This week I take a look at some of the new no-boil beer kits that have entered the market and
hefeweizen
The former Brews News editor will share insights from more than a decade in beer media at a session on 15 October at Melbourne’s Local Taphouse. 
The Sunshine Coast brewery claimed Grand Champion Beer at the RNA Royal Queensland Beer Awards for the third year. In addition to music venues, bodacious barbecue, and epic tacos, this booming metropolis is The Lone Star State’s leading locale for incredible craft beer.
The post Three Beer-Filled Days in Austin, Texas appeared first on CraftBeer.com.
The United States is home to more than 18,000 islands, and for travel lovers, many are worth adding to a list of must-see destinations. Luckily for craft beer enthusiasts, there are breweries located on several of these islands.
The post These 19 Breweries Are on U.S. Islands appeared first on CraftBeer.com.
If you’re new to brewing, you might be wondering which beer styles to try out first! In this video, I sum up what I think are the 3 easiest types of beer to brew, based on my experience making each of them, from each major brewing region of the world! —————————————————– LINKS TO EACH GRAIN
(ST.LOUIS, MO) — Schlafly Beer, the original, independent craft brewery in St. Louis, announces the return of the popular seasonal beer, Raspberry Hefeweizen, a hazy, beer fermented with real fruit. At […]
The post Schlafly Beer Raspberry Hefeweizen Returns appeared first on The Full Pint - Craft Beer News.
Many chefs are finding the sweet spot for beer and smoked food, managing the level of smoke intake for a more pleasurable meal.
The post Smoke and a Beer appeared first on CraftBeer.com.
Our batch analysis/QC at Sapwood Cellars is pretty basic. Mostly it's me finding time each weekend to taste a recent release (ideally side-by-side a comparable example from another brewery). I write up tasting notes, include feedback I've gotten from other people, and recipe/process tweaks for next batch.
Part of my routine is to scroll through Untappd to see if I can spot any common threads to the compliments or complaints... but I don't put a huge amount of stock in the average score (see this post). Blind rating by a skilled tasting panel is the gold standard... but having a large/diverse group of beer drinkers give you feedback has value as well! With four years of Untappd scores for our IPAs at my disposal, I thought it would be interesting to see which hops "the beer drinking public" preferred in Sapwood Cellars IPAs and DIPAs!
All IPAs and DIPAs
Pairing Hops
Part of my routine is to scroll through Untappd to see if I can spot any common threads to the compliments or complaints... but I don't put a huge amount of stock in the average score (see this post). Blind rating by a skilled tasting panel is the gold standard... but having a large/diverse group of beer drinkers give you feedback has value as well! With four years of Untappd scores for our IPAs at my disposal, I thought it would be interesting to see which hops "the beer drinking public" preferred in Sapwood Cellars IPAs and DIPAs!
Cheater Hops IPAs
We started this series of IPAs when we opened to showcase our favorite hop varieties. We recently released #22 (Citra-Motueka). All of the batches were 6.5-7.5% ABV, with similar malt bills (American pale barley, chit, wheat, and oats), fermented with an English-leaning yeast, and dry-hopped post-crash at 3-4 lbs/bbl. The table below is the average Untappd score of all batches dry hopped with the variety listed.
The table below include all 65 "big batch" IPAs and DIPAs we've released that don't contain adjuncts (although I did include Phantasm beers). These are diverse in terms of recipe construction, alcohol strength, and dry hopping rate. As a result, the scores are a bit more prone to bias compared to the Cheater Hops data set.
For some batches you'd expect to see a high rating due to pairing two great hops together (e.g., Nelson/Galaxy or Mosaic/Citra). Both varieties score well across all our beers, so no surprise combing them results in a well-rated IPA. More interesting is sorting by the average standard deviation for the hops included. This shows which combinations rated higher than expected given the average scores for those hops across all beers. Snip Snap (Citra/Galaxy), Cheater Hops #22 (Citra/Motueka), Shard Blade (Mosaic/Galaxy), Cheater Hops #13 (Mosaic/Simcoe), and The Dragon (Nelson Sauvin/Mosaic/Hallertau Blanc) were all in the top-10 "overachievers." These hop blends follow different approaches either "leaning into" a particular flavor (fruity, or winey) or balancing fruity with a danker variety.
Rounding out the top-10 are two all-Simcoe (Cheater Hops #12 and Drenched in Green), two all-Mosaic (Fundle Bundle and TDH Trial #1), and an all-Nelson beer (3S4MP). Certainly a sign that these hops can shine alone compared to Citra and Motueka which are highly rated in blends, but haven't exceled in single-hop beers (despite our best efforts). Of course you need a great lot of hops for this to work; the bottom-10 also includes single-hop beers featuring: Simcoe (Cheater Hops #9), Nelson Sauvin (Cheater Hops #11), and Mosaic (Fumble Bumble)!
Two beers with Galaxy and Nelson (Cheater X and X2) each had a standard deviation close to 0. They still rate well, but no better or worse than expected across all beers with Nelson or Galaxy.
Surprisingly three of the bottom four included three varieties Cheater Hops #7 (Simcoe, Citra, Mosaic) Cheater Hops #6 (Motueka, Mosaic, Simcoe) False Peak (Idaho 7, Sultana, Citra). Blending hops can create a generic "hoppiness." These beers may have been missing a distinct "wow" aroma for people to grab onto.
Take Aways
The high/low scores for different batches brewed with the same single hop variety really drives home how unreliable this data likely is. Without multiple batches hopped with the same hop combination, it is impossible to say with certainty if a beer scored well because of aromatic synergy or a delicious lot of hops. Luckily several of the top-rated combinations are beers we have brewed multiple times.
The data does suggest to me that using one or two varieties for the dry hop is the best bet for making the most appealing IPA unless you have something very specific in mind. Often when breweries use a large number of hop varieties in a beer it is to promote consistency (batch-to-batch and year-to-year). It would be interesting to expand the data set to include beers from other breweries. That would produce data that is less specific to our particular brewing approach, hop sourcing, and customers' palates.
Help Provide Data
Today we are brew testing another Northern Brewer kit. This time it’s an all extract Bavarian Hefeweizen kit. This kit is very basic and easy to make with a great end result. It had a bready taste to it with some citrus notes and a banana aftertaste. This was a very enjoyable kit to drink
Hefeweizen Extract Wheat Ale – Closed Transfer – Homebrew Tasting This is Part 2 of https://youtu.be/Byay8-IocC0 This video covers the transfer and final tasting after carbonation completed. The Hefeweizen is a bit darker as it is a liquid malt extract which is always darker compared to an all grain version plus reducing it from 6
How to brew Mangrove Jack’s Bavarian Wheat – Hefeweizen Wheat Ale This is a 6 gallon kit that I will be converting to a 5 gallon kit while maintaining the body of the beer while keeping the abv around 5%. Pitched the yeast it came with Mangrove Jack’s M20 Bavarian Wheat Yeast imparting banana and
Fairbanks, Alaska, attracts visitors hoping to capture sight of the aurora borealis. If you're hunting aurora, these Fairbanks craft breweries should be part of your adventure.
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Revamped Redback strikes the balance between a sparkling Summer Ale and a Belgian Wheat.
The post Matilda Bay reimagine Redback for Summer appeared first on Beer & Brewer.
I believe Dunkelweizen is one of the best bang for your buck all grain beers, which makes it great for beginners. It is chock full of malty goodness and honestly very easy to brew provided you have rice hulls on standby. It is a marriage of the malty complex flavors of a bock with the