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I keep track of the mash temperature, and it's very stable. I use a round cooler with the lid filled with foam insulation. It works great. What I'll do is aim for a higher mash temperature to reduce the proportion of fermentable sugars. I don't have many options with fermentation...

My all-grain brews tend to reach attenuation levels that are significantly higher than the published ranges. I keep aiming for lower ABV, and I always miss the mark. For example, I just used Wyeast American Ale yeast for a blonde ale and got 82% (should be 73-77). Here are the details...

I think the consensus is that barley amylase is well-adapted to operate at germination temperatures. Although it works at mash temperatures, it doesn't work as well... but that's fine. We want to convert at the top of the temperature range to suppress other enzymes and to prevent infection...

My confusion is probably based on the chart below (from: http://www.realbeer.com/jjpalmer/ch14.html ). It shows each enzyme having a "range", so I assumed alpha amylase works poorly below 146F. Is that not the case?

I agree that alpha amylase can certainly do its job at nearly any temperature. It's a very forgiving enzyme. But any enzyme has, within the range of temperatures within which it will work, a window within which it works best (fastest)... depending on temperature and pH. For human amylase, I'm...

Evolution via natural selection doesn't necessarily (or usually) produce the best possible configuration, but that's not what I mean by "optimize". I'm saying that natural selection favors the most adaptive version of a trait given a range of available genetic variation. Thus, for enzymes, we...

The alpha amylase in barley evolved to work best in germinating barley seeds (and evolution, natural selection specifically, DOES optimize things). Any enzyme tends to have one temperature at which it works best. Any higher or lower, and it loses efficiency. For example, human digestive...

Alpha amylase is optimized to work in germinating barley seeds. They certainly don't get up to the temperatures we use to mash. Why is the optimum temperature, then, for mashing 150-160F? That seems to be WAY outside the logical range for this enzyme.

Which water analysis do you order? They have several choices: W-1 Irrigation Water Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$19.80 Sodium Nitrate Calcium Boron Magnesium Electrical Conductivity Potassium Est. Total Dissolved Solids Carbonate Adj...

In our quest for awesome homebrew, we can stive to do everything from scratch (including the math), or aim for simplicity. Some of us grow hops, roast our own grains, and propogate yeast... while others brew from pre-hopped extracts. Nothing wrong with either approach; it's just a matter of...

Not all noobs are the same. A noob can start at any point on the spectrum: One end: using general, imprecise "rules" or "guidelines" Middle: getting precision from software Other end: doing all of the math yourself I actually got into AG partly because I wanted to learn the...

Aa + Bb = Cc A=specific heat of grain (.5 x lbs of grain) a=temperature of grain B=Specific heat of strike water (1 x gallons of water) b=temperature of strike water C=specific heat of mash (A + B) c=temperature of mash (your target temperature) Solve for b and get your strike...

I decided to do a stout and give labeled bottles as gifts. What do you think? http://www.flickr.com/photos/45439158@N07/4175043190/ --Bill

Excellent. You know... I did read that page but I didn't see the conversion factor there. I can't believe how hard it was to find an answer to this, but I think now I'm set. Much appreciated.

I would like to use some British grains in my recipes, but I can't find figures for FGDB (fine grind/dry basis) or CGDB (course grind/dry basis)... and my math is based on percentages or ppg (points per pound per gallon). What I find is "Extract LDK" instead. For example, here's Simpson's...

Thanks for the feedback. Here's more detail: I used petri dishes and media containing 1.020 SG wort (distilled water and DME) and 1.5% agar. After running the beer through the filter, I placed the filter directly on the media in one of the petri dishes. For the other dishes, I used a...

Problem: Stone IPA in 12-oz bottles is very clear and almost seems filtered (is it?). I attempted to get some sediment to streak on wort/agar plates, but did not have much optimism. Procedure: Here's what I think may be a different approach: I ran about 6 ounces of the ale through a .45...