Homebrew essentials #1: Preparation

In the first of our (virtual) cut-out-and-keep homebrewing course, we're looking at preparation – it'll make your brewday go much more smoothly

Success, so the saying goes, is 90 per cent preparation and 10 per cent perspiration, and so it is with beer. Having your brew day planned out will not only save you time but also eliminate the chances of anything ruining your beer.

1/ Clean all items. Clean everything your beer will come into contact with for the mash (sanitise other equipment just before you need it). This includes your hot liquor tank, mash tun, kettle, pots and jugs, spoons, thermometer and tubing.

2/ Lay out all items. Having all equipment and ingredients quickly to hand will make the brew day qui

Belgian food pairing: Steak tartare

Known as a Filet Américain in Belgium, the steak tartare is one of the great dishes. But what to pair with it? Our Beer Sommelier Maggie Cubbler picks out a classic

Photo: Jez Timms / Unsplash

Affectionately known as Toast Cannibal, the Filet Américain is a staple of casual Belgian dining. Raw beef, à la steak tartare, is seasoned with raw onions, capers, Tabasco and even Worcestershire sauce. An explosion of flavour dances on the tongue and it’s a favourite of all leading zombies.

PAIR IT WITH

Vedett / Extra Blond / 5.2%

What we learnt on Planet Beer this week

Hop City, ancient breweries and shoe for a glass: here are the latest happenings, news, views and events you need to know about this week

1/ A shoe for your glass. Belgian beer bars have had enough of people stealing the glasses, so much so, one bar is demanding a shoe as a deposit. - The Guardian

2/ Ancient brewery uncovered. Archeologists in Egypt have found what they believe to be a brewery dating back to 2400BCE. -

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PD Co

Monastic marvels

Northern Monk Brewing Co amazing rise continues in a new brewery. We catch up with Head Brewer Brian Dickson who charts its rise and get the inside scoop on his favourite beers

Time is relative. And as we thrust our way through the 21st century, with driverless cars and private rockets becoming a reality, we see another industry gently tapping the indicator and overtaking most other things: craft beer. The statistics are well worn (and well abused), but we do know that in the last five years the beer, and with it the drinks industry, have changed at a speed like never before. Yet even among the twisting vortex of beer, the rise and rise of Northern Monk has been astonishing. Five years ago, Russel Bisset and Brian Dickson, were shuffling fermenting vessels into a ba

Homebrew recipe: Dry Irish Stout

To celebrate St Patrick's Day we're publishing our easy homebrew recipe for a classic: the Dry Irish Stout

Photo by 

Beer Hawk to launch taproom and bottle shop in London

We're all set to open a new bar in the heart of London. We're excited. Very.

Image by Fred Mouniguet/Unsplash

Beer Hawk's co-founder Chris France writes: "The concept of our new London bar will be a taproom and bottle shop hybrid bringing over 80 of the world’s finest beers on draft and in bottles from our online shop, allowing people to browse, discover, take away or simply enjoy a drink in.

"The bar isn’t just for people who already love craft and speciality beer it’s for anyone, we want to make it the kind of place you’d come to on a Saturday night with some friends or the place you’d go for after work drinks and you know that the staff will try their utmost to make

Hops: Pellets vs whole cone

We only answer the important questions here at Beer Hawk and this week it is: should you be using pelletised (real word!) hops or whole cone

Whole cone hops:
Whole hops are often used in dry hopping as they are easier to remove from the beer and may give a slightly fresher aroma than pellet hops.

Pellet hops: Pellet hops are produced by grinding up the whole hop cones and pressing them into pellets. When used for bittering, pellet hops have a higher extraction efficiency by weight than whole hops. They are also less subject to oxidising than whole hops.

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See our extensive collection of hops here

Crossing borders

English vs US IPAs, Bohemian Pilsner vs German Pils, Belgian Witbier vs German Weissbier. How exactly do the same beer styles differ in different countries?

Photo by Gareth Dobson

Beer is fascinating for so many reasons not least of which is how beer styles have come to be and how they have adapted and evolved. Take the famed IPA for example. Arguably the most-loved beer style in the world (if we’re not counting lagers) the India pale ale is single-handedly responsible for our current infatuation with all things hops. This style came to be in the late 1700s by adding more hops to a classic pale ale partly to endure the journey from the UK to the British colony in India. The style was eventually adopted by American brewers in the 1970s who

Week 30: Homebrewing a Mosaic Golden Ale

This week at Beer Hawk University we're going to get prepped to homebrew last week's recipe for the Mosaic golden ale. The time has come--we can almost taste our masterpiece! Let's get ready for brew day!

Last time, we looked at our very own, Mark James', homebrewing recipe for a Mosaic Golden Ale. So, you know what? Let's brew it! To make your brew day go smoothly--AND so you can relax, not worry and have a homebrew--let's get prepped. Like a chef in a restaurant, homebrewers would be well served by doing what's called mise en place. Essentially, it means: get your stuff together.

We're going to take a bird's-eye view of what you need to get started and the process