Mr. Wizard
The Importance of Mash Thickness
Nice to know that our readers are also watching our video content online. Mash thickness is one of those things that many a brewer takes for granted because it simply lacks many
Calibrating a pH Meter With Distilled Water
On paper, using distilled water as a pH 7.0 makes sense because the ionization constant is 1 x 10-14 and the concentration of hydrogen ions is 1 x 10-7 molar at 77
Mr. Wizard’s Guide to Cleaning Your Draft System
Clean draft lines and faucets are key to any properly maintained draft beer system. The good news for the homebrewer is that our draft lines tend to be relatively short and contain
Troubleshooting A Recipe
Nice description of the character in your beer you don’t like. Before getting into an answer, I want to comment on how important good descriptions are when attempting to problem solve. Aromas
Selecting a Fermenter
This is a straight-up opinion question and I will give you my thoughts sans specific type or brand. And as a reminder to seasoned readers and news to newer readers, 20 years
Keys To Brewing A Great Weizen
I also love hefeweizens and enjoy brewing and drinking weizen beers! Weizen is definitely a yeast-driven style, where fermentation products really define the flavor profile. Let’s set yeast aside for a moment
Yeast Propagation From A Bottle
I love these two part questions that begin with great fundamentals and then segue into the meaning of life. You want to propagate yeast from bottles and are attracted to skipping the
Racking Question
Racking beer from your stainless conical to a PET secondary fermenter is a great way to free up your stainless fermenter. If you have yeast in the cone or trub, I would
The Raw Deal With Raw Ales
This question makes me want to try brewing raw ales because the method certainly saves time and really addresses one of those nagging questions to young brewers who don’t think outside of
Decocting While Recirculating?
Randy, this is an interesting question that I will address with a few different perspectives. The first is a short answer to your basic question; I don’t know of any articles that
Always Question Your Instruments: I
My column usually lacks a theme within a single issue and my answers tend to be long, but this short answer is going to contribute to a theme in this issue about
Appropriate Carbonation Levels
In the United States, carbonation level is expressed in volumes of carbon dioxide. A volume of carbon dioxide is defined as the volume of gas that could be removed from a volume
