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So I work in the hotel industry at an airport hotel and I'm the lucky guy who gets to run the food and beverage department and I'm looking to bring on a decent assortment of the local Chicago/burb beer. It's not a super happening night spot so I can't go crazy, and lets face it every weekend my...

Haven't brewed any beer in a while, and I've finally got some time on my hands so I thought it's a great time to get back into beer (instead of wines/meads). Lots of new variables, never made an IPA/IPPA/RIPA, never used Citra or Summit hops, never used Rye malt. After doing some research...

Well, I've been waiting patiently while a few batches age in glass carboys, and I checked them today and found one to have a new layer of funk on top of it. I couldn't get a good picture of it, but it's a very slight scumy layer with some rod shaped dudes floating around on top of it, and I'm...

OK, so was listening to a lot of different music that I normally listen to (Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, Beatles, Queen, Clapton, Rolling Stones, Mungo Jerry, Mumford and Sons, etc) and I just got to wondering what makes some of them sing in a more noticeable accent? Maybe it's more that I normally...

I just found out my juice pails will be delivered and I have no way to get to them at the moment, my friend said he'll pick them up for me but I won't see him for a couple of days (Juice pails were frozen but might be somewhat thawed by delivery on Wednesday, and I won't be able to get them...

I just ordered 4 pails and it's my first time working with grape juice, well actually these will be my first all grape wines. Carmenere, Malbec, Riesling, and Chardonnay, and of course I'm not sure of the stats on the juice yet but I wanted to try to get everything as ready as possible for the...

I made a 3 gal batch of a citrusy mead with .5oz of; sweet orange peel, bitter orange peel, lemon peel, and lemon grass. It's only been a few weeks so I'm sure mellowing will take away some of the bitterness, but right now it is extremely bitter. I'm not sure if I should try to add more...

I started a mead a couple of weeks ago and I went to measure the SG and it's around 1.020, but then I looked back in my notes at the OG and it was written as 1.140. I'm not sure that can be correct, I was trying to do three various batches at once and I'm wondering if it should have been 1.104...

I'm doing a Blackberry wine and after I had to add some sugar to bring the gravity up, the cap is basically at the top of my 6 gal brew bucket and I'm scared to leave it alone. The airlock hole keeps getting clogged with fruit bits, so a blow off tube won't help. I've put a sanitized t-shirt...

Not sure if this is a Metheglin or Pyment or what but it's what I had on hand. I'm curious what I should expect out if it. Citrusy? 3 gal batch 1gal white grape juice (welches Niagara) 3lbs Clover Honey 3lbs Amber blend honey 1/2oz of each lemon peel, lemon grass, sweet orange peel...

I was planning on starting a Blackberry/Zin this weekend but I just received my order from NB and apparently I picked the Zin Blush instead of the regular Zin and didn't read my order. I have frozen berries but I'm running out of freezer space so I really should use them this weekend before I...

Haven't made anything in a while and since I thought I'd try something on a budget that I've seen some decent reviews for, a Welch's grape juice wine. I was at the store and planned on getting Welch's juice (in the jug) but the generic brand right next to it was like half the price. Bad idea...

I just finished bottling my raspberry wine and I had about a 1/2 gal left over with no corks or bottles, but I had a growler so I reserved it for something to play with. I saw several recipes for port style wines with chocolate and various berries, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. So far this...

I just saw an ad for this on the weather channel website. http://www.michelobultra.com/Page-Ultra-Cider.aspx# http://www.beverageworld.com/articles/full/15032/a-b-launches-michelob-ultra-light-cider Also, didn't know Miller bought out Crispin.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/stew/chi-virtue-cider-greg-halls-virtue-cidder-debuts-20120417,0,3200351.story Just saw the article in the Tribune. Sounds like he's realling getting into it and hopefully it will turn more people on to cider. I don't make it down to the city much...

Started this wine about 8 months ago, it's had multiple rackings and I added sorbate and k-meta in January. I've backsweetened in a couple of steps to get the desired sweetness (trying to balance out the high acidity) for a nice summer semi sweet wine. Last time I checked on it was about 2...

I'm not sure since I just racked it off the oak chips yesterday, but I'm worried about either 1) I added too much oak and 2) the blueberry wine is too light for the oaking, needs more body I used 1.5oz Heavy Toasted oak chips for 3 gal of blueberrywine, aged about 1.5 weeks. The wine was...

I had a 5 gal batch of Blueberry wine and I wanted to split it up to get some different flavors out of it, and one of the things I wanted to try was a fortified wine. The orginal recipe for the Blueberry wine was 20lbs of blueberries, 2 lbs of raisins, and I think about 3.5 lbs of sugar. The...

News On Tap: Hanson Producing a New Beer and Natty Light Traveled to Outer Space - Delish.com Not sure I could drink Hanson beer even if it was fantastic, or maybe if they made a great beer that would make them almost cool.

Tighthead Brewing Company - HOME Not a microbrewery-restaurant, mostly production brewing for local distribution in bars/restaurants with a tap room for pints and growlers. Haven't been there yet, but I wanted to spread the word to anyone on the far north west burbs. I've beers from both...