If you have ever made a fruit, floral or vegetable wine yourself you will probably be familiar with the term “champagne yeast”. You are probably thinking, why use champagne yeast, what is champagne yeast and why is it any different to other yeast strains. Champagne yeast has some very useful attributes that make it perfect […]
Pomegranate is a peculiar fruit and when I was thinking about making a pomegranate wine all I could think about was all those seeds. Fear not, this recipe is really simple to make and results in a great wine that is tannic and refreshing at the same time. The part of the pomegranate you eat […]
Blackberry mead or melomel is one of my favourites and has all the qualities of a blackberry wine but the added complexity of the honey. The mead finishes a dark ruby red and makes use of the abundant blackberries that grow wild all around where I live in the UK. You could also go to […]
Rosehips are the fruit of the rose plant and although they are bright red and full of hairy pips which need to be removed they are edible (or drinkable). Rosehip wine is one of the best country wines especially in the range of fruits that make a lighter coloured wine. What Are Rosehips? Rosehips, which […]
There are all sorts of ways of using hops to add, bitterness, flavour, and aroma. A hop stand is used by brewers trying to maximise hop aroma and capture those volatile compounds in hops that might be driven off when added earlier in the brewing process. What Is A Hop Stand? A hop stand is […]
Getting to grips with brewing, especially after doing basic kits means learning a lot of techniques and new terminology. A whirlpool falls into this category, what at first seems opaque and technical is a relatively simple process once you know what it is. In this article, we will cover what whirlpooling a beer means, what […]
Mango is one of my favourite fruits. I love that tropical, sweet, juicy flavour and although I have used it in beer and mead I have hadn’t made a mango wine until recently. Mango wine is bright, golden yellow and has that tropical flavour unique to mango. You might be thinking about having to deal […]
Yeast attenuation is a measure of how much of the sugar in a beer wort or wine must a yeast will ferment. In this article, we will take a look at what attenuation actually means, how to measure it and why we should think about the attenuation of the yeast we select. The Difference Between […]
Nottingham yeast is one of the most versatile and popular yeast strains on the market for homebrewers. Nottingham is a dry yeast strain produced by Lallemand, it has a clean and neutral profile and is synonymous with English style beers. It is a proven fast and quick fermenter and can finish quite dry even in […]
Entrepreneurial brewers, especially German emigrants bought their knowledge and techniques for brewing lager and adapted to the conditions of California and the result is Steam beer. As time moved on and refrigeration became widely available lager became more dominant until steam beer became a thing of the past.
Anchor Brewing which has existed and nearly disappeared multiple times introduced Anchor Steam in 1971 which was based on the pre-prohibition recipes of the late 1800s. Showcasing Northern Brewer hops and fermented with lager yeast at ale fermenting temperature Anchor Steam is a truly unique beer.