Mr. Wizard
Handling With Frozen Fruit
Hollywood movies generously apply dramatic license in all matters of the world. But when it comes to portraying the resurrection of frozen life forms, there is not much exaggeration when the organism
The Not-So-Great Hop Fade
Question and answer columns can be really frustrating for the writer when a question seems totally answerable until details within the question get in the way of the answer. Pesky details! This
Sparge Water Temperature
The short answer to this question is no, sparging at 169 °F (76 °C) does not achieve the same thing as mashing out at the same temperature. The reason for this is
Dry Hop Timing
I have dry hopped during fermentation with yeast, blown yeast towards the end of fermentation and dry hopped, have racked beer from one fermenter to another before dry hopping, and have dry
Tuning In to Water Profiles
I have never written extensively about brewing water profiles and cannot knowingly comment about why this topic is usually addressed by reviewing the water profiles of historically important brewing centers. But I
Priming sugar uses
Rudy, I like your ideas! This question reminds me of lyrics from The Clash tune “Rudi Can’t Fail.” Now we get a rude and a recklessWe been seen lookin’ cool an’ specklessWe
Tricks to a better hefeweizen
German-style hefeweizen is one of my favorite styles of beer, and is a beer type that I feel pretty darn comfortable brewing, with two Great American Beer Festival medals in 2006 (gold)
Finishing A Fermentation Strong
Whenever there seems to be an attenuation problem with a batch, I think it always helps to go through a mental check list of the basics. This checklist of mine includes the
Too Much Yeast? Is over-pitching a problem?
Averbelen et al. (Impact of Pitching Rate on Yeast Fermentation Performance and Beer Flavour, Applied Microbiology Biotechnology (2009) 82:155–167) demonstrated that increasing pitching rates of lager yeast from 10 to 120 million
Fading Hop Character
I think the most difficult thing about trying to troubleshoot brewing problems in my column is not being able to taste the beers that I am being asked about. I sometimes flash
Bottle Bombs
Bottle bombs are really scary because glass shrapnel can cause severe injuries. The first question that always comes to my mind when hearing about this problem is “how old is your glass?”
Mystery Fermentation
True mysteries are rarely encountered in a brewery when the facts related to a particular problem are at hand. The problem lies in obtaining the facts and this is particularly true when
