Skip to main content

Brewing Resources

Here are some of my favorite brewing resources on the Internet, in case they're of value to you:

NOTE:  Unless explicitly indicated below, I do not receive compensation for your use of any of the links below or your purchase of anything from any linked vendors. These are just my recommendations and references I find useful.  These items may or may not suit your needs or brewing approach, so I recommend doing your own research and forming your own opinions before spending money on them or using them.

Homebrew shops I recommend:

Products I am particularly fond of:
  • iMake's The Grainfather - I've found this to be a reliable system capable of producing award-winning beers in the right hands.
  • SS Brew Tech - I'm fond of their conical fermenters and own a few
  • Anvil 4-gallon Fermenters - I have three of these and am very happy with them
  • Exchilerator Maxx Wort Chiller - a great counterflow wort chiller that's easy to setup, easy to use, and works extremely well
  • Tilt Hydrometer and Tilt Pi - revolutionized fermentation monitoring for me, provides near-real-time information on wort gravity and temperature, with logging to Brewfather and Google Sheets
  • Brewfather App - Something like a more modern, multi-platform, web-based version of BeerSmith or Beer Tools Pro.  It can handle your brewing supply inventory, equipment profiles, recipes, provide fermentation tracking, and more.
  • BrewJacket Immersion Pro Fermentation Temperature Control - when I need precise control over fermentation temperature, I use one of these
  • Williams Brewing Rack and Pinion Capper - no longer available anywhere I can find, this bench mounted capper is hands-down my favorite capper.  It can cap a 12-ounce bottle, then a 22-ounce bottle, then a 16-ounce bottle without having to do any more than spin a wheel. It's made of metal throughout so there's less likelihood of failure. I've even been able to cap twist-off bottles with it.

Here are some links I find useful from time to time:
I'll add more as I discover useful things.




Comments

Post a Comment

Note that comments to this blog are moderated in order to minimize spam comments and things that might be offensive to readers.

Popular posts from this blog

2022 Batch 01 - St. Gambrinus Spiced Holiday Ale (Kit)

I purchased a St. Gambrinus Spiced Holiday Ale Kit from Great Fermentations in Indianapolis a few weeks ago and decided to get it made today... a tad late for the holidays, but it will give me a good idea if I like the recipe for next Christmas. The kit basically comes as a bag of crushed grain with a packet of Northern Brewer hops.  You supply your own spices and order yeast separately. Ingredients 8.5 pounds Two-Row Brewer's Malt 2 pounds Munich Dark Malt 1 pound Honey Malt 8 ounces Simpsons Dark Crystal Malt 0.5 ounces Northern Brewer hops (60 min.) 0.5 ounces Northern Brewer hops (30 min.) 1 package White Labs Edinburgh Scottish Ale yeast 1 tsp. Irish Moss (15 min.) 0.5 oz. Bitter Orange Peel (10 min.) 2 cinnamon sticks (I used 3) (10 min.) 0.5 tsp. Ground Ginger (10 min.) 0.25 tsp. Allspice (secondary) 0.25 oz. Ground Cardamom (secondary) 0.25 oz. Ground Cinnamon (secondary) 1 Tbsp. pH 5.2 Stabilizer added to mash after grain 6.8 gallons of RO water, treated with: 3 grams Gyps...
Post a Comment
Read more

2021 Batch 16/17 - Horseman's Pumpkin Ale Kit from Great Fermentations

Although there are a few pumpkin spice ales on the market that I enjoy (Hoppin' Frog's Double Pumpkin, Samuel Adams Fat Jack, and Heavy Seas Great'r Pumpkin come to mind first), I've yet to brew a pumpkin spice ale that I have been happy with.  Either I didn't feel like the base beer was quite right, or the spice mix was too "something" (insert random pie spice there) forward, it was too hop-forward, or it was wrong in some other way.  This year, I decided to try the kit from Great Fermentations in Indiana to see if I liked that any better than previous brews. Ingredients 9 pounds 2-row Brewer's Malt 1 pound Munich Malt 8 ounces Crystal 40L Malt 15 ounces Canned Pumpkin (not included in kit) 1/4 tsp. Brewtan B (my addition to kit) 1 ounce Glacier Hops 1/2 tsp. Brewtan B (my addition to kit) 1 tsp. Irish Moss (15 min.) 0.5 tsp. Ground Cinnamon (not included in kit) 0.5 tsp. Vanilla extract (not included in kit) 0.5 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice (not included i...
Post a Comment
Read more

2022 Batch 02 - Pecan Brandy Mead

I watched an episode of Moonshiners: Master Distiller   late in 2020 where one of the contestants made a Pecan Brandy that he (and the judges) described as being very tasty, like drinking a pecan pie.  I thought that sounded good, and although distilling it into brandy would not be a legal option for me, turning it into a mead would be quite possible and might be good. The recipe as described on the show was pretty simple... honey, water, yeast, and pecans. Ingredients 12 pounds of Wildflower Honey 2 pounds of Pecans, crushed and ground 4 gallons of water, treated with some gypsum 1 tsp. yeast nutrient 1 package of Premier Des Cotes champagne yeast Batch Size: 5.0 gallons (actual and estimated) Original Gravity:  1.090 (actual and estimated) Final Gravity:   0.984 (estimated) Brewing Instructions Bring water to a boil and sterilize wort chiller. Add half the pecans in a muslin bag.  Add the other half, in a different muslin bag, to the fermenter. Gradually add ...
Post a Comment
Read more