The Brewing Network Presents | The Jamil Show

We get a lot of questions about how to brew quality beers with a higher gravity. Sometimes the questions are simple, and other times they can be kind of complex. Today, we put our heads together and lay out everything you need to know about how to brew these big beers - fermentation, recipe formulation, mashing, and more!

This week on Brewing With Style, we have a special guest join the show - the head of the Heretic Brewing Barrel Program, Chris! He came into the studio to talk about how he made his transition from homebrewer all the way to his current position alongside Jamil. We also chat about how he approaches blending and tasting beers from the barrel project, and how those get transformed into a final product. Tune in and learn about how Heretic tackles this complex and experimental part of producing great craft beer from barrels.

Today's show is full of a few things, but mainly beer. We talk today about the practice of adding your dark malts at the end of the mash versus keeping them in there for the entire thing. It's a much-debated topic, with many people on either side swearing to their cats that their way is the best. JP brewed two batches of his Oatmeal Stout, one with grains at the mash and one with the dark grains added at the end. Which will dominate? Find out!

Jamil and Tasty take listener questions on this episode of Brewing With Style. Listen in as they answer all things beer from your emails.

Jamil and Tasty get a surprise visit from Pete Slosberg, formerly of Pete's Wicked Ales, and his friend Ari. Ari makes some of the best homemade bread we've ever had and shared some bread making tips with us. Pete brought us his homemade malt balls and a drink made with some amazonian berries that made your mouth go weird. We also discussed what makes a beer a given style and a few other beery things with our two friends in this special episode of Brewing With Style.

We had so much fun with the last Secret Beers show that we had to come back with a Part Two. Beevo brings Jamil, Tasty, and JP two mystery beers during the show, and it's up to our brave hosts to guess the style. Which is much harder than it seems! This exercise is a good one to try at home, because it really tests your beer knowledge.

Jamil, Tasty, and JP have been lucky enough to have done several collaboration beers over the years with friends and colleagues alike. With more and more breweries reaching out into the homebrewing world for ProAm collaborations, and various "fun-to-brew" beers, they decided to use this episode of Brewing With Style to talk about the complex world of the collaboration beer. The guys discuss what to expect from your brew day, what is expected from you, and how to the the most out of this amazing experience. Plus they make fun of Beevo a lot. Again.

Jamil starts this episode of Brewing With Style by talking about Beevo's love for Brad at Brewer's Hardware. Needless to say she's uncomfortable with it, which is always funny. Then we jump right into the topic for today - Secret Beers! We had two beers chosen for us secretly before the show, and our goal is to try and guess what styles these beers fall under. It's harder than it sounds! JP and Tasty come up with some crazy guesses, and Jamil ... well he does what you'd expect him to.

Jamil, Tasty, and JP talk about the recent happenings at the Great American Beer Festival, including beers, judging, and all the work that goes into putting on a giant beer fest. Well, Jamil and Tasty talk about it, since JP didn't go. We talk a lot about the judging side of the GABF and just how much time it takes to run through all of the entries to pick the winners, not to mention the toll it takes on your body. Most people don't know it's an 8-hour work day, and Jamil reminds us of that. It's a good insight into the other side of a beer competition.

Coming off of Jamil's recent trip to Asia, we decided to revisit the Foreign Extra Stout category. Notoriously hard to find in the U.S. Jamil was able to track down some pretty neat beer and mule them back for us - including Guinness's version! We all had a clear favorite in the studio, which makes it even more painful to know that it will be nearly impossible to find on our side of the pond. Oh well, such is beer!

We open the show today waxing poetic about how old Jamil is getting and how he has forgotten so much stuff that he has to refer to his own books to remind him of certain things. Then we jump into today's style, Trappist Single Ale (category 26A in the 2015 BJCP guidelines), which was another style requested by a listener looking for more information on this hard-to-find style. Needless to say, we were not able to have any of the classic styles for this show, but we did find a beer that came very, very close from Monkish.

We had a listener email into the show asking for us to cover something called Czech Amber Lager (category 3c in the new BJCP guidelines). Having never had a commercial example of this beer, it was a challenge we quickly accepted! First off, though, we discuss what it means to have a commercial example ready, and how that affects the ability to understand and interpret the BJCP guidelines. After a bit of banter about the regionalism inferred by the name, we dig into the closest commercial beers we can find that may fall into the Czech Lager category.

In this episode of Brewing With Style, Jamil, JP and Tasty revisit Category 5 - Bock Beer, from the 2008 BJCP Style Guidelines. Based on listener submissions of homebrew and commercial beer, the team goes through what makes a great bock beer and how you can brew one yourself.

In this episode of Brewing With Style, Jamil, JP and Tasty revisit Category 5 - Bock Beer, from the 2008 BJCP Style Guidelines. Based on listener submissions of homebrew and commercial beer, the team goes through what makes a great bock beer and how you can brew one yourself.

Prompted from listener questions, in this episode of Brewing With Style, Jamil, JP, and Tasty discuss the use of dry yeast to ferment your beer, vs. liquid yeast. They talk about the presence of diacetyl and how to properly use dry yeast to get the best fermentation you can. They also discuss new hops and why you should try them.

In this episode of Brewing With Style, Jamil and Tasty discuss Northern German Altbier, Category 7A in the 2008 BJCP Style Guidelines. This is one of Jamil's favorite German styles, and sometimes it's hard to find a great example in the U.S. Tune in and learn about the complexities of a great German Alt, what commercial examples you might find success with, and of course, how to brew your own!

In this special episode of Brewing With Style, Jamil, Tasty, JP and Beevo recap the 2016 National Homebrewers Conference in Baltimore, MD. Now known as Homebrew Con, this annual event draws thousands of homebrewers for an epic week of parties, seminars, special events and the largest homebrew competition on earth. Listen in as the guys tell their stories about everyone’s favorite event and learn what Homebrew Con is all about...

In this episode of Brewing With Style, Jamil and Tasty discuss Maibock/Helles Bock, Category 5A in the 2008 BJCP Style Guidelines. This awesome German style of beer is slightly toasty while remaining clean and easy to drink, even as its alcohol content is a little on the higher side. Listen in as the guys discuss their favorite commercial versions and how you can brew the perfect Maibock yourself!

In this episode of Brewing With Style, Jamil and Tasty discuss Northern English Brown Ale, Category 11C of the 2008 BJCP Style Guidelines. This wonderful English ale has subtle complexities to challenge the brewer, and is such a classic style, perfect for any occasion. Tune in and learn about commercial examples and how to brew one yourself!

In this episode of Brewing With Style, Jamil and Tasty discuss Pyment, Category 25B from the 2008 BJCP Guidelines. Pyment is a melomel type of mead, generally made from grapes (juice). These can be very difficult to find commercially, but are still very common in homebrew circles. Tune in and learn the intricacies of producing pyment and how you can make a great one at home.