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Bière de garde is a malty style of beer that is undiscovered to many. Translated to “beer for keeping,” the style was traditionally brewed in Northern France. Comparable to a Belgian saison, this beer is known for its malt-focused, toasty taste, and slight sweetness.

Visually, it is clear to slightly hazy, and the color is light amber to chestnut brown or red, largely dependent on which variation it is: blond, brown, or amber. This malt-forward brew’s hop aroma, flavor, and bitterness are low to medium, often with a soft to mouth-coating body.… Read the rest “Bière de Garde: ‘A Breath of Fresh Air’”

Move over light lagers, we’ve got something big to talk about.

Eisbock—pronounced “ice-bock”—is a German-style dark lager with a strength (9-14% alcohol by volume) rivaled only by the strong malt flavors. The eisbock-making process typically involves a freeze distilling/concentrating step as well as extended periods of lagering.

Ready to get started? Try out these 5 gold medal-winning eisbock recipes from the National Homebrew Competition.

For even more world-class beer recipes, including hundreds of NHC winners, visit the AHA’s Homebrew Recipe Library.

The King of Eisbocks!

Bock

The King of Eisbocks!

… Read the rest “5 Medal-Winning Eisbock Homebrew Recipes”

By Chris Williams, National Homebrew Competition Director

Get ready to show off your brewing skills, and let’s have some fun! Registration for the 2024 National Homebrew Competition (NHC), the world’s largest homebrew competition, opens later this month, on Tuesday, February 27, at 10:00 a.m. MT and will be open through Friday, March 15, or until capacity is reached.

For details about this year’s competition, please read my Director’s Update and visit the website. Key dates and locations are listed below.

First Round Receiving & Judging

• The NHC is organized by first round regional judging sites, with a shift in timing from previous years.

Mash at 122°F (50°C) for 30 min, 152°F (67°C) for 75 min, 168°F (76°C) for 10 min. Sparge with 180°F (82°C) water. Boil for 90 min. Hops used in boil included homegrown Centennial hops aged at room temperature for 4 years, and other low-alpha hop pellets set out at room temperature for a few years.

Pitched Roeselare Ale Blend and added dregs from a few wild fermentation beers I enjoyed. Fermented at basement temperatures between 62°F (17°C) and 72°F (22°C) year-round.

Brewed this five times over the course of about 14 months with minor variations due to ingredients on hand in order to step up the culture by re-pitching fresh wort on yeast cake/culture and transferring clearing wort into secondary fermenter.… Read the rest “Bière Vide Lambic”

Since the rise of craft beer back in the 1980s and 90s, we’ve seen trend after trend come and go. And as more and more breweries opened and beers were introduced to the masses, brewers needed to find ways to set themselves apart from the glut. So, they tinkered.

With beer, you have some leeway to throw ingredients at the proverbial wall to see if they stick. Some do, and some don’t.

In the case of this trending style, the smoothie sour, it all started with the original, fruited sour and its similar brethren, such as the Gose.… Read the rest “Cheesecake and Ice Cream and Blueberry, Oh My: The Allure of Smoothie Sours”

The board of directors of the Brewers Association, the 501(c)(6) parent organization of the American Homebrewers Association (AHA), recently met and approved a restated set of association bylaws. The existing bylaws were drafted last century, had undergone many amendments over the decades, and needed modernization to comply with current best practices. 

A summary of substantive changes related to the AHA includes the following: 

• Board Size: The Brewers Association board size will be reduced to 18 beginning in February of 2024, then reduced again to 17 beginning with its first board meeting of 2025.

Imagine this: You wake up one day and feel all of your senses tingling. You aren’t sure what’s wrong, but they’re on fire. No matter what you do, you have no choice but to feel them every moment. That’s what autism feels like to me, and it’s a part of my identity.

Growing up, it was difficult to find environments that gave me a sense of belonging. I have had to adapt to various situations that don’t have accommodations for me. For example, some places host music events, which can get a bit loud for me (no shade toward the musical acts themselves).… Read the rest “I’m Autistic, and Beer Helped Me Come Out of My Shell”

Note: This recipe is intended to produce 10 gallons of beer. Noah brewed five more gallons at the same time, so there was a total of 15 gallons brewed (give or take) to split into three 5-gallon batches, each with a different yeast.

Single infusion mash at 152°F (66.7°C) for 60 minutes with ~36.84 quarts of water. Batch sparge with 8 gallons of water. Pre-Boil volume (approx.): 13.31 gallons (50.4 L)

Boil for 60 minutes, following the boil additions as listed in the ingredients. At the end of the boil, chill to fermentation temperatures as specified by the yeast packets (bug inoculations).… Read the rest “Can’t Wait To See Where This Gueuze”