Beer Brewing

Rauchbier is the most polarizing style I’ve brewed — the people who love it really love it, and everyone else asks what went wrong.

Mexican Vienna Lager is one of the most historically interesting styles in brewing — an Austrian amber lager transplanted to Mexico in the 1860s by European immigrant brewers, then kept alive in Mexican commercial brewing long after the style died …

Belgian Strong Dark Ale is the style I reach for when I want to impress someone who thinks they don’t like beer.

New England IPA changed how I think about hop character. I’d been brewing West Coast IPAs for years — dry, bitter, resinous — and assumed that was what hoppy beer meant.

Dunkelweizen was my introduction to German wheat beer yeast character as a deliberate variable rather than a side effect.

Baltic Porter is the most technically demanding beer I brew regularly, and the most impressive when it works.

Vienna Lager is the style that convinced me lager brewing at home is worth the extra effort. I’d been skeptical — all that temperature control and lagering time for what? Then I brewed an Anton Dreher-inspired Vienna with Weyermann Vienna …

American Brown Ale sits in an interesting middle ground — more malt character than a pale ale, less roastiness than a porter, with the American hop character that distinguishes it from English brown ale.

English Bitter was a revelation when I first brewed it correctly. I’d had commercial examples that seemed unremarkable — low alcohol, not very hoppy, not very malty — and dismissed the style.

Belgian Witbier was one of the first styles I brewed that made non-brewing guests pay attention. Something about the hazy orange color, the citrus and coriander aroma, and the light, refreshing body stops people who’d otherwise ignore homebrewed beer