411 episodes listed below
Beer technique, lab talk, and mailbag wisdom.
Brew Strong turns listener questions and brewing problems into long, usable conversations about process, ingredients, equipment, and fermentation. The tone is loose and jokey, but the answers stay anchored in measurements, technique, and real brewing consequences.
PRESS PLAY
Brew Strong is a beer radio show with a stubbornly practical center. It is built for homebrewers and small brewers who want process talk that goes past recipe chatter. Recent episodes lean hard into yeast, quality control, and the kinds of small decisions that can change a batch. A question about harvesting yeast from a carboy becomes a step-by-step discussion of racking, leaving enough beer behind, breaking up the yeast cake, sanitation, and storage. A yeast propagation episode turns into a longer conversation about timelines, settling, dormancy, lag phase, and when a culture is truly ready to pitch. The show is comfortable with numbers. It talks through grams per liter, dilution, hemocytometer counts, representative squares, and the difference between too many cells and too few. It is also comfortable being messy. Sponsor reads, live-chat prompts, jokes, repeated phrases, and side comments sit right next to serious brewing advice. That loose shape is part of the appeal. The conversations feel like experienced brewers working something out in real time, correcting each other, adding caveats, and translating lab logic into brew-day choices. John Hughes is a major presence in the recent run, especially on yeast plating, yeast propagation, and quality-lab practice. His background in microbiology, brewing education, and quality assurance gives those episodes a more technical spine. Other episodes keep the mailbag format alive, with questions about open fermentation, packaging, oxidation, souring, and equipment. Mixed fermentation gets treated as both flavor design and process control, with attention to acidity, bitterness, acetone-like faults, oxygen, and barrel handling. The show does not sand off its beer-radio personality. It can be silly, blunt, and digressive. Still, the useful information keeps surfacing. Brew Strong works best for listeners who already care enough about brewing to enjoy the detours on the way to the answer.
Made for: Brew Strong is for homebrewers, advanced hobbyists, and small-brewery people who enjoy detailed process talk. It especially fits listeners interested in yeast management, fermentation control, quality checks, and practical troubleshooting.
What sets it apart: The show mixes informal beer-radio banter with unusually concrete brewing instruction. Recent episodes stand out for connecting homebrew-scale habits to microbiology, sensory work, quality-lab methods, and brewing analogies.
Brew Strong, with hosts Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer, combines the two most prominent authors and figures in homebrewing today in a live beer radio format that allows listeners to pose beginning and advanced brewing questions to expert hosts and guests from the Craft Beer industry. Designed as a brewing geek's must-listen show, Brew Strong is your source for cutting edge beer and brewing information, answers to technical questions, as well as a guide to a greater appreciation of all things beer. Have questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Brew Strong makes brewing science usable by tracing fermentation, yeast, and quality-control decisions from measurement to flavor.
Brew Strong turns brewing problems into working sessions, with Jamil Zainashef and company moving from listener questions to the measurements, equipment choices, and fermentation decisions behind a batch.
A hemocytometer enters the chat when your homebrew questions get serious.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical mail sack answer makes carboy yeast collection feel visible, careful, and repeatable.
Yeast harvesting gets a grounded, easy-to-follow treatment as a listener question turns into a careful walk through moving beer off a carboy without dragging along too much yeast.
A practical yeast-propagation session for brewers who want cleaner pitch decisions.
Brew Strong leans into yeast propagation, with John Hughes joining Jamel Zanishev, TC, and Huggy Bear for a grounded look at how a small yeast sample is built up before brew day.
A practical yeast-count lesson for brewers who care about the numbers.
Brew Strong keeps this hour firmly on the practical side of beer science, with John Hughes guiding listeners through quality labs and yeast counting for brewers.
A practical Q&A on open fermentation, with kettle souring not far behind.
BrewStrong brings Jamel Zanishev back after a rough six or seven months, and he says he is feeling better. The discussion opens on a listener's concern about open fermentation in a basement and the risk of infection, which keeps the focus on a brewing problem that feels…
A loose but useful mixed-fermentation chat that keeps returning to balance, oxygen, and barrel choice.
Brew Strong's second show with Huggy Bear and special guest Michael Tonsmeyer of Sapplewood Cellars keeps its attention on mixed fermentation with a practical streak.
A triple IPA discussion that keeps its feet on the ground.
BrewStrong turns a live Q and A into a beer-centered conversation, with Jamil Zainashef, Travis Comble, and first-time guest Michael Persine working through gravities, malt weight, and the way a dry finish can keep an 11.5 percent beer feeling lighter than it sounds.
Mental-board chess drills for focused practice.
German fragrance talk with real collector judgment.
Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer host a live Q&A episode of Brew Strong, answering listener questions on homebrewing techniques.
Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer host a live Q&A on Brew Strong with guests Travis Combel and first-time participant Michael Persyn.
Jamil Zainashef and co-hosts introduce a show about mash hopping with Scott Janish, discussing brewing techniques and recent travels.
Travis and Mike host a Q&A episode of Brew Strong, filling in for Jamil and answering listener questions about homebrewing.
Jamil and John chat with Fal Allen about brewing winter beers and sample some from Anderson Valley Brewing.
Jamil and John interview Aaron Hyde about the art and science of home distilling.
Jamil Zainashef and John Palmer introduce a special guest, John Hughes, to discuss yeast propagation in homebrewing.
The hosts of Brew Strong introduce a mail sack episode where they answer listener questions with special guest John Hughes.
The hosts introduce a special guest, Dr.
John Hughes discusses yeast plating techniques and his background in brewing microbiology.
Jamil and John answer listener questions about homebrewing, yeast counts, and brewing techniques in a mailbag episode.
Brew Strong brings Jamil Zainashef, John Palmer, and guest John Hughes together to walk through East County yeast counting for Heretic and homebrewers.
Jamil answers James’s question about oxygenating wort to 10–12 PPM DO in an SS Brewtech 14-gallon conical and waiting before pitching at 44 F.
Michael Tonsmeyer says oxygen management is what keeps mixed-fermentation beer from turning solventy or vinegary.
Jamil Zainashef and guests Travis Combel and Michael Persyn answer homebrewing questions on Brew Strong.