Josh Weikert

This light and quenching smoked wheat beer remains a relatively obscure platypus in the style canon. Lichtenhainer is undeniably odd yet easy to brew and lots of fun to drink.

• Lichtenhainer
• Make Your Best
• Smoked Beer

Easy to forage and easy to use, spruce tips can add a range of flavors to your beers and be used in a variety of ways—and the best time to harvest them is just around the corner.

• Foraging
• Spruce Tips
• Spruce Beer

Amarillo and Simcoe lead the way in this session IPA recipe from Josh Weikert’s Make Your Best series.

• Beer Recipe
• IPA
• Session IPA

Fruit beers—they ain’t all thick smoothie sours. Out of Gainesville, Florida, Swamp Head’s Tropical Vibes is a bright, sunshiny, highly drinkable example of excellence in the form of a fruited wheat beer. We asked them what makes it tick.

• Fruit Beer
• Tropical Fruit
• Fruited Wheat Beer

This one is fast and easy—great for new brewers looking to practice and build their confidence—yet it also offers great depth of flavor and a striking appearance. Surprisingly light and refreshing, the dry stout works well in any season—or, brew it soon to have it ready for St. Pat’s.

• Make Your Best
• Stout
• Dry Irish Stout

Great to brew or drink at any time of year, the too-often-overlooked Bavarian-style dark wheat beer offers crowd-pleasing flavors and looks impressive in the glass.

• Beer Recipe
• Dunkelweizen
• Weissbier

This recipe includes guidelines on fermenting a lager under pressure—and you can apply the same guidelines to your own favorite lager recipe.

• Beer Recipe
• Pilsner

Fermenting under pressure to make beer faster is an old industrial trick—and it works just as well on a small scale. Here’s what to know about a method that can help you brew more lagers in less time, honing your technique along the way.

• Lager
• Pressure
• Spunding

Fresh and malty with plenty of English hop character, this is a great one to enjoy on those long winter evenings to come.

• Make Your Best
• British Ale
• Strong Ale

Eisbock uses a fractional freezing process to concentrate the beer’s strength, and it does so without requiring your yeast to work overtime. The result is a smooth, rich, and intense lager—perfectly suited to sipping on a cold winter night.

• Make Your Best
• Eisbock
• Bock

This seasonal ale is a bright enough red to match your Santa hat, and it goes well with just about anything on your holiday table.

• Beer Recipe
• Irish Red Ale
• Fruit Beer

Stefan Zehendner at Brauerei Zehendner shares a recipe for this strong, seasonal bock that he releases every December. As with his Maibock, the target is a full-flavored yet addictively drinkable strong lager with deep, bready malt flavor and surprising bitterness, complemented by herbal-minty Perle hop flavors.

• Beer Recipe
• Bock
• Heller Bock