Beer movies are a category I’ve explored specifically because brewing is one of those crafts that reveals character over time — the patience of lagering, the unpredictability of wild fermentation, and the community culture of sharing what you’ve made
John Brewster
John Brewster
John Brewster is the homebrewer and writer behind BrewMyBeer — over a decade of all-grain brewing, 80+ BIAB batches, and 1,000+ guides on fermentation science, water chemistry, hops, yeast, and homebrewing equipment. Every guide is written from genuine hands-on experience.
Spunding is the carbonation technique I find most elegant from a process design standpoint — instead of fermenting the beer, then adding CO₂ separately, spunding captures the CO₂ produced during the final stages of fermentation itself to naturally ca
The shake-and-bake carbonation method is the technique I turn to when I need a keg carbonated within a few hours rather than days — but explaining it to other homebrewers always comes with a strong caveat about the risk of …
Force carbonation was the technique that made kegging feel genuinely superior to bottling for me — being able to dial in precise CO₂ volumes within hours rather than waiting 2–3 weeks for bottle conditioning transformed my homebrewing patience and fr
Priming drops (carbonation drops) were one of the first homebrewing convenience products I tested, and my assessment after comparing them to calculated priming sugar additions is that they are a reasonable convenience tool for casual homebrewing but
Honey priming is the carbonation approach I return to specifically for honey ales and braggots — using honey as both the primary flavour ingredient and the priming sugar creates a more cohesive, authentic finish than adding honey to fermentation and
Priming with DME (dry malt extract) is the alternative bottle carbonation approach I use when I want to avoid any possibility of cidery off-flavour from simple sugar fermentation in high-gravity beers — DME ferments more slowly than dextrose, produci
Priming with corn sugar (dextrose) is the bottle carbonation technique I’ve used for every bottle-conditioned batch since my first homebrew — it is reliable, predictable, and the single most important packaging step between good fermentation and a pr
Cold crashing is the technique that transformed my homebrewed beer from perpetually slightly hazy to commercially clear without any fining agents — dropping fermentation temperature to near-freezing for 24–48 hours after primary fermentation is compl
Biofine Clear is the fining agent I switched to after my first vegan friend expressed concern about the gelatin I was using in my ales — not only is it vegan, but the colloidal silica mechanism produces excellent clarity results …