From the Lab Bench – A Blog
Yeast Harvesting and Storage
Yeast: the dynamic driver of fermentation and creator of so many wonderful, complex beer aromas. If you’ve ever been in charge of buying materials for a batch of beer, you’ve…
Decoction Mashing
Long-lost brewing wisdom or antiquated tradition? Ever been to your local bottle shop and seen beers advertised as double- or triple-decocted? What’s that all about? Some secret German beer magic…
Density vs Specific Gravity vs Degrees Plato
Between density, specific gravity, and degrees Plato, brewers have many different ways to measure the sugar content of their worts… maybe too many? Let’s pit these density scales head to…
Diacetyl
Brew Better Beer by Busting Butter Bombs! Ever tasted butter in your IPA? Unless you’re drinking a butterbeer from Hogsmeade, it’s not exactly a pleasant flavor to detect in your…
Yeast 101
The Four Elements: Yeast The beer… it’s ALIVE! Toiling away in a brewery nearby, mysterious, cryptic creatures are working hard at one of the greatest jobs on earth: making beer….
Hops 101
The Four Elements: Hops All about the star of the IPA show! Picture this: you’re sitting at your favorite brewery with a friend drinking a beer after work. You’ve got…
Water 101
The Four Elements: Water How to use the power of water chemistry to level up your next brew! Water, malt, hops, and yeast. Together, the four elements combine and make…
Malt 101
The Four Elements: Malt The chemistry trick that makes beer possible! Have you ever wondered where the alcohol in beer comes from? It doesn’t just appear during the brewing process—it…
What Ferments?
What is fermentation? I’m going to keep it simple for you. Fermentation is when microorganisms “eat” sugars and produce byproducts. (Nerdy definition below.) These microorganisms could be yeast, bacteria, mold,…
The Brewing Process
How the four elements come together and make music in your pint glass! By Stephen Moxley The world of beer is a wide one. As one of humanity’s oldest beverages,…