucy Corne takes us to the brew decks of two Ghanaian craft breweries embracing hefty portions of local grains such as cassava, maize, rice, and sorghum, establishing truly Ghanaian beers—and winning international awards for them.
- Intrigued by recent groundbreaking research on malted rice, I dig into its potential for modern brewers—and, I think it’s fair to say, none of us have been giving rice the respect it deserves. The grain has much more to offer than lighter body for lagers or gluten-free mashes (as wonderful as those things are).
- Drawing from his deep research into traditional farmhouse brewing, Lars Marius Garshol zooms in on the grains those farmer-brewers really used, and how, and why—and, based on a historical record, we reconstruct a Norwegian farmhouse oat ale recipe from 1779.
- With extract brewers in mind, award-winning homebrewer Annie Johnson shares a recipe and tips on how to brew a full-flavored but low-ABV porter or stout.
And that’s only some of the malt-focused stuff. There’s much more, including:
- For Ask the Pros, Ryan Pachmayer shares details and recipes on the Landbier from Franconia’s Bayer Theinheim and the Volatile Substance IPA from Von Ebert of Portland, Oregon.
- Adam Paysse of Seattle’s Floodland names six beers that shaped his philosophy and technical approach.
- For Special Ingredient, I look into brewers who are crushing it with garlic beer, including the recipe for a roasted garlic stout that’s won a strong local following in a corner of Illinois (plus a “garlic depth charge” that’s now on my bucket list).
There’s more—including a bunch of other recipes, and blind-panel reviews of 142 malt-forward beers—but you get the idea. Subscribers can look for the latest in their mailboxes or peruse it online, either on our site or with our smartphone app.
Not currently a subscriber? Get in there soon for the price of a big-city bar tab—we like to think we provide imperial-strength bang for the buck—and we’ll make sure you get the latest issue.