Brewer's Friend

Archive for February, 2009

Beer Styles – SRM Color Chart

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

Beer comes in a wide range of colors, from yellow golden to amber to opaque black. This chart shows the BJCP beer styles and their SRM colors in bar graph format. SRM stands for 'Standard Reference Method', a scale devised by scientists to describe how light or dark ...

Introduction to RIMS and HERMS

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

This article explains the basic difference between RIMS and HERMS systems. Both are advanced setups for home brewers where mash water (wort) is circulated through a heating system. The benefits include clearer wort, higher efficiency, and an impressive looking setup that helps automate the brewing process and leads to ...

Cleaning and Sanitization Tips

Saturday, February 21st, 2009

Consistency is the Virtue of Home Brewing Part 1: Cleanliness One of the most frequent comments heard about home brewed beers is “this guy brewed a batch of really good beer, this one time...” meaning he never managed to duplicate the feat. Consistency is the first, best virtue of a home brewer. ...

Add Thermometer Probe to HLT MLT Cooler

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

Instructions for adding a thermometer to your hot liquor tank (HLT) or mash lauter tun (MLT). This makes a handy addition, it is cheap to do (~$16), and improves temperature accuracy. Lets face it, brewing is an art and a science.  Science in itself requires certain controls and measurements ...

Boot Shaped Beer Glass

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

Ever since I saw the movie Beerfest, I wanted a boot shaped glass to drink out of. That day has finally arrived. This was a Valentine's day gift to me from my wife. She is great! It has a Bavarian crest on the front, suitable for ...

Mashing and Lautering Basic Concepts

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

Mashing and lautering are terms used in all grain beer brewing to describe how brewers go from malted grain to wort in the kettle. Mashing is the process of of creating sweet wort. We are lucky because in today's world we start off with malted grains. Malting is a time ...

Beer Styles – Original Gravity and Final Gravity Chart

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

Beer comes in a wide range of malt/hop flavor balance and alcohol level. This chart shows the BJCP beer styles and their original gravity and final gravity in bar graph format. Original gravity (OG) measures how much sugar is present in the wort before it is fermented. The ...