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The world’s most influential beer style is also one of the most misunderstood outside its birth country. “Pilsner” took over the world, but the Czech source material is strikingly different and far more alluring.

• Style School
• Pilsner
• Czech Lager

Inspired by Saison Cazeau, here is a recipe for a light, dry, farmhouse-style ale that gets a sweet-smelling lift from fresh fleurs de sureau.

• Beer Recipe
• Saison

Floral, fruity, and unique, fresh elderflowers smell like the finest hops you’ve never smelled—because those hops don’t exist yet.

• Elderflower
• Saison

BJCP Grand Master Josh Weikert covers everything you need to know to scale down your full-strength recipe to a more affordable and crushable beer.

• Video
• Full Video
• High Gravity

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