Jay's Brewing Blog

Vegetable wine is always a weird one to make.  Usually when you say something like, “Ya, you are drinking beet wine” most people will raise an eyebrow.   The only reason why I started to make this one is because I grow beets in my garden.  I usually get so many that I don’t know what to do […]

Barley Wines are a pretty cool beer to have.  Quickly they are turning into one of my favorite winter time beers to drink.  If you have not had one before, I highly suggest that you go and buy one while it is still the season to be drinking them. Also if you live the D.C […]

A great beer to have on tap is an ESB. So what is an ESB?  ESB stands for Extra Special Bitter.  It’s a British style beer and one that is very much like our Pale Ale.  A normal Bitter is about 3.8%, the extra special ones are  above 4.8%.  This particular one is 5.7%.  ESB […]

You can freeze yeast?  You bet you can! This post really goes with the conjunction of the how to make starters post we did last week.   Harvesting, and freezing yeast is simply a great way to save money on brewing beer which only means one thing – you can brew more beer.   This post is […]

If you are interested in growing your own hops this year, it’s time to start looking for them.  Here is a short article on growing your own hops which may prove to be useful.  I have grown hops every year for some time now.  They are honestly pretty easy to grow and a fun way to […]

This is a wine/mead that I’ve made in the past and it turns out pretty well.  I can remember making this with my uncle when I was just a kid.  Today a lot of people call it, “Apple Jack”.  I’m not really sure if it’s the same thing, I just call it, “Apple Mead”.  It […]

On days where I am on the blog it usually starts off with looking for great finds on the internet.  Today I found something that is worth sharing for sure.   This is an e-book that is for homebrewing, it is 300 home brew tips for free.  The catch is that you need to have a kindle […]

I’m rooting for Alabama on this one!  As of now Alabama does not permit homebrewing , it is still illegal.  Up here in VA we don’t even give a second thought to homebrewing but down there, not the case.  I’m hoping that this new bill will pass so one more state in the Union can homebrew.  Check […]

If you are trying to get into the world of darker beers but you just aren’t ready for a stout yet, this might be a good beer to try out.   This style of beer is called, “Robust Porter”, they have an explosion of bold flavors and what some refer to as, “purple” in color. […]

As of late I hear about yeast starters.  Seems as if everyone is doing one.  Truth be told, I do not make yeast starters.  I’ve done them so I can learn how to do them, but I just don’t make them for my beers.  Call it laziness, call it product of habit, but how I learned how […]