BYO Magazine Review: August 2012 By: Ben Bakelaar
Notes from BYO August 2012
Today I review the July/August 2012 issue (Vol. 18, No. 4) of Brew Your Own. At 8 issues per year for only $28, this is a deal you can’t afford to pass up. Chock full of homebrew goodness in every issue, this might even actually have more information per issue than Zymurgy.
ON THE COVER
- Going old school with old style
- Award-winning homebrew labels
- Making a Belgian Dark Strong ale
- Brewing great beer with American hops
- Get real making cask ales
- Build a brew system water filter
- Repitching beer yeast
EDUCATE YOURSELF AT BYO.COM
- Try Dry Hopping - this article from Sept. 2003 provides an overview and details on dry hopping
- More On Hops - watch a quick 3 minute video on how versatile hops can be
- Label Love - see a gallery of the 2012 homebrew label contest winners!
- Brew 1776-Style - this article from Nov. 2006 shows how one homebrewer brewed a traditional porter without any modern equipment. Can’t get much more authentic than that!
LOOK FOR
- On page 8, they have a “Homebrew Nation Reader Profile” which reviews one homebrewer’s setup per issue. It’s a great learning experience to see how similar your setup is to other people’s. This brewer provides a strong scotch ale recipe.
- On page 11, there is an article about how to read a water report. At only one page, it skips most of the chemistry and detailed science, just giving you what you need to know. I recently contacted my local water supply company and requested a water report. It wasn’t easy, and they didn’t have anything online. And in fact, I still haven’t received the report. If anyone else has the water report for North Brunswick, please share!
- On page 16, the “Help Me Mr. Wizard” column reviews the “hopbursting” method, which essentially is using large amounts of hops late in the boil. You may have already been doing this without even knowing it had such a cool name!
- For those in love with malty Belgians, you’ll want to check out page 19’s “Style Profile” in which Jamil Zainasheff (the one, the famous) goes over the Belgian Dark Strong Ale style, as defined by BJCP. At 4 pages including an all-grain and an extract recipe, you won’t find more details about this style unless you buy a book.
- Page 34 starts the feature article on the “C” hops - that’s Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, and Columbus. The article is 5 pages long, and includes 2 pages of recipes (1 American Pale Ale, 1 American IPA, and 1 Double IPA, both extract and all-grain versions) and 1 page describing the characteristics of Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Columbus, Amarillo, Simcoe, Citra, and Willamette. Between these 8 hops you have 20 single/double combinations to choose from that are generally guaranteed to come out balanced and tasty, if not even familiar from commercial brews!
- Have you considered doing a cask ale at home? Well then head right over to pages 46 through 55 where you’ll find all the info you could ever need to do this at home.
- The following pages have brief articles on recycling your yeast (second generation), temperature control, and a DIY water filter.
|
Home Brewing Kits
