BeerSmith Home Brewing

This week my guest is James Altwies, the President of Gorst Valley Hops.  James is an expert in hop chemistry and this week we’re going to discuss what alpha acids, beta acids and hop aroma oils are and how they can help you make better beer. Download the MP3 File – Right Click and “Save [...]

This week my guest is Stan Hieronymous – the author of “Brew Like a Monk”.  Stan joins us to talk about brewing Belgian beers, the history of Belgian Abbey and Trappist ales, and how to brew them at home. Download the MP3 File – Right Click and “Save As” to download this mp3 file Topics [...]

This week I invite Drew Beechum back to talk about the merits of homebrew clubs.  Drew was president of the Maltose Falcons and is active in the American Homebrewers Association, and provides a unique perspective on what clubs have to offer to homebrewers. Download the MP3 File – Right Click and “Save As” to download [...]

This week I invite Bob Hansen from Briess malting and ingredients company to talk about beer brewing, malts, malting your own grain and also malt extract.  Bob provides a great overview of how malted barley is grain, how specialty grains are made and even how they make malt extract. Download the MP3 File – Right [...]

This week I invite Justin Crossley from the Brewing Network to talk a bit about his journey in beer broadcasting, some of his shows and his recent journey into television.  Justin is the popular host of the Session (a podcast) and runs a network of several shows centered around homebrewing. Download the MP3 File – [...]

This week I invite John Palmer back to talk about brewing high gravity “big” beers.  John shares some of his tips on getting the most from your high gravity mash, scaling recipes up to higher gravities, balancing your big beer and fermentation and aging. Download the MP3 File – Right Click and “Save As” to [...]

This week we talk about American hop varieties and developing new hops.  Al Haunold, a retired genetic engineer from USDA and Dave Wills from Freshops.com are my guests as we talk about how some of the most popular US hop varieties came about, how high alpha varieties are used now and how hops are grown. [...]

Dr Charles Bamforth, Professor of Brewing Science is my guest on this week’s show and he shares with us a detailed look at diacetyl (an off flavor) and how to control it in your beer.  Join us for a detailed look at this interesting bit of home brewing science. Download the MP3 File – Right [...]

This week, we discuss designing beer with brewing author Randy Mosher.  Randy shares with us the process he uses for designing beer and also gives us a sneak peek into the new book he’s working on. Download the MP3 File – Right Click and “Save As” to download this mp3 file This Episode Sponsored by [...]

This week I invite a panel of three of the top home brewers together to talk about beer brewing myths for an extended holiday edition of the BeerSmith podcast.   My panel includes John Palmer, Gordon Strong and Denny Conn in a wide-ranging discussion of beer brewing techniques and myths. Download the MP3 File – Right [...]

John Blichmann of Blichmann Engineering makes some of the highest quality equipment for homebrewing including pots, three-tier systems, high end RIMS and HERMS systems and also his very popular Beer Gun.  This week I interview John about everything from simple stainless pots to high end pump and temperature control systems. Download the MP3 File – [...]

Batch sparging has become a popular technique for all grain home brewers.  This week I invite Denny Conn who is an expert in batch sparging to provide his advice on the best way to batch sparge your home brewed beer. Download the MP3 File – Right Click and “Save As” to download this mp3 file [...]

Porter beer recipes and brewing Porter is the subject of this week’s interview with Grandmaster Beer Judge Gordon Strong.  Beer author and BJCP President Gordon shares some of his top tips for brewing an award winning Porter beer at home. Download the MP3 File – Right Click and “Save As” to download this mp3 file [...]

This week my guest is Jamil Zainasheff from Heretic Brewing.  Jamil is an icon in the homebrewing community – author of two books, a podcast of his own and very active in the AHA and other home brewing organizations.  Last year Jamil quit his day job in software to found his own brewery called Heretic [...]

This week I interview Dan Morey and we talk about how to brew Abbey and Trappist Ales. Trappist (or Abbey Ales) are a popular Belgian style that has become very popular and is widely duplicated by microbreweries here in the United States.  Dan walks us through the variations of the Trappist styles, their character and [...]