Barleywine is the style where I take my time most seriously as a brewer — the commitment required (large grain bill, high-gravity fermentation management, 12–18 months of aging minimum for the best results) has made every successful Barleywine batch
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.
Wheat Wine is the most extreme wheat beer variant I’ve brewed, and the combination of very high gravity, complex wheat malt character, and hop intensity at barleywine scale produces something genuinely unique — it shares the strength and aging potent
American Wheat Beer is my go-to summer house beer because it achieves maximum drinkability with minimum brewing complexity — the combination of wheat body, light hop character, and clean fermentation produces something that disappears from the keg fa
Triple IPA pushed me beyond what I thought was technically achievable in homebrewing — fermenting a wort at OG 1.
Double IPA is the style where American hop culture achieved its most dramatic expression — the combination of enormous hop additions with the fermentation and malt management required to support those hops without producing harsh, boozy character is
Session IPA is the style I reach for when I want to drink multiple pints of hop-forward beer without the consequences of standard IPA alcohol — getting the balance right (genuine IPA character at sub-5% ABV) is harder than it …
White IPA is one of the most creative hybrid styles to brew — the combination of Belgian Witbier character (orange peel, coriander, wheat cloudiness) with American IPA hop intensity creates a beer that is immediately surprising on first sip.
Brut IPA is the style that emerged from the San Francisco craft brewing scene in 2018 and captured exactly the kind of technical brewing challenge I find most interesting — using amyloglucosidase enzyme to achieve near-complete fermentation at OG 1.
Rye IPA is one of my favourite IPA variants to brew because the rye malt introduces a spicy, peppery quality that creates an interesting tension with American hop bitterness — the rye spice doesn’t just add complexity, it creates a …
Red IPA is the style that sits in an interesting middle ground I find myself returning to when I want something with more malt complexity than a standard American IPA but without the full intensity of a West Coast IPA …