Educational Seminars and Guest Speakers for Your Homebrew Club
Effectively coordinate educational topics and speakers for your homebrew club to promote continued learning, active membership, and club longevity. Homebrew clubs that encourage members to remain up to date and informed are much more successful than so-called “drinking clubs.” This seminar will help you start a regular educational segment at…
Everyone’s Second Favorite Liquid: Basic Water Comprehension for Homebrewing
Brewing water can be an intimidating topic for homebrewers. In this talk, we will cover the water basics every brewer should know and learn how to improve your beer through water treatment. This session will be light on chemistry and big on practical advice.
Fair to Middlings: Using Flour Milling By-Products to Boost Grain Flavor in Any Beer
It can be difficult to brew low-ABV beers that have great grain character. One can compensate by using more specialty malts, but this is not feasible for some styles. Wheat (or rye) middlings are by-products of flour production that contain the outer layers of the grain and a bit of…
Ferment THAT!
Fermented foods have a long history and are currently a hot commodity. This seminar will build on some of the basics of fermentation and types of microbes involved in fermented foods like kimchi, kombucha, vinegar, sausage, sauerkraut, hot sauces, cheese, and many more! In this sequel to Ferment THIS from…
Flavor Impacts of Brett Fermentation under Pressure
It is a popular belief that fermenting with Brettanomyces under pressure yields a funkier outcome. Let's put it to the test!
Gluten-Free Brewing: Choosing the Best Grains for Taste, Texture, and Color
Robert Keifer has been gluten-free since 2010 and became tired of never having any beer to drink. After discovering gluten-free beer, he immersed himself in learning everything there is to know about brewing. He aspires to put his beers on the map at the Great American Beer Festival® Pro-Am Competition…
Hexes, Hops, and Herstory: A Call to Action
“Hexes, Hops, and Herstory” is a brewing project and a call to action! Inspired by history, this movement engages women beer lovers to become beer brewers in the modern day. Learn more about the history of women in beer and their association with the iconography of witches, as well as…
Homebrewing Microcomputers and Microbrewing Homebrew: Smithsonian Research on Homebrewing and Craft Beer History
Smithsonian Curator Curator Theresa McCulla, Ph.D., presents new research on early homebrew clubs, computing clubs, and the entrepreneurial and intellectual “ferment” of northern California in the 1970s.
How to Facilitate a Club Barrel-Aging Program and Produce Quality Beer
The Nordeast Brewers Alliance has been running a barrel-aging program since 2012. Our French oak barrel project was featured on Chop & Brew episode 7, “Roll Out the Barrels.” In this presentation, we will outline ways to facilitate a club barrel program and produce a successful experience for the club…
How to Survive Your Local Homebrew Competition
Want to host a homebrew competition? Ever coordinated a competition before? If so, then you know how fortunate you are to be alive right now. Join our team of battle-hardened competition coordinators for tactical insights on how to survive and conquer your competition. You will hear our war stories, learn…
Imperial Stout: 300 Years in the Making
Join this duo of time-traveling homebrewer historians as they explore the evolution, near-death, and rebirth of Imperial Stout!
Improving the Quality of Your Sour Beer through Blending
Rarely is one carboy free of off flavors while also expressing the right balance of acidity and funk. Blending is one way to make consistently good sour beer most of the time. Brewers will learn how to blend to achieve a better, more consistent flavor in their beers.
In Gourd We Trust: An In-Depth Look at the Style, History, and Brewing Techniques for Pumpkin Beer
It’s time to shut down the pumpkin beer haters! This presentation will take a detailed look at the history of pumpkin beer, cover the rise of “pumpkin spice” culture and its effect on the style, get into the nitty-gritty of fruit flavor and selection, and look at recipes and techniques…
In Search of the Haze: Adjuncts, Malts & Hazy IPAs
Malt is the soul of beer, crafted by transforming barley into packages of starch that enzymes can convert to yeast-fermentable sugars. While new varieties of barley are formulated, tested, and approved every year, malting companies continue to innovate beyond that by developing new techniques for extracting unique flavor profiles that…
International Homebrewer Panel
Homebrewing is popular around the world! Join this panel discussion as international homebrewers share their experiences and help Homebrew Con attendees learn more about homebrewing scenes beyond the United States.
Kimchi for the Homebrewer
Learn how to make kimchi at home. It’s easy and delicious! Kimchi can easily be customized to your personal preferences, too. Many of the principles involved with kimchi can also be applied to other fermented foods.
Kombucha: Ancient History, Current Impact, and Future Potential
Our panel of experts will explore the history of kombucha from its earliest documented existence to its evolution into a commercially significant product. We will explore the intriguing and complex microbiology that underlies this mixed fermentation and culminates in the physical development of the symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast…
Late Hopping versus Dry Hopping: Tailoring Hop Aroma Expression and Character by Choosing the Right Addition Timing
Have you ever wondered why your Simcoe hop addition is fruity when added as a late-kettle addition but “catty” as a dry hop? If you want your Hallertau to express more spice notes than vegetal character, should you add it late in the boil or dry hop with it? Join…
Macbeth! The Brutal Truth about Scottish Beer
Join beer historian Ronald Pattinson as he highlights the last two centuries of Scottish beer history and debunks many myths that have sprung up around Scottish brewing. Ron will discuss ingredients, brewing techniques, beers styles, and how each of these has developed and evolved over the years.
Making Extract Beer That Rivals All-Grain Brewing
Learn how to use extracts and specialty grains to brew beer that rivals all-grain brewing. We’ll cover recipe formulation and techniques that enable homebrewers to make superior beers with basic equipment and good planning.
Mastering Cider: Tips for Making Better Cider from Master Cidermakers
Join this panel of experienced home cidermakers to have your burning questions about cider answered. Each panelist will offer in-depth tips on how to improve as a cidermaker. Come with an open mind and an inquisitive palate.
Mastering Mead Making
Learn how time, temperature, nutrients, honey source & age, and your water source all affect the quality of mead.
Maximizing Variety with a Single Brew Day: How to Get Four Distinct Beer Styles from a Single Five-Hour Brew Session
You used to brew a few times a month and keep a variety of styles on tap. But now you have a child, and suddenly your significant other isn’t cool with your leaving him or her to be a single parent every other weekend. I am here to share what…
Mead from 70 to 1750 CE: Inspirations and Lessons from 2,000 Recipes on Ingredients, Methods, and Styles
Using a proprietary catalog of more than 2,000 recipes drawn from primary sources, this presentation gives an overview of ingredients, methods, and styles for historical meads from before 1750. The focus is on overall trends in meads and interesting outliers covering styles, strength, ingredients (from almost 300 identified herbs, spices,…
Mead Magic: Tips from Master Meadmakers
So, you want to make great mead, but you’re running into issues or need advice? Look no further! The master meadmakers are here to help. We’ll serve some mead and answer your questions to get your mead to the next level.
Medieval Gruit Ales Reconstructed: New Theories about Old Beverages
Gruit as a product changed throughout its history. From a beer additive revered for its fermenting powers, it evolved into a beer with a reputation for powerful headache-causing herbals. The exact nature of gruit was once thought to be lost, but available sources paint an interesting picture of gruit, not…
More Smoked Beer! Using Oak-Smoked Wheat Malt for More Than Grätzer
Do you enjoy smoked beer? Have you tried smoked beer? In this session, you’ll try five different beers brewed with oak-smoked wheat malt. Sample a saison, an oaked English pale ale, an American barleywine, a doppelbock, and a peach Berliner weisse, all brewed with oak-smoked wheat malt. This malt is…
Often Overlooked in New Brewery Ventures: Quality, Safety, and Sustainability beyond the Garage
Things change when you scale up from a homebrew batch to your first commercial brewery, and we aren’t just talking recipe dynamics. Energy supplies and waste production increase substantially. Quality issues can cost real money and break reputations when batches are bigger. And the increased power of commercial brewery chemicals…
Oxidation Effects in Beer
There are hundreds of compounds in beer that change as it oxidizes. Simple sensory descriptions of oxidation often focus on a limited set of effects, particularly those common to pale lagers. However, oxidation effects over time are much wider in the full range of beer styles. Grandmaster beer judge Gordon…
Physiology of Alternative Yeasts and Bacteria: How to Use Unique Organisms to Emphasize Flavors in Beer
Saccharomyces and Brettanomyces create more than just ethanol and carbon dioxide during fermentation. Metabolic compounds can enhance beer flavor (e.g. fruitiness, spiciness) or detract from it (e.g. vegetal, fusel). Additional organisms can complicate these profiles. Fermenting with Kluyveromyces, Zygosaccharomyces, Torulaspora, Pichia, Metschnikowia, Hanseniaspora, and Zymomonas can create complicated interactions between…
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