Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

Schwarzbier Comparisons – Jar of Destiny Research

On August 6, 2025

When Mike says we are going to do some research, it means we are grabbing a couple of brews and talking about them.

This time, we decide to take a detour to learn more about Schwarzbier, Mike’s 15th Jar of Destiny pick. These black lagers have a specific description but they seem to be different in commercial examples.

After I struck out on finding any American wheat ales, Mike brings four(!) Schwarzbiers from our local craft beer store. Obviously, we line them up and give them a proper taste test. Let’s see what we learned as Mike got notes for his “Jar of Destiny” brew.

The Schwarzbier Appearance & Aroma

These Schwarzbiers ran the spectrum from nearly see-through ruby highlights to dark, opaque pours. We labeled each of these beers with letters from A to D.

D takes the crown for looks. It is crystal clear with gorgeous ruby edges. C is the darkest, practically daring you to find any light.
When it came to aroma, things got interesting. A has a whisper of chocolate and roast, B is all about subtle malt, and D plays the malty card with a hint of Munich breadiness.
C is a plum bomb. It is rich, fruity, almost Baltic porter territory.

Taste Test & Takeaways

Here are our full notes from our left-to-right lineup (A, B, C, D), Here’s the quick rundown:

A (Coolship Lager Black, EOC Brewing Co.): Thin body, touch of roast, maybe a little ashy. Pleasant, but missing that signature Schwarzbier snap.

B (Lethos Schwarzbier, Grimm Artisanal Ales): Mild aroma, medium mouthfeel, a little dry roasted malt. Charcoal vibes lingered but nothing harsh.

C (Hidden Mechanism, Aeronaut Brewing): This one drank like an ale with big plum, caramel notes, bordering on Baltic porter. Roastiness took a back seat.

D (Rinsteig Black Lager, Schilling Beer Co.): Our winner! Just enough malt sweetness, restrained roast, and balanced as hell.

Inspiration & The Value of Homebrewing

Tasting four commercial Schwarzbiers side by side proved a few things. One: this style is all over the map, and two: if you want it done your way, sometimes you have to brew it yourself.

That’s still the joy of homebrewing, right? If you’re ever frustrated that your favorite style is missing from store shelves, don’t get mad, get mashing.

BREW ON!

Crafting American Amber Ale – Recipe Obsession

By John Krochune

On July 30, 2025

In Recipes, Style Profiles, Videos

There’s something about chasing the perfect amber ale that’ll make you feel like Ahab after the white whale.

Ok, not quite.

Maybe it makes you feel like a homebrewer who’s spent too many hours sniffing specialty malts at the LHBS.

Ever since Cambridge Brewing Company shut its doors (moment of silence), Mike has wanted to brew an American Amber Ale that scratches the itch for that classic, balanced, drink-all-day pint. He’s been tinkering away, dialing in mash pH, chasing efficiency, and keeping a big homebrewing process reveal a little mysterious, even from the rest of us.

This week’s batch is his fourth serious attempt at the style, and each round gets us a little closer to Amber Ale enlightenment.

American Amber Ale – Version 4

This recipe is for a 3.5 gallon batch.

Grain Bill:

60% Pale Malt (Valley Malt)
34% Light Munich Malt (6°L, Valley Malt)
5% CaraAroma (180°L)
1% Chocolate Malt (450°L)

Hop Schedule:

15 g Target @ 60 min (clean bittering)
Just under 1 oz Centennial @ 10 min (grapefruit/citrus aroma)

Yeast: 1 packet of Verdant IPA

Mash Schedule:

Mash at 145°F for 60 minutes
Raise to 158°F for 10 minutes
Raise to 168°F for 10 minutes (mash out)

Mash pH: 5.4

Boil Length: 60 minutes

Fermentation:

Primary: 68°F for 2 weeks
Cold crash: 3 days
Keg condition for 1 week before serving

Notes:

No post-boil finings used; Whirlfloc tablet in boil.
Focused on water chemistry for clarity and yeast health (especially calcium levels).
CaraAroma provided great color but more toastiness than desired. Future tweaks will balance toast and caramel more evenly.

The Verdict? Close But Not Quite There

Well, we liked this beer’s clarity and color but it’s just a bit too toasty in flavor. That 5% CaraAroma brings the color but also piles on the toast, making it almost too rich for back-to-back pints.

Mike wants those caramel and toasty notes to level out and not wrestle for attention. Next round, he is thinking of dialing back the CaraAroma, blending in some Crystal 40 and Crystal 80, and maybe rethinking the Munich.

Amber ale is all about balance. It needs to be a little malty, a little dry, some hop flavor, but nothing screaming for attention. That’s the magic he is after.

If you Amber Ale tips, let us know what works for you. More to come from us!

BREW ON!

Lalbrew Yeast Showdown: Pomona vs. Verdant vs. New England

By John Krochune

On July 23, 2025

In Videos, Yeast

We put together this beer experiement. A 4-gallon IPA base split into three 1-gallon fermenters, each pitched with a different dry yeast from Lallemand (Lalbrew): Verdant IPA, New England East Coast Ale, and Pomona Modern Hybrid IPA. We wanted to see how each yeast transformed the same wort. The short answer is yes, there were big differences. See our tasting video for more information.

Recipe Rundown & Fermentation Notes

Batch Size: 4 gallons

Grain Bill:
8 lbs (3.6kg) Pilsner malt
1 lb (0.45 kg) Flaked barley
0.5 lb (0.23 kg) Flaked wheat

Brewing Salts Addition:
3 grams gypsum (added to the boil) – I used 7 gallons of spring water.

Hops:
Bittering:
1 oz Magnum (12.2% AA) (60 minutes left in the boil)

Whirlpool (wort cooled to 180°F):
14 g Azacca Cryo Hops (20.9% AA)
28 g Bravo Hops (14.7% AA)
28 g Cashmere Hops (7.9% AA)
28 g Nectaron Hops (9.8% AA)

Dry hopped (24 hours at 33°F or 1°C)
3.5 g Azacca Cryo Hops (20.9% AA)
7 g Cashmere Hops (7.9% AA)
7 g Nectaron Hops (9.8% AA)

Yeast & Fermentation
Wort was split into three 1-gallon batches.
5 grams of yeast added to each vessel
Fermented for a week at 72°F (22°C)
Cold crashed for a day then dry hopped then packaged

Verdant IPA Yeast: Final Gravity 1.014
New England IPA Yeast: Final Gravity 1.012
Pomona Yeast: Final Gravity 1.010

Yeast Profiles & Tasting Notes

Verdant IPA
Verdant was soft, round, and balanced—bringing a mellow floral and citrus hop character. The mouthfeel was creamy and the finish smooth, with no harshness at all. It’s a reliable choice for a classic New England IPA profile.

New England East Coast Ale (Conan/Burlington)
The East Coast strain landed squarely between the others, with a more noticeable fruit character than Verdant but far less intensity than Pomona. We picked up soft stone fruit and floral citrus notes that reminded us of Heady Topper. It had a round mouthfeel with just the right touch of hop punch.

Pomona
Pomona finished the driest and delivered an intense lemon-lime citrus punch that stood out sharply from the others. It leaned into artificial citrus territory—like lemon pledge mixed with juicy fruit gum. This yeast could shine with the right hop combo.

Yeast Quick Notes

Yeast	Mouthfeel	Fruit/Bitter Balance	Best If You Want…
Pomona	Dry, sharp citrus	Lemon-lime blast	Citrus-heavy, bold flavors
Verdant	Round, creamy	Mellow tropical	Soft, balanced IPAs
East Coast (New England)	In-between texture	Subtle, fruity citrus	Traditional NEIPA softness with hop punch

Final Thoughts

Never stop experimenting. Try comparisons like this Lalbrew yeast showdown to learn more about how certain ingredients perform.

Thanks for reading and BREW ON!

Bravo Hops SMaSH Beer Tasting and Review

By John Krochune

On July 16, 2025

In Hops, Videos

We’re back with another installment in our SMaSH beer series, and this time we’re putting Bravo hops to the test. Not that it matters, I realized we didn’t have any hops starting with the letter B on our hop table, so Bravo got the nod. This variety kept popping up in Scott Janish’s The New IPA, and we remembered using them in a recipe of his from Brew Your Own magazine. The variety feels like a background player when I have used it before. Let’s see how Bravo hops perform when given the spotlight.

The Bravo SMaSH Beer Recipe

As always, this is a one-gallon batch brewed to highlight a single hop variety. For this SMaSH experiment, I kept the grain bill simple with:

Bravo SMaSH Beer Recipe (1-Gallon Batch):

Grain: 2 lbs 2-row malt
Hops: Bravo (AA 14.7%)
- 7g @ 60 minutes
- 14g @ flameout
- 7g dry hop (24 hours, post-chill)
Yeast: US-05
Water: 2 gallons strike, adjusted for pH with standard salts
Fermentation: Standard ale temps (65–68°F)

This basic setup helps us get a clean read on what Bravo brings to the glass. Fermentation finished clean and we packaged it up for a tasting session.

Our Impressions

The aroma was tough to pin down. It was kind of like underripe mango, or maybe even green papaya. There was a woody-vanilla vibe that leaned almost coconut-y, but not in a sweet, tropical sense. Mike picked up a lot of herbal and floral notes, and I got a lingering bitterness that stuck to the palate long after each sip. Nothing screamed “fruit bomb” or “juicy banger” here. Bravo comes across more like a filler. It is pleasant, but subtle. It adds structure, not swagger.

Digging into the Yakima Chief site, it had descriptors like citrus, floral, and tropical woody show up. We both agreed this hop was likely bred for bittering first, then got pulled into the flavor world later on. Used on its own, it’s not especially exciting. In a blend, it might be the mortar between the bricks. It fills in the spaces and gives other hops room to shine.

We’ll be revisiting Bravo next week in a yeast comparison video where it plays a role across three batches so stay tuned to see if yeast can pull out something more expressive. Until then, let us know in the comments if you’ve brewed with Bravo and what you picked up from it.

BREW ON!

The Pursuit Of The Perfect Brown Ale

By John Krochune

On July 9, 2025

In Recipes, Videos

We’re kicking off a new homebrewing experiment with Mike’s brown ale project. He’s got a thing for English styles, and has been chasing his perfect brown ale for a while now. This post is about his first step, discussing his brewing and tasting of iteration #1. Let’s see what we learned and where we’re heading next.

Brown Ale Recipe #1

Water Chemistry:

Generic spring water
3 grams gypsum
1 gram calcium chloride
Add salts to the kettle (not the mash)

Grain Bill:

5 lbs 2 oz Valley Malt Pale Malt
8 oz Crystal 60
4 oz Biscuit Malt
3 oz Crisp Chocolate Malt (450L)

Hops:

34 grams Liberty Hops (5.6% AA) – 60 minutes (bittering, single addition)
Target: 30 IBUs

Yeast:

Mangrove Jack’s Empire Ale yeast

Mash Schedule:

Mash at 152°F for 60 minutes
Mash out at 168°F for 10 minutes

Fermentation:

Original Gravity (OG): 1.048
Final Gravity (FG): 1.009
Estimated ABV: 5.1%

What We Learned & Next Steps

The beer poured a nice brown with reddish highlights and cleared up well. On the nose, Liberty hops came through with some caramel in the background. Tasting it, the caramel and chocolate malt were the first things I noticed, blending together smoothly. The hops played nice with the malt, finishing dry and super drinkable. There’s toastiness from the biscuit and chocolate malts, balanced by the sweetness from the Crystal 60.
Mike’s water chemistry tweaks paid off. Adding salts to the kettle, not the mash, helped smooth out the flavors. The beer attenuated well, finishing dry and easy to drink. For the next round, Mike would bump up the caramel a bit, maybe swap the pale malt for Maris Otter, and try a different yeast. The hop selection is flexible, but Liberty worked well here.

Sometimes you get lucky on the first try, but there’s always room to tweak. This project is about dialing in the recipe over time and learning from each batch. Stay tuned for future updates as we refine the brown ale to perfection.

BREW ON!