Take it outside!

Somewhere inside my body dwells the homebrewer I previously could afford (in degrees of mental attention) to be. The brewer inside has had wedding plans budge into my queue for prime brain activity.

Ways to Extreme-ify Your Brewing

In honor of this year's shark week: I bring you the first (and probably the last) in ways to extreme-ify your brewing®: Isinglass. That's right, isinglass is made from the swim bladders of fish. What's a swim bladder? Well according to friggin' Wikipedia it's:

Boadicea ESB - welcome NB 1945 to the party!

So, as many home brewers may now be aware, Northern Brewer now has its own yeast strain furnished by the fine folks at Wyeast.

Towards a new homebrewing lexicon

In just the span of time that I've been brewing (a drop in the bucket of humanity's fermented history), homebrewing as a leisure pursuit has advanced by leaps and bounds, the scope of which are astonishing: from canned, hopped malt extract and about six Wyeast strains (1028, 1056, 1084, 1728, 2124, 2206), to today's abundant selections of ingredients and specialized gear.

It's time our vocabulary was brought up to speed. Some of my suggested additions are below; please chime in with your own.

Carboy Volcano

One good thing about homebrewing: it forces you to mop the floor more often.

What's in a name?

Cascadian Dark or Black IPA or American-style India Black Ale? 

Chip's Vlog: Coolin' Out with Chizzer Wizzer

[editor's note: this piece originally appeared in the Brewing TV blog]

Recently, I asked Dawson to concoct a recipe for me that would use some miscellaneous ingredients that I had sitting around the brewroom, freezer, and fridge. They included: Wyeast Leuven Pale smack pack, 1 oz Cluster whole leaf hops, 4 oz Centennial whole leaf hops (from Dawson's 2009 backyard crop), and some Carafa III.

When life gives you lemons and some Hefeweizen

Apocryphally invented at need by a Bavarian innkeeper suddenly beset by a horde of thirsty cyclists while beer levels im Keller were at low tide, this mixture is variously known as Radler, Russ'n, or Alsterwasser ... or "shandy" if you're Anglo.