tutorial

There was a thread on another forum asking for a recipe for a SMASH (single-malt-and-single-hop) beer, and my reply turned into a more general introduction to how to construct a recipe, thinking about how much grain you need for a certain alcohol content and that kind of thing. It assumes you...

It wasn’t that long ago that if you had offered homebrewers and craft beer drinkers a low-impact, low-alcohol beer with approachable flavor, they would have scoffed. Real beer was meant to be big, bold, adventurous, and preferably have a sizable ABV (Alcohol by Volume). Oh, how times have...

We’re in the depths of winter and folks might erroneously assume that fresh wine making produce was incontrovertibly thin on the ground. You’re invited to think again. So, with the wine cellar in likely need of substantive input, where does that leave us with several idle months ahead before the...

What is a Pseudo Lager? For the purposes of this article it will refer to the creation of a lager-like beer with greater flexibility by using an ale yeast. Defining a Pseudo Lager beyond this can get tricky; technically ‘lager’ simply refers to an extended aging of the beer at cooler...

One of the most important things you can do to brew great beer is ensure you have a healthy, unstressed yeast population. From pitching rates, fermentation temperature, avoiding contamination by competitive organisms, all the way through bottle conditioning; an unhappy yeast culture will kill a...

***READ BEFORE CONTINUING: This is not an Inkscape tutorial. There are already a ton of these across the web that will explain the software better than I can. This is a guide to developing ideas, layouts, and graphical components of a label.*** What is the first thing you notice when having a...

Honey bees working to fill each comb with honey and cap it off. Bees are one of nature’s most amazing and complex insects, and one of the more useful for humans, flora, and fauna. Pollination of plants and flowers is crucial in farms and agriculture, as well as for wildlife. Beekeeping is...

Initial considerations First, I strongly suggest that if you haven’t read Part One of this series, it might be a good idea to do so. In that segment, I discussed my reasons for using the approach described here. This portion is more of a hands-on, procedural description of how to achieve that...

After using a couple of different liquid yeasts for the first time, I decided that since they cost $6.50 a pop, that it'd be the most economical to wash the yeasts for re-use. And being retired, I can't afford to spend a whole lot on the needed equipment to do so. Enter Giant Eagle and BP. They...

Inspired by HomeBrewTalk members. Thanks to all of those who have posted on this topic. First step; find the refrigerator for the best price. Got mine on Amazon for $169 with free shipping. Next, remove and modify the door. The model that I bought had the interior door panel glued on. I...

For those of us living and brewing in Japan, you know that space is limited and supplies can be hard to find or very expensive. Japan typically has their own way of doing things, and beer servers/dispensers are no exception. Instead of chilling the whole keg, these draft systems consist of a...

At the moment I decided to build HERMS I got two kegs and plastic bucket. I decided to use bucket for HLT only temporary, but with time it turned out as cheap and functional solution, it is made from HDPE(High-density polyethylene) which can withstand higher temperatures (120 C/ 248 F for short...

I've seen several articles on this site about the proper way to slant yeast but haven't found one that shows the process of streaking yeast onto a plate and selecting individual colonies. This is the method I use. It's not flawless and it certainly has room for improvement but it's cheap and...

One of my favorite aspects of home brewing is the ingenuity that can be used throughout the process. Some people have the finances to buy the biggest and best equipment, some like me do not. For me, the fun comes in when I can use some ingenuity to come up with a way to do something cheaper and...

I started homebrewing last year, and as the amount of equipment I used grew, I found the amount of time that I spent hauling stuff up and down from my basement was rivaling the amount of time I spent brewing (not to mention the number it was doing on my back). Additionally, due to my particular...

Living in Phoenix - the Valley of the Sun - I was confronted with the problem of a good way to chill my wort. With tap water coming out of the faucet VERY WARM, many of the standard methods didn't work. After much consternation, I came up with a method that has served me very well. All you need...

This post is addressed to us brewers who are looking to fully integrate kegerators into our homes and move past the beer fridge / keezer aesthetic. I set out to convert a piece of furniture (any piece that struck my fancy) into a kegerator. A good looking final product was key to my significant...

Freezing Starter-Sized Samples of Yeast for Long-Term Storage Written by Brewitt with contributions from HBT members WHAT: The purpose of this article is to summarize what has been learned about freezing yeast by a number of contributors to the thread "Do you know how to make a yeast starter...

I began washing and harvesting my own yeast about a year ago. I got excited and harvested 4 jars from 4 batches in the first month, leaving me with 16 jars of 4 different yeasts. Since I usually brew twice per month, I had a ton of yeast just sitting in my fridge. After using some of this stored...

This is a system that I have been working on for a few months. For those that prefer it, here is a link to the video: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/sids-one-vessel-all-grain-brewing-system-360364/ This system is a modified BIAB system that allows me to brew all grain 10 gallon batches solo in...