People put some crazy things in beer. Some of them work but other fail. My number one on the list of things that shouldn’t be fermented is mushrooms. One of the local breweries had this and the beer tasted like dirt. Anyone else know of notable failures?

Time for the annual brewing statistics. 2021 turned out to be a bit lighter for me as I spent the first two months arranging retirement and moving to NW Arkansas. I also spent 6 weeks in the summer in northern Wisconsin on a combo work/holiday trip. Nonetheless, I still managed 15 batches...

Time to install the heater for the fermenter as cool weather is hitting NW Arkansas. 18 watt seedling mat stuck between the fermenter and the neoprene jacket works great. The garage temperature in the winter can get pretty cold.

Each year I make some strong style of beer for the Christmas holiday. This year, I am making a Belgian Dark Strong Ale, called “The Woot”. This year’s beer recognizes the strongest Belgian I know of, Woot van Aert. Woot won three stages of the 2021 Tour de France, including a mountain stage, a...

Here’s a recipe I make every August in preparation for Octoberfest. It’s not exactly per style as I use an ale yeast instead of a lager yeast. But it comes out pretty clean and fairly close to style without lagering. https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/870733/fall-frenzy

Has anyone experimented with making a hop tea and using this in lieu of dry hopping? I’m considering this for an upcoming APA. My current hop ball hasn’t worked very well and I had some issues transferring from the fermenter to the keg. I ended up plugging to posts on my keg with hops. If...

I am pretty certain that I’m not the only one who made bumper stickers for their brewery. Here’s a bumper sticker and window sticker I had made. What has everyone else done?

Well, just about at the end of the boil, I saw my Crystal 60 malt sitting there. I forgot to put it in the mill, so it didn’t make it in the mash. Now it was only a 4% addition and I had some Caravienne in there, so I think it’s still going to be a decent batch for an American Pale Ale. Just a...

So, do you make a Christmas beer? If so, what style? Spiced, special fermentables, or reinheitsgebot purist? This year I made a a Belgian Dark Strong Ale (9.0 %ABV) and an Old Ale (8.5% ABV). No spices in either one, but a healthy dose of Special B malt in the Belgian gave it a rich flavor...

Since the Pilgrims likely drank a bit of cider at the first Thanksgiving, I thought this would be a good time for a question. Who has used non-cider yeasts in cider? I just tapped a keg of cider made with Safale US-05. My wife thought that it had a bit of funk to it and my son liked it better...

My first attempt at homemade pretzels. Pretty tasty. Will pair with the Oktoberfest beer.

Back on July 17th, I decided to brew a beer with some figs. We have a large fig tree and it was loaded. So I took a Farmhouse Ale recipe and modified it to include 2 lbs of figs for a 2.5 gallon batch. Everything went as planned. 2 weeks in the fermenter and then to the keg. I had a bit extra...

Does anyone use Goldpils Vienna malt as their usual base malt? I have used it before as part of the base with standard 2-row malt. I am considering purchasing this in bulk, but this means I would switch my recipes to this base malt. The primary differences that I know about are a difference...

I have an order of Lemondrop hops on the way. I have used them in the past for a Saison recipe that was a light summertime beer. I am looking for a few other ideas. I am thinking about dry hopping a wheat beer or cream ale with these. Possibly an APA. What else might work?

A couple of years ago I switched from forced carbonation to natural carbonation in the keg. I had force carbonated for about 20 years. The primary reason for the change was more consistent carbonation levels. By adding a fixed amount of sugar, the yeast generated a fixed amount of...

Over the years, I have started deviating from some of the standard brewing practices that were published years ago. I suspect that many of these practices were scaled down versions of commercial brewing practices, modified for homebrewing use. Here's my heretical practice #1. #1 - The...

I have spent my entire career in industrial instrumentation and automation. In the industrial world, there is the rule that you cannot control what you cannot measure. I was very enthused to get the Tilt hydrometer a year ago. I have used it for about 15 batches and it has worked very well...

New device map feature is pretty cool. See where people all over the world are brewing. Nice job, BF!

I just tapped a keg of cider I made and it turned out pretty well. To be honest, the reason I made cider is that my brewery is in my garage and it's just too dang hot in August in Louisiana to brew in there. For a recipe I used 10 quarts pasteurized apple cider with no preservatives, Mangrove...

I'm cranking up to make a Witbier this weekend. I was planning on using orange and lemon peel in the recipe. What has everyone else done with these additions? I've seen some notes to add 5 minutes from the end of the boil, but I was wondering if I could treat it as a dry hop and preserve the...