Make your own cider, build a hop spider and more

Plus, Big Horse Brewing Company: Macstallion Scotch Export Ale clone, session beers, shorten the brew day and more

Find Recipes Start your free trial Brew Day Bulletin Dear Homebrewer, It's apple season here in Vermont, which has us thinking about making cider [Free].  Gordon Strong's English IPA [Digital Members] is about as simple as it gets: One malt, one hop, and single infusion mash. So, don't skimp with your ingredients selection. Big Horse Brewing Company: Macstallion Scotch Export Ale clone [Free] is full bodied, with pronounced malty caramel and roasted malt flavor. Drew and Denny take on brewing session beers [Digital Members] and discover the drive to go little. This hop spider project [Free] is inexpensive to make and the only tool you need is a drill with the right size drill bit. Up for more of a DIY challenge? Brutus Ten is a 10-gallon (38-L), single-tier brewery situated on a stainless steel frame [Digital Members].   Mr. Wizard troubleshoots a reader's imperial IPA that's too dry [Digital Members]. Get some time back with Mr. Wizard's tips to shorten brew day [Free].  Cheers! Brad Ring Publisher Read & Brew: Free Content For All Recipe Big Horse Brewing Company: Macstallion Scotch Export Ale clone "Traditionally brewed with a 3-hour long boil, using two row carafa and roasted barley malt. This produces a deep copper to brown colored brew. Full bodied, with pronounced malty caramel and roasted malt flavor." (5 gallons/19 L, all-grain) OG = 1.067   FG = 1.015 IBU = 19   SRM = 17   ABV = 6.9 % Ingredients 9 lbs. (4.1 kg) Golden PromiseTM pale malt 4.5 lbs. (2 kg) Maris Otter pale malt 2.5 oz. (71 g) Carafa® Special II malt (475 °L) 5.2 AAU UK Golding hop pellets (60 min.) (1.1 oz./31 g at 4.75% alpha acids) Read more Save $50 on 30+ Online Small-Scale Brewery Seminars Don't miss targeted live online brewing and business seminars to help you run or launch a successful small-scale craft brewery in these challenging times.  Article Make Your Own Cider Cider. The word has mythological overtones, especially in rural areas where it is or was made. But just what is it? What differentiates it from mere "apple juice"? After all, technically, unfermented or "sweet" cider is only fresh-pressed apple juice. The word "cider" comes to English, like so many food and beverage words, from medieval French. "Sidre" came from Latin, which came from Greek, which apparently came from the Hebrew "chekar," meaning "strong drink." So perhaps the English term cider should only apply to fermented or "hard" cider. Read more Ask Mr Wizard Shortening the Brew Day Q I am an all-grain brewer and I was thinking of ways to lessen the wrath from my wife over how long it takes to brew. One idea I came up with was to mash and sparge (which takes about two hours) the night before, collect the runoff and store it. Then the next day start my boil and be done with that in two hours. Will I run into any contamination or other problems? A Whenever I am thinking about alternate approaches to brewing methods I usually ask myself if my idea or something akin has been done previously. To me there is comfort in precedence, especially in a craft as old as brewing. Your question does have precedence and an example of splitting wort production into two phases can be seen with malt extracts. But instead of prolonged storage of un-hopped wort you want to just briefly store it before resuming the brew day some eight to 12 hours later.   Read More Project Build A Hop Spider Picture this scenario: You're brewing an imperial IPA, and it utilizes a pretty aggressive hop bill. You've meticulously selected your ingredients, spent hours tweaking the recipe and have sourced all of the ingredients from your favorite homebrew suppliers. Brew day finally arrives and everything is going perfectly; you're hitting your mash rests with ease, your efficiency is through the roof and you've perfectly timed your hop additions. You find yourself daydreaming about cracking open a bottle or pulling a pint of this heavenly brew a few months from now once it's ready to drink, and it's as close to brewing nirvana as you've been. Read More For Digital Members Only Members get access to thousands of recipes, all new BYO issues and more. Try membership risk free for 14 days.* Brew Better. Try Membership, Free!* Recipe Gordon Strong's English IPA (5 gallons/19 L, all-grain) OG = 1.061 FG = 1.012 IBU = 58 SRM = 6 ABV = 6.5% 12.5 lbs. (5.7 kg) British pale ale malt 16.5 AAU East Kent Goldings hops (60 min.) (3 oz./85 g at 5.5% alpha acids) 2 oz. (57 g) East Kent Goldings hops (dry hop)   Read more Article Session Beers: The drive to go little Everyone has heard the sentiment. "Bigger is better!" "Go big or go home!" "Supersize it!" What's with the obsession with big? It seems the idea is that bigger is always better. Sure, maybe sometimes, but there's beauty in the small also. Case in point . . . there's a guy in Drew's homebrew club who when he was getting into brewing was convinced to build a 30-gallon (114-L) brew system. 30 gallons (114 L) . . . that's basically a full barrel of beer!  Read more Ask Mr. Wizard IPA is too dry Q I have attempted to make an imperial IPA and added Champagne yeast after primary fermentation to give it some extra kick. The extra kick that I got was more like a kick in the head. The brew is now in the secondary and I can already tell that it is far too dry for my liking. How can I give some malty sweetness back to my brew without starting all over? Is it possible to make a late addition of extract and pray, or will this cause pressure problems when it is transferred to bottles? A Our problem in a nut shell is yeast selection. Champagne yeast is one of those yeast strains that tends to be highly attenuative and creates a very dry finished product. I am not a huge fan of extremely strong beers and typically brew with an original gravity of 18 ºPlato (1.072) or lower. I have never had fermentation problems with these beers using my brewery's standard ale and lager strains. In fact, we brewed a barleywine last year with an original gravity of 25 ºPlato (1.100) and it fermented to completion with our standard ales yeast without problem.   Read more Project Brutus Ten Build See my cool brewery? I call it Brutus Ten. If you'd like one just like it, I have just one thing to say — build your own! Heck, I'll even show you how. Brutus Ten is a 10-gallon (38-L), single-tier brewery situated on a stainless steel frame. The temperature of the hot liquor tank and mash tun are maintained automatically by two temperature controllers. Other aspects of the brewery, such as turning the pumps on and off are done manually. If you know how to weld and have some basic electrical skills, you can make your Brutus Ten for under $2,500. Read more *For new members and subscribers only. Limit one per customer. Additional auto-renewal terms apply. See product checkout page for details.  Copyright © 2020 Brew Your Own, All rights reserved. You were subscribed to the newsletter from Brew Your Own Our mailing address is: Brew Your Own 5515 Main St Manchester Center, VT 05255 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.