Infographic on off flavors in beer, detailing their taste profiles and solutions for correction.

Understaning Off-Flavors in Beer: What Your Beer is Telling You

The Dread of Off-Flavors If you brew long enough, you eventually meet the one thing every homebrewer dreads: an off-flavor you cannot ignore. It does not matter whether you are brewing your first extract kit or dialing in your fiftieth all-grain batch. At some point, a beer is going to throw you a curveball. Green apple where there should not be green apple. Butter that does not belong. A whiff of something that reminds you of a barnyard, a sock...

Easy brew day water calculator for home brewing.

Easy Water Calculator

This water calculator works on any system and lets you fine-tune for repeatable results every brew day. Dial in strike and sparge water in seconds. NWBS Brew Day Water Calculator Inputs Units US (lb / qt / gal / °F) Metric (kg / L/kg / L / °C) Grain Weight Pounds or kilograms Target Mash Temp °F or °C Pre-Boil Volume Gallons or liters Mash Thickness US: qt/lb • Metric: L/kg (1.2 qt/lb ≈ 2.5 L/kg) Grain Temperature °F or...

Not All Scotch Is Whisky: A Malt-Lover’s Guide to Scotch Ale

Not All Scotch Is Whisky: A Malt-Lover’s Guide to Scotch Ale “You see the word Scotch on a beer label and your brain does a little flip,” I joked on the podcast. Many of us picture whisky, peat, fire and kilts. What you’re actually holding is a malt‑rich beer that never saw a barrel and doesn’t care about hops. That mix‑up is part of the charm. Scotch Ale, or Wee Heavy if you want to sound like you’ve been to a...

Summer Brewing: How to Master Warm-Weather Fermentation

Let’s say it out loud- nobody wants a banana-flavored IPA. I won’t allow it. If you’re brewing a Hefeweizen, a little isoamyl acetate can be charming, even expected. But that compound is the harbinger of doom for the rest of us, especially when your summer brewing setup lacks tight temperature control. The average brewer’s greatest fear? Opening the fermenter to a wave of fruity betrayal. It’s the stuff of nightmares. You start out dreaming of a crisp Kölsch or bright...

BEER CLARITY: WHAT’S CLOUDING YOUR HOMEBREW?

A little beer clarity on haze in beer… You crack open your latest homebrew, pour it into a pint glass, and hold it up to the light—and it looks like a snow globe. Cloudy with a chance of yeast. Is it a murky mess or something else? Some folks love the look of a hazy brew. Others panic like their batch has just failed a chemistry final. So what gives? Is haze the enemy of good beer, or is it...