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This year my wife and I are planning to continue our tradition of giving homebrewed beer as a holiday gift to our friends and family. We began this tradition two years ago with what was our second ever batch of all-grain beer. The beer was built on the basic framework of a Belgian dubbel but featured a roasted acorn squash in the mash and extra spices in the boil and fermenter. The end result was a very rich and spicy holiday drink.  We made some labels for the beer and proceeded to gift it to many of our friends and...

Fourth year University of Waterloo chemical engineering students Krislea, Jen, and Francesca (along with their mechanical engineering counterpart Melissa, who couldn’t make it today) are brewing up a unique Fourth Year Design Project (FYDP). Instead of following the usual path of pursuing projects in green energies or sustainable food production, they’ve decided to turn their attentions to homebrewing and beer education. Today, Rob and I had the pleasure of working with Krislea, Jen and Francesca on the pilot batch of their brUW Brown Ale. Rob guided the team through the brew, while I documented the action and answered questions about...

Author Bio: Today's blog post comes from dedicated locavore and passionate diy'er Jon Spee. Jon has been homebrewing for two-and-a-half years, and has been writing about it ever since on his fantastic blog, localkitchener.ca. In addition to beer talk, check out his site for information about everything from gardening to meal plans. Before moving to the area, Jon taught high school science and Spanish for seven years.        As the days grow shorter and colder the allure of several hours of brewing outdoors fades for me. My friends and I brew in my garage in the winter but since it’s unheated...

Before I jump into the recipe for Quiet Rye-ot, I would like to again thank Rob and Gian down at Abe Erb for being such accommodating brewing partners and hosts. One of the perks of my currently un-paying job is getting to go out and brew with other brewers in the areas. This includes professional brewers and likeminded homebrewers. It really is a pleasure to be able to reach out to the community and work with so many different people. Well then. Sappy, thank you hugfest accomplished. Let’s move on to the actual beer.   Why this brew? For those who spoken to...

Underpitching yeast to your wort on brew day can lead to off flavours in your final product and may impede the yeast’s ability to fully ferment your beer (called under-attenuation). One of the easiest ways to improve your beer is to pitch an adequate amount of yeast in your wort. In order to achieve a proper pitch rate, you’re left with only a few options. In most cases, this means purchasing several packages of yeast or creating a yeast starter to achieve your desired cell count. Since yeast is quite expensive, most people choose to create starters. The general idea...