BeerTools Discussion Forum

It is interesting to contemplate the irony of human societies that have become so 'sophisticated' as to decry the evils of beer (and other alcoholic beverages now). Such a staggering amount of evidence has piled up suggesting that beer - and the need to settle down and produce the dang stuff - was t...

I'm one of those people who is always secretly afraid the beer police will haul me away if I use hallertauers or spalt or saaz or any other trad lager hops in my ales. it took a while even to work up the nerve to use perle in an APA, but finally figured if they can do it in Chico I can do it too. An...

You have to gagueyou boil to your system. as Fits says, you risk boilover and dark wort with an extreme rolling boil. But, not enough and you won't extract enough hop bitterness or get a good hot break. I like to start with a massive rolling boil until I get a good break, and then once the break has...

Of course, it would be expected that you can get quite a lot done in 700 years, Eric!

Find the thread entitled

That's the first and last rule of the hobby, David. If you are doing extract brews, don't worry about mash efficiency - the extraction of fermentable sugars has already been done for you. Also, if you are doing extract brews and not a full wort boil (i.e., you are only boiling part of your final wor...

Thanks for the info, Eric. I have only gotten as deep into hops chemistry as the brief introduction in Lee Janson's Brew Chem 101, so your insights have added to that limited understanding. Do you have any favorite low alpha hops that you regularly use for bittering? I switched from perle and chinoo...

I don't know if you could encapsulate any more of Mitch's insights into hop bittering - they must have had an impact if they led you to change the way you bitter. I used only low alpha hops for most of my homebrewing life, getting into using high alpha varieties at lower quantities only in the last ...

Gregg, If any of us out here has any remotely useful information on a topic, rest assured it will get posted. Also, one tangential post usually doesn't stop those out there that have anu useful info from posting, but I am sorry to have gotten your first forum experience off to a dubious start. I loo...

I have not personally gone any further with olambics/pseudolambics othar than using the BrewFerm kist off the shelf many years ago. But, here are my thoughts, in case noone else chimes in this evening... I don't think you did wrong boiling the BrewFerm + DME - even though those are "no-boil&quo...

Please accept apologies for the irreverent responses to what was, of course, a perfectly valid question. Our trouble is that when we don't have an answer we start to blather on. I hope it doesn't turn you off of the forum because it is a great source of information that answers 90% of all questions ...

I'm sure the rauchbier will rate highly in competition, especially in a smoked or specialty field of entries.

Yeah, yesterday was one of those work days where I was employing percussive maintenance on one computer in teh office and slacking off on the other computer in between restarts.

Dart, here are the facts. Mon-El is a founding member of 30th-century Earth's Legion of Superheros. he had similar super powers to Superboy, and his Krypton-esque name actually comes from the fact that he was originally believed to be a long-lost relative of Kal-El (Superboy), also orphaned when tha...

Hey Charlie,

I love the tradition of the Bride's Ale! We had to settle for Guinness and Sam Adams at our wedding because I didn't have time to brew up 10-20 gallons. It's the only thing I really regret not doing because we did everything else

As a displaced Midwesterner, one of the treats in going back home for a visit is seeking out some of New Glarus' beers. I had not heard of this one but it sounds good. The last time in I tried a beer New Glarus calls zwiekelbier - I'v posted on it here before but it was really good, an unfiltered Ba...