German Pilsner, or “Pils” as it is referred to in Germany, is a beer that is modeled after the famous original pilsner made in Plzeň (Pilsen) in Czech Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic). The creator of the style, Josef Groll, was the first head brewer of Pilsen’s Měš ’tanský Pivovar (Citizens’ Brewery or, in German, Bürgerliches Brauhaus). Pilsen was a town with a very influential German-speaking minority and the beer style that was popular in that area came from a German-owned brewery. German breweries were brewing and selling pilsner beers in the early 1870s, about 30 years after … [Read more...]
Decoction Mash: The How-to Guide
Are you a beer lover? Are you looking to homebrew your own beer? Did you hear about the decoction mash? We will talk about it in this guide. Decoction Mash is a process to carry on multiple steps of mashes without putting on extra water or applying heat to the mash run. This is a method where we extract stuff by boiling some green stuff (herbal or plant) for dissolving the chemicals in it. It might also include some other parts of the plants like stems, roots, rhizomes, and bark. In this process, one-third amount of the mash will be removed and transferred to a pot. Then, it … [Read more...]
How To Brew Oktoberfest Beer | Homebrew Challenge
As many beer aficionados already know, the whole Oktoberfest celebrations all started with the marriage between Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxony Hildburghausen on October 12, 1810. After the great success of that marriage party, these festivities became an annual tradition. The first years of this festival probably saw a beer closely resembling a Munich Dunkel. Since at this time much of Europe was all things pale lagers, the head brewer at Franziskaner, Gabriel Sedimayr, in 1872 decided to take advantage of these changing times. Sedimayr became friends with a … [Read more...]
How to Make a Frozen Yeast Bank?
The process of making a frozen yeast bank might be apparently super-complex and scientific but it’s such a cakewalk if you get your hands on the items mentioned below. Requirements: You'll need: a pressure canner two Mason jars a 50 pack of 15 ml sterile test tubes vegetable glycerine of USP grade three lbs of dry malt extract a spray bottle of sanitizer a measuring cup an insulated box or your insulated lunchbox (pick a box that matches with your freezer's size to fit in) and some gel ice packs that can be reused Now, here are the optional items. A hand … [Read more...]
All You Need to Know about Priming Sugar
The taste and fun of the beer lies in its effervescence. Its bubbles make it fun, frothy and flavourful. The fermentation process in the first instance of preparing the beer makes it almost ready, but the bubbles are yet to be added and the product, till it’s foamy and frothy, is not fit to be called a beer. Not yet. This is where the priming sugar comes in. It is any kind of sugar that restarts the fermentation process and brings about the bubbles in the beer. The important thing here is that priming is a process that can be easily carried out at home. Sugars of various … [Read more...]
What is Original Gravity?
How are you making your beer? The art of making beer is more than just that. It is a science. If you are a connoisseur or even a home brewer, you wish to have the alcohol content just right. And you do not want to be stumped when the receiver asks you about the alcohol content of your concoction. How much alcohol are you drinking? It is very important to measure the alcohol percentage in your beer, especially when you are making that for commercial purposes. It might appear to be a complicated idea, but when the basic terms become clear, the entire math becomes simple and … [Read more...]
How to Brew Smoke Beer (Rauchbier) | Homebrew Challenge
If I were to describe a Rauchbier to ten beer drinkers and offer them a pour, I feel fairly confident that most would reject the pour. Portrayed as a beer with a “campfire-like” aroma and taste, I can see how some are put off by such a descriptor. However, some nights just call for a little smoke in your glass. For many years malt was dried over an open fire. This assured the malt dried, however, an inconvenient consequence of this process was the smoke having its grip on every delicious sip of the beer. Many brewers back then were eager to rid the brewing industry of this rather … [Read more...]
Specific Gravity to Brix: All You Need to Know
We all have studied the process of alcoholic fermentation in our high school chemistry classes. Just to refresh your memory, fermentation is simply the conversion of sugars, be it glucose, sucrose, or fructose, into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Simple told, no sugar = no alcohol. The primary content of beer is its alcohol content, and there is so much that can change due to a minute change in its alcohol content. It’s what makes up a the taste of the drink or even its gravity, as we will take a look at below. If you are a brewer, you need to look at establishing the alcohol … [Read more...]
How to Become a Professional Beer Judge?
You might have realized or not, but you do judge the beer every time you drink it without knowing. The evaluation of beer is an art, and there lies science behind it. So, this art is something that can be learned by acknowledging its description and terminology. The Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) is the National Homebrew Judging association. They sanction a lot of homebrew competitions all over the country, and one can certainly turn out to be a judge through their testing. There has been beer since forever, and so has beer evaluation and tasting. In this scenario, scientifically … [Read more...]
Dunkles Bock Recipe | Homebrew Challenge
Dunkles Bock or Traditional Bock, as it is known, has a story that takes us back to Einbeck, Germany around the 14th century. The town of Einbeck had a couple of huge advantages going for them. It was part of a federated trading group, The Hanseatic League. This allowed them to export for goods they produced, which included beer. Secondly, it was situated in a very fertile land that was produced hops.This happened to coincide with a time when brewers were making hops a prominent ingredient in their beers. Both of these factors gave the town of Einbeck the authority when it came to brewing … [Read more...]
Does Beer Expire? What You Should Know & Do About It
The Beer that You Bought – When Does it Expire? Did you know that in 2018, U.S. beer industry saw sales of over 202.2 million barrels of beer? Beer’s popular the world over – however, how do you store it? All of us, at some point, have wondered about the quality of beer after it’s said to have “gone bad”. Does beer really expire? If not, then what exactly happens once it goes beyond its mentioned expiration date? These are some of the questions that shall be discussed here. We look to explain the myths surrounding. As a beer aficionado, for instance, you need to be aware of what … [Read more...]
How to Cold Crash Your Beer?
After going through the rigorous processes of malting, lautering, fermenting, filtering, and conditioning, there are times when you are still not satisfied with your brew. In a situation like this, we often find ourselves indulged in various refining processes aimed at improving the colour and flavour of the Beer. Out of the many methods that we do, we often fail to consider the clarity of the brew as a parameter to judge our Beer. One such process which helps increase the clarity and transparency of your is Cold-Crashing. Cold crashing is a simple technique that ensures that … [Read more...]
How to Brew Vienna Lager | Homebrew Challenge
When exploring the history of the Vienna Lager, we first learn about the history of kilning malt. However, before we dive into this newly discovered kilning process, we run into some people that were pretty insurmountable to this beer. In 1820, Franz Anton Dreher passed away and left his son, Anton, the keys to his brewery, Klein-Schwechat Brewery. Young Anton is merely ten years old when his father passes away. Later in the 1820s, Anton began his brewing education with the goal of taking over the brewery himself. While beginning his apprenticeship in breweries in Europe, Anton meets … [Read more...]
Quarantine IPA | Quick and Easy Homebrewed Beer
Quarantine IPA is a homebrew beer for those wanting to make beer at home. This recipe is easy to make and ready quickly - two weeks from grain to glass. Quarantine IPA Recipe: 10 lbs - 2-row American Pale Malt (Briess) 1 lbs - Caramel 40 (40.0 SRM) 1 lbs - Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) 2.00 oz - Centennial Pellets [10.40 %] - Boil 30.0 min 1.00 oz - Cascade Pellets [6.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min 1.00 oz - Amarillo Pellets [8.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min 2.0 pk - German Ale/Kolsch (White Labs #WLP029) 1.00 oz - Amarillo Pellets [8.50 %] - Dry Hop Mash - 152F Boil - 30 minutes Let's fix … [Read more...]
How to Brew Altbier | Homebrew Challenge
It’s no secret that the Germans love their beer. If you were to walk into a local establishment in Dusseldorf, Germany and say “give me a beer,” you would indeed receive an Altbier.The Germans have been consuming Altbiers for approximately 3,000 years. What’s in a Name? Altbier translated from German means, “old beer.” The style evolved over the years. The Germans tried to distinguish this beer from the ever so popular lager beer that was popular throughout the region. Some say that Altbier’s name came to be because of this style being an alternative to the fermentation … [Read more...]
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