Homebrew - Vienna Lager This was a style I had been enjoying at the bar so I decided to get a kit and give it a go. I used a kit from Brewers Best and did a very simple extract brew with a 60 minute boil and Irish moss. The really exciting part was [...]

Homebrew - Pear Cider I had wanted to try this for a while since we enjoy drinking it in England. Given the fact that pears were not in season I decided to try a hybrid with apple juice. I did not follow any recipe, it seemed like 50/50 might work so I just [...]

Homebrew - All Grain APA II I made all of the changes I suggested after my first all grain and had another go at all grain. I bought a bigger boil pot so it was less dangerous. Ingredients All grain with 7 lbs of grain. 5 lbs - 2 row 2 lbs - Crystal 40L 1.0oz - [...]

Homebrew - English Cider I had read online about a tannin trick to make cider more like real English stuff. I decided to try this out myself. Ingredients 2.8 gallons of "Simply Apple" juice 1 lime 2 Tetley tea bags S-04 dry ale yeast Method Boil 3 cups of water and the juice from the lime. Removed from heat and [...]

Homebrew - Budget APA I had some money left over on an Austin Homebrew gift card and this kit was on sale so I got it. This partial mash had 4.5 lbs of grain. My mash water was 167 before adding it to the grain. At the start of the mash the temperature was [...]

Homebrew - All Grain APA This was my first all grain. To make it extra special I drunkenly made my own recipe using Beer Smith to guide me. Ingredients All grain with 6 lbs of grain. 5 lbs - 2 row 1 lbs - Crystal 40L 1.0oz - Cascade Pellet Hops (Bittering) 0.75 oz - Fuggle [...]

Homebrew - Stone IPA Clone Bit of a cock up making this beer. I had incredible, detailed, professional notes which I took upstairs so I could transcribe them. But then I left them in my pocket and washed them and totally destroyed the paper. So now we only know what I can vaguely remember. The [...]

Homebrew - Stoli Chocolate Porter Over Christmas I decided to make a chocolate porter that used some fancy chocolate I had won at work. In the spirit of homebrewing I drunkenly made a recipe based on what left over hops I had, the chocolate I had won and googling other people that had tried chucking [...]

Homebrew - Making a Starter Every time I make a starter I find myself looking back through this blog to find out exactly what I did. I don't think I ever quite repeat the exact same steps so I have decided to write down my method so I can find it easily. Ingredients: 8 ounces DME. 2.1 [...]

Homebrew - White House Honey Porter Like many people I wanted to try the famous Presidential home brew recipe. I used the Austin Homebrew partial mash conversion of the official recipe. Method Heat 1 quart of water per pound of grain to 162. Add all the grains to the mash tun and add the water. Make sure the temperature [...]

Homebrew - Dubbel 'Em Up This was my first partial mash using a converted cooler to mash in. Using the Internet and a bit of guessing I came up with my own schedule which I expect will be dialed in as I get more experience. Method Heat 1 quart of water per pound of grain to [...]

Homebrew - Grafter The Grafter idea was born from me wanting an easy cider experiment. I have been using Simply Apple for a few batches now and to mix things up I thought why not just dump it straight on top of the Graff V2 yeast cake. The thought was I would get [...]

Homebrew - Graff V2 After the success of the first batch I wanted to continue experimenting with Graff. Rather than go crazy I kept my old recipe from the first try. Ingredients 4oz crystal 120L 1oz torrified wheat 1lb of light dry malt extract 0.25oz of Saaz pellet hops Nottingham dry ale yeast 1.8 gallons of simple apple cider (4 [...]

Homebrew - Strawberry Mead Been talking about making mead for a while. I decided to use a very simple recipe for the first time and then adapt it based on how the first batch comes out. Ingredients 4lb Raw Organic Honey 2lb Fresh Strawberries Pinch of Yeast Nutrient 1 pack D47 Lalvin Dry Wine Yeast Method The day before brewing [...]

Homebrew - Tsingtao Clone Much to the distaste of some of my beer snob friends I like a good lager in the summer. One of my favorite imports in the USA is Tsingtao from China. I picked this beer to try my hand at a mini-mash as a step towards doing an all grain [...]

Homebrew - Whiteley Series Black Lager I had tried black lager at the var a few times and really liked it. I looked all over the place for recipes and kits and no one seems to be really into this style. In the end I decided to try the True Brew kit because they have always [...]

Homebrew - Mac IPA I brewed this because my football game got cancelled and it was what I could put together from our local homebrew shop. Made to cheer myself up and not with a lot of thought. I called it MAC after MacGyver because we was always making things up on the spur [...]

My wort chiller setup Like many people I needed a way to connect my wort chiller to an indoor kitchen sink. With help from a friendly chap at Lowes I bought the parts to do a quick release attachment for the tap so I could easily plug the wort chiller in when it was [...]

Homebrew - Simply Apple Fruit Cider Having made a few ciders we settled on using a cheap juice from Kroger since it made a nice dry cider that we liked. Using some fruit we froze at Christmas I thought it would be fun to do some apple and fruit blends. To be vaguely scientific about it [...]

Homebrew - King George Pilsner After nearly a year of making beer and ~ 15 years of drinking it, with a bit of prodding from the wife I decided it was time to completely make up my own recipe. Using BeerSmith I created a German style pilsner that was made with English hops. BeerSmith is [...]