What now? Beyond the Starter Kit

So you recently acquired a Northern Brewer Beer Starter Kit and now you're a homebrewer. Welcome to the big show!

Gimme Somethin' Sweet

Add honey to just about any edible & you've turned onto the path of consuming something delicious: honey wheat bread, honey ham, honey mustard. A dab of honey turns more folks on to plenty of things.

Tasting: Twa Oats Roastie

Hello, stout ... nice to see ya. It's been a long time; you're just as lovely as you used to be.

I'm sorry, Conway Twitty - that's your song, and this is an oatmeal stout.

Yeast (the book)

Yeast! It's wonderful, and now it's available in dry form, liquid, and paperback. The new book version by Chris White (of White Labs) and Jamil Zainasheff (of homebrewing) is out now. I recently gave it a read and was very pleased.

How to Plan a Rebrew: Part Two

This saga began with a recipe I created for an oatmeal stout. The first round of triple oat stout was a decent success, but I wanted to make some improvements to get the beer more where I wanted it to be. Things that I attempted to correct in the second version were color, hop selection and yeast selection.

Here is the recipe for version two:

Eat Your Beer Like A King

There are many ways to consume beer. Sometimes, we drink it out of a pint glass, other times a ram’s horn or a beer bong shaped like a skull. I, sometimes, consume beer out of food. Ever make a beer solely for eating with brats? I have. In Wisconsin, beer and brats go hand-in-hand. Or maybe brat in-bun-in-hand with beer in-the-other-hand.

Bring Me Another Beer

Some of my best friends are beer delivery truck drivers.

Beer Engine vs. CO2: Dry-hopped Death Match

The same, and yet not the same.

"Beer engines: cool as hell, but what do I get for $450? Tangibles, I mean. What does it do for my beer?"

A worthy question! Let's try the exact same beer dispensed with CO2 and "on cask" side by side and drink critically!

Beer Engines: "All Aboard!"

Dear readers, allow me to introduce you to the Milwaukee Road Beer Line! The model Beer Line is an HO scale sectional layout that the staff of Model Railroader built in 2008 and the article series was published in the January – May 2009 issues. There used to be a real railroad, the Milwaukee Road Beer Line, which ran through Riverwest until sometime in the 1980s.

Seasonal Ingredient: Clementines

Almost every fruit and vegetable is available year-round. Buy in-season, however, and you get produce at its peak of flavor and nutrients. In January, clementines are readily available.