That’s right folks, be sure to click here to see the newest recipe, “Burning Man Hopless Absinthe Ale” This is a special NO HOPS ale is made with Lavender, a touch of star anise, and your truly, wormwood. Make this brew now, to have it ready in time for the Burning Man Festival!

Burning Man Hopless Absinthe Ale - Recipe

Reminder that there is just over one month left in our contest. Please send us your photos featuring your San Francisco Brewcraft t-shirt and you will be entered to win a trip to Portland, Oregon.

Sparkling Water on a homebrew blog? What? Yes yes, for anyone with a kegging system, or for anyone contemplating a kegging system. Or if you are trying to keep some plastic water bottles out of the landfill. Jacking some CO2 into a keg is about the easiest thing to accomplish that falls under the “homebrew” umbrella. And it’s good for the ego. Everyone will think you are a genius.

If ever you needed to sell your significant other on ramping up your hobby to include kegs, this is the way to do it. Five gallons of sparkling water on hand saves an awful lot of plastic and the bottles that are already around can be filled and carted off to work, the gym, the car, wherever the keg cannot go easily. The thing to do is have one keg dedicated to the water and refill it immediately once empty.

One of the fun things about kegging your own homebrew and having CO2 at your disposal is that you quickly realize there is no limit to carbonated beverages. Creating your own sparkling water is the first, easiest, and most practical step. After beer of course.

How about carbonated iced coffee for the summer? Wine coolers? Green tea? Without getting too carried away, having carbonated water on hand also creates endless mixing possibilities. Any and every fruit juice combines well with it, as does vodka, gin, and a lot of other liquids.

Why have one keg when you can have two? Why stop at two when you can have three? Do it to it, stainless steel never goes out of style.

Congratulations to all our customers who have begun brewing beers with different herbs and spices. More experimentation is taking place every day and we are fortunate to occasionally be on the receiving end of a sampling session.

Thank you to our friend who let us sample his excellent turmeric and mandarin orange beer. If you missed the first round of mandarins, don’t sweat, the next variety will be coming into harvest soon. Just keep watching for them at the markets. The different mandarin varieties come into season at different times and the next ones will be along very soon.

At the moment the cherries are delicious and the cherries only stay in season for about 10 minutes so if you want any buy them NOW! It is easy to buy fruit when it’s in season and prepare it for brewing and then freeze it until you are ready to brew that particular beer. On the chance you are not ready immediately, that is. Cherries generally lend themselves well to darker beers, porters and stouts, as well as meads.

If you have a recipe that is so good you’d like to share it please let us know. We will spread the word.

Hey out there. My friend and I would completely love to go to the Telluride Blues and Brews Fest but it seems like it would cost an arm and a leg for gas. So we thought maybe we would see if anybody else is having the same thoughts and maybe we could get together and rent an 8 passenger van and split up the cost of gas. Seems like it would run a little over 100 dollars a piece with the rental. It would be a blast. Let us know.

Ginger Root is the easiest and funnest introduction to using something other than hops to impart some bitterness and flavor and preservative powers to beer. Many entire books have been written about how amazing ginger is so if you enjoy the flavor of ginger and are intrigued by this we encourage further study.

Right here we won’t be getting into the many and varied uses of ginger, primarily because if you are new to the world of herbs you might think some of the claims to be outrageous or fabricated. For now we shall attempt to focus.

Versatile is the best word to describe ginger. Ginger can be used fresh or dried and can be added to the beer in any way imaginable. Boiled with the wort, added in increments just like hops, “dry hopped” raw during either the primary or the secondary fermentation. How about making a tincture or a simple syrup? Okay. No matter how it is added, ginger is a nice addition to your beers. Or sodas, meads, maybe even your wines.

So go ahead, don’t be afraid, add some ginger to one of your beers and let us know what you think. Let everyone know what you think if you are so inclined.

“Rye Not” Summer Rye Pale Ale

Hey Folks. Check out the newest beer to our roster. “Rye Not Summer Pale Ale”
The perfect summer beer with an added kick. Do it to it! Keep checking back to this section for new brews.

Everybody hightail it on over to Toronado for the Barleywine Festival Feb. 16-23. Go often and be distorted for months to come.

When brewing your own barleywine, keep in mind that it will take a minimum of 9 months to be drinkable. When still young they taste like alcoholic maple syrup and after a year or so you will be waxing poetic about your ambrosia.

After a long absence, we are finally going to have all-grain classes again starting Tuesday February 19th. I’ll be in the store every Tuesday after that doing all grain brews until I have to go back to school on April 1st. So if you’re interested in learning how to brew all grain, call us up at the shop (751-933 and let us know when you’d like to attend. This might be an excellent time to learn as we FINALLY have all grain set ups in stock again. Cheers!!-Tucker

Here is a tip to ring in the New Year. Rinse your equipment right after use, and never put anything away before a good hot rinse. Including your bottles soon after emptying them out. This is the only way to go, as even a small amount of beer will quickly turn to mold and make a mess of things.

Soon you are replacing pieces of equipment or boiling everything because it’s all cruddy. With hoses, run hot tap water through it all and afterwards swing it around like a lasso to encourage all the remaining water to exit.

Singing Roger Miller songs or line dancing can be a most enjoyable accompaniment, although not entirely necessary.