Hello and welcome back to another episode of Al the Brewer. While this is not the definitive guide to craft beer culture on the internet, it should give you a great starting-off point to explore. If you are a homebrewer—or just in love with craft beer—you should check out these sites while enjoying your next pint.

The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) is the group that pushed the art of homebrewing to the level of popularity that it is today. Here you can always find something new or interesting in the world of homebrewing and craft beer. If you are a homebrewer, and haven’t done so already, I would highly suggest joining. It will open the door to competitions, outings, and invitations to member-only events.

Two sites that have a vital part of my own homebrewing experience are Hopville and the Mr. Malty yeast calculator. I use Hopville for all of my grain bill calculations. While it is currently under beta testing, I think it is the best FREE (yes free) all around grain bill calculator out there. As for all things yeast, Jamil Zainasheff is the master! Literally. He wrote the book on yeast and homebrewing. He created a yeast calculator that I use every time that I strike up a brew. The Mr. Malty yeast calculator tells you how much yeast you should be adding to your beer, based on a few standard factors. I noticed an immediate improvement in my beers once I started using this, and I highly recommend it to all my homebrewing friends.

My favorite social networking site with a flair for craft beer is Untappd . Untappd lets you rate, share, and keep tabs on just about any beer that is out on the market today. There is even a section if you are enjoying a homebrew and want to add your latest hop fermented beverage to your collection. Others in this same vein are Tap Hunter, and Find Craft Beer.

Ok, so if you are thinking, “Al, I got this, and I want to go deeper,” well welcome to a new level of beer nerdom my friend. If you really want to dive into beer culture and do a little more reading than 140 characters, check out Homebrewtalk.com. This is an online forum and community that is beyond passionate about homebrewing. Here you can search through postings about all topics in the world of beer and get a helping hand from some of your fellow homebrewers.

Craftbeer.com is like the Craftbeer 101 class of the internet. There is almost always something on there that I can’t pass up reading, and I have found myself more than once following a rabbit hole of links into the depths of its pages.

And finally, the BJCP or Beer Judge Certification Program is the organization responsible for setting the standards of what a style of beer should be. Ever wondered how a porter differs from a stout? This is the place for any and all of those questions. This is also the organization that conducts tests for those wanting to become beer judges for AHA homebrew competitions.

Well that’s it for this episode of Al the Brewer. I hope you will find these links as helpful to as I have.

What are your favorite places on the web for craft beer and homebrew knowledge?