The Right Glass for your Next Home Brew

The right glass can add quality to any beer

It’s true, most people reading this would drink a craft beer or homebrew out of a paper cup and be perfectly satisfied.  But beer has been around a long time, and over that time brew masters, scientists, and engineers have designed, tested, tweaked, and redesigned glasses that are made to perfectly complement a particular beer style.  For example, snifters allow barleywines to be swirled and oxygenated while wheat beer glasses have a wide base to trap yeast; so it would be a shame to allow years of research and fine tuning to go to waste, plus having the right glass for your homebrew could add some quality, not to mention it will look like you know what you’re doing.  Check out the list below to educate yourself on which glasses go with which beers.

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Bud Enters the Home Draft Market

Anheuser-Busch is entering the home draft market.    Seeming to follow suit from Heineken, with their Draughtkeg and Krups Beertender and from Coors and Miller’s pig keg offerings, the Draftmark is making it’s debut in select St. Louis stores this week with Budweiser, Shock Top Belgian White, and Bass Pale Ale on offer.  It will be interesting to see how successful the BIG brewery will be with their home draft system.  The Draftmark fits on a shelf inside your refrigerator, has a rechargeable battery and a “permanent pouring system”. Draftmark owners will be able to buy refills for their system and Bud is claiming freshness for 30 days.

If Bud expands their refill offerings to some of their more exciting brews, like Bodingtons Pub Ale or Stella Artois, they may have a real winner. We here at Brewing and Beer aren’t always kind to the big 3, but we’re always interested in new ways to enjoy beer.  We have only two questions so far: When is the Draftmark going national, and why in the world of beer does it require a battery?

Learn More: www.anheuser-busch.com/s/index.php/anheuser-busch-brings-premium-draft-beer-experience-home-with-draftmark/

A Case for Labeling

The label sets the expectation

It’s a step in brewing process that is often overlooked even though I believe it contributes to the quality of a homebrew just as much as any ingredient in the beer (except hops or malt or any ingredient that actually goes into the beer).  The label is what sets the expectation for the entire drinking experience.  A bottle with an interesting and unique label will be much more remembered than that 2nd IPA you brewed last February without a name in a nondescript brown bottle and handing out a nicely labeled beer is a satisfying, enjoyable gift.  I believe in labeling every beer I make, not only for others, but it helps me remember each specific beer much more vividly.  A great resource I use is a website called BeerLabelizer.com.  It’s a great starting point for a nice looking label plus it’s always fun to add some personal touches as you can see in 2 of my labels above.  So consider this a recommendation to not skip that final step, it’s a great way to increase the quality of your beer.  Prost!

-Travis Neufeld

The Dangers of Hops to Your Pets

Though rare, hop reactions can be fatal

There is somewhat of a mystery to whether or not hops are bad for pets.  With very little data available on the topic (only one veterinary journal article has ever been published) most pet owners are ignorant of the dangers that this all-important ingredient can pose, yet many homebrewers have hops around the house for brewing or may even grow their own in their back yard.  We here at Brewing and Beer love our hops, but we also love our dogs, so continue reading to educate yourself on the dangers hops can present to your pets.

Common Homebrew Off Flavors

It’s a problem all too common in homebrewing and with such a large number of variables that can contribute to off-flavors, Murphy’s Law seems to have quite the advantage.  The most occurring reason for off-flavors is lack of sanitation leading to bacterial contamination but there are still a plethora of other possible culprits.  So if you finally crack open that first homebrew only to find a strange, unwelcome flavor staking out in your bottles, check out this list from morebeer.com, it ought to help determine what caused it and should help you prevent any unwanted tastes in the future.