Cooling your wort quickly after the boil has a number of benefits. While the obvious among those is being able to pitch your yeast quickly into wort that’s the proper temperature, there are in fact others to consider. By cooling wort quickly with an immersion chiller, or other piece of hardware, you reduce the risk […]
A 6 Hour Brew Day And It Was Awesome
I just had my first 6 hour brew day, and it was pretty amazing. Now normally, I’m all about saving time, and trying to expedite things during my brew days. Heck, I’ve even pushed things with my pilot beers to get things done in under 2 hours. I normally get my water together, and grind […]
What Is The Right Amount of Oak Cubes?
One of my favorite styles of beer is an Imperial Stout. Not just any Imperial Stout, but one that has been aged in Bourbon Oak Barrels. It really doesn’t get any better than that, especially if it’s done right. As a homebrewer, procuring a used 50+ gallon oak barrel to condition my homebrew doesn’t make […]
Back To Basics With Extract Brewing
When I started this little hobby, I started where most homebrewers begin, with extract brewing. After brewing 4 extract batches, I was ready to make the leap to all grain brewing, and I haven’t looked back. I’ve been able to produce some great tasting beers, and I’d like to think I’ve got pretty good at […]
Water Profile Adjustment: BeerSmith 3.1 vs Bru’n Water
I’ve been a huge fan of water chemistry when it comes to all-grain brewing, and it’s helped up my brewing game. The brewing software I use is BeerSmith, and it does everything I need, except one thing. It fails miserably in calculating my water profile for the beer I’m brewing, specifically the acid additions. A […]
May The Kolsch Be With You
Just about a year ago I did a write up on my new favorite Kolsch yeast, Wyeast 2565. The beer I brewed at that time, May The Kolsch Be With You, was my second iteration of a Kolsch homebrew recipe. That beer was delicious! Probably one of the better beers that I brewed, but it […]
Apple Pie Hard Cider
While I’m not a huge cider fan, it’s nice having a variety on tap, and who doesn’t love a hard cider in the Fall. I’ve whipped up a few different batches of hard cider, and while they were good, I wouldn’t say they blew me away. I wanted to try something different, something refreshing, and […]