Continuing with a technical theme, Thom outlines the importance of calcium to the brewing process and how to calculate appropriate additions. Calcium is essential to every step in the brewing process. Most water supplies used in brewing are deficient in calcium and additions of salts are required to increase calcium to a more suitable level. […]
No beer aficionado needs to be told what India Pale Ale is — the style is brewed anywhere there’s a market of drinkers who really care about what’s in the glass in front of them. American craft brewers have made it their own, with their signature bitter fruity hops and ever-increasing levels of alcohol. And […]
As home brewing becomes ever more popular in Ireland we’ve had increasing numbers of requests for a glossary of brewing. Many of the more technical activities in brewing are described by terms we tend not to see elsewhere in ordinary life, and several others have a meaning in brewing quite distinct from what we’re used […]
Brewing beer at home can be done using one of three methods, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Whether kit brewing, extract brewing or all grain brewing suits you best,depends on how much you are willing to put into the process, what you are willing to spend on equipment and what kind of results […]
Over Easter I decided to break out the brewing equipment and brew a pale ale. As usual getting my 25 litres up to boil was long and arduous… Never really making it to a decent rolling boil. I decided I needed to add some power. After a bit of googling I found a comment on […]
When The Franciscan Well offered ICB the opportunity to stage a live event in its back yard, the membership leapt at the opportunity. Five months of planning ensued, and at 2pm on sunny Saturday 18th April the doors opened on Ireland’s first homebrewing exhibition. Volunteer members of Irish Craft Brewer had travelled from as far […]
I have been brewing all grain for a few years now and have managed to produce all manner of beers with my simple, low tech system. It involves mashing and boiling in an electrim bin and has elements in common with the “brew in a bag” system recently pioneered by Australian brewers, but it […]
Come and meet the Irish Craft Brewer team, this Saturday, for one day only, at The Franciscan Well in Cork. All your homebrew questions answered, free tastings, and equipment and ingredients for sale, courtesy of The Homebrew Company. Whether you’re interested in starting your own home brewery, or want to improve on past results, this […]
The results of the third annual Irish Craft Brewer Awards were announced at the 2009 Franciscan Well Easter Beer Festival on Saturday 11th April. In a radical change from procedures in 2007 and 2008, voting was opened to all members and every one of the ninety or so beers brewed and sold on the island […]
Brewing isn’t hard. If you can cook you can brew, people just like to make it sound more complicated than it is. So in this spirit I decided to make the simplest brew possible with the least possible equipment. I got my friend Colum over whose only knowledge of brewing was that it produced alcohol […]
