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Yeast Series – Collection Part 2

Continuing last week’s blog on top cropping yeast, this week will talk about bottom cropping yeast. This is most commonly used for lager yeast (bottom fermenting) however since many commercial and home brewers are using conical fermenters for fermentation where there is limited access to the top of the fermenter, bottom cropping is usually the […]

Brewing with Rye

Rye is a non-barley brewing grain that has grown massively in popularity amongst brewers since the early 90’s. Actually, rye has been used in many styles of beers for centuries and is a common ingredient in whisky but, as has happened with a lot of classic ingredients and techniques, it has been picked up and […]

Sugar and Brewing

In order to make alcohol, the yeast needs sugar to convert. In wine, cider and some other spirits this sugar is easily available from the natural fruits, but beer brewing presents an additional obstacle by making brewers responsible for extracting the sugars needed for fermentation from grains, by converting starches that are naturally present in […]

Reading a Water Report

While there is a great deal of science involved in the entire brewing process, none of it seems to frighten new brewers as much as the science of water chemistry. Something about adjusting water ions using various salts just seems to be tough to grasp for a lot of people new to the hobby. While […]

Yeast Pitching Rates

If you are looking to improve the consistency of your beers from batch to batch and avoid the negative off flavours that can be created during fermentation, it might be time to look in to your pitching rates. Pitching rate refers to the amount of yeast cells you are pitching into your beer (or if […]

Forced fermentation test – What is it and why do it?

Have you ever been in a situation where you weren’t sure if your beer was stuck or if fermentation had simply finished? Or wanted to warm your lager for a diacetyl rest a few points before your final gravity but not sure when that was meant to be? Or want to use a new yeast […]

Why does pH matter during the boil?

pH can affect your beer in a number of ways so it is well worth paying attention to the pH of your wort at several points throughout the brewing process. We are looking specifically at the effects of pH during the boil. One major reason that we try and control pH in brewing is to […]

Open Fermentation for Belgian Yeast Strains

What is open fermentation? Well, to put it simply this is when you ferment your beer without a lid on your fermenter. This can sound pretty scary as it goes against everything you learn as a homebrewer to do with sanitation and avoiding infection but is actually how most beers were made years ago and […]

Enzymes and their role in brewing

As brewers we know that the purpose of the mash is to target specific enzymes in order to break down the starches present into sugars for the yeast to ferment. But what is an enzyme? And how does it break down starch? And which enzymes should we be targeting? Well, an enzyme is simply a […]