Jay's Brewing Blog

Specialty grains can be used to make the beer more, “Complex” in the malty aspect, but another part that makes the beer more complex is the hops.  Now hops can either be the main focal point of your beer or they can be used just to accent your grains and the flavors that come from […]

How do you make your own recipe?   So many homebrewers get into brewing beer because this was ultimately their dream, to come up with a recipe of their own that was perfect to their palate.  I get asked a lot, and I mean, A LOT, “How do I go about making my own recipe?”.  So I’m writing […]

Sometimes I get asked, “What is the difference between alpha and beta acids for hops?”.  Well I can tell you, but I must warn you – beer nerd talk is about to get put into full throttle. When it comes to hops there are usually two types that come to mind: 1) Alpha Acids 2) Beta […]

With the super bowl around the corner, if you don’t have a homebrew made for the occasion I don’t know how else to tell you – you’re out of luck.  I did however find this article and it was very well done on pairing micro brews for the big game.  It was done well enough […]

Pineapple wine is a pretty nice wine to have in the summer time when you are hanging out pool side.  While it may be hard to think that about the summer when we’re are in the midst of winter, the wine itself will have to age so doing it now will put you in perfect […]

In the past I’ve been a huge advocate for liquid yeast over dry yeast.  I’ve been on this dry yeast kick with my brews though. I wanted to put together a quick profile page for some danstar yeast.  Hopefully I can get around to some other types of dry yeast as well this week.  Everything […]

This is from a customer that was kind enough to share his carboy explosion. When I see these I just think one thing, “epic”.  If you are curious to what type of beer it was, it was an Irish Red with WLP023.                   Hope it brings a […]

What is the big difference between Belgian Candi Sugar and sugar cane from the store?  I mean it’s sugar right?  Well there are some differences, and at the end of this I hope to bring some clarification to this discussion.  Also I hope not to ruffle to many feathers on this discussion.   But at […]

If you are like me, the week before Saint Patrick’s  Day I’m making my beer because of bad planning.  Well not this year!  I’ve been planning out this one for a while. This year is different.  I’ve marked this beer down for a while thanks to the brewing calendar.  If you want to know, Saint Patrick’s Day […]

This will be a short post but a post that is well  needed.  Recently a few customers have come up to me with a question about if their carboy has scratches can they still use it.  Yes, yes you can. Many people are concerned about bacteria or other micro’s dwelling in the scratches.  I don’t […]