**Aroma:** Citrus hops—more orange rind than pure grapefruit. Big spicy hops redolent of pineapple and mango. More American than noble hops character. Some toasted caramel malt sweetness. Little to no sulfur or esters. **Flavor:** Huge hops-forward flavor with plenty of malt to back it up. A bit raw or grassy with alcohol in the aftertaste. Bitterness is assertive and barely tames the alcohol burn, but there’s enough malt sweetness to carry it. Clean with no esters. **Overall:** Sticky, resinous hop flavor overpowers this beer—it’s a hop bomb that finishes hot. Unique and very tasty, this offers a lot of complexity and a clean fermentation profile.

A few commercial hopbacks are available for homebrewers, (e.g., the Blichmann HopRocket). These work perfectly well, but there’s nothing stopping you from making your own. Here’s how.

A guide to lager styles

Brewed with a massive and complex grain bill, this beer is for those moments of excess in your life.

Mark Hastings of Überbrew in Billings, Montana shared this homebrew-scaled recipe for their GABF gold medal-winning DIPA.

Randy Mosher, author of Radical Brewing, delves into the decidedly un-radical character of the world’s most unassuming—yet arguably most rewarding—swath of the beer spectrum.

The blogger behind DontDrinkBeer.com (DDB) and the Malt Couture podcast is back again with his list of year-end favorites, trends, and more.

“Cracker and pilsner malt greet the first sniff; also skunky, and bright malt sweetness jumps out. Taste indicates warming alcohol, like imperial lager. Good hop bitterness in the middle, rounding out in the finish. Huge mouthfeel, sweetness.”

**Aroma:** Lovely pils malt aroma with light sulfur notes. Earthy, dank hop aroma is floral and restrained. Alcohol is evident but not overly strong. **Flavor:** Smooth pils malt with an alcoholic aftertaste. Hop bitterness is medium and balancing. Some sweetness in the middle of the palate keeps the finish from being crisp. Hop flavor is about right for traditional Pils, but it seems light for a double. Finish is sweet and could be drier with a touch more bitterness. **Overall:** Lots of pilsner personality with an extra shot of alcohol. The malt is amped up to compensate—more like a “double malted” pilsner—but the finish is too sweet. Nice bready malt showcase. A taste beer that could use more bitterness.

Pull levers, turn knobs, spin wort—from whirlpools to “dip hopping,” here is a detailed look at some specific hot-side techniques and gear for dialing in substantial hop flavor and aroma.

Smart and effective hops pairing is a front-end, preproduction skill that every brewer should work to develop because pairing, blending, and mixing hops increases the odds of getting what you want out of your recipes and beers.

Kölsch is the ideal style to reach for when you need to recharge your taste buds with a lighter, refreshing beer.

Multi-step mashing may seem like a historical curiosity, but it’s good to understand the intent because there are still some useful ideas. Jester Goldman walks you through the traditional rest points and what they’re all about.

Decoction is not an obsolete brewing technique. It’s one that can take you to other (richer) destinations… even a few you might not expect.

With one base recipe, you can create many distinct saisons just by manipulating the hopping. Here we’ve used Fuggle and Styrian Goldings to create a saison with a gentle floral, earthy, and spicy hops flavor and aroma.

Crisp, dry, herbal-bitter, and clean, this is a lager you’ll want to have on tap all year long—but especially as the weather starts to warm.

Dry and lively with earthy-herbal hop flavors, saison should be refreshing, with any spicy character better driven by yeast and hops than by actual spices.

This recipe from Josh Weikert, author of the Beer: Simple blog is for a bare-bones, but crisp and flavorful, German Pils.

From Josh Weikert’s Make Your Best series: The dose of sugar and mash regime should help get this dry, while the Crystal hops and light esters add pleasant character to a clean background. The result is a beer that drinks well by the liter.

Here’s a homebrew-scaled version of the hoppy Pilsner that Resident Culture Brewing Company brewed in collaboration with Casita Cerveceria.