There’s nothing more refreshing than a cold glass of cider on a warm evening. It tastes even better when you have brewed it yourself, using your own finely tuned recipe. Although making cider is a fairly straightforward process, there are several decisions to make along the way. The most important decisions relate to the blend … Read more
Nothing says “party” quite like a full keg. Long a staple of rowdy backyard parties, and even longer a critical element to any serious home bar setup, the keg allows an efficient means of storing and distributing large amounts of beer without wasting bottles or losing freshness. Few people make the leap into keeping and … Read more
When you’re making your own homebrew, there are tons of things that you need to keep clean and sterilized. While most of the time this is pretty straight forward, nothing can be as intimidating to keep clean as the counterflow wort chiller. But failing to keep this spiral of copper tubing clean can have disastrous … Read more
The hops plant, also known as Humulus lupulus, is a versatile and attractive plant. You may have heard the name already. It sounds familiar because it is the main ingredient for the brewing of ale. When we talk about hops, what we’re referring to are the flowers of the hop plant. These flowers can embitter, … Read more
If you’re a homebrewer and you’re stuck trying to decide between a copper wort chiller vs. stainless, you’re not alone. Copper wort chillers are a newer addition to the homebrewer’s arsenal, and they offer some serious advantages over traditional stainless steel wort chillers. Ultimately, your choice of wort chiller is going to come down to … Read more
Are you tired of clogs in your brewing system? Have you found yourself doing more cleaning and unclogging than you ever thought possible? If you have, you face a problem that many homebrewers face when using hops to brew their beer. The whole flowers swell up and fall apart while the pellets turn into this … Read more
Bottling is one of the most exciting parts of home brewing. It is one of the last stages and the day when your wort starts to look like a drinkable product. You know that you will be enjoying a delicious beer within a few weeks after bottling is completed. However, there is one critical step … Read more
You’ve done it – the wort is created, yeast is pitched and fermented, and your brew has sat and aged for a week or two – it is time to move on to that essential final step. However, before you can enjoy the fruits of your labor, which in this case, is a sip of … Read more
Renowned for being some of the strongest beers, stouts are complex brews, often appreciated by only the most daring beer enthusiasts. However, there are many sides to this mysterious lord of beers. And surprisingly, it isn’t always as dark and alcohol-heavy as people make it out to be. Stouts come in many varieties, ranging from … Read more
Lots of people like warm beer, and that’s okay. But more often than not, we show up to a party where a frantic friend is trying to figure out how to keep a keg cold for the entire event. This is important for draft beers or custom IPAs, as higher-than-normal temperatures can harm a beer’s … Read more