brewing

Perfecting Your Beer Recipes

by Brad Smith on October 6, 2022 · 0 comments

This week I take a look at how to perfect a single beer recipe, and why this is important for brewers. When I first started brewing back in 1987, I wanted to brew everything. The Craft Beer revolution had not happened yet, so there were few examples of most styles, and we often learned about […]

Malt Groups and Flavors in Beer Brewing

by Brad Smith on September 29, 2022 · 0 comments

This week I take a close look at malts, the four major malt groups and how malts are best used in beer brewing. This is a summary article which incorporates links to more detailed articles on each malt group. The Four Major Malt Groups All of the barley malts used in brewing can be effectively […]

Roasted Malts in Beer Brewing

by Brad Smith on September 22, 2022 · 0 comments

This week I take a close look at the roast malt group, and explain when and why you would want to use these malts in your beer. The Roast Malt Group The roast malt group includes pale chocolate, chocolate malt, carafa I, II and III, black patent malt, red malt and stout roast. These are […]

Base Malts in Beer Brewing

by Brad Smith on September 14, 2022 · 0 comments

This week I describe base malts and their use in beer brewing. The Base Malt Group Base malts are the most widely used in beer brewing as they make up the vast majority of any malt bill. Many beer styles like IPA were traditionally made with only base malts, and you can brew a large […]

Why is Beer Brewing So Technical?

by Brad Smith on September 1, 2022 · 2 comments

This week I take a look at the technical nature of beer brewing and how it differs from making other beverages like wine, cider or mead. Beer Brewing and Technology I often open my designing beer presentations with a description of the technical nature of brewing. Beer brewing is a much more technical hobby than […]

This week Michael Fairbrother joins me from Moonlight Meadery to talk about Cider which has become his top selling beverage. Subscribe on iTunes to Audio version or Video version or Spotify or Google Play Download the MP3 File– Right Click and Save As to download this mp3 file. Your browser does not support the audio […]

Beer Design Case Study: A Robust Porter

by Brad Smith on August 4, 2022 · 2 comments

This week I though I would share a case study in beer recipe design to explore how I approach beer recipe design and some of the critical decisions made along the way. I will be designing a robust porter, which is one of my favorite beer styles. Defining the Robust Porter Before I start on […]

This week I look at the malting process, how we commonly group malts and the impacts for beer brewing. The Malting Process The malting process starts with raw barley grain, harvested from the field. The grain is dry when brought into the malt house, but the first step is to immerse the grain into water […]

Scott Mast from Hang’em High Hops and Chris Vogel from Great Lakes hops join me this week to discuss growing and producing hops in Michigan. Subscribe on iTunes to Audio version or Video version or Spotify or Google Play Download the MP3 File– Right Click and Save As to download this mp3 file. Your browser […]

Stan Hieronymus joins me this week to discuss new hop varieties, hop products including Cryo hops, and further discussion on thiols, thiol-freeing yeast and hop survivability for IPAs. Subscribe on iTunes to Audio version or Video version or Spotify or Google Play Download the MP3 File– Right Click and Save As to download this mp3 […]

This week I take a look at the rapid rise of all-in-one BIAB style brewing systems for all grain brewing. These affordable, compact systems have quickly become the favorite of beginner and experienced brewers alike. All-in-One Brewing Systems Only a few years ago, most serious homebrewers had full-size three tier brewing systems for their all […]

Jamil Zainasheff from Heretic Brewing joins me this week for a beer brewing question and answer session. Subscribe on iTunes to Audio version or Video version or Spotify or Google Play Download the MP3 File– Right Click and Save As to download this mp3 file. Your browser does not support the audio element. Topics in […]

Brewing The Dunkles Bock Beer Style

by Brad Smith on May 20, 2022 · 0 comments

This week I take a look at the Dunkles Bock beer style from Northern Germany and examine its history and how to brew one. Dunkles Bock is a dark, strong, malty German lager. Dunkles Bock History Bock beer traces its history to Einbeck, a small German town between Kassel and Hannover. Brewing records mentioning bock […]

Ron Pattinson joins me this week to discuss the interesting history of the Berliner Weisse sour beer style and how its popularity rose and fell in its native Germany. Subscribe on iTunes to Audio version or Video version or Spotify or Google Play Download the MP3 File– Right Click and Save As to download this […]

This week I take a look at the reason why most beer brewers have moved to a single boil addition instead of having short duration flavor and aroma hop additions in the boil. The History of Short Duration Boil Additions When I started brewing back in 1987 it was very common to use short duration, […]