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Inspire and improve your next brew with the best tips and tricks from experienced homebrewers and pro brewers. Plus epic all grain homebrew recipes, interesting interviews, and news on equipment and homebrew techniques. Perfect for complete beginners to the veteran homebrewer.
Celebrating our 20th issue
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Learn how to make your own beer! Ideal for complete beginners to those who have been brewing a while. With tips from the pros, equipment talk + how to avoid common homebrewing mistakes.
Read stories, tips and recipes from fellow homebrewers, your favourite breweries and suppliers. Plus news on UK homebrewing events, tournaments and homebrew workshops.
Wondering which homebrewing equipment makes the best beers at home? Take a look at these tips, ideas and reviews for homebrew kit - whatever your favourite style or homebrew experience.
Love my double walled 5L growler with tap I bought a few years ago from Dark Farm. It is great. I use it all the time
I live in Cardiff but I’m originally from Lancashire. I am retired and started brewing when my children bought me a BrewDog 1 gallon brew-in-a-bag kit just after lockdown in 2020. The results were successful so I started looking at other kits and equipment, and came across the Dark Farm (MASHED) kits and eventually tried them all.
Brewers often obsess over the beginning - grain bills, mash schedules, yeast selection - but it’s the end of fermentation, the final (or ‘finishing’) gravity (FG), that speaks loudest in the glass. Final gravity represents the residual sugar left after yeast has done its work, and it’s the metric most responsible for a beer’s mouthfeel, sweetness, and balance. From plush imperial stouts to bone-dry saisons, it’s the number that tells the story of fermentation.
It’s been a busy couple of months since our last issue. Opening MASHED Brewhouse and taking part in the Aberystwyth Beer Festival has been both challenging and incredibly rewarding.
October 5th of this year marked the first International Italian Grape Ale (IGA) Day. Ever tried one? If not, then you might be asking: Italian grape ale? Is that a wine or a beer? Well, IGA is most definitely a beer. But it’s like a beer and wine got very friendly and had a baby. Made with up to 40% grapes or grape must, IGAs are based on pils malt, or pale malt.
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This issue’s hops have been chosen because they are perfect for lagers and other light beers. We love them and have used these varieties in some of the epic all grain recipes you can find from in this issue
Whether you’re crafting a crystal clear pilsner or a juicy IPA, understanding flocculation helps you shape the final pour - not just how it looks, but how it feels and tastes.
Embrace the convenience, versatility and excellence of WHC Lab’s Blitz lager yeast, and embark on a journey to craft exceptional lagers that delight the senses while optimising brewing processes!
In the haze of a lazy afternoon, or at the tail end of a long beery evening, few drinks offer the same effortless refreshment as a shandy or a radler. These beer-based blends have long been the go-to for drinkers seeking something light, bright and sessionable. But while they may seem interchangeable, their histories and cultural footprints tell two distinct stories.
Long before barley became the dominant grain in brewing, rice was quietly shaping its own legacy in the world of fermented beverages. From the misty valleys of ancient China to the ceremonial fires of India and the sleek breweries of modern Japan, rice beer has evolved from a sacred ritual drink to global refreshment. Its story is as varied and nuanced as the cultures that brew it.
Rice may be one of the world’s most ancient grains, but in brewing it’s still revealing new dimensions. Once dismissed as a bland adjunct for mass-market lagers, rice is now enjoying a renaissance among craft brewers who see it not as a filler, but as a tool for precision, texture and subtlety. From jasmine to black rice, puffed to flaked, the diversity of rice offers brewers a palette of possibilities.
What’s better than getting to try loads of amazing beers? Getting to interview and talk with the amazing people behind those beers! The homebrew and wider brewing community have such a passion and sense of conviviality, and I absolutely love gathering their stories to share with you. I’ll have a porter, thanks. Bottoms up!
I started the Dark Farm project in 2014. My ambition was to create something exciting, combining my love for the outdoors with my love of tech. It was only until reading an article about another love of mine, craft beer, which mentioned the decline in UK hop farms over the years that the idea of growing hops clicked into place. It seemed crazy that we’re importing so many hops when the UK has traditionally been a great place to grow them.
