To celebrate our first year of existence, I’m pulling together some lists of articles we’ve published and I’ll post them throughout the week. I’ll have lists of articles for extract brewers. all-grain brewers, hop lovers, and more. Today, I’ll start with the obvious list. Here’s our most-read articles from our first year of publication.
This was by far our most popular article. It covered the work Dr. Chris White has done documenting how much bitterness different yeast strains scrub from the wort. When he follows up and releases the full data set, we’ll bring the information to you.
Simple 3-Gallon All-Grain Brewing
Small batch brewing is gaining in popularity. In this article, I describe how you can assemble a simple 3.0-gallon (11-L) all grain brewery, with a beverage cooler lined with a steeping bag as a lauter tun. It’s easy and you don’t have to build or modify any equipment. Plus, it’s flexible — you can mash either in your brewpot (to hold mash temperature steady) or in the cooler (for less mess). You can also use this same setup to brew 5.0-gallon (19-L) partial mash batches.
Brew-in a-bag (BIAB) is a straightforward brewing method and a good introduction to all-grain brewing.
In mead making and winemaking, the yeast frequently need a little help in the form of yeast nutrients to boost the free amino nitrogen (FAN) levels in the must. If you add the nutrients in a staggered fashion, you supply them to the yeast as they need them. This can greatly speed you mead fermentation.
Can you use PET bottles, the bottles that soda comes in, to hold beer? As it turns out, for short periods of time, the answer is yes. I also point out that the 3 L bottles make great yeast starter vessels.
A quickly-brewed pale ale with tons of hops added in the whirpool — James’ 15-Minute Pale Ale.
As part of my series on American Hoppy Ales — pale ale, IPA, and double IPA — I looked at the effect of chloride and sulfate levels in your water and how they influenced hop bitterness. James and I also organized an experiment to test this. The results were interesting.
For those brewers looking to take the plunge into brewing a sour beer, here’s a simple recipe to get you started. The only difficult thing about it is waiting for the beer to sour. (Seriously, it takes at least a year.) For those willing to put in a little more effort on brewday, my Basic Homebrewed Lambic recipe mimics how traditional lambics are brewed.
Five More Big Beer Fermentation Tips
This was the sequel to my Five Tips for Brewing a Big Beer.
Add Base Malts to Your Extract Beers
Finally, an early article on why adding some base malts to the grains you steep — effectively doing a partial mash — is one of the best things you can do to improve the malt aroma in your extract beers.
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