Knowing a RIMS from a DIMS comes in handy when you encounter a stainless steel brewing system and it’s essential when you set out to buy or build your own. We trace the history of brewing technology from hewn logs to HERMS to show what’s available today and where the ideas and technology came from.

Quiz your palate and interrogate your taste buds to decide on your personal list of America’s top beers and then vote.

In the early years, the AHA survived on heartfelt commitment and homebrew as volunteers chipped in to create the organizationthat we know today. We caught up with some of the founding staff members to find out what life was like before computers and color printing.

Covers weren’t always colorful but they have certainly been playful. From bathtub-bound Colonels to beachwear supermodels, Zymurgy covers have chronicled homebrewing in every walk of life.

The first issue of Zymurgy rolled off the presses shortly after President Carter signed the law legalizing homebrewing in 1978. If you missed that first 12-page issue, we show you the actual first two pages with complete text of the articles they introduced.

When Charlite Papazian was still drinking cream soda, Fred Eckhardt was already well familiar with what was then a wretched world of homebrewing. Starting “before the beginning”, he tells us how that all changed.

Funny stories, odd items and just plain “back then” reminisciences from the days of homebrews past.

This special installment of Winners Circle includes the recipe for every Homebrewer of Year beer from the founding of the National Homebrew Competition in 1979 to the present.

In all respects, beer color is a slippery thing. Brewers quantify it with a single number and yet not all 10 SRM beers look the same. And just how do you get from malt color to beer color in some meaningful way? Our man of beer arts and sciences has the answers.

American craft beers often display a bit of haze and may look downright muddy. But as homebrewers, we want our friends and fellow brewers to be impressed with our beers, and a nasty haze can make a bad first impression. Here’s the lowdown on clarifying the situation.