hops

This week my guest is Ron Pattinson, who is an expert on historical beer brewing. Ron joins us to discuss Vintage English beers and covers a wide variety of topics including English historical styles, classic ingredients and beer brewing techniques. Ron is the author of a new book “The Home Brewer’s Guide to Vintage Beer. […]

Storing Your Beer Brewing Hops, Grains and Yeast

by Brad Smith on February 8, 2014 · 5 comments

Fresh ingredients are one of the keys to great beer. More than once I’ve been burned by old or improperly stored brewing ingredients resulting in flat, cardboard tasting beer. So this week I’m going to share some of the lessons I’ve learned about keeping ingredients fresh. Brewing Extract Fresh extract is really important for beginning […]

Dry Hopping for Beer Revisited – Part 1 of 2

by Brad Smith on November 25, 2013 · 3 comments

hops_new_med

Dry hopping is a great way to enhance the hoppy aroma and flavor of your beer. I previously wrote an article on dry hopping covering the basic technique, but this week will go into more depth on some options and recent trends in dry hopping. The main purpose of dry hopping is to transfer fragile […]

John Mallett from Bell’s Brewery is my guest this week. John joins me to discuss how the changing landscape in hops and malt is driving craft beer and home brewing forward and pushing new frontiers for craft and home brewers worldwide. Download the MP3 File – Right Click and “Save As” to download this mp3 […]

Hop techniques for beer brewing is this week’s topic. Grandmaster beer judge and award winning brewer Gordon Strong joins me this week and shares his thoughts on a wide variety of hop techniques including first wort hopping, aroma hop additions and dry hops. Download the MP3 File – Right Click and “Save As” to download […]

pod200

I recently posted some important BeerSmith desktop add-ons that many people have been requesting. The add-ons include a 2013 Hops update (63 new hop varieties), a 2013 Yeast update (29 new yeast varieties) as well as the long awaited Great American Beer Festival (GABF) style guide. New yeast varieties include updates for Wyeast, White Labs […]

This week I invite Dr Charles Bamforth to talk with us about beer bitterness, isomerization, alpha acids and hops in your home brewed beer. Dr Bamforth is a Professor of Brewing Science at the University of California at Davis, and author of numerous books. Download the MP3 File – Right Click and “Save As” to […]

This week Stan Hieronymus joins me to discuss his new book “For the Love of Hops” (Amazon link). Stan has spent the last five years studying hop growing, production, and its use in both home brewing and commercial beer brewing. Download the MP3 File – Right Click and “Save As” to download this mp3 file [audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/beersmith/BSHB-52-Love-of-Hops.mp3] […]

This week Drew Beechum joins me to discuss SMASH brewing (Single Malt and Single Hops). SMASH brewing is a great way to not only get familiar with brewing ingredient, but also a way to simplify your brewing to create great beer with fewer ingredients. Download the MP3 File – Right Click and “Save As” to […]

First Wort Hops (FWH) in Beer Revisited

by Brad Smith on November 19, 2012 · 8 comments

A few years back I wrote an article on First Wort Hopping (FWH)- a technique I’ve used frequently over the years to brew great beer. While my support for the technique has not changed, my understanding of it has evolved a bit. What is First Wort Hops? First wort hopping (FWH) is a technique that […]

SMASH is a relatively new approach to home brewing based on simplicity. Simplified home brewing has some significant rewards. It cuts to the heart of what a single malt and single hop tastes like, and also saves you time and money. The Cost of Complex Beer Most home brewers, myself included, when starting to design […]

This week my guest is John Palmer, author of “How to Brew”. John shares his thoughts on brewing with hops including some of the newest understanding regarding how to get the most out of high alpha hops, hop freshness and when to best add hop additions to maximize your flavor and aroma. Download the MP3 […]

This week my guest is Jason Perrault, a fourth generation hop grower from Perrault Farms. Jason joins us to talk about how to grow hops at home, and along the way we also talk about how to store and use fresh hops to enhance your homebrew. Download the MP3 File – Right Click and “Save […]

This week my guest is Gordon Strong, three time Ninkasi award winner (best in the US) and a Grandmaster Beer Judge. We discuss advanced homebrewing techniques – specifically for all grain brewers who have the basics of beer brewing down but want to do more. Download the MP3 File – Right Click and “Save As” […]

This week my guest is Dave Wills of Freshops and we talk about how to grow your own hops in your garden. Dave is a long time brewer, hop grower and also microbrewer at the Oregon Trail Brewery and he provides some great advice on how you can start your own hop garden. Download the […]