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Review: Barbãr Belgian Honey Beer
Barbãr | Brasserie Lefebvre Belgian beers have always been a bit of a mystery to me. I live in the south of England, and the only Belgian beer you can get locally is Chimay which is priced as if it were unicorn blood*. Earlier this month, my girlfriend and I headed to London on a romantic day trip (pub-crawl-in-disguise) and in the evening we visited The Rake Bar, which I can only describe as beer-heaven. Here, I bought a selection of bottled beers from around the world to try whenRead More
Review: Arrogant Bastard Ale
Arrogant Bastard | Stone Brewing Co. Today, America is the front-line in the battle for great beer. With craft breweries opening daily in the land of the free, more and more people are saying no to the beerhemoths of brewing, Budweiser, Miller, and Coors. Instead, the American public are choosing quality beer from small local breweries. A beer revolution is in full swing, and heading the fight are San Diego brewers, Stone Brewing Co. Today we will be reviewing one of their most famous beers, Arrogant Bastard Ale. Firstly, aRead More
DIY Budget False Bottom
We’re back with a new addition to the Brewing-tips.com 10 gallon eHERMS brewery; a budget false bottom for the mash tun. Here’s how you can make one. Oxo ‘Good Grips’ Splatter screen with handle: 3x 16mm long M6 stainless steel bolts and nuts. 1 brass tank connector Total cost = around £20 or $30 at most. I cut the handle off the splatter screen and then cut and flattened the handle mounting point securely. I then cut the hole for the tank connector, and the 4 holes for the boltsRead More
Beer Kit Instructions – How to brew beer from a kit
This tutorial on how to brew beer using a kit was originally written by ‘tubby_shaw’ fromthehomebrewforum.co.uk. It’s a superb guide on brewing beer at home using a kit, and is best suited for premium high quality beer kits. Beer Kit Instructions – How to brew beer from a kit Two can or all malt beer kits are the pinnacle of beer kit brewing, these kits are available in a wide range of beer styles and are the best that can be experienced in home brewing before taking up extract orRead More
Methods of Mashing
What is Mashing? Mashing is part of the all-grain brewing process. Put simply, it is the act of mixing malted grains with hot water to convert their starch into sugar, it is this sugar which the yeast convert into alcohol giving us beer. Mashing is half science, half art; there are many different ways of mashing grains, and everyone does things slightly differently to eachother. When you are starting all-grain brewing for the first time, it is best to stick to the tried-and-tested methods of mashing, and find one that’sRead More
How to Harvest Yeast for Brewing
Hi brewers! I haven’t posted in a while, so I thought it was about time that I put another how-to guide up for all to see! This guide was written by The Homebrew Forum member, ‘Oblivious’. It’s a superbly simple ‘how to’ guide which tells you how to harvest yeast for brewing. You can find the original thread here. How to harvest yeast for brewing This is my method of yeast harvesting, this was done for my last brew a Saison with WLP550 After racking the beer to the kegRead More
RDWHAHB!
We’ve all been there – that horrible moment when we suddenly realised we’ve made a big mistake whilst brewing a batch of beer. Whether it’s remembering, after three days of no fermentation activity, that we forgot to add the yeast on brewday, or realising that we forgot to put the lid on our airlock and that our beer’s been sitting exposed to all kinds of airborne beer-ruining bacteria overnight! What do we do in these situations? Panic. “Is it ruined?! What if it’s infected? I must tip it all awayRead More
Quicktip:Boil-kettle volume gauge
We’ve all seen those fancypants brewing rigs with welded in sighting-tubes for gauging the volume of water or wort in the kettle, but what do you do if you can’t afford a fancy boil kettle, or don’t have the skills to fabricate such an elaborate volume-measuring device? The answer is a lot simpler than you might think: Use a sanitised metal ruler! Before you brew, fill your boil kettle up in small increments. Each time you add another litre of water (or whatever your unit of measurement is) – dipRead More
Airlocks & Blow-off Tubes
What is the difference between an Airlock and a blow-off tube? An airlock is a water-barrier that allows co2 to escape during fermentation, without allowing airborne particles, bacteria or insects to enter the fermentation vessel. A blow-off tube replaces the airlock in a fermentation vessel. One end attaches to the top of the fermentation vessel and the other end is submersed in a container full of water. Which one should I use? For most brews, an airlock is fine. The advantage of an airlock is that it is relatively smallRead More
Beer Styles: Irish Red Ale
Irish Red Ale is a medium to light bodied ale originating in Ireland. It has very little – if any – hop flavour or aroma. Irish Red Ale has a malty flavour profile with strong caramel notes. The deep red colour is achieved by using a small amount of Roasted Barley which also gives the beer subtle roasted grain flavours. Examples of commercial Irish Red ales include Murphy’s Irish Red, Caffreys Irish Ale, and Smithwick’s. Despite the name, Irish Red Ale is not widely drunk in Ireland, where Stouts andRead More