basic brewing

James and Steve sip the barleywine from a year ago and break in a new one for 2008 . . . and beyond.

Chris Colby, editor of Brew Your Own magazine, tells us about smoked beers and how to make our own at home.

James and Steve brew up a Pumpkin Ale while enjoying a delicious Barleywine with Maple sent in by a viewer.

Michael Tonsmeire, The Mad Fermentationist, leads James, Steve, and Andy through an exercise of blending beers together to create better ones.

We celebrate Thanksgiving week by remembering our beer dinner with the Brett Pack. Join James and Andy for dinner with Adam Avery, Vinnie Cilurzo, Rob Tod, Tomme Arthur, and Sam Calagione.

James and Steve enjoy a low-gravity session beer and theorize on the effect of thin mashes on efficiency.

Home brewer Kai Troester joins us again to take us through his extensive experiments on the factors affecting attenuation in the mash tun.

James and Steve are outstanding in their field! Actually, they're sitting in a patch of barley, drinking Belgian Brunettes.

Chris Colby, editor of Brew Your Own magazine, give us tips on how to build our own kegerator at home. Chris also updates us on the world hop situation.

A collection of short interviews from Denver: David Myers of Redstone Meadery, Pro-Am brewer David Schollmeyer, author Maureen Ogle, and Greg Koch of Stone Brewery.

James and Andy sit on the deck and think back on the fun times at the Great American Beer Festival.

We talk to home brewers Vickie Watson and Ken Dollar from Mississippi, where home brewing is illegal. We also talk to Mazen Hajjar, owner of the first brewpub in Beirut, Lebanon.

James and Andy get brewing tips from Jake O'Mara from Odell Brewing Company and Taylor Rees and Alan Johnson of Great Divide.

In our first episode back from the Great American Beer Festival, we talk to the winners and runners up in the Sam Adams LongShot competition.

James challenges Rick Sellers of Pacific Brew News and Draft Magazine to take us on a tour of the best beer in the country.

James and Andy sit on the deck, talk about how to take care of homegrown hops at the end of the season, and answer some listener e-mail.

Steve Mazylewski, brewer at The Hog Haus in Fayetteville, Arkansas, sits down with James and Steve to sample his Oktoberfest, Pumpkin Spice Ale and IPA.

Erin Von Feldt from Bordinos restaurant in Fayetteville, Arkansas mixes it up with Steve Wilkes as they make beer cocktails.

Andy Davison, chairman of the Australian National Homebrewing Conference, talks with us about preparations for their inaugural event. Also, Brett Joyce, president of Rogue tells us about their venture into growing hops.

Chris Colby, editor of Brew Your Own magazine, explains the process of sour mashing. Whether you're adjusting pH or making a sour beer, Chris says sour mashing is easy to do.

James and Steve roast their own coffee on the patio with a hot air popcorn popper from a bygone era.

Home brewer Kai Troester explains the concept of attenuation, the factors that affect it and how we can test the attenuation potential of our wort.

Home brewer John Chubick of Bloomington, Illinois joins us to talk about his homebrew hop dryer, stir plate and temperature controller.

James and Andy try out one of the hop stretching methods explained by Chris Colby on the previous show: steeping hops in a French press coffee maker.

Steve whips up a unique smoked duck Asian pizza recipe to pair with home brewed Sake from viewer Bob Taylor.