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Jim Crooks, master blender at Firestone Walker Barrelworks, explains how adjusting your recipe’s bitterness level can moderate and control lactic acid produced by bacteria during the aging process.

• Video

For Denver’s Our Mutual Friend, subtle tweaks and improvements over years of brewing have brought their hoppy beers into medal-winning form, but the big and brash flavors in their smoked beers showcase their penchant for dramatic statements.

• Podcast
• Brewing
• Smoked Beer

Here is Annie Johnson’s recipe for a rich, complex, adjunct-free imperial stout that mellows and improves with some time in the cellar.

• Beer Recipe
• Imperial Stout
• Stout

You don’t need a truckload of grain and a giant mash tun to brew a big, rich imperial stout perfect for laying down for months—this one is right in the extract brewer’s wheelhouse.

• Imperial Stout
• Extract Brewing

Why yes, we do fire up the grill in mid-winter. Here, brown ale adds layers of Maillard comfort to braised onions and a from-scratch (but simple to make) bratwurst burger.

• Cooking with Beer
• Bratwurst
• Burger

Courtesy of Mike Messenie at cask-centric Dutchess Ales in Wassaic, New York, this homebrew-scale recipe is a pleasantly lush and nuanced take on their original Best Bitter, meant for natural cask-conditioning in a 5.4-gallon (20-liter) “pin.”

• Beer Recipe
• Bitter

No, it’s not boring—it’s sublime. Yes, it should be somewhat bitter—but balanced. Randy Mosher breaks down one of the beer world’s great classics and the context that makes sense of it. Ready for a session?

• Bitter

Courtesy of Firestone Walker Brewmaster Matt Brynildson, this is a homebrew-scale recipe for a rich but highly drinkable milk stout with complex malt character. The recipe is also versatile—a great base for adding coffee or flavored adjuncts.

• Beer Recipe
• Stout
• Milk Stout

Just how much farmland does it take to grow the hops in that case of hazy IPA? Here’s some quick math to see just how many acres it takes to produce our beloved beers.

• Infographic

Jim Crooks, master blender at Firestone Walker Barrelworks, describes the process of tinkering with elegant beer recipes to get the desired complexity and character after months or years of maturing with yeast and bacteria.

• Video
• Recipe Development
• Mixed Fermentation

The serial collaborator from Oceanside, California, discusses the techniques he’s honed to build balanced flavor with energy and flair in intensely adjunct-forward beers.

• Podcast

Here are two books we can recommend to any brewer or beer enthusiast.

• Beer Books