Basic Brewing Radio

James, Steve, and a cast of BBR characters wander Club Night at the National Homebrewers Conference in search of great beers.

Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, talks about increasing alcohol content of beers by feeding the yeast added sugar in the fermenter.

Malcolm Frazer, contributor to Brulosophy.com, shares his experiment brewing a dry Irish stout with water chemistry suited for stouts and for pale ales.

Mark Jockers from Clean Water Services and Jeremie Landers from the Oregon Brew Crew talk about a challenge in Portland using treated effluent to brew beer.

Homebrewer James Sites shares two tasty brews that are blends of sour beers and ciders with fruit.

Three ginger-infused beers: Half-pound half-boiled ginger beer from Steve Wilkes, ginger-wasabi beer from homebrewer Dan McCarthy, and Soulless Ginger from Apple Blossom Brewing Company.

James and Steve sit on the porch and evaluate two experiments: US 05 vs Nottingham yeast and the effect of a 30-minute boil on an all grain pale ale.

Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, joins James to reveal the winners of our Homebrew Heroics contest.

Marshall Schott of Brulosophy returns to the podcast to share two experiments: brewing water chemistry and hybrid lager fermentation.

Nathan Traw, brewer and distiller at Core Brewing and Distilling, takes us through the distillation process, and Jesse Core talks about his company's progress.

Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, talks about how to assess suspicious beers, and Gary Glass, director of the American Homebrewers Association, helps us introduce a contest to give away two free registrations to this year's National Homebrewers Conference.

Homebrewer Ryan Leamy from Vermont talks about making maple wine and maple beers and gives us some background on where maple syrup comes from.

Marshall Schott of the blog Brulosophy shares two experiments: testing the effects of a 30-minute boil and the addition of Irish moss.

Brewery owner Rose Schweikhart gets advice from John Palmer on brewing with hot spring water from Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas.

Homebrewer Dan Kuczmarski joins us again to share his experiment fermenting a blonde ale with four different yeast strains.

Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, talks about why mashes for higher gravity beers can be more inefficient and what to do about it.

Douglas Wawrzynzki helps sort through listener feedback on what brewing software they're using around the brewpot today.

Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, brings us up to date on a favorite technique - a hybrid of extract and all grain brewing.

Joe Zucca, head brewer at Bike Rack Brewing Company in Bentonville, Arkansas, talks about brewing with the Speidel Braumeister system. Also, Gary Glass, director of the American Homebrewers Association, previews the National Homebrew Competition.

Matt Miller, AKA Dr. Lambic, explains his approach to fermenting lambics - with a fermentation step each for Lactobacillus, Saccharomyces, and Brettanomyces.

Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, give us some tips on brewing Maibock to enjoy in warmer times. Also, Chris answers a couple of carbonation-related mailbag questions.

SJPorr from YouTube joins us to talk about the YouTube brewing community and the ambitious competition that bears his name.

James and Steve read listener letters detailing homebrewing disasters from the past year.

Christopher Owen and Ted Doll from the Louisville, Kentucky, LAGERS club share their experiment using roasted specialty grains in the mash, hot steeping, and cold steeping.

Sean Terrill from Two Mile Brewing Company shares tips on how to brew with chilis in a way that will give flavor without burning off our taste buds.