Homebrewing Tips, Articles, and Recipes
Project Description:
Several years ago, a new homebrewing website needed to quickly add a lot of content. Brewing your own beer at home is a fun hobby that hasn’t stopped growing in popularity. Homebrewers are always looking for new recipes, brewing courses, and gear to try out, so a good website has the potential to grow with the hobby. Of course, it’s tough to attract eyes to a bare site.
To help give the newly launched business a chance at success, I produced short articles on brewing basics and recipes (based on my own homebrewing experience). It was a short-term contract, but the content I wrote is still featured on the website years later, as the business continues to offer knowledge and resources for homebrewers.
Samples:
The basics of brewing Marzenbier
Marzen has become associated with Oktoberfest, the yearly fall festival celebrating our favorite drink. The very first Oktoberfest in 1810 featured Marzen as the beer that was offered to the citizens of Munich to celebrate the wedding of a couple of fancy nobles. The specifics of the history are easy to find if you’re into that sort of thing. Most beers labeled as Oktoberfest in the US are in the Marzen style.
Marzens are usually golden-orange in color, halfway between a pale summer lager and a darker winter brew, as befits its status as a seasonal fall beer. The flavor tends to have only a light touch of hops to balance the beer’s sweetness, with the characteristic Munich malt dominating the taste. Oktoberfest and Marzen sold in the States may be a bit heavier on the bittering, as we Yanks can’t seem to resist adding hops to everything.
As with all lagers, the Marzen is a bottom-fermented beer, requiring cold temperatures through most of the fermentation process. If you want to try brewing one for yourself, you’ll need a place to store it that can be kept reliably cool. The perfect temperature will depend on the specific yeast that you’re using, but it will need to be kept at least below 50 degrees Fahrenheit to truly be considered a lager and a Marzen. A fridge you can dedicate to storing your brew is probably the way to go. Unless you want to go truly old school and dig a beer cellar, then line it with ice blocks. Send pictures if you do.
Since the Marzen was buried through the summer, it had a secondary fermentation period that could stretch to six months or more. If you have that kind of patience (I envy you), you’ll most likely end up with a truly crisp beer with an exceedingly clean flavor. For the rest of us mere mortals, a shorter period of five to eight weeks is acceptable. That will produce a Marzen worthy of the name while letting you enjoy your brew in a reasonable time frame.
Brewing with Fresh Hops
Growing hops in your backyard or garden is not that different from growing anything else. You’ll need a spot where they can get a lot of sunlight, between 6 and 8 hours a day. A south-facing garage wall or something similar is a great place. They’ll need supports to grow on, which can be put together easily using a few eye hooks and twine. Run some twine down from the hooks screwed high into the wall. Stake the dangling ends of the twine into the ground and you’ll be ready to go. If you don’t have a handy wall, a simple wooden or metal trellis also works well.
You’ll need to buy hop rhizomes, which are cuttings that are about 1 foot long. Most dry hops varieties are also available as rhizomes, so you can grow your favorite types. With some care, you can grow whatever you want, though some varieties are going to do better in certain parts of the country. The USDA has a good resource for figuring out what will grow best in your area.
Hops will need well-aerated soil with good irrigation; sandy soil that has been turned prior to planting works well. It’s best to plant your hops in early spring, just late enough to make sure they won’t be damaged by frost. Hops actually are delicate little flowers that a hard frost can easily kill. Plant the rhizomes about 40 inches apart. Their roots will spread fairly far, so they’ll need room. As they get older, you’ll want to trim their root systems back, or they can take over a whole garden quickly.
In fairly short order a few shoots will pop up. These can be trained to grow on your twine netting or trellis. Simply coax them to grow around the support, twisting them around it with your fingers. Do this on a warm, sunny day when the sprouts are less likely to break. If they do end up breaking, it’s not a huge deal. Have a homebrew and enjoy the sun for a while. The sprouts will grow back.
Hops are thirsty plants, a bit like homebrewers, so you’ll need to water them frequently. In drier climates or in summers without a lot of rain, they should be watered daily. Rather than sprinkling the whole plant, focus on watering the soil around the base of the plant. Wet leaves provide exactly the sort of environment mold and disease love.
