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I'm about to plunge myself headlong into the dark, mysterious world of brewing some ancient gruit ales. It's been nice knowing y'all. :-) Of course jumping in and finding out is a good way to learn, and I will definitely do that, but while I'm still looking at ingredients and recipes, I'd like...

There are various guidelines on how much water to use when steeping grains (seeing as too much water promotes tannin extraction), but these are usually based on an average grain bill. But what when you only steep very dark (and therefore more acidic) grains? I'm planning a stout (extract +...

Hi everyone, I'm experimenting with alpha amylase to increase the fermentability of malt extracts by breaking down some of the complex sugars and other hard-to-ferment components. So far I've managed to get a DME that otherwise won't go below 1.014 all the way down to 1.006 over the course of...

I've been brewing all-grain beers for about 8 years now. My three latest brews were all Belgian beers which contained a small amount (about 4%) of wheat. They all developed chill haze the moment I stuck them in the fridge. (Yes, I know, these beers shouldn't be served at fridge temperatures, but...

I brewed two Belgian big beers (one dubbel, one tripel) using WLP504. This is a yeast that likes to take its time and continues to attenuate the wort/beer very slowly for many weeks after you think it's done in the fermenter. Think 1 gravity point per week or so. (Anyone else have the same...

I'm brewing a Belgian Tripel using WLP540, and this time I'm trying a staggered fermentation in hopes that it will keep the esters down a little and make for a more controlled fermentation. I started with the all-grain portion of the wort (OG 1.060) to which I planned to add 1 lb. of Lyle's...

I've brewed a Weizen from extract before and it wasn't bad, but the liquid wheat malt extract I have yields a clear, light bodied beer that is low on the typical Weizen flavors. This is not surprising, since the LME lacks a lot of things you get from a proper mash containing significant amounts...

I'm making yeast startrs using a stir plate. My starter wort has an OG of 1.040. I'm growing up a yeast sample that has few viable cells in it (liquid yeast and fermenter sludge several months old, sediment harvested from a bottle, etc.) What is better in this case: starting with a small...

For a variety of reasons (hubris, a few beers and more curiosity than is good for me) I have taken it upon myself to try and work out what's really in those packets of Mangrove Jack's, Muntons, Morgans and other dry yeasts. What set me off was the fact that I have learned that Brewcraft...

Because many home brewers in this area (including yours truly) brew with borehole water from a dolomite layer which is so hard it can be described as liquid pebbles and has a high pH as well, I have tried to observe the recommendation of not using more than 2 quarts of water (2L) per pound of...

After having had several bad results (strong tannin flavors and harsh bitterness) with steeping grains in our local tap water, I've tried to steep in wort instead. While I'm now not getting any tannin flavors and nasty bitter notes anymore, I'm also not getting a decent extraction efficiency...

There is a number of dried yeast brands on the market. The biggest ones are of course Fermentis and Lallemand/Danstar. Then there are the smaller ones: Mangrove Jack's, Brewferm, Coopers, Muntons, Mauribrew and probably a few more. Now those "small guys" don't produce their own dry yeast but...

A fellow home brewer (bless his soul) gave me a bottle of first-generation WLP540 sludge, which I used to brew a dubbel. I mashed at about 67C (172F) for a balance between body and fermentability. I pitched about 2 cups of sludge about 3 weeks old (kept at 2-4 degrees C / 35-40F). I splashed the...

I'm wanting to brew a Belgian dubbel using the water profile for Antwerp embedded in Bru'n water. I have entered the details for my local water from the lab's water report: Calcium as Ca+ 23.25 Magnesium as Mg+ 8.75 Sodium as Na+ 17.70 Sulphate as SO42- 18.25 Chloride as Cl- 26.2 Total...

After having used Qbrew for many years, I'm now looking at Brewtarget and Beersmith as well. I'm in the process of working out The Ultimate Belgian Dubbel Recipe (yeah right) and decided to give all three of them a spin. The results were wildly different. So I decided to make a simple test...

Simple and quick question (that Google has so far failed to answer): Is the batch size in Qbrew a pre-boil or post-boil batch size? // FvW

Irish moss and Wirlflock are known for removing unwanted proteins from the wort, by clumping them together so they can settle down to the bottom of the kettle more easily, resulting in a cleaner wort going into the fermenter and improved beer quality. However, I have noted that while Irish Moss...

After full grain brewing for years I have now begun to experiment with recipes based on extract and steeped grains in a partial boil. You know the drill: you make a small volume (1 gal. or so) of wort from some extract and steeped grains, making sure it has the same gravity as the OG of the...

I'm sure I'm overlooking something obvious, but I just can't see it... I'm trying to calculate a few recipes for a stove-top partial boil in small pots. Instead of boiling 3kg of malt extract topped up to 15 liters, I want to boil 1kg of malt extract topped up to 5 liters, then add the...

I did my first BIAB batch last week. So far I've been using the classic three vessel setup (HLT, mash tun, kettle) with good results, but I decided to give BIAB a try just to see if it's all it's cracked up to be. I brewed a simple blonde ale to start with. So far my experiences seem to confirm...