Hoppy Sour Beers: Taking the Bitter out of IPA
Conventional brewing wisdom was that hoppy beers shouldn’t be sour and sour beers shouldn’t be hoppy. Luckily, innovative brewers have discovered that hops’ citrusy, tropical and spicy aromatics meld beautifully with acidity. But what is the best process: mixed-fermentation with dry hops, kettle soured with a hop-stand, maybe 100 percent…
How and What to Brew with S. eubayanus
Saccharomyces eubayanus was discoved just five years ago in the rugged mountains of Patagonia, the vast Tibetan Plateau and Wisconsin. Responsible for creating modern day lager yeast via hybridization with ale yeast, S. eubayanus has the potential of being a novel brewing yeast. However, since its discovery in 2011, little…
How Cold Steeping Malt Can Elevate Your Beer
Learn how cold steeping techniques can be used to create truly innovative beer that is maltier, more colorful, and cleaner than previously thought possible.
How Specialty Malts Influence Foam
An in-depth look at how specialty malts can be used to influence beer foam stability and color.
How to Brew Like An All-Star
Denny and Drew take a look at the different personality types that infuse our hobby and hone in on the practices used by All-Star Homebrewers of each type. How many homebrew seminars can you think of that name check Carl Jung, Federal law and the intimate brewing answers of a…
How to Fail at Starting a Brewery: Focus Just on the Beer
When starting a brewery, it is essential to make great product—but that’s not sufficient in and of itself. In order to stand out from an increasingly crowded field, you must be able to craft and then tell a compelling, differentiated story of your brand and your beers. In this session,…
How To Start and Grow a Homebrew-Focused Charity Event
The Three Rivers Underground Homebrewers (TRUB) started Brewing Up A Cure in 2005 as a small, friends and family-oriented tasting event. The goal was to raise money and awareness for a charity while promoting homebrewing. Come learn how Brewing Up A Cure has grown from humble beginnings to a premier…
How to Successfully Fund a REF Report: The Effects of Sound Waves on Fermentation
The Research and Education Fund (REF) is a great resource for the experimenting homebrewer. Learn how to best design, propose and execute an experiment in order to successfully fund and publish your work. We will discuss the REF process by walking through all steps of an unpublished experiment that examines…
Identifying and Avoiding Oxidation
Oxidation causes more than just cardboard flavors. Learn how oxidation affects all parts of the brewing process, including malt and hops, and causes a variety of off flavors. Come away with tips and tricks to avoid oxygen in your processes.
Launching a Communal Sours Program
In this discussion we will focus on the practical and social aspects of developing a successful sours program within your homebrew club and techniques that can be used to ensure the production of high quality sour beers. Areas of focus will include communal brewing, scaling yeast and bacteria, fermentation, blending,…
Mock Lagers: Cutting Contentious Corners
Space and time are major constraints for most things in existence, but they are at a particular premium for homebrewers! Save both of them by leveraging the benefits of modern malts, high Alpha hops, and any available refrigeration, which allow homebrewers in the here-and-now to tweak traditional style-specific brewing techniques…
Modern Homebrew Recipes
Gordon Strong will take an advanced look at recipe design, discussing the creative process and technical approach to building new homebrew recipes. Practical examples will be given, including a look at styles from the 2015 BJCP Style Guidelines. Trace ideas from concept through execution, including adjusting for balance, brewing to…
Modern Mead
Mead has been made since prehistoric times, but just because something's ancient doesn't automatically mean it's good. Come meet Ricky the Meadmaker to learn why you don't need to wait more than a month for excellent mead, why science is as important in mead as in beer, and why all…
Modern Perspectives on Traditional Methods: Applying New Knowledge To An Ancient Craft
Just a couple decades ago, those who chose to make beer at home were met with many hurdles: a general lack of quality ingredients, proper gear, and knowledge about many aspects of brewing. Though stories of contamination, diacetyl bombs and undrinkable beers abound, we have these brave early homebrewers to…
More Than a Hobby: Developing Club Leadership For Long-Term Club Success
Many clubs start the same, it’s not formal, it’s a group of friends, and no one is formally in charge. One person or a small group drives the club, and all is good. Fast forward a few years and now you have regular, structured meetings of 50+ people, members who…
Not Just for Judges: How to Train Judges, Brewers and Tasting Gurus at the Same Time
We will demonstrate how the sensory analysis and technical knowledge obtained through judge training can also be beneficial for brewers and craft beer fans. We’ll review over proven techniques and show how they can be used in large and small group sessions. Taste malt teas, hop teas, malt varieties while…
Phenolic Compounds in Beer: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Phenolic compounds play a major role in the aroma and flavor of many beers. They are often associated with beer spoilage, but also contribute positive and essential characteristics to certain beer styles, such as Bavarian weizen and many Belgian styles. What makes “good” phenolics good, and “bad” phenolics bad? The…
Regional American IPA: What’s Up with All the Crystal Malt?
This seminar will discuss the differences among East Coast, West Coast and Midwest American style IPAs. We will compare and contrast each variation and show recipe examples highlighting the differences. The panel will include professional brewers from each region discussing their area’s customer preferences and where they see the market…
Return of the Mead Panel
Mead making is growing at an astounding rate and there a few great icons who have shaped the movement. From traditional mead makers to the ones who push the limits, come and learn their secrets. Topics will include equipment, ingredients, recipes and techniques for beginner to advanced mead makers. Curt…
Sensory Evaluation of Specialty Malts: A Practical Approach to Describing Malt Flavors
When it comes to choosing the best specialty malt for your brewing recipe, flavor contribution is one of the most important factors to consider. Whether you are looking to improve consistency or enhance creativity, sensory analysis of malt ingredients is a practice that will serve you well. This presentation will…
Small Barrel Strategies
The increasing availability of five- to 20-gallon oak barrels gives homebrewers the opportunity to brew both “clean” and sour barrel-aged beers, but best practices on how to use these barrels successfully aren’t so readily available. In this seminar, award-winning homebrewer brothers CJ and James Shamas will detail the steps brewers…
Sources of Beer Flavor and the Importance of Sensory Training in Producing Great Beer
Sensory evaluation is an important tool for the homebrewer, as access to expensive lab equipment or testing is not typically possible. Sensory training is a powerful, inexpensive way of producing high quality beer at home. Understanding the source of beer flavor allows the homebrewer to the most powerful tool at…
The Chemistry of Mashing
Mashing is the process that converts grain and water to sweet wort. We will discuss the structure and functions of the enzymes involved, and how they are influenced by temperature and pH. Factors that affect pH during mashing will be covered.
The Dark Ages: Baltic, Munich or Kulmbach?
Baltic, Munich and Kulmbacher: this presentation travels through European and American lands to get a better understanding of dark lager. Learn how German, Czech and Baltic Porter styles were appropriated by American breweries before, during and after Prohibition. These styles barely resurfaced after "the great experiment" but they are alive…
The Good Life: Successful Strategies for Raising Phenomenal Financial Resources for Your Homebrew Club
What if your homebrew club had the resources to pay for all competition entry fees and shipping, BJCP classes, brew ingredients, BJCP judge/steward participation stipends, food for meetings and a whole lot more? Plus, do all this and still have funds left over to give thousands of dollars to charities…
Trouble-Free Tart Beers: Alternative Souring Methods
Want to make complex, tart beers in a fraction of the time and with minimal risk of cross-contaminating your equipment? Blending, kettle souring and alternative ingredients are three methods that you can use at home to produce a number of sour beers, including Berliner Weisses, Goses, Lichtenhainers, faux Flanders reds…
Troubleshooting Off Flavors in Beer
An in-depth look at common off flavors in beer and their causes. This seminar will cover in-depth how to detect off flavors as well as how to fix them. Topics include diaceytl, DMS, esters, phenolics and tannins, as well as sour beer infections. For each off flavor, the top causes…
Unlocking the Genetic Code of Brewing Strains
Brewing yeast strains have been developed by brewers over centuries and not created in a lab. This seminar will look at how yeast have genetically developed over the years by brewers. Using science to unlock the genetic code of some brewing strains, we can look at how these strains have…
Ur-Buzz: The Advent of Human-Controlled Fermentation
Ken Schramm, Dr. Patrick McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania (author of Uncorking the Past and Ancient Wine) and other panel members discuss the advent of human-controlled fermentation: the ingredients, processes, species domestication, implements and human knowledge that went into the earliest human attempts at and successes in fermentation.
Waste Not, Want Not: Water Conservation for the Homebrewer
Homebrewers spend a lot of time and effort to improve their brewing efficiency, seeking to make best use of quality ingredients and even replicating the water profile for a favorite beer. But one area that is often overlooked is efficiency in using water. A typical homebrewer can use 30 gallons…
Share Post