This Web site is dedicated to my favorite hobby -- brewing beer!

Note: If you're looking for an on-line "how to get started" guide, check out John Palmer's "How To Brew" site, and the Library at The Brewery (see the "links" section, below).

Mike's Home Brewing News

June 27, 2004

• The 2004 National Homebrewers Conference was a blast. I had a great time, and hope to attend next year's conference as well. The club I belong to (Urban Knaves of Grain) won 4 gold medals in the NHC second round, and my friend Joe Formanek won the Meadmaker of the Year award! (And I also have a few words of wisdom for any other traveling homebrewers out there: Don't ever try to check a full 5 gallon corny keg as luggage, even if the airline and the TSA has told you on the phone that it is OK to do so. I speak from first-hand experience here.)
  
• The spreadsheet that I use for formulating my own beer recipes is now available online. See the "Tech Stuff" section (below).
• Interesting beer find... I was downtown for a meeting last week, and stopped in at Sam's Wine and Spirits. They had a beer there that I'd never seen before: Aventinus Weizen Eisbock. Yes, that's right... a Weizen Eisbock! Now, I've been a big fan of the Aventinus Weizenbock for years, so I just had to give this one a try. If the Weizenbock is "Weizen on steroids", the Eisbock is "Weizenbock on steroids" -- big, chewy, malty, incredibly alcoholic, and quite delicious. I hope they continue to produce it.
  

May 11, 2004

• The Mike's Brew Page site is now hosted on my own web server, justbrewit.net. I hope to be making more frequent updates to this page, after several years of neglect.
  
• You are also invited to check out the homebrew site created by my friend (and fellow member of the Urban Knaves of Grain homebrew club) Tom Dennis: Tom's brewing page.
• Check out the pictures from the 2004 Drunk Monk Challenge.
• Only a few days left to register for the 26th Annual National Homebrewer's Conference at the reduced "early bird" registration rates! I hope to see you there!
  

Recipe Library

Here are some of my favorite beer recipes...

• Odyssey Wit
• Orangeblossom Honey Ale
• Dragon's Breath IPA
• Apocalypse Alt
• Kitchen Sink Porter
• Old '98 Barleywine

Tech Stuff

Articles on various technical aspects of home brewing...

• Recipe Spreadsheet New!
  
• Making Yeast Starters
• The Yeast Zone: Personal Experiences With Various Yeast Strains
• What Is Extraction Efficiency?
• Potential extract table for various types of malt
• Understanding Specific Gravity and Attenuation
• Reconditioning Old Firestone Soda Kegs
• False Bottom or Screen?

Miscellaneous

Random homebrew-related stuff...

• Mike's Big Brewing Glossary (definitions of brewing-related terms)
• So you want to enter a homebrew competition (homebrew competition FAQ)
• Making bottle cap labels on your inkjet printer

Links To Other Useful Sites

A grab bag of assorted homebrew-related sites from all around the Web...

• The Brewery - http://hbd.org/brewery/index.html.   Excellent source of information on many aspects of home brewing.
• The Homebrew Digest - http://hbd.org.  Great on-line discussion forum which describes itself as a "Forum on beer, homebrewing, and related issues".  Generally a lot more technical than the rec.crafts.brewing newsgroup (which is also a great forum, by the way)..
• John Palmer's "How To Brew" site - http://www.howtobrew.com.   Excellent on-line reference, which takes you all the way from brewing your first extract batch, to all-grain mashing.
• The Real Beer Page - http://realbeer.com. Lots of stuff about beer in general.
• Beer Judge Certification Program - http://www.bjcp.org. Interested in becoming a certified beer judge? This is the place. Their site also has a downloadable copy of the BJCP Beer Style Guidelines, as an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file.
• Association of Brewers (including the American Homebrewer's Association) - http://www.beertown.org. Includes the AHA Beer Style Guidelines, and information on entering the National Homebrew Competition.
• Urban Knaves of Grain - http://knaves.org/. DuPage County's oldest and largest home brewing club.  Tied for AHA Homebrew Club Of The Year in 1999, and the "home" club of Joe Formanek, winner of the AHA Ninkasi Award in 2000!  If you live in the western suburbs of Chicago, check us out!   New members are always welcome, regardless of experience level -- whether you've just brewed your first "kit beer" on the kitchen stove, or are setting up a 3-tier, computer controlled RIMS brewhouse with temperature controlled fermenters in that dedicated brew shed in your back yard, we've got people who would love to "talk shop" and share their homebrew with you.  And dues are still only $12/year!

I do not work for any of these companies.  I personally use their products, and consider myself to be a satisfied customer.

• Wyeast - http://www.wyeastlab.com. Wyeast produces a wide variety of liquid yeast cultures, in the popular "smack pack" packaging.  Their Web site has descriptions of the various strains of brewing yeast available through them.
• White Labs - http://www.whitelabs.com.   White Labs markets vials of what they call "pitchable liquid yeast".   They don't have quite the variety of strains that Wyeast does, but the White Labs vials are more convenient, because you don't need to make a starter.
• Jack Schmidling Productions - http://user.mc.net/arf/aysindex.htm.   I use a JSP MaltMill to mill all of my malt.  It works well, and you can't beat the lifetime warranty!

Feedback, Etc.

If you have any questions or comments regarding this Web page -- or just want to discuss home brewing -- I can be reached at uchima@pobox.com.   I also participate in the rec.crafts.brewing Usenet newsgroup (check it out -- it's one of the most friendy and flame-free Usenet groups on the 'net).

You are also invited to visit Mike's Home Page.

The Fine Print

While all information and procedures presented on Mike's Brew Page are believed to be accurate and safe, homebrewing involves a certain amount of inherent risk.   Boiling liquids, breakable (glass) equipment, caustic cleaning/sanitizing chemicals, pressurized gasses, etc. can pose hazards if mishandled.   The author assumes no responsibility for any injury or property damage which may arise from the use of information on this site.

Mike's Brew Page is Copyright © 1999-2004 by Michael Uchima, All Rights Reserved

(Last updated June 27, 2004)