Wine & Mead

Wine yeast, particularly Champagne yeast (EC-1118), has legitimate applications in homebrewing beyond just being a last-resort rescue for stuck fermentation.

Nelson Sauvin and Hallertau Blanc are the two hops that brought white wine character to beer — both produce a distinctly vinous, gooseberry-white wine profile that no other hop category approaches.

Italian Grape Ale is a category I came to skeptically — the idea of adding grape must or wine to beer sounded like a marketing gimmick.

I’ve spent more time than I’d like to admit defending beer at dinner tables where wine is treated as the only serious beverage.

Nelson Sauvin is the New Zealand hop that introduced me to the concept of wine character in beer. The first time I dry hopped a saison with it, the white wine and gooseberry notes were so prominent that a non-brewing …

Hallertau Blanc is the German hop variety that surprised me most when I first dry hopped a saison with it — the white wine and gooseberry character was more prominent than I expected, genuinely wine-like in a way that few …

Cider and wine fermentation look similar from the outside — both use juice, both produce low-to-moderate alcohol, both clarify over time — but the underlying chemistry, the microbiological challenges, and the process decisions that produce a great fi

Apple wine is one of the most rewarding country wines for a homebrewer to make — apples are widely available, inexpensive at harvest time, and produce a wine that ranges from bone-dry and crisp to rich, sweet, and applesauce-like depending …

Cloudy wine is one of the most common problems in homebrewing, and it’s nearly always fixable — but the fix depends entirely on what’s causing the haze.

Fining agents are clarifying additives that work by binding with haze-causing particles and settling them out of suspension.