Say Hello to Brew Better Beer!

Please allow me to introduce Brew Better Beer! We're a little over a month away from the May 5th release date, and I could be more excited to get this out to your hands and kitchens. I really have to give a huge high five to the folks over at Ten Speed, who (once again) did an incredible job of taking my raw manuscript and making it look so dang good. Some preview pages of the book are below — take a look!

If you'd like to preorder your very own copy, you can do so through these links — I also encourage you to go to your local independent bookstores and give them your business.

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• IndieBound
• Google Books
• iBooks

I also have some upcoming events in the Bay Area! Mark your calendars!

4/4 - Kombucha Demo at the Freemont Whole Foods

4/22 - Where Food, Publishing, and Technology Connect at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto: A panel discussion with Cheryl Sternman Rule of 5 Second Rule and Michelle Tam of Nom Nom Paleo, and moderated by Dianne Jacob of Will Write For Food

5/9 - Beer Knowledge Demo at the Freemont Whole Foods: Come sample some beers and learn about the different styles!

5/30 - Beer Brewing Table at the Alemeda Whole Foods: The beer doctor is in! Stop by the table to talk homebrewing, sample some homebrews, and take a look at the equipment and ingredients needed for homebrewing.

6/6 - Brew Better Beer at Omnivore Books: I'll be talking with Celia Sack about homebrewing, writing Brew Better Beer, and a love for beer. Samples will be provided.

More events to come! Stay tuned!

A full step-by-step visual guide to beer brewing is at the start of the book - plus lots of written details for those of us who like words!

Every chapter starts with a "Very Good" beer - a basic recipe to build from, tweak, and riff

Yes! There are sour beers! Also, whole chapters on gluten-free beers, session beers, and lagers

One of my favs from the book. It tastes like boozy Girl Scout Cookies.

And between every chapter of recipes, there are essays that go into more of the nitty gritty details of brewing or provide some fun ideas for other things to try

A Cider for Summer: Watermelon Hard Cider

It's been over a year since I last posted a recipe and nearly a year since I last posted anything, so it seemed only fitting to spend one of my first free days since turning in the manuscript for the beer book sharing a new recipe. I say "one of my first" free days because the very first free days were spent sleeping absurdly late on weekends, gorging on episodes of Supernatural, and spending many glorious hours doing nothing at all. It was divine.

Yes, the manuscript is done, the edits are even (mostly) done, the photo shoot is done (I plan on sharing some photos of that soon), and life seems to be stumbling its way back to normalcy. Let this be a lesson to you (i.e., me), working full time and writing a cookbook that involves long, tricky, fermenty projects is really exhausting. I have promised all those near and dear to me that I will not take on any new big projects like that for quite some time.

I posted a photo over on Instagram a few weeks ago of some Watermelon Hard Cider I'd made, and was both delighted and slightly surprised to get several requests for the recipe. Delighted because I actually wrote down the recipe and am happy to share it, and surprised because, frankly, I wasn't sure how many people apart from myself would think that watermelon cider sounded good!

This was actually a random cider that I made over a year ago with a huge-ass watermelon that a friend gave us from their garden. It was an experiment, and I was keeping my expectations low. Watermelon is a funny fruit to brew with; it's mostly water, after all, and that can mean a watery-tasting brew. But hey, there was a hulking watermelon on my counter and it was going to be impossible to eat it all, so why not?

I cracked open a bottle about three months after brewing, and thought it tasted...ok. Not bad. But not particularly watermelon-y. So-so. I left the rest of the batch in the cupboard and forgot about it for a while. Another few months past and I gave it another try - bingo! Apparently this one just needed a little extra time to age.

In the end, this has a lightly sweet watermelon-like flavor with a nice crispness. It's a bit like biting slightly too close to the watermelon rind. It's super refreshing on a hot day, so I suggest making a batch now and then letting the bottles sit in your cupboard until next summer.

Oh, P.S. Use only the freshest, juiciest, pinkest watermelon you can find for this brew. Subpar sad watermelons will not do. Use both the fruit and the rinds in the primary fermentation. A lot of the pink color and watermelon flavor is in the fruit sediment, so don't be too finicky about leaving behind the sediment when you transfer from vessel to vessel. I ended up with a teaspoon or so of pink watermelon sediment in my bottles - it's fun to pour this light, straw-colored cider into the glass only to watch it turn bright pink at the end.

Watermelon Hard Cider

Makes 1 gallon (9 to 10 bottles)

Note: All brewing-specific ingredients are available at homebrewing supply stores or online at MoreBeer.com.

Target Original/Final Gravity: 1.050/1.005

Target Final ABV: 6%

1 (12-pound) watermelon, very ripe

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 Campden tablet

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

2 teaspoons acid blend

1/2 teaspoon pectic enzyme

1/2 packet dry ale yeast, or any equivalent yeast

.8 ounce (22 grams) corn sugar dissolved in 1/4 cup boiling water and cooled, for bottling

Sanitize a 2-gallon bucket, its lid, the air lock, and a spoon for stirring.

Cut the watermelon into slices and cut the fruit away from the rinds. Chop the rinds into pieces and put them in the bucket. Remove and discard any watermelon seeds, then puree the fruit in a blender. Transfer the fruit puree to the bucket. You should have a little over a gallon of liquid; add additional water as needed to make slightly over a gallon.

Crush the Campden tablet and stir it into the juice. Snap the lid on he bucket, fill the airlock with water, and attach it to the bucket. Wait 24 hours for the Campden to sterilize the juice.

Once the juice is sterilized, stir in the yeast nutrient, acid blend, pectic enzyme, and 1/2 packet of the yeast with a sanitized spoon. Stir vigorously to distribute the yeast and aerate the cider. If you like, take a hydrometer reading to determine original gravity (though it's a bit tricky to get an accurate read on this one since there's so much sediment). Snap the lid back on and reattach the air lock. You should see active fermentation as evidenced by bubbles in the air lock within 48 hours.

Let the cider ferment undisturbed for at least 1 week or up to 4 weeks until fermentation has slowed and the sediment created during brewing has had a chance to settle. At this point, the cider is ready to be transferred off the sediment and into a smaller 1-gallon jug for the longer secondary fermentation.

Sanitize a 1-gallon jug, its stopper, a racking cane, its tip, a siphon hose, and a hose clamp. Siphon all of the cider into the jug. Tilt the bucket toward the end to siphon all of the liquid. Keep transferring even when you start to transfer sediment, but stop when you see the liquid in the hose become opaque (Bottom line: Don't worry about transferring/not transferring a lot of sediment at this point. Just use your best judgement). Seal the jug with its stopper and insert the air lock. Let it sit somewhere cool and dark for another 2 weeks or up to 3 months.

To bottle the cider, sanitize a stockpot, a hydrometer, ten 12-ounce beer bottles or five 22-ounce beer bottles, their caps, the siphon hose, the racking cane, its cap, a measuring cup, and the bottle filler. Siphon 1/2 cup of cider to the hydrometer and use to determine final gravity. Drink the cider or pour it back into the jug once used.

Pour the corn sugar solution into the stockpot. Siphon the cider into the stockpot to mix with the corn sugar solution, splashing as little as possible. Siphon the cider into bottles, cap, and label.

Let the bottles sit at room temperature out of direct sunlight for at least 1 month or store for up to 2 years; I find that this one is best about 6 months after brewing. Refrigerate before serving. The cider itself is a light straw color; the pink comes from watermelon sediment remaining in the cider. Be sure to pour a little of the sediment into each glass to give it a rosy color - trust me, it's tasty! If the cider tasted a little tart, add a tablespoon of simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar, simmered until the sugar is dissolved) to the pint glass before serving.

An Announcement Long Overdue: New Homebrewing Book in the Works!

Somehow in the hustle and bustle of True Brews being released and general life craziness, I neglected to share a key bit of information: I have a new brewing book in the works! The tentative title is Malts Water Hops Yeast and it will be an introduction to homebrewing basics along with 65 awesome recipes that I've been working on all summer. You want a hefeweizen? You've got a hefeweizen. You want a mango-infused Belgian-style tripel? You've got your mango-infused Belgian-style tripel (plus, perhaps, some coconut). 1-gallon or 5-gallon batches, newbie brewer or old brewing pro — my hope is that there's something in this new book for everyone.

Malts Water Hops Yeast is currently due out summer-ish 2015 from my favorites over at Ten Speed Press. Apologies for the lack of posting while I'm away working on the book. Thanks, everyone!

Summer Homebrew Recipe: Strawberry Kombucha

If I have one regret in writing True Brews, it's that I didn't discover the magical duo of ripe summer strawberries + kombucha until it was too late in the game to add it to the book. This combination is like kismet — it's just meant to be. It's fizzy and tart and sweet and juicy all at the same time. This is drink that (I'm convinced) will make kombucha drinkers out of the kombucha dubious.

Ever since strawberries started showing up again at our markets here in Northern California (the real ones), I've been making batches of strawberry kombucha nonstop. It's the perfect thing to do with those few over-ripe or slightly squished strawberries that inevitably come with every pint basket. Kombucha doesn't care if the strawberries aren't the prettiest in the bunch, and once you take a sip, you won't either.

Kombucha and ginger are old bffs, so I throw some into the jar when I have it. The ginger adds a warm, spicy note that, if possible, makes the strawberries shine even more. Try it both ways and see which you like better.

Also, I don't know how the weather is where you are, but my scobys are loving the warm weather — which at least makes one of us. I can see streams of bubbles filtering up through the layers of scoby and the sweet/tart/fruity flavor is spot on. My bottled kombucha is also fizzy to the max. Love.

Strawberry Kombucha
Makes 1 gallon

3 1/2 quarts water
1 cup white granulated sugar
4 bags black tea (or 1 tablespoons loose tea)
4 bags green tea (or 1 tablespoon loose tea)
2 cups starter tea from last batch of kombucha
1 scoby
1 pint strawberries, hulled and roughly chopped (about 2 cups)
2 tablespoons minced ginger (optional)

Bring the water to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar to dissolve. Drop in the tea and allow it to steep until the water has cooled.

Remove the tea bags or strain out the loose tea. Stir in the starter tea. Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon glass jar and gently place the scoby on top. Cover the mouth of the jar with a few layers of cheesecloth or paper towels secured with a rubber band.

Keep the jar at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, and where it won’t get jostled. Ferment for 7 to 10 days. Check the kombucha and the scoby periodically.

After seven days, begin tasting the kombucha. When it reaches a balance of sweetness and tartness that is pleasant to you, the kombucha is ready to bottle.

With clean hands, gently lift the scoby out of the kombucha and set it on a clean plate. Measure out your starter tea from this batch of kombucha and set it aside for your next.

Combine the fermented kombucha, diced strawberries, and ginger (if using) in a clean 1-gallon jar (or divide among smaller jars). Cover the mouth of the jar with a few layers of cheese cloth or paper towels secured with a rubber band. Keep the jar at room temperature out of direct sunlight for two days. Strain the strawberries and ginger from the kombucha and bottle. Leave about a half inch of head room in the bottles.

Store the bottled kombucha at room-temperature out of direct sunlight and allow 1 to 3 days for the kombucha to carbonate. Refrigerate to stop carbonation and then consume within a month.

Fall Recipe: Apple Cider Kombucha

The time has come for cider. Warm cider on chilly afternoons. Big gulps of cold cider after a long jog through the falling leaves. A splash of cider in a tumbler of bourbon. I don't really need to convince you on this subject, right?

Because I am a) still fiendish for cider right now and b) still loving my homebrewed kombucha like nobody's business, it seemed only natural to make a cider-riffic version of my favorite fizzy drink. I really can't think of a more perfect match than tart kombucha and sweet-sour apples. Throw in a few sticks of cinnamon and a hearty glug of maple syrup, and this is officially something special.

You could definitely make a shortcut version by mixing some cider into a glass of plain kombucha, but I really love using fresh apples. Play around with different varieties — tart and juicy Macintosh apples have been my personal favorite so far. This is also a good way to use up those last few bruised and battered fruits that have been lingering in the back of the fridge for too long. 

And because I know you were wondering: yes, try this with a shot of bourbon. Fall-time whiskey sour, anyone? Yes, please.

• New to Kombucha brewing? Check out this primer: How to Make Kombucha Tea at Home from The Kitchn

• Need a Scoby? You can find them online at Cultures for Health

Apple Cider Kombucha

Makes about a gallon (can be halved, as pictured)

14 cups water

1 cup white granulated sugar

4 bags black tea (or 1 tablespoons loose tea)

4 bags green tea (or 1 tablespoon loose tea)

2 cups starter tea from last batch of kombucha or store-bought (unpasteurized, neutral-flavored) kombucha

1 scoby

2 apples (pick ones that you like to eat)

2 cinnamon sticks

4 whole cloves

4 tablespoons maple syrup or honey

Bring the water to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar to dissolve. Drop in the tea and allow it to steep until the water has cooled. Depending on the size of your pot, this will take a few hours. You can speed up the cooling process by placing the pot in an ice bath.

Remove the tea bags or strain out the loose tea. Stir in the starter tea. Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon glass jar and gently place the scoby on top with clean hands. Cover the mouth of the jar with a few layers of cheesecloth or paper towels secured with a rubber band.

Keep the jar at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, and where it won’t get jostled. Ferment for 7 to 10 days, checking the kombucha and the scoby periodically. It’s not unusual for the scoby to float at the top, bottom, or even sideways. A new cream-colored layer of scoby should start forming on the surface of the kombucha within a few days.

After 7 days, begin tasting the kombucha daily by pouring a little out of the jar and into a cup. When it reaches a balance of sweetness and tartness that is pleasant to you, the kombucha is ready to bottle.

With clean hands, gently lift the scoby out of the kombucha and set it on a clean plate. Measure out 2 cups of starter tea from this batch of kombucha and set it aside for your next batch. 

Dice the apples into small bits and add them to a clean 1-gallon jar along with the cinnamon, cloves, and maple syrup (or divide these ingredients evenly between smaller jars if you don't have a second 1-gallon jar). Pour the fermented kombucha over top. Cover the mouth of the jar with several layers of cheesecloth or paper towels secured with a rubber band. Keep the jar at room temperature out of direct sunlight for 2 days.

Strain and discard the apples and spices. Bottle the infused kombucha into two clean 2-liter soda bottles (or several smaller bottles). Leave at least 1 inch of headspace in the bottles.

Store the bottled kombucha at room temperature out of direct sunlight until carbonated, typically 1 to 3 days, depending on the temperature of the room. When the bottles feel rock-solid with very little give, they’re ready. Refrigerate to stop carbonation and then consume within a month.

Prepare your next batch of kombucha right after bottling the previous batch. Combine the reserved starter tea with a fresh batch of sugary tea, and pour it into the cleaned fermentation jar. Slide the scoby on top, cover, and proceed with fermentation.

Summer Recipe: White Peach-Lavender Soda

What does one do when one receives a gift of perfect and oh-so-fragrant lavender from a friend's garden? If one is like me and has just finished writing a book of homebrewing projects and suddenly has free time to play with recipes not going into the book, one naturally thinks about making soda.

Lavender became a bit of a nemesis when writing True Brews. I learned the hard way that one scoop too many can take the lavender flavor from softly enchanting to soapy-tasting catastrophe in less time than it takes to say "Uh oh." I finally nailed the recipe, but it's left me with some rather hard feelings toward lavender.

But contemplating my bounty of lavender last week, I figured that a soda would be safe. Right? It's only a few cups. I can manage that. Maybe this could be a baby step in my Lavender Appreciation Recovery.

The white peaches and white nectarines are phenomenal right now. The farmers markets are flooded with them and I can't help but hold them to my nose and snag samples whenever I can. They are juicy and floral and just a teensy bit tart. I figured a few of these fruits would be the perfect companion to my lavender.

And they were. This soda... You guy, this soda... It's kind of awesome. Way better than I expected. It tastes sweet and peachy-keen and has just the barest breath of lavender to make things interesting. It's fresh and fizzy, especially on the hot afternoons we've been having the past week. Also, just FYI, it's extremely good with a shot of gin.

I didn't intend or expect that lovely pink color either. I envisioned something pale and luminous. Instead I got lazy and left the skins on the peaches, which proceeded to dye the juice this incredible shade of pink. I definitely recommend being lazy in this instance.

White Peach-Lavender Soda
Makes about 4 to 6 servings (enough to fill a recycled 1-liter soda bottle)

1 cup water, plus more to fill the bottle
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lavender flowers (1 tablespoon dried lavender flowers)
1 pound very ripe white peaches
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Pinch salt
1/4 teaspoon champagne yeast or baker's yeast

Need: one clean 1-liter plastic soda bottle with screw-on cap

Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan on the stovetop or in the microwave. Remove from heat and add the sugar and lavender flowers. Stir to dissolve to sugar. Let stand for 20 minutes to infuse the sugar water with lavender.

Wash and roughly chop the peaches. It is not necessary to peel them. Strain the lavender flowers and pour the infused sugar water over the fruit. Add the lemon juice and salt, and stir to combine. Let this stand for 10 minutes to macerate the fruit.

Working in batches, puree the peaches with the sugar-water in the food processor or blender. Strain the puree into a bowl, collecting as much juice as possible without forcing any solids through the strainer. You can also strain the juice through a flour sack towel or cheesecloth to yield a cleaner soda. You should end up with 1 1/2 to 2 cups concentrated fruit syrup.

At this point, you could stop, refrigerate the syrup, and add it to a glass of sparkling water to taste. To naturally carbonate the soda with yeast (you intrepid brewer you!), proceed onward.

Pour the juice into a clean 1-liter plastic soda bottle using a funnel (see note). Top off the bottle with water, leaving about an inch and a half of head room. Give it a taste and add more lemon juice or sugar if desired. The extra sugar will dissolve on its own.

Add the yeast. Screw on the cap and shake the bottle to dissolve and distribute the yeast. Let the bottle sit at room temperature out of direct sunlight for 12 to 48 hours. Exact fermentation time will depend on the temperature in the room. Check the bottle periodically; when it feels rock-solid with very little give, it's ready.

Refrigerate overnight or for up to 2 weeks. Open very slowly over a sink to release the pressure gradually and avoid bubble-ups.

Notes: 

• Feel free to substitute white nectarines, yellow peaches, or yellow nectarines for the fruit in this recipe. I'm also feeling tempted to try plums. The color and flavor will be slightly different, but most definitely still very tasty.

• For a stronger lavender flavor, infuse the sugar water for a longer period of time. Taste periodically and strain the sugar water when it tastes good to you. Since using more lavender can quickly make foods taste soapy, this is a safer way of amping up the flavor.

• I recommend using champagne yeast over baker's yeast whenever possible. It has a crisp and clean flavor that lets the fruit shine through, whereas baker's yeast tends to make sodas taste yeasty. Not a terrible thing, and fine in a soda-craving pinch, but get some champagne yeast if you can. It's sold at any homebrew supply store and online at places like Northern Brewer.

• The fruit mash left after straining makes a very good afternoon snack with yogurt.

• Sodas can also be bottled in glass or swing-top bottles, but it’s more difficult to tell when the sodas have fully carbonated. To do this safely, with every batch you bottle also fill one small plastic soda bottle to use as an indicator for when the sodas have finished carbonating. Refrigerate all of the bottles as soon as the plastic bottle is carbonated; never leave the glass bottles at room temperature once carbonated.

True Brews: The Cover!

Aaaaand...KA-POW! Just like that, True Brews feels like something real. It's a good feeling, folks.

So...what do you think?!

From left to right: mocha stout, watermelon-mint soda, hard lemonade (or ginger ale? I can't remember which one we ended up using, honestly), IPA, blueberry-pomegranate wine


More on True Brews:

• It's Officially Official: True Brews Is Going To Be A Book!
• True Brews! Behind the Scene at the Photoshoot
• Against the Grain