Experiment
I was cruising through Facebook the other day, and the ebullient Malcolm Frazer (one of the Brülosophy crew) posted a picture of tea brewed with tap water and with distilled water. It was a tremendous example of the effects of alkalinity and the extraction of tannins (polyphenols) from plant matter.
Process
I hate to clean kegs and carboys. Ok, pretty much cleaning anything really sucks. In fact, like many folk, I saw some interesting keg/carboy washer DIY designs and built my own keg cleaner, hoping for efficient simplicity and sanitary bliss. After sourcing a sump pump from Harbor Freight and
Brewer's Notes
Just over 3 years ago I started this blog. I was struggling with my brewing, but starting to see the light. At that point, I had been brewing for about 3 years, starting with pre-hopped extract in a Mr. Beer. I quickly jumped into all grain with a round cooler
Brewer's Notes
Much of my childhood was spent around agriculture, and Northern Kansas has a wonderful history. From pioneers (Little House on the Prairie) to brave farmers that worked the soil through the Depression, the Dust Bowl and two world wars, my mother's German family has very deep roots in
Brewer's Notes
One of the more frustrating (or fun, depending on your perspective) challenges for a brewer is developing and establishing your own recipes. A great brewer's recipe creation skills sets a path for a successful brew; outlining procedure and visualizing the beer in the glass. Every brewer seems to
Brewer's Notes
In February 2015, I brewed Brülosopher’s Best Brown Ale which naturally turned into a series of experiments. The intention was to ship beer off to Marshall from Brülosphy.com for evaluation, and that twisted into preparing some bottles, doctored, for sensory evaluation. I kept a set of the evaluation
Bru'n Water Tutorial
In March 2015, Martin Brungard released the Bru'n Water Spreadsheet 3.2 to subscribers with major improvements to UI and functionality. This walk through supercedes the 2.0 version which will remain up if you choose not to upgrade. If you have not yet received your 3.0
Process
American Brown Ale The application of water profiles for homebrew typically starts with the beer style, and secondarily with the beer color and hop character. An American Brown Ale can be difficult as there is some variation between Brown Ales, ranging from a more malt forward beer to some that
Brewer's Notes
It was absolutely frigid. Frightfully cold, and I say this with the slightest nod to friends and family that are north and north east getting pounded with snow, sleet and ice and truly freezing again. After 20 years here in Texas, I have lost my tolerance for the cold. My
Brewer's Notes
We have some wonderful weather here in Central Texas during wintertime... truly the most redeeming quality of this area. That and crazy good BBQ. Anyway - an A/V document of my brew day... a truly beautiful day and most everything went extremely well. [playlist type="video" ids=
Process
Anyone that reads this site knows that I focus quite a bit on brewing water. This series is intended to augment my previous posts and expand on best practices in the brewery, recipe planning and approaches to different beer styles. While I have researched this content and crafted my own
Brewer's Notes
I saw this title pop up on a forum post recently. It's an incredibly loaded question, and certainly something that opens up a good deal of debate. We are also going to have to accept a lot of subjectivity (my opinions) in this discussion. The best water is