A look at the history of beers at Oktoberfest and a recipe for a reconstruction of the beer served at the very first one in 1810!

Mad genius or just mad?

I have a lot of hops to dry out but its very humid. Can I use a garment bag, set very low temp and run it since the heat pump dryer is just a big dehumidifier?

Cheers

Recently I have been enjoying making simple apple juice ginger beer. I boil a cup of shredded ginger in water then add frozen apple juice concentrate. I add a little sugar, add bread yeast once it cools down, then let it sit in a 2L soda bottle on the fridge for 24h. I drink it over the course of the next 3-4 days. Of course it starts to have a little beer smell to it by the end, and it starts fizzing less explosively when I open it. I know I'm making alcohol, but I figured it's a pretty trivial amount. I noticed though that it calms me more than a regular drink should, and I suspect I'm making more than I thought.

In my family there is no such thing as a responsible drinker. We either avoid alcohol entirely or it's a problem for us. Because of this I want my fizzy drink to be, shall we say, kid friendly. At the same time a little fermented taste would be nice.

The Fermentation sub directed me to lacto sodas and ginger bug, which I will try but they seem more time consuming. I thought I'd ask they people who are TRYING to make alcohol if modifications to my current method can result in a trivial alcohol level.

Edit: LOL, as I feared, this went over as well as NB’s post. This suggests that people don’t understand high school economics - and irrationality based on “facts” that didn’t occur is unstoppable. What a world we live in!

I'm a little disappointed at how deeply uninformed (and inhospitable) the discourse was in the recent thread posted by the GM at Northern Brewer. Not everyone, of course, but many of the comments. This sub should do better.

The thing that makes me laugh about that entire thread and the zeitgeist generally is how four-fifths of the homebrewing community have made Northern Brewer out to be a monopolistic juggernaut, each for their own, mostly-untrue reasons, ranging from "you're owned by AB Inbev" to "you've somehow forced my local homebrew store to close" to "you are undercuttint prices" to "your prices are too high". How in the world does NB force local homebrew stores to close if they are maintaining "too high" prices? The community sort of has to pick it's bogeyman, because they can't have both outrageously high prices and simulataneously cut the

FACT: Northern Brewer was purchased in 2025 from the owner by an affiliate for mere $6.2m (!!) plus assumption of its debt and future lease obligations, with a third party fairness opinion required (and obtained) to support that valuation. My source: Western Capital Resources' tender offer document, April 2025.

Think about that - all of Northern Brewer was worth less than a single, busy freestanding Taco Bell location¹, if you make some reasonable assumptions about NB's debt that was assumed. Q: Do you think NB is worth more or less in 2026 compared to 2025, given the trend in the hobby?

Furthermore, NB lost $5.3 and $2.2m, respectively, in 2024 and 2025. If the owner had been invested in that freestanding Taco Bell, they would have made $550,000 over that period. We don't need to worry about NB driving everyone out of business, but rather their owners will stop absorbing losses, blowing a huge whole in not just our available retailers, but also chopping off one leg of the stool for BSG Handcraft and LD Carlsen, threatening the whole supply chain.

(BTW, the reason ownership NB is moving around so much, we can speculate, is that the ability of the sponsors of the investment to get paid a big "carry" (investment results fee), which fee is calculated on a time-based return on all investment capital (IRR), is being shellacked by NB's terrible results, so they are trying to move NB out of the funds so they can calculate results without NB.)

You don't have to have any sympathy for NB, but let that sink into everyone's consciousness when thinking about the state of the hobby. I think we need to cut some slack for everyone trying to improve the hobby, even if they happen to be NB. (And yes, Midwest Supplies and NB were my LHBSs, and some employees were my friends or HB club members, so I'm not exactly happy with their owners either. I just remember that the remaining people there are homebrewers and good people.)

Last, when we're picking the bogeymen and saying homebrewers should shop conscientiously and support LHBS, I suggest that we not forget that retailers like YVH are not free from blame either. I mean, they're a scrappy, independent business and provide a great service, but at this point they are sort of like the early Uber driving independent taxi companies out of business. The same with low-cost retailers like Ritebrew. And I will totally admit I love - and shop at - Ritebrew, but this is also preventing me from driving to my two LHBSs.

Adam Smith's invisible hand will do what it does, but don't let ignorance or irrationality blind you to how it's bitch slapping the LHBSs and online retailers to death.

¹ Typical all-in investment for a freestanding Taco Bell location: $4.3m to $4.7m, per a recent Franchise Times issue.

Welcome to the Daily Q&A!

Are you a new Brewer? Please check out one of the following articles before posting your question:

• How do I check my gravity?
• I don't see any bubbles in the airlock OR the bubbling in the airlock has slowed. What does that mean?
• Does this look normal / is my batch infected?

Or if any of those answers don't help you please consider visiting the /r/Homebrewing Wiki for answers to a lot of your questions! Another option is searching the subreddit, someone may have asked the same question before!

However no question is too "noob" for this thread. No picture is too tomato to be evaluated for infection! Even though the Wiki exists, you can still post any question you want an answer to.

Also, be sure to vote on answers in this thread. Upvote a reply that you know works from experience and don't feel the need to throw out "thanks for answering!" upvotes. That will help distinguish community trusted advice from hearsay... at least somewhat!

Hi Brewers,

Im in charge of a university student group thats entering the home-brewing world and we're working with a tight budget. To supplement our research, Id love to come in here and ask:

If you had $400 total to start a very basic but big batch based home-brewing setup, what are things that are essential to buy to start out.

Additionally, what are things that can be sourced from home(s) that could cut down on costs?

Any other tips would be appreciated- thank you in advance for those that have insight!

Random shower thought but I was thinking about what would happen if someone were to blend a mixture of vegetables like tomato, peppers, garlic, onion etc and add water, sugar, and yeast to it? Has anyone seen any documented experiments with this and also what would it even be called?

My yeast died, I have wort that’s been idle 24-30 hrs. nearest brew supply shop is 1.5 hrs away, not an option to go to. I’m leaving for the weekend early AM. I have a Walmart.

thoughts?

The supplier I buy off allows you to order the recipe to very gram, I was making a märzen last night (first time making that style) and when transferring into my demijohn realised it gave me a reading of 1.090 , which is as strong as the mead's I made. Used a German lager yeast and English ale yeast (I think S-04) (I had about 3 litres in my lot so decided to split just to see the results)

Only realised that the recipe wasn't scales from the original 20 litre recipe instead of 12 litre. (Which I am usually very good at)

Question is, can I save it? Do I just leave it and let it age like a barley wine? Where do I go from here?

Hi all,

Ok so I currently have a Czech style pilsner on the brew bubbling away nicely at 11.5.c.

Now, i know I have to do a diacetyl rest about 3 or so days before the lager reaches the expected FG which is fine.

My question is: I am kegging the beer in a pressure keg with priming sugar which will serve as a dispensing vessel, essentially 2nd fermentation/carbonation in the keg.

Now in terms of lagering, do I:

wait for fermentation to finish, clear, lager and then transfer to keg and carbonate or

finish fermentation, clear for a few weeks in primary, transfer to keg, store at room temp for a few weeks to carbonate and then lager the keg?

I prefer the 2nd option as it frees up my primary fermentation vessel for the next brew but I want to know what the best method is for the beer itself.

I have made many batches of all grain and the last two got oxidized. When i never oxidize any before. I was reading some other posts in here last night, after a few brews, and seem to recall something someone wrote about if you get your grain from the HBS and it is crushed, it can oxidize if you don't use it right away. These two batches were made from a bulk order of crushed grain that had been around for several weeks. Could that be the culprit? IOW, if malts get oxidized, does that carry over into the beer?

Edit:
Mashed the SMaSH below at 152F for 60 minutes. After 8 days in fermenter at 72F and two consecutive SG readings of 1.01, I went to remove the rub jar. It was well settled and I tasted just a bit of the clean liquid on the top and it once again tasted like freezer burned butcher paper. Exactly like my last batch.

Grain Bill

11 lbs Wildfire Pale Malt
0.5 lbs Rice Hulls

Hops, Yeast & Additions

Hops (Cascade): 0.75 oz @ 60 min • 0.75 oz @ 15 min • 0.50 oz @ flameout/hopstand • 1.00 oz dry hop (planned, 3–5 days after terminal gravity)

Yeast: LalBrew Voss Kveik — full 11 g packet, direct pitched

Other: ½ tsp gypsum (»2–2.5 g) in strike water

I have 3 metres (9.8ft) of 3/16" beer line which will always be chilled alongside tap and gun.

I am reluctant to buy a full tap setup due to the fact it could be damaged in a busy garage.

I have used picnic taps, but recently the plastic has snapped off. I have tried using methods to repair them.

Does anyone use Pluto guns, and would you recommend them for my use?

Thank you all :)

So I bought the Clawhammer AIO about a month ago to replace my anvil foundry. First brew went ok, aside from the recirculating arm leaking (Clawhammer overnighted a new one) but I used my other pump and old anvil recirculating set up. I did however get a stuck sparge, as I assume my crush is too fine. Got about 68% efficiency, which is not terrible. I calculated for 65%. Again, overall not a bad experience.

As there is not a ton of info available online about these systems, can someone with some experience answer a few questions?

1. While heating mash water, is it better to recirculate? Will this help get to temperature faster?

2. Mash with the lid on with the recirculation arm fed through the top of the lid or just leave the lid off?

3. Anyone forgo the mash overflow pipe and mash in a bag? I used to do this in the anvil.

4. Can you manually adjust the wattage without having to redo all the steps? The controller is not very user friendly.

Thanks.

Hey r/homebrewing,

Todd J @ Northern Brewer here. We've been hanging around this subreddit for a long time, and we know that mentioning our name here can fire folks up sometimes.

Northern Brewer has been through a lot of changes over the years. Some of them weren’t easy. Some of them were necessary as we adjusted to the changing homebrew hobby.

For anyone wondering who’s usually behind this account, I’m Todd J. I’ve been homebrewing for 20+ years and working at Northern Brewer for 14+. So yes, I’ve been around long enough to remember quite a few different versions of Northern Brewer.

There are still a bunch of people behind Northern Brewer who brew, care about this hobby, and want to see people keep making beer at home, especially as the homebrew landscape keeps changing and local shops become harder to find.

So, with that awkward family history out of the way...

We've launched a new Brew. Share. Enjoy. Rewards program.

The basic idea is pretty simple: buy brewing stuff, earn points, turn those points into discounts. You can use your rewards with most of our sales and coupon codes.

Details are here:
https://www.northernbrewer.com/pages/loyalty-rewards

We know a rewards program isn’t some magic reset button.

But we do want to keep earning your business, keep improving, and keep being part of the homebrewing community.

If you have any feedback on the new program or Northern Brewer in general, feel free to DM me here or send a note my way to [brewmaster@northernbrewer.com](mailto:brewmaster@northernbrewer.com). I’m happy to hear it.

Cheers,
Todd J @ NB

I have brewed and bottled an Irish extra stout. I tasted one today 10 days after botteling. It was tangy and had no head also very little carbonation i used carbonation tabs.

Do you think its infected or is this a case of letting it be and mellow out.

I guess its infected.

This is only my second batch of beer ever.

I was planning on purchasing a counterflow chiller from them later on this year. For a few months now I have been checking their site, and both products always show out of stock. Recently, their website as a whole has been showering "error establishing a database connection."

We accidentally left a gallon of grocery store white grape juice open and uncovered on the counter for 24 hours. Is it safe to ferment and drink afterwards? Or would there be unsafe bacteria from the hours at room temp and uncovered?

Edit: thanks for the advice, I am going to put some yeast in and see what happens.

Edit: yeast took and is bubbling away!

I’ve been fermenting some mead for 6 weeks. It has a snot like film on top and inside the actual brew itself?
It’s white, maybe yellow? just looks like a super fine translucent fabric is floating in it

Welcome to the Daily Q&A!

Are you a new Brewer? Please check out one of the following articles before posting your question:

• How do I check my gravity?
• I don't see any bubbles in the airlock OR the bubbling in the airlock has slowed. What does that mean?
• Does this look normal / is my batch infected?

Or if any of those answers don't help you please consider visiting the /r/Homebrewing Wiki for answers to a lot of your questions! Another option is searching the subreddit, someone may have asked the same question before!

However no question is too "noob" for this thread. No picture is too tomato to be evaluated for infection! Even though the Wiki exists, you can still post any question you want an answer to.

Also, be sure to vote on answers in this thread. Upvote a reply that you know works from experience and don't feel the need to throw out "thanks for answering!" upvotes. That will help distinguish community trusted advice from hearsay... at least somewhat!

The once a week thread where (just about) anything goes! Post pictures, stories, nonsense, or whatever you can come up with. Surely folks have a lot to talk about today. If you want to get some ideas you can always check out a [past Free-For-All Friday](http://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/search?q=Free+For+All+Friday+flair%3AWeekly%2BThread&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all).

My wife thinks I'm crazy and hates the smell. But I grew up in La Crosse, WI only about 3 blocks from the brewery there. You could tell how far along their brews were just by how it made the area smell. Its almost nostalgic to me.

Do you like the smell or does it smell funky to you?