It’s time to start thinking ahead to what you might want to drink and share with your friends this fall. Are you a fan of pumpkin beer? Oktoberfest? Consider these suggestions as you’re figuring out fall beer recipes are going to be on your homebrewing calendar!

• Oktoberfest – Oktoberfest traditionally kicks off at the end of September, though the beer may be consumed throughout the following months. Oktoberfestbier is a lager, meaning you’ll have to start brewing it several weeks ahead of when you plan to drink it. Be sure to use plenty of Vienna and/or Munich malt if you brew all-grain or choose a German Oktoberfest Recipe Kit if you brew extract or partial mash. Ferment the beer cold using a Bavarian Lager Yeast for best results.

• Pumpkin Ale – With a flavor like pumpkin pie, pumpkin ale seems to be more and more popular every year. Brew a pumpkin ale recipe now and plan to enjoy it from Halloween through Thanksgiving. You can use fresh pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, which will actually contribute fermentable sugar to your homebrew. Consider increasing the grain bill to make an imperial pumpkin ale.

• Hard Apple Cider – Nothing says fall quite like fresh apples. If you live in an area that grows apples, keep an eye out at the farmers market for cider apples or fresh pressed, unpasteurized apple juice. Follow this recipe for a basic cider, but consider adding some herbs or spices to mix it up. Ginger is a flavorful choice.

• American Amber Ale – With a maltier backbone than a pale ale or IPA , a good amber ale is a fantastic choice for a fall beer recipe. It provides a nice transition into the colder months that favor darker, heavier beers. Amber Ales can be either hoppy or malt forward – the balance is up to you. Consider brewing the Phat Tyre Recipe Kit – it’s a clone of New Belgium’s Fat Tire, a malty, biscuity ale with just a hint of Belgian malt for a balanced, nutty flavor and full-bodied mouthfeel.

• Fresh Hop Ale – American hop growers harvest their hops in the late summer and early fall. If you have any growers in your area – or if you grew some hops yourself – try to get your hands on some hops straight from the field. Use them towards the end of the boil to maximize the flavor and aroma you get from those fresh-picked hops. Because fresh or “wet” hops weigh more, you’ll need six to eight times as much as you would using dried hops in pellet form. Try using your wet hops to dry hop a pale ale, IPA, or Black IPA this fall.

Do you have a favorite fall beer recipes? What are some of your favorite fall beers?

If you spend a significant amount of time homebrewing, you’re bound to come across a batch or two that just didn’t turn out as good as you’d hoped. Maybe the flavor is off or your bottles aren’t carbonated enough. Before you throw in the towel and call it quits, there may be something you can do to fix your home brew beer.

Read these tips below for some ideas on how to fix the occasional “off” home brew batch:

1. Beer too flat? If you’ve bottled a batch of homebrew and found it’s too flat, you have several options to add more bubbles to your brew. First, move the bottles into a warmer area and give them some extra time to carbonate. If after a month or so they’re still not where you want them to be, you may be able to add some extra sugar to the bottles. Use your judgment to estimate how much additional priming sugar you need to add. Hopefully, you took notes on how you primed and can make an adjustment for next time.

2. Beer too carbonated? Beer that gushes when you open it can be a nuisance – and it can be pretty embarrassing if you’re trying to impress some friends! The best way to try to fix this home brew problem is to try is to get the bottles extra cold before opening. Either stick them in the freezer for a few minutes or put them in an ice bath. Once they’re ice cold, carefully open the bottles over the sink. If you still get a gusher, you can pour the beer into a pitcher to allow the foam to settle down.

3. Beer too bitter? If you’ve brewed a beer that’s too bitter, it may just need some time to age. Set it aside for a month or so. The extra time can go a long ways towards getting rid of the green beer taste. As a last resort, you can blend the beer with something less bitter to bring it into balance.

4. Beer too sour? Unless you’ve deliberately brewed a sour beer, there’s not much you can do to “fix” a home brew beer that’s gone sour from infection. If you catch it early enough though, you may be able to save it. If you catch it before bottling, you can easily dose the beer with Campden tablets. Otherwise cold crash the beer to slow any microbial growth and drink quickly. Or maybe just embrace the fact that you’ve brewed your first sour beer!

5. Beer too sweet? First we need to identify why the beer is too sweet. Was it a stuck fermentation? Maybe you can add more yeast. Or was it a problem with recipe formulation? Maybe the beer has too much lactose or caramel malt? Blending the beer with a drier batch could help balance it out. Either brew a new batch of the same beer, or try blending the beer in the glass with a complementary beer style. (Black and tan, anyone?)

6. If at first you don’t succeed… If after doing everything you can to save an “off” batch, the beer still doesn’t stack up to your expectations, it may just be time to scrap the batch and try a new one. Remember that each batch is a learning experience. You’re unlikely to repeat the same mistake again, so keep calm and brew on!

The point here is not to get too bent out of shape if your home brew doesn’t come out as planned. Take a deep breath is see if there is any way of fixing your home brew beer.

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David Ackley is a writer, brewer, and craft beer marketing consultant. He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling.

Many homebrewers like to take advantage of a process called “secondary fermentation,” and claim that it improves the quality of their homebrew beer. Secondary fermentation, also known as two-stage fermentation, is simply transferring (“racking”) your homebrew from one fermenter to another. The optimal timing as to when to start the secondary fermentation is up for some debate, but it is about midway through the fermentation process. But why go through the trouble? Is putting your beer through a secondary fermentation really necessary. What are the benefits?
The Pros of Secondary Fermentation for your Beer

Here are a few of the benefits of secondary fermentation:

• It gets the beer off spent yeast sediment. After two or three weeks, yeast starts to break down and contribute off flavors to your beer. Most homebrewers don’t ferment their beer long enough to cause any noticeably problems, but for those who choose to do a longer fermentation, racking the beer into a secondary fermenter or carboy is highly recommended.

• It allows the beer to mature. Time allows the malt, hops, and yeast flavors to blend together and balance.

• It improves clarity by reducing the amount of sediment in the finished beer. Putting your beer through a secondary fermentation allows time for more yeast, hop trub, and protein to fall out of the beer. Adding a fining agent, such as gelatin, into the secondary fermenter can aid in this process significantly.

• It gives the homebrewer an opportunity to “dry-hop” — or “dry-spice” — their beer. Dry-hopping is just adding hops to the secondary fermenter, which contributes hop aroma to the beer. You can also take this opportunity to add spices, flavorings, wood chips, or other additives to your brew.

The Cons of Secondary Fermentation for your Beer

There aren’t many disadvantages to using a secondary fermentation, but they’re worth considering:

• It takes a more time and effort. Yes, it takes some time to transfer or rack your beer to a secondary fermenter. How long it takes varies depending upon your set-up, but usually the time it takes to transfer is much shorter than brew day or bottle day.

• There’s a risk of contamination. By opening your fermenter and passing your beer through a siphoning hose, you risk bacteria or wild yeast getting into your beer. But, as long as you practice good sanitation, you should be fine.

• Potential to lose hop flavor. Hop flavor degrades over time. In most cases, a few weeks won’t make a difference, but if you’re brewing a very hop-forward beer, the length of the fermentation period should be considered.

How to Transfer Your Beer for a Secondary Fermentation
To transfer your beer to a secondary fermenter, keep in eye on the bubbles coming out of the airlock and wait until the fermentation slows down (4-5 days). Clean and sanitize your secondary fermenter and transfer tubing, then add the beer to the secondary fermenter – usually a carboy – by siphoning. Re-seal with an airlock. In 7-14 days, bottle or keg your beer as you would normally.
Do you use a secondary fermentation when you homebrew? When do you start yours? How long do you leave it in the secondary? Leave a comment!
Til next time…Cheers!

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David Ackley is a beer writer, brewer, and self-described “craft beer crusader.” He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder of the Local Beer Blog.

Many homebrewers like to save money. Who doesn’t? One of the first opportunities for saving a few bucks while homebrewing is to reuse beer bottles you buy from the store. Sure, it saves some cash, but it does take a little extra effort. (But at least you get bonus points for being eco-friendly!)
Here’s what you need to do to reuse beer bottles for homebrewing.

1. Don’t save twist-offs. This type of beer bottle doesn’t work well for re-capping. Only save the pry-off style beer bottles for recycling.

2. Brown is better. It’s ok to reuse green and clear glass bottles, but brown ones offer the best protection against UV light. (Light can make your beer taste “lightstruck” or “skunky”.)

3. Love the larger beer bottles. The larger format 22-oz. and 25-oz. bottles are great – fewer bottles to clean and fill. Plus they make great gifts for the holidays!

4. Covet the flip-top. Euro-style bottles with the flip-top are just cool! Reusing these type of beer bottles for homebrewing are well worth the effort.

5. Rinse them out first. Residual beer left at the bottom of a beer bottle is an ideal place for mold and other funky creatures to take hold. Save yourself the trouble of scrubbing out the beer bottles by rinsing them out as soon as you’re done with them. Three quick rinses usually gets the job done, but check inside for residual yeast at the bottom just to be sure.

6. Remove the labels. Plan for this task to take some time. (It’s probably the least favorite part of bottling homebrew, so some homebrewers just leave the labels on.) The best way to remove commercial labels is to soak the bottles in a tub filled with hot water and One Step. In 15-20 minutes, most of the labels – the ones that use a glue adhesive – should slide right off. Others may be more difficult. Make note of the brands whose labels come off easily and those who don’t. Next time you’re looking for a 12-pack, choose accordingly.

With a decent amount of time and elbow-grease, you can soon have a healthy armada of beer bottles!
If you want to avoid some of the work involved in reusing beer bottles for your homebrewing, we carry new beer bottles by the case!

• 12 oz. Amber Bottles
• 22 oz. Amber Bottles
• 16 oz. Flip-top Amber Bottles
• 1L Flip-top Amber Bottles
• 16 oz. Flip-top Bottles – Cobalt Blue

You can also use plastic beer bottles for bottling homebrew. Don’t forget the caps!
Are you reusing beer bottles for your homebrewing operation? How did you get the bottles?
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David Ackley is a writer, brewer, and craft beer marketing consultant. He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder of the Local Beer Blog.

So, you’ve been brewing with malt extract and you’ve got your routine all figured out. The beer’s coming out pretty good, but you’re ready to take it to the next level. Enter: partial mash brewing. Partial mash brewing combines the simplicity of extract brewing with the slightly more advanced part of all-grain brewing called mashing.
The big advantage of partial mash brewing is that you get to learn how to mash without having to buy a lot of extra equipment. If you’re already brewing with malt extract, this is the only additional equipment you need to make the move to partial mash brewing:

• Malted grains – Use with a pound or so of base malt or another lightly kilned malt, like Vienna or 2-Row. Depending on your beer recipe, include a few ounces of specialty grains if you’d like.
• A colander or mesh strainer
• A thermometer.
• pH test papers (though if you have the funds, you should really go for a digital pH meter)
• A stock pot for mashing (a standard kitchen stock pot should be fine)
• Calcium carbonate and gypsum

Unlike steeping grains, as we sometimes do with extract brewing, what we’re going to do here is convert the starches in the grain into fermentable sugars. To do this, we’ll soak the grains in warm water for 30-60 minutes. Here’s the trick: for the naturally-occurring enzymes in the grain to break down the starches, we need to control two important factors: temperature and pH. To properly break down the starches, we want to hold the mash water at a temperature between 150-158F and a pH level between 5.0 and 5.5. That’s it!
Here’s are the basic partial mash brewing instructions. See how it compares with what you’re already doing:

1. Clean and sanitize as you would normally. This something that should be followed, regardless of your brewing method.
   

2. Add 1-1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain to your stock pot.

3. Heat the water to about 170°F. Since the grain is at room temperature, we heat the water a little above the ideal mash temperature. When we add the grains, we should be right in range.

4. Add the crushed grain to the stock pot. Stir well to avoid clumping.

5. Check the pH of your mash. If it’s above 5.5, add 1/4 tsp. of gypsum and stir. If it’s below 5.0, add 1/4 tsp. calcium carbonate and stir. Adjust until you’re in the proper range.

6. Check the temperature of your mash. Hold the temperature as close to 154°F as possible. If below 150°F, add heat and stir. If above 158°F, add a little cold water and stir.

7. Mash for about 60 minutes, adjusting temperature as needed.

8. At the end of your mash, pour the mash through a strainer into your brew kettle. Recirculate the wort through your grains as needed to clarify.

9. Add water to reach your desired boil volume and proceed as if you were brewing with extract.

There you have it: basic partial mash brewing instructions. That’s not too hard, is it?
Partial mash brewing is an easy way for homebrewers to transition from extract brewing to all-grain. Once you master the mash technique, you’re ready to brew all-grain!
Questions? Feel free to ask in the comments section!
Til next time…Cheers!
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David Ackley is a beer writer, brewer, and self-described “craft beer crusader.” He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder of the Local Beer Blog.