One of my best friends favorite beer style is black IPA. When he and his girlfriend decided to get married, I know what to do. I already started to research the style and brewed a few test batches exactly for this situation, but now I had to switch gears and go all in. After ten test batches and a good amount of research behind me, I came up with a recipe that was satisfying. I wanted this beer to be dry, hop forward with little to no chocolate and coffee flavor, but with jet black color.
Read MoreBlack IPA | Style overview
We know that dark hoppy beers are not a new thing in the history of beer. During the 19th century British breweries exported East India porters/Export Porters which were hoppier and stronger than their regular counterparts. With the higher alcohol and hop content, these beers could withstand spoilage during the long shipping time, as they were exported to locations around the world.
Read MoreFermZilla - All Rounder | Review
Pressure fermentation has several advantages compared to traditional fermentation methods. These benefits are: lower ester production, fewer fusel alcohols, faster fermentation time, lower chance of oxidation and more hoppy beer. You can use pressure fermentation to ferment a lager beer at room temperature (I did a Czech pilsner at 28°C (82.4°F) with no off-flavors). When ferment your beer this way, you need to use some kind of spunding valve (a valve that releases at certain pressure) to keep pressure at bay. However, because of this, a lot less CO2 is being released compared to traditional fermentation with an airlock. This will keep more hop flavors in your beer. Also, because there is always a certain pressure in the fermenter, you can easily pressure-transfer your beer to a keg, and don’t have to worry about oxidation (great for NEIPAs).
Read MoreSaison | Style overview
Saisons were most commonly brewed in Wallonia, southern Belgium in the province of Hainaut. These ales were brewed at the beginning of winter and stored until summer. If a farm did not have the means to brew their own beer, they would usually buy a few casks from a neighboring brewer or farm. Then they fermented and conditioned the beer at their own cellar. Up until the first World War, Saisons were fermented in unpitched wooden barrels. There are records of breweries who only used spontaneous fermentation and aged the beer from 1 to 2 years in wood barrels. Originally, saisons were served for farm workers during the summer harvest. Every worker (called saisonnier) could have up to 4 liters (a gallon) of beer every day.
Read MoreKnight Jumps Pils | Experimental Recipe
One of my biggest issue with my current apartment is that there is no space for an extra fridge for fermentation and that I don’t have access to the basement. Because of this I could not use lager yeast for fermentation and had to use other techniques, like pseudo lagering. I tried pressure fermenting in corny kegs, but the lower final volume not worth the hassle. However, I finally managed to get my hands on a FermZilla All Rounder, with which I can pressure ferment a 5 gallon batch.
Read MoreVisualization Engine iSpindel | IT
In this article, I will show how to connect an iSpindel to the Visualization Engine. If you want to know how to set-up the engine, please check this guide.
Press the reset button on the iSpindel to switch from operation mode to configuration mode. When the iSpindel is in configuration mode, it will show up as a Wi-Fi access point. Connect to the iSpindel (just like you connect to the wifi in a coffee shop).
After this, open your browser and type in, the following address: 192.168.4.1 and press enter. Now you should see the main page of the iSpindel. Select Configuration.
Read MoreAbbey 18 | Brewday
According to the BJCP, the Trappist Single is:
“A pale, bitter, highly attenuated and well carbonated Trappist ale, showing a fruity-spicy Trappist yeast character, a spicy-floral hop profile, and a soft, supportive grainy-sweet malt palate.”
As it’s so common on my blog, I never actually brewed a Trappist single before, but I had my fair share of belgian beers. Based on my experiences with belgian beers and the description provided by the BJCP, I created a recipe and started brewing a few days later.
Read MoreDelightfully Devilish: Blackpepper Saison | Experimental Recipe
Saison is my favorite Belgian style of beers and it’s one of my most often brewed type of beer. One of the key characteristics of the style is the spiciness and fruitiness given by the yeast. I was interested how would a saison taste like with black peppercorns added during the boil. I have a recipe which I used a couple of times and found very pleasing, so I used it as the base for this experiment.
Read MoreShepherd's Ale | Experimental Recipe
I read in forums and social media groups that many people had successful brews with wild hops. I live in an area where wild hops are not a common sight. When one of my friend approached that they have some wild hops in their backyard, I immediately took the opportunity to try them out. This recipe was an ad hoc one, only used spare ingredients that I found at home. The batch size is 15 liters because of the amount of wild hops I could get.
Read MoreFőzőház [Monyo - American Beauty] recipe kit | Review
I brewed the recipe kit without using RO water, reading the mash pH or measuring the pre-boil gravity and used the water ratio defined by the manual. The purpose of this was to test how the beer will taste if a beginner makes it.
Read MoreThe Christmas beer | Style overview
The predecessors of todays Christmas beers have a long history. Before the Christian times in Europe, pagan tribes brew holiday beers for the celebration of solstice. These beers were usually darker in color and higher in alcohol.
Read MoreRelease from Abstinence | Experimental Recipe
Vienna Lager is one of my favorite type of lager, however I never brewed one. As Oktoberfest was inevitable coming I thought what better time to finally brew this style. To achive the classic flavor notes, I used melanoidin malt and a blend of base malts.
Read MorePeople of the Rye | Experimental Recipe
I was curious how would rye impact this otherwise refreshing german style. To achieve a noticeable impact, I used both rye malt and flaked rye, with a combined 18.8% of the total grist.
I planned to use Mangrove Jack’s M20 yeast, which has a much higher temperature tolerance. When I started the brewday and checked for the yeast, I was surprised that it was nowhere to be found. This never happened to me, but I guess there's a first time for everything. I quickly checked my fridge to find an alternative strain, and this is when I found WB-06. I always wanted, but never actually used this yeast. With my hands tied, this looked like just the perfect opportunity to finally try it out.
Read MoreTransfermer | Review
What advantage can a stainless steel container have compared to its much cheaper plastic and glass counterparts? There are multiple reasons why many people switch to ss containers, including myself. One of the most important advantage of them is that with good cleaning they will last forever. This makes them highly resalable or a good family heirloom. Compared to plastic fermenters, they are harder to scratch and can be cleaned more easily. Compared to glass, they are not prone to shatter, which can prevent injuries. The biggest disadvantage they have is the price. Luckily in the last years a few, more budget friendly products were released to the market.
Read MoreThe Dragons Kneecap Holiday Ale | Brewday
In collaboration with Főzőház, I wrote an article about Christmas beers (it’s only available in Hungarian). At the end of the article there was co-designed recipe. In this piece, I will document the brewing of that recipe and see how good it fits the style.
Read MoreStein Crusher | Brewday
As October was approaching fast (at least when I brewed this beer), I decided to make a little Oktoberfest at home. The concept was to brew four German style beers or four beers that’s somewhat related to Germany. Today's beer is the first one on the list and as such I went with the most iconic beer of the festival, the festbier. As I never brewed this style and wanted at least one not experimental recipe, I went with the Meanbrews Festbier recipe. However, as usual I went with a kveik strain, due to the lack of temperature control.
Read MoreSurf in Jovaru | Experimental Recipe
In my never ending search for new kveik strains I came across Jovaru™, which had quiet the publicity in the past few years. Jovaru™ is a Lithuanian yeast strain originated in the JOVARU® Brewery, which is run by the famed brewer Aldona Udriene’s also known as “the queen of Lithuanian farmhouse beer”. The yeast tested positive for the STA1 gene, which indicates that it can metabolize dextrins, thus resulting in a higher attenuation.
The description published by Omega Yeast list lemon pith and black pepper character combined with a soft mouthfeel, which makes the yeast ideal for Belgian style beers.
Read MoreAnd Then There Were Drunks | Experimental Recipe
One night I got my hands on a beer called Zen Mode from Ugar Brewery. The beer was a session pale ale with oats and infused with green tea. It was so good it immediately got me thinking, what if I do a similar beer but try to achieve the green tea flavor without any green tea. In my search for hops with such a character, I came across the fairly new Diamant.
Read MoreSolitude in Drunkenness | Experimental Recipe
The first grodziskie I tried was the magnificent Dëwla from Pänel Brewery. Although it was a grodziskie, it was hardly a traditional beer with its dry hop addition. Hyped up on this new experience, I decided to brew one myself, but there was a minor issue: originally grodziskie requires polish hops and a specific yeast. Neither of these is available in Hungarian homebrew shops.
Read MoreBad Karma Schwarzbier | Brewday
The first time I tried a schwarzbier was a few years ago at a beer festival. There were booths where they served Köstritzer. I really liked the beer, but in Hungary they are the only widely available brand of schwarzbier so I never really had the chance to experience other brands. When I started homebrewing, I bought the Mashmaker from Michael Dawson, in this book resides today's recipe. This is my first time brewing this style of beer, so I was very excited to get my hands dirty.
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