Homebrewing detail, one glass at a time.
Basic Brewing Radio is a homebrewing conversation built around brew days, tasting notes, recipe experiments, and listener stories. It suits drink makers who enjoy the details: hops, yeast, mash choices, cask care, fruit wines, and what went wrong last time.
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Basic Brewing Radio is a practical homebrewing show with the patience to follow a recipe all the way into the glass. It is not flashy. The show is more interested in what a beer did, why it behaved that way, and what a brewer might change next time. James Spencer appears as the steady recurring voice, setting up conversations with homebrewers, brewery people, authors, and regular tasters. Recent episodes show the range clearly. One week turns historic partigyle brewing into a homebrew-scale recipe problem, with Peter Simons using AI to help untangle blended worts. Another follows Scott Housel's Mash Your Luck beer, a low ABV amber sour with balanced bitterness and Australasian influences. A Taari episode brings Mika Leighton and Adam Ross into an ancient Nordic method where a thick mash is baked like bread before becoming beer. The show also makes room for fruit wine. A rhubarb wine conversation with Steve Wilkes and Ron Miller gets specific about tart fruit, yeast choices, nutrient additions, cap management, and the line between wine and mead. Hop-focused episodes stay just as grounded, tasting Azacca, Idaho 7, and El Dorado with people who can talk flavor without turning it into theater. Equipment gets serious attention too. The cask ale episode brings in CAMRA voices to help with real ale dispensing and care. Even the updates around Brewer's Logbooks, shipping, and messy brew-pot paper feel connected to the culture of people who actually make things. The annual disaster show is the comic pressure valve, but it still carries practical warnings about kegs, seals, pressure, and mistakes that can become dangerous. Basic Brewing Radio works because it lets brewing stay complicated. It trusts listeners to care about temperatures, adjuncts, packaging, yeast behavior, and imperfect experiments. The pace is unhurried. The humor is dry and familiar. The best moments feel like standing near a brew pot while experienced friends compare notes, admit what failed, and pass around the result.
Made for: For homebrewers, craft beverage makers, and fermentation hobbyists who enjoy recipe talk, tasting notes, and practical process detail. It especially fits listeners who already know the basics and want deeper shop-floor conversation.
What sets it apart: Its strength is the mix of hands-on experiments, named ingredients, tasting panels, and post-mortems of both successful and failed brews. The show makes technical brewing talk feel lived-in rather than instructional from a distance.
Basic Brewing Radio is a weekly show about craft beverages and brewing them in your own home. We take the mystery and fear out of brewing the best beer in the world. Look for our podcast in the iTunes Music Store - it's free!
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
James Spencer turns recipes, tastings, and brewing failures into precise lessons about what changes inside the fermenter and why.
Basic Brewing Radio follows homebrew from recipe idea to finished glass, with James Spencer steering conversations toward the choices that change a batch.
A stuck mash gets a patient hearing, and so will your brewing curiosity.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear, practical rhubarb wine discussion that turns home fermentation into an easy listen.
Basic Brewing Radio takes a brief detour from beer and spends the week on home wine making, with Ron Miller's rhubarb wine at the center. James Spencer and Steve Wilkes use it as a practical guide to country-wine work, touching on acidity, yeast choice, fruit handling, and the…
Brewing disasters stay entertaining here because the jokes still leave room for the lesson.
Basic Brewing Radio leans into its annual disaster show and makes a solid case for turning brewing mishaps into a useful listen. The best stretches stay close to the lessons learned, with listener stories and technical reminders doing most of the heavy lifting.
Peter Simons ties translation, recipe work, and AI bias into a practical homebrewing conversation.
Archived Brews, Beers from the Vaults uses a familiar Basic Brewing Radio setup to connect older beer stories with a current question: what changes when a homebrewing author brings artificial intelligence into research and writing?
A Colorado mountain brew day brings Matt Giovannisi back to cooler-based gear, a propane burner, and the pull of where he started.
Basic Brewing Radio uses a Colorado mountain trip, 11,000 feet above sea level, to circle back to the kind of homebrew setup that started it all.
A porch-side beer conversation connects Bavarian homebrewing, New York taps, and an IPA debate with one Sonic-sized detour.
Basic Brewing Radio's part-two visit with Detlef Kertge keeps its feet on Steve Wilkes' porch, then lets homebrewing open out into German culture and the New York City beer scene.
A Belgian single sets up a clear, chemistry-minded look at what boiling does for hoppy raw ale.
A Belgian single leads into a practical question for homebrewers: what does boiling actually do, and what changes when a raw ale skips that step?
Wrestling toy talk with full collector brain.
James Spencer hosts part two of a conversation on Steve Wilkes' porch with Detlef Kertge, a Bavarian homebrewer, and Steve's son Chase Holliman.
This episode of Basic Brewing Radio features host James Spencer catching up with homebrewer Bob Stemski, discussing brewing challenges, upcoming video plans, and beer samples from various brewers.
James Spencer hosts Chris Colby to taste a Belgian single and develop a recipe for a hoppy raw ale.
Basic Brewing Radio’s July 16, 2026 episode features Brian Evenson of Cincinnati’s Bloatarian Brewing League explaining the 38th Annual Beer and Sweat keg-only homebrew competition.
This episode features author Peter Simons discussing how he used AI to deconstruct historic partigyle recipes to create a simple homebrew recipe for one of his favorite beers.
This episode features a homebrewing discussion where Scott Housel presents his low ABV amber sour beer with Australasian influences for the Mash Your Luck Challenge, along with updates on patreon support and Brewer's Logbook availability.
This episode features a discussion with Mika Leighton about Tari, an ancient Nordic brew made by baking the mash like bread, along with updates on homebrewing projects and supporter benefits.
This episode features a virtual roundtable tasting beers from the Rocky Mountains, including a pale ale with homegrown hops, along with updates on supporter benefits and product availability.
This episode features experts from CAMRA discussing cask ale care and dispensing systems for homebrewers, along with updates on real ale and craft beer in the UK.
This episode features a hop sampler tasting of Azacca, Idaho 7, and El Dorado beers with a panel of brewing experts, along with sponsor mentions and supporter benefits.
James Spencer shifts the show from beer to home wine.
Basic Brewing Radio kicks off the new year with its annual disaster show.
Basic Brewing Radio host James Spencer interviews author Peter Simons about Archived Brews, Beers from the Vaults, his fifth book of historical brewery research and homebrew recipes.
Basic Brewing Radio host James Spencer interviews Matt Giovannisi about brewing a beer at Shrine Pass near Vail, Colorado, at approximately 11,000 feet.
This episode features researchers discussing their study on using rice to enhance the flavor and reduce fermentation time in non-alcoholic beer.
This episode of Basic Brewing Radio features host James Spencer catching up with homebrewer Bob Stemski and discussing various brewing activities, including the Mash Your Luck challenge and upcoming beer tastings.
This episode features a tasting of a giant dark beer with South of the Border influences, part of a two-stage Mash Your Luck Challenge, along with discussions about a Basic Pilsner yeast starter and Patreon support updates.