Try my Weta infused lager?

I was cleaning a beer bottle at the sink and noticed something would not come out when I upended it. 

Was it a clump of sediment? 

Some sticky hops?

None of those, it was a Weta! For now, we'll call him an 'ale cricket'*

If you don't know what a Weta is, they are a rather large insect, native to New Zealand. They are strong beasts with a massive set of pincers which can draw blood from human skin. They are so big they can catch and eat mice. 

So how did this now alcohol pickled 6 legged friend get into my beer?

I'm based in Wellington, New Zealand where Weta are a fact of life - they are every. This little fellow would have decided to climb into the empty bottle for a snoozed. 

Come bottling day, he ended up permanently in the drink. 

As a consequence, I can confirm that this particular Weta infused lager didn't taste too bad!

But honestly, once I'd released I was drinking the fermented remains of a Weta, I poured the rest of the beer down the sink. I just couldn't bring myself to finish the drop! Still. better than finding a dead mouse at the bottom I suppose...

I rescued the bugger, here it is:

I got to thinking, given some Tequila brands through a worm in the bottom of their bottles, maybe I could spearhead a campaign for Kiwi homebrews to have their own little present at the bottom of the bottle...

The real lesson here is that when bottling your beers, you've got to not only rinse and sanitize before filling with your liquid gold, but you must also do a visual inspection! 

But seriously, you gotta watch what you eat when drinking for the consumption of slugs did not end well for this poor lad. The slug was infected with rat lungworm so I'm kinda hoping the alcohol pickled anything else lurking within the Weta...

* not actually sure if male or female. 

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Lupulin Labyrinth: How Hops Shape Beer’s Bitter Taste

Ode to the Hop: A Brewer's Reckoning with Bitterness

Where Science Meets Soul, and Bitterness Becomes Beauty

Hops – More Than Green Cones: The Siren Song of Essential Oils

Alright, settle in. Grab a pint (preferably something with a bit of bite), and let’s talk about the real soul of beer’s bitterness: hops. Forget your textbooks—this is where chemistry flirts with obsession. This is where volatile oils define style, where timing defines flavor, and where every addition to the kettle is a calculated risk.

That bright nose you catch before your first sip? That’s hops talking. And not just any hops—it’s the essential oils locked inside the lupulin glands of the cone. We’re talking a cocktail of terpenes and oxidized hydrocarbons that interact with heat, oxygen, yeast, and time. They’re elusive. They’re fragile. But when handled right? They’re transformative.

1. Myrcene: The Bold & Brash Heartthrob

Myrcene is the life of the party. A monoterpene hydrocarbon, and often the most dominant oil in American hops, especially Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe. It smells like crushed pine needles and citrus peel. Mango flesh. Sometimes even diesel fuel. It's loud. It’s fleeting. It demands to be noticed.

Aroma’s Wild Child

But here’s the brewer’s challenge: Myrcene is volatile. Seriously volatile. It boils off fast, even during the early stages of the whirlpool. That’s why brewers dry hop or whirlpool with cooler wort—because once Myrcene’s gone, it’s gone. You want that tropical pop? You need surgical timing. Think sub-80°C whirlpools. Think biotransformation stages in dry hopping. Think of this terpene like fresh basil—delicious, but delicate.

Flavor’s Illusory Friend

And here's the twist—Myrcene doesn’t contribute much to flavor directly. What it does is trick your brain. It smells like fruit, and that aroma blends with your malt and alcohol perception to simulate a taste that isn’t chemically there. It's the olfactory version of a sleight-of-hand. A citrus zing that dances across your tongue even though you’ll never taste the molecule itself.

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2. Humulene: The Noble & Earthy Sage

Aroma of Tradition

Humulene is quieter than Myrcene. But don’t mistake subtlety for weakness. This sesquiterpene is the backbone of noble hop aroma—found in traditional European varieties like Hallertau, Tettnanger, and Saaz. Where Myrcene is bright and raw, Humulene is warm, herbal, refined. Picture cracked pepper, old wood, dried herbs. Maybe even chamomile if you close your eyes.

It doesn’t scream. It hums in the background, anchoring the aromatic profile with a sense of old-world brewing. Want to recreate that classic Pilsner snap or a restrained English bitter? You’re leaning on Humulene whether you know it or not.

The Brewer’s Delicate Dance

Unlike Myrcene, Humulene is slightly more stable—but only just. It’s still sensitive to heat, though its evaporation curve is slower. That means brewers can risk it in mid- to late-boil additions and still capture some of its complexity. But for full expression, whirlpooling or late kettle additions are best. And dry hopping? Even better—especially when you want that herbal finesse to linger on the nose and palate.

Some brewers swear by blending high-Humulene hops with bolder citrus-forward ones. The result? Depth. Balance. Layers that slowly unfold as the beer warms in your glass. That’s when Humulene’s magic becomes apparent. It’s less a punch and more a presence. A low hum behind the melody.

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3. Caryophyllene: The Spicy Foundation

Aroma’s Peppery Punch

Enter Caryophyllene—spice incarnate. It’s what gives black pepper its edge. Found in smaller quantities than Myrcene or Humulene, it still plays a critical role in many hop profiles. It’s woody, resinous, and unmistakably warm. Sometimes mistaken for clove or even a little tobacco, depending on context and concentration.

English hops like Fuggle and East Kent Goldings carry a noticeable dose. So do certain noble varieties. But where you’ll really feel Caryophyllene is in darker ales—stouts, brown ales, Belgian dubbels—anywhere the malt bill begs for contrast. It cuts through the sweetness with a dry, spicy echo.

The Ensemble Player

Here’s what makes Caryophyllene fascinating: it never quite takes center stage. It’s not the soloist. It’s the rhythm section—reliable, grounding, essential. And chemically? It’s also a sesquiterpene, meaning it’s more heat-stable than Myrcene, and even more so than Humulene. It can handle the boil. It sticks around.

Its real power, though, is in synergy. Caryophyllene enhances the effect of its siblings. Paired with Humulene, it deepens herbal notes. Paired with Myrcene, it adds complexity to fruit and citrus. Some brewers even chase its interaction with yeast esters, leading to subtle phenolic shifts during fermentation. It’s not always noticeable—but once you learn to spot it, you start chasing it.

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Bittering Compounds: The Beautiful Burden, The Brewer's Embrace

Now we reach the heart of it. The bitterness. Not just a taste, but structure. Without bitterness, beer is flat—too sweet, too safe. Alpha acids are the spine that holds everything up. They’re what make an IPA snap, a Pilsner dance, a Stout finish dry. But they don’t act alone. Their quieter cousins—the beta acids—play a role too, especially in aged beers. This is where brewers earn their keep.

1. Alpha Acids: The Kings of Kick

Alpha acids are the headline act. Humulone, cohumulone, adhumulone—each with slightly different effects on perceived bitterness. Their concentration (typically labeled as %AA on hop packaging) tells you how much bittering potential you’re working with. 5%? That’s mellow. 15%? That’s a weapon.

Alchemy in the Kettle: The Magic of Isomerization

Here’s the chemistry. Alpha acids aren’t bitter on their own. They need to be transformed—isomerized—via boiling. That means the molecular structure rearranges in the heat and creates iso-alpha acids, which are soluble in wort and distinctly bitter to the tongue.

The longer the boil, the more alpha acids are isomerized. That’s why 60- to 90-minute boil additions are so critical in classic styles. But watch out—long boils = more bitterness but less aroma. Everything in brewing is a trade-off.

Choosing Your Weapon: High vs. Low Alpha

Want clean, assertive bitterness in an IPA or strong ale? Use high-alpha hops like Warrior, Magnum, or Columbus. Need a softer bitterness in a Pilsner or Pale Ale? Go for low-alpha varieties like Saaz or Hallertauer. The type of bitterness matters, too—some hop varieties (like those high in cohumulone) are perceived as sharper, more brash. Others offer a smoother, rounded bitterness.

It’s not just how much bitterness you add, but how it feels. That’s the alchemy.

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2. Beta Acids: The Subtle Architects of Age

Beta acids—lupulone, colupulone, adlupulone—are the understudies. They don’t isomerize well during the boil, so their immediate impact is minimal. But over time, as beer ages, they oxidize and start to matter. They contribute to the long-tail of bitterness, especially in cellared styles like barleywines, old ales, or strong Belgian beers.

Bitterness Unfolding Over Time

As iso-alpha acids fade with time (especially if exposed to light or oxygen), oxidized beta acids begin to take the wheel. Their bitterness is often described as harsh, even a little vegetal—but it’s there, keeping the beer from sliding into flabby sweetness. In some recipes, a calculated balance between alpha and beta acid content can shape the long-term profile of a beer, especially for brewers who think beyond the bottle-conditioning stage.

Guardians of Longevity (and Aroma Evolution)

Beta acids also bring antimicrobial properties. Historically, they helped preserve beer before refrigeration was common. Today, they still play a quiet role in shelf stability—especially in hop-forward beers shipped across the world. They also affect aroma development in aged beers, producing notes like sherry, dried fruit, or—if mishandled—oxidized cardboard. It all depends on your storage game.

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Interaction and Balance: The High-Wire Act of Brewing

This isn’t about dumping hops into wort and hoping for the best. This is choreography. Brewing is balance—between bitter and sweet, aroma and structure, tradition and chaos. The best beers don’t just taste good; they feel deliberate. That’s hop chemistry applied with vision.

Mastering the volatile beauty of hops means manipulating terpenes, alpha acids, and beta acids through timing, temperature, and technique. When done well, the result is harmony—depth, tension, and layers that unfurl with every sip.

• Strategic Hop Selection: You don’t just pick any hop—you pick the right one for the job. A juicy New England IPA leans on Myrcene-rich varieties (Citra, Mosaic), while a Pilsner benefits from noble, Humulene-heavy hops (Saaz, Tettnanger). Every hop has a fingerprint—learn it. Use it with intent.
• Controlled Brewing Process: The boil is not a blunt instrument. Early additions = maximum bitterness, minimal aroma. Late additions = subtle bitterness, huge aroma. Whirlpooling captures delicate oils. Dry hopping post-fermentation lets volatile compounds shine. Adjust your method based on what you want in the final beer.
• Creative Experimentation: Once you understand the rules, you can bend them. Combine hops from different regions. Layer spicy with citrus. Use yeast strains that biotransform hop oils into something new. The modern brewer is part scientist, part outlaw. Test everything. Keep what works.

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Heeding the Call of Your Palate

"To brew, or not to brew: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous bitterness, Or to take hops against a sea of sweetness, And by opposing, end them?"
– Hamlet (probably, after a few pints)

Chasing the Aroma Dream:

• Love huge hits of tropical fruit, citrus zest, pine? You want Myrcene. That’s your path. Brew juicy IPAs, Hazy Pale Ales, or even Cold IPAs with hops like Simcoe, Citra, and Galaxy.
• Prefer elegant herbal spice and structure? That’s Humulene calling. Stick to classic styles—Pilsners, Bitters, Altbiers. Reach for Saaz, Tettnanger, or East Kent Goldings.
• Want a little wood, pepper, clove? That’s Caryophyllene in action. Think Belgian Dubbels, Porters, or ESBs where you want spice to whisper—not shout.

Embracing the Bitter Truth:

• Want your beer to punch back? Load up on high-alpha hops and give them a long boil. Aim for 60+ IBUs. Go full West Coast.
• Prefer restraint? Use low-alpha hops or add late. Let malt shine, let aroma carry the experience. Think balance. Think subtle. Think English Pale or Munich Helles.

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Your Homebrew Alchemist's Toolkit

1. Embrace the Chaos (Experimentation):

   • Don’t play it safe. Try blending noble and American hops. Throw Fuggle into an IPA. See what happens. This is how new styles are born.
   • Master dry hopping: it doesn’t add bitterness but does unlock volatile aromatics. Try different temperatures. Try it during active fermentation (biotransformation!) or after. Try it more than once. See what sticks.

2. Command the Flame (Boiling Time & Temp):

   • Longer boil = more bitterness, less aroma. Shorter or late hops = less bitterness, more aroma. Know what you’re after. Don’t be lazy with your additions.
   • Control whirlpool temperature. Under 80°C preserves oils like Myrcene. Over 85°C risks blowing them off. Use a thermometer. Take notes. Be deliberate.

3. Respect the Passage of Time (Aging & Storage):

   • Fresh hops = fresh flavor. Especially in IPAs and Pale Ales. Drink them young.
   • Big beers, strong ales, barrel-aged brews? Let time do its work. Beta acids will evolve. Aromas will mellow. Complexity will rise. Store cool. Store dark. Wait.

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A Final Draught: The Enduring Allure

So there you have it. The grand, volatile ballet of hop chemistry—Myrcene’s bold perfume, Humulene’s quiet depth, Caryophyllene’s spiced backbone, and the structural thunder of alpha and beta acids. All of it in service of a pint. All of it chasing one moment: the lift of the glass, the sip, the quiet hum of understanding that someone cared enough to build complexity from green cones and boiling wort.

To brew well is to think chemically, feel instinctively, and act precisely. You’re not just measuring IBU. You’re shaping tension. You’re layering resonance. You’re controlling evaporation rates, leveraging molecular polarity, and timing exposure like a stage director choreographs a spotlight.

Understand the science. But don’t let it cage you. Hops are wild. Brewing is risk. That’s why the best beers carry fingerprints—imperfections, accidents, and flashes of brilliance no spreadsheet could predict. The math gets you close. The art gets you home.

"Bitterness may guard the heart, but in beer, it opens the soul."
– A Thirsty Brewer (probably me, after the third experimental batch)

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Schlitz: The Rise, Fall, and Lingering Legacy of "The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous"

The history of the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company is a rich and brutal arc of immigrant hustle, industrial expansion, branding genius—and a public collapse no one forgot. At its height, Schlitz was the biggest brewery in the world. A symbol of Milwaukee pride. 

Then it all fell apart. 

Fast.

The culprit? Cost-cutting that killed the beer.

This essay covers the rise, the rule, the ruin, and the attempts at resurrection. It’s a story about more than beer. It’s about trust, taste, and what happens when a brand forgets the reason it mattered.

The Basement Brewer Who Changed the Game

It started in 1849, when German immigrant August Krug opened a basement brewery under his Milwaukee restaurant. Like many Germans arriving after 1848, he brought brewing skill in his bones.

A year later, Joseph Schlitz—also a German émigré—joined as bookkeeper. Krug died in 1856. Schlitz stepped in, married Krug’s widow Anna Maria, and renamed the brewery after himself. A classic 19th-century succession.

Fire and Fortune: The Chicago Breakthrough

Under Schlitz, the brewery scaled up. In 1870, they built a new facility at Third and Walnut. Then came the turning point: the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

With Chicago’s breweries in ashes, Milwaukee stepped in. Schlitz had already opened a Chicago depot in 1868. In the fire’s aftermath, its sales doubled. The brand was suddenly essential in the Midwest—and would soon be famous everywhere.

From Slogan to Supremacy

Marketing played its part. Schlitz introduced the belted globe logo in 1892. Two years later, at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, the now-immortal tagline was born: “The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous.”

By 1902, Schlitz overtook Pabst. Over a million barrels sold annually. It was now the biggest brewery in the world.

Prohibition hit in 1920. Schlitz adapted, rebranding as a “beverage” company and pumping out ginger ale and other soft drinks. It survived. Barely. But post-Prohibition, the brand boomed again.

Short-Term Gains, Long-Term Wreckage

That’s where the story should’ve stayed—a legacy of smart pivots, aggressive branding, and cultural cachet. But what came next was sabotage, from the inside.

In the early 1970s, with competition tightening, Robert Uihlein Jr. made a fateful decision: cut costs at the ingredient level. Corn syrup replaced some barley. Cheaper hop pellets stood in for whole cones.

The thinking was cynical: no one would notice if the changes were small and spread out.

But they did.

Flavor and mouthfeel took a hit. Slowly, then all at once.

The Chemical Dominoes

Next came high-gravity brewing—make stronger beer, dilute later. It’s efficient, but risky for taste. Schlitz adopted it anyway.

Then came the haze problem. Accelerated fermentation (ABF) didn’t allow proteins to settle out. Schlitz added silica gel. Then panicked about FDA labeling and replaced it with Chillgarde.

That move blew up in their face. Chillgarde reacted chemically with the foam stabilizer, Kelcoloid. The result: visible, floating white flakes in the beer. Consumers called it “mucus.” Or worse.

In response, Schlitz removed the foam stabilizer entirely. Problem solved? No. The beer now went flat almost immediately.

This wasn’t just one bad tweak—it was a cascade. Each fix created a new issue. The company was operating blind, prioritizing margins over drinkability.

Ignored Lessons in Paradise

And it wasn’t the first time they ignored warning signs. Earlier in the decade, Schlitz had quietly tanked its Hawaiian subsidiary, Primo. In an attempt to save money, they began brewing the wort in LA and shipping it to Hawaii for fermentation. Locals hated the new taste. Primo’s market share plummeted from 70% to 20% in just a few years.

Schlitz learned nothing from that.

Market Backlash: "Tastes Like Snot"

By the mid-70s, the damage was spreading fast. Customers noticed the taste. Then they noticed the particles. Then they stopped buying.

Schlitz was mocked, trashed, and passed over in the aisle. Miller overtook them. Then Pabst. Then even G. Heileman. Schlitz dropped from second place to fifth in a matter of years.

One analyst later estimated the brand lost 90% of its value between 1974 and 1982.

Death by Advertising

The collapse was contagious. Schlitz tried to enter the light beer boom in 1976 with Schlitz Light. But consumers had already turned. If they didn’t trust the flagship, they weren’t going to try the diet version.

In desperation, they hired Leo Burnett. The resulting “gusto” ads—meant to seem bold—came off as psychotic. Boxers, woodsmen, and other macho figures aggressively confronted off-screen critics.

One threatened to “play Picasso” and rearrange a guy’s face.

Should have stuck with 'sex sells'...

Public reaction was horror. The campaign was mocked as “Drink Schlitz or I’ll Kill You.” It lasted ten weeks before being pulled.

Last Call in Milwaukee

Uihlein died in 1976. Frank Sellinger, from Anheuser-Busch, eventually took the reins. He tried to undo the damage. Returned to old-school brewing. Rebuilt the recipe. Brought in taste tests.

Technically, it worked. But the public had moved on.

In 1981, labor talks failed. Workers at the Milwaukee plant went on strike. The company shut it down for good.

The beer that made Milwaukee famous no longer existed in Milwaukee.

Passed Around Like a Pawn

Stroh bought Schlitz in 1982 for $500 million. But the brand was too toxic. Stroh couldn’t fix it and collapsed by 1999. Pabst picked up the pieces.

For years, Schlitz was a joke. Cheap, forgotten, a discount beer for broke students and malt liquor drinkers. A long fall from glory.

The Nostalgia Reboot

Then came a twist. In the late 2000s, Pabst made a move. They dug through brew logs. Called old employees. Tried to bring back the 1960s Schlitz—before the cuts.

Brewmaster Bob Newman rebuilt the recipe. It launched in 2008. Midwestern drinkers took notice. Stores in Milwaukee couldn’t keep it stocked.

By 2009, they shifted production to Milwaukee again. Symbolic. Satisfying.

Pabst even opened an innovation brewery at the old Pabst site. But this wasn’t a full revival. Just a respectful nod to the past.

Schlitz Today: A Ghost with Gusto

Now? Schlitz is a niche beer. A nostalgic relic. You can drink it. You can respect it. But you don’t build empires with it anymore.

It’s decent. It’s back. But it’s not what it was. And it never will be.

Final Pour: The Legacy of a Self-Inflicted Fall

Schlitz didn’t lose because of one bad call. It lost because of ten bad calls in a row—and an arrogance that told them no one would notice.

But beer is personal. People notice. They remember.

This wasn’t just a corporate failure. It was a betrayal of taste. And taste, once broken, doesn’t forgive.

The collapse of Schlitz is now taught in business schools. A masterclass in brand suicide: cut the wrong corners, ignore your drinkers, and hope it all works out.

It didn’t. And that’s the real Schlitz Mistake.

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15 tips to help improve your home brewing results

Whether you've made a few beers with home brews with kits or it's your first time brewing with a kit, there are plenty of tips to help improve your beer.

Even 'professional' back yard beer brewers are constantly looking for the best way to improve a recipe, technique and taste.

You should be no different.

Simply following a standard set of beer brewing instructions will result in an OK beer. However, if you implement some of these brewing tips, you will surely get better results both in the taste and mouth feel of your beer!

These tips and tricks are handy to use even if you are using a kit or going all grain.

Here's the tip list and the explanation behind them follows

• Keep it clean! – Make sure your equipment is clean and sanitized!
  It’s non-negotiable. Clean isn’t the same as sanitized. You clean to remove grime; you sanitize to kill invisible microbes. Use PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash) for cleaning, and a no-rinse sanitizer like Star San to finish the job. Even a speck of leftover gunk or a single wild yeast cell can spoil your entire batch. Don’t forget your bottling wand, tubing, and fermenter lid.
• Use a beer enhancer to give your beer a stronger body
  Kit beers often come out thin because they rely on simple sugars. Beer enhancers fix that by combining malt extract (for richness), dextrose (for alcohol), and maltodextrin (for mouthfeel). The maltodextrin doesn’t ferment—so it lingers, giving your beer a thicker texture and better head retention.
• Consider using oak chips
  Want to fake a barrel-aged taste? Toasted oak chips add complex notes: vanilla, spice, char, even coconut. Use medium toast for balance, heavy toast for boldness. Sanitize by soaking in spirits like bourbon or rum, then add to secondary. Time matters—2–3 weeks is plenty for most beers.
• Don't put so much sugar in your bottles!
  Over-priming leads to over-carbonated beer—or worse, exploding bottles. Always measure. Use a digital scale, not a spoon. For consistent results, batch prime instead of dosing each bottle individually. Aim for 4–5g of dextrose per liter for ales. Less for stouts. More for Belgians. There are calculators—use them.
• 'Batch Priming' beer to save time when bottling
  Dissolve your priming sugar in boiled water and mix it evenly into your bottling bucket before filling. No mess, no guesswork. It ensures every bottle gets the same carbonation level and drastically cuts down bottling day stress. It’s the smarter, more consistent method.
• Match the right hops to the right beer
  Each hop has a story. Citra brings mango and grapefruit; Saaz gives earthy spice. Use noble hops in lagers, high-alpha citrus bombs in IPAs. Dry hop for aroma, boil for bitterness. Don’t just toss them in—think about balance, style, and timing. Know your IBU targets.
• Gelatin is a handy fining agent to clear your beer
  Clarity isn’t just cosmetic—it can subtly affect perceived flavor. Gelatin works by electrically binding to haze particles like proteins and yeast cells. Add it cold—ideally under 4°C—and let the beer sit a few days. It’ll drop the haze to the bottom like a snow globe. Don’t use it in vegan beers, though.
• If you pitch your yeast when the wort is hot you will kill the yeast
  Yeast is fragile. Pitching into wort above 35°C (95°F) will kill it—or at least cripple it. Fermentation won’t start, or you’ll get off flavors from stressed cells. Let wort cool to at least 20°C before pitching. Use a wort chiller or an ice bath. Never guess—use a thermometer.
• Consider using a blow-off to prevent the Krausen going everywhere
  When fermentation goes wild, foam builds fast. Krausen can clog airlocks or burst lids. A blow-off tube vents excess foam safely into a jar of sanitizer. It’s cheap insurance—especially for high-gravity beers or during hot weather when yeast activity spikes.
• Increase the alcohol content of your beer by adding more sugars
  Want more punch? Add fermentables. Dextrose is efficient and neutral. Honey adds floral notes. Molasses brings rum-like depth. Just don’t overdo it—too much simple sugar thins the body and strains the yeast. Consider bumping up malt extract instead to maintain balance.
• To avoid chill haze, use a quality copper wort chiller
  Rapid cooling creates a “cold break”—a protein drop-out that helps prevent haze. The faster you drop the temp after boiling, the clearer your beer. Copper chillers are incredibly efficient at heat transfer. Just keep them clean—they oxidize quickly in air and acidic wort.
• Oxygen is good when preparing the wort, bad when bottling.
  Before fermentation, oxygen helps yeast grow strong. Shake the fermenter or use a stone to inject sterile air. But after fermentation, oxygen turns your beer stale—fast. Avoid splashing. Purge bottles with CO₂ if you can. Cap as soon as you fill.
• Temperature control will have an effect on the quality of your beer both when fermenting and conditioning your beer
  Yeast behavior changes dramatically with temperature. Too hot and you get fusel alcohols (think solvent), too cold and fermentation stalls. For ales, 18–22°C is ideal. For lagers, 10–14°C. After fermentation, cooler conditioning helps clear the beer and smooth rough edges.
• Get the bigger kettle or pot, in the long run, you’ll save money
  Boilovers ruin stoves and waste wort. A 15–20L kettle gives you headspace to work clean. Bigger pots also mean full-volume boils, which reduce caramelization and improve hop utilization. You won’t regret sizing up. Ever.
• Just because the fermentation bottle has stopped bubbling, that doesn't mean you need to bottle your beer straight away
  Bubbling is just CO₂ escape—it’s not a reliable measure of fermentation. Use a hydrometer. When readings are stable over 2–3 days, fermentation is done. But wait a few more days—this is when yeast clean up diacetyl (buttery flavor) and other off notes. Be patient.

That all made sense right but do you want more detail?

Let's start with the most basic rule of brewing beer:

Keep it clean! - Make sure your equipment is clean and sanitized!

There are many ways of keeping your gear clean and today we are going discuss our preferred method of sanitization which is by using sodium percarbonate.

Usually provided in powdered form, it is very soluble in water which makes it very handy for quick preparation and an easy soak of your equipment and fermenter. No rinsing is required and it's very easy to order in bulk online.

If you've ever tried to buy sodium percarbonate from a specialist beer brewery shop, you'll know that you can get a small bottle or container of it that will cost you a small fortune.

If you can buy it in bulk from an online supplier, you'll do well to nab some as using it will effectively bring down your cost per brew. 

Use a beer enhancer to give your beer a stronger body

The thing about craft and home brew beer is that while there’s so much variety in style and taste but there is one thing they all have in common:

It's the ‘mouth feel’ which makes a beer feel like it has 'body'. A beer with no body is a sad drinking experience.

If you simply brewed malt with sugar you will get a beer but your beer’s mouth feel with be closer to feeling like water. Which is just wrong, as a full bodied beer enhances the drinking experience!

To get an improved mouth feel, many beer brewers follow the simple tip of using an ‘enhancer’ to do exactly what it says it will do – enhance the beer by giving it greater body and mouthfeel.

Consider using oak chips to add flavor

There's a reason why home brewers seek out new ways to make beer taste better and that's because, for them, the old days of getting smashed on Budweiser are over. 

A great tip for improving beer taste is by aging beer in oak barrels has been a long standing practice for making beer. 

This is because the characteristics of the wood impart into the beer which can add to the drink-ability of the beer.

But who has oak barrels just casually lying around in the shed?

Homebrewers can use oak chips to replicate aging beer in barrels. 

Using wood chips while conditioning or aging beer your beer can impart a range of aromas to the beer, including floral, vanilla, caramel, or coconut tones.

To prevent beer gushers:

Don't put so much sugar in your bottles! 

I've learnt this one personally the hard way. If you place too much sugar into your bottles, the yeast will go to town on it as part of the secondary fermentation and produce an excess of CO2.

When that happens, you're on a trip to gusher town.

So, it doesn't matter if you are placing sugar in the individual bottles or priming the whole brew, cut down on that sugar.

My personal rule of thumb is that for a 750 mls bottle, a FLAT teaspoon of sugar is more than enough to get a great level of carbonation.

If you want to employ a quicker method, you could try using carbonation drops. If using those, put two in a 750 mls bottle and one for a 500 mls bottle.

Speaking of adding sugar, let's talk about:

'Batch Priming' beer to save time when bottling

In short, batch priming is when you add the full amount of priming sugar to your fermenter before bottling—so every bottle gets the right dose without having to measure sugar one by one.

It’s cleaner. Faster. Way less frustrating.

Anyone who's spent an afternoon hunched over a dozen bottles with sticky fingers and sugar granules stuck to everything—from the counter to the cat—knows how tedious it gets. Batch priming skips that mess entirely.

You dissolve the sugar in a bit of boiled water, cool it down, and gently mix it into the beer (after racking to a bottling bucket, ideally—so you don’t stir up the sediment). From there, just bottle as usual. The sugar’s already evenly distributed in the beer, so carbonation happens naturally in every bottle.

It’s one of those tricks that feels obvious after you start doing it.
And yeah—it really is that simple.

It really is. Here's more guidance on how to do it.

How much sugar do I need to prime a batch of beer?

Batch priming’s biggest strength—beyond saving you time—is precision. You can calculate exactly how much sugar you need for your style, your volume, and your taste.

If you’re brewing from a kit, odds are you’re working with 23 litres (5 gallons). That’s the standard batch size most homebrewers start with. The trick is not just how much sugar—but what kind.

And yes, style matters. Ales generally need less carbonation than lagers. You want that crisp fizz in a lager. Ales? They're better with a softer sparkle.

After digging through countless brewers’ notes and forum threads, these are the rough priming sugar amounts most brewers use for a 23L batch:

• Dextrose (Corn Sugar): 3/4 cup or about 95 grams (4–5 oz)

• Cane Sugar (Table Sugar): 2/3 cup or about 86 grams (3.8–4.8 oz)

• Dry Malt Extract (DME): roughly 130 grams

The type of sugar you use can slightly shift the flavor and mouthfeel. DME gives a smoother, maltier finish. Corn sugar is cleaner and neutral. Cane sugar works just fine too—but measure carefully.

Brewing a smaller or larger batch? Don’t guess. Use a proper priming calculator—they take into account beer style, temperature, and batch size. It’s one of the easiest ways to dial in carbonation without going flat… or explosive..

What kind of hops should I use with my beer?

Not all hops are created equal. The kind of hop you use can shape the flavor, aroma, bitterness, and character of your beer in big ways. Whether you’re chasing the grassy notes of a British bitter, the floral spice of a Czech pilsner, or the punchy citrus of a bold American IPA—your hop choice matters. A lot.

After centuries of brewing, there’s a loose global consensus about which hop varieties pair best with different beer styles. Here's a breakdown of some of the classic pairings brewers swear by:

• The English Golding hop is a staple of traditional English ales. It delivers that smooth, earthy aroma that defines bitters, milds, and ESBs. Pair it with another classic like the Fuggle hop for a full-bodied English-style ale with heritage built in.
• Saaz hops are the go-to for lagers. Light, spicy, and floral, they’ve been the signature hop of Czech pilsners for generations. If you're brewing a lager at home, Saaz is a great place to start—especially if you care about aroma.
• Pilsners are deeply tied to the so-called "noble hops"—a group that includes Saaz, but also Terrnanger, Spalt, and Hallertauer. These hops deliver a subtle, balanced bitterness with floral and herbal notes. Pilsners owe much of their crisp drinkability to these varieties. Fun fact: the style originates in what is now the Czech Republic.
• Chasing that distinctive New Zealand lager taste? Try Green Bullet hops. Add a dash of Pacific Jade for complexity and you’ll start nudging toward the clean, bold profile of Steinlager. If you’re using a kit like Black Rock lager, these hops pair beautifully.
• American hops have gone global for a reason—they're bold, brash, and unafraid of flavor. Think grapefruit, pine, mango, diesel. It depends on the variety, but the signature is intensity. Cascade is the poster child, loved for its bright citrus aroma and clean bitterness. Perfect for pale ales and IPAs where the hops are meant to sing.

Chinook is another popular 'north western' hop.

Using gelatin as a fining agent to help clear beer

Basically, gelatin acts as a fining agent. It combines with the 'leftovers' of the beer brewing process and they fall to the bottom of the fermenter thus clearing the beer.

So how much gelatin should I add to my beer?

Many beer brewers have found that between half and a whole teaspoon per 23 litres or 5 gallons will be a sufficient amount. You will probably get diminishing returns if you use much more.

When and how do I add the gelatin?

You can add it any time after fermentation and word on the street that it actually works best when the beer is quite cool.

The suggested time of addition is to add it a couple of days before you intend to bottle your beer.

A good trick is to dissolve it in a half a glass of hot water. You then open up the fermenter or carboy, add the liquid and then shut the fermenter back up.

For many people, clarity of the beer is important to them. If you are making a dark ale, clarity may not be so important to you.

However, finings do remove leftovers that can impinge on the taste of the beer too. The gelatin helps remove the unneeded proteins and polyphenols from the beer.

This next tip is more of what not to do.

If you pitch your yeast when the wort is hot you will kill the yeast

I once absent mindedly pitched my yeast when the wort was too hot, right after mixing the ingredients with boiling water. I knew what I'd done the moment I'd done it but what a waste of yeast!

A genius moment in my beer making career for sure. 

No yeast means no fermentation.

And well, that just sucks right.

Lucky I had a spare packet of good old Safale US-05 and was able to pitch that when my wort was properly cooled. 

Cooling your beer down is not just to assist with removing nasty bugs from your beer and reducing the risk of any infection, it helps with ensuring that your yeast finds itself in a hospitable environment - that is to say if you pitch your yeast too early, you run the risk of killing it (it’s a living microorganism after all). 

So check that the wort is at the right temperature before you pitch. If you are using a kit, the instructions will have a temperature range noted. If you have a plastic fermenting drum, it's quite likely there will be a handy temperature guide stuck to the side which you should use.

As an aside, if you want to get really fancy with cooling your wort, you might want to invest in a wort chiller.

Hydration of the yeast before pitching

Hydrating yeast

If you want to be really serious about pitching yeast, you could try the yeast hydration technique.

It's a handy method that many earnest brewers follow so as to hydrate the dry yeast in water before pitching. The reasoning behind this is that it gives the yeast a good chance to get started properly. 

We are not wholly convinced by our own experience that this necessary but some brewers seem to do this as a best practice measure. 

How to increase the alcohol content of your beer

The shortest version of this tip is the more sugar you add, the higher your alcohol content. 

The theory is simple.

Beer yeast eats the sugar and that produces more alcohol. Some brewers will use dry malt extract (DME) as their additional sugar source. You could of course just use ordinary home baking sugar. That will contribute to a sweeter beer than DME (indeed the historic use of sucrose it's why homebrew got a bad name as over sugared brewed were too sweet).

But it's more complicated than that and adding extra sugar should not be blindly done. 

As a rough guide, an extra pound or 1/2 kg of DME will add an extra half per cent to your beer. 

Doubling that will give you an extra whole per cent.

Roughly.

You can add other sweet things too...

Maple syrup, honey, and brown sugar are all fair game, but don’t just dump them in blindly. They’ll absolutely change the flavor profile—sometimes in complex, unexpected ways. Honey, for example, can add delicate floral or earthy notes depending on its origin. Maple syrup leans rich and woody, while brown sugar introduces molasses tones. All of these will thin out your body unless you compensate with additional malt or a fuller mash.

Now for the real caution: the more fermentable sugars you throw in like an extra load of jelly beans, the more stress you’re loading onto the yeast. More sugar means more alcohol, and more alcohol slows fermentation. That’s just yeast biology—ethanol is toxic to yeast above certain concentrations. Push things too far, and your yeast could stall or die off entirely before finishing the job.

If you're stepping into high-alcohol territory, you need to think ahead. Add yeast nutrients like diammonium phosphate (DAP) or Fermaid K to feed the cells and extend their viability. Without extra nitrogen, yeast can become sluggish or produce off-flavors like sulfur or fusel alcohols. And don’t forget zinc—it’s often a limiting micronutrient in wort.

Some yeasts are built for this kind of heavy lifting. Champagne yeasts and certain Belgian strains are known for their alcohol tolerance, while others (like some English ale strains) will tap out early. If you're going big, look for yeast varieties labeled high-gravity or high-alcohol tolerant—anything with a published tolerance above 10% ABV is worth considering.

You can also pitch a second round of yeast if the first can't finish the job. But make sure it’s a clean strain—one that won’t clash with the ester profile already established. It’s often smart to rehydrate and acclimate the second yeast to high-alcohol conditions before pitching. That way you don’t shock it into dormancy right out of the gate.

Temperature plays a massive role too. Warmer fermentation (18–22°C for ales) will keep the yeast active and help chew through sugars efficiently. But watch out—too warm and you’ll get esters or solventy flavors. Cooler temps slow everything down, especially in winter. If you're fermenting in a cold garage or basement, don’t expect fast results, especially with all that added sugar.

And oxygen? Front-load it. Yeast needs oxygen in the early aerobic phase to build healthy cell walls (sterols and unsaturated fatty acids). So give your wort a proper aeration before sealing the fermenter—either by shaking vigorously, using a sanitized whisk, or injecting pure O₂ if you’ve got a setup.

Point is: you can add sugar. Just know what you’re really adding is complexity. Flavor complexity, fermentation complexity, and risk.

Handle it right, and it’ll pay off in character and punch.

Handle it wrong, and you’ll be left with a half-fermented mess.

In summary, to increase the alcohol or ABV of your beer you can consider:

• Adding extra DME, sugar or produce like honey and maple syrup
• Adding extra to yeast to your initial pitch.
• Adding extra yeast and yeast nutrients late in the usual fermentation process. 
• Using a yeast that can handle a high alcohol content
• At a pinch, you can add baking yeast to your wort!
• Make sure the wort gets invigorated with oxygen
• Keep good temperature control, and don't allow wild fluctuations

Try to not release the "Krausen"!

Occasionally brewing conditions mean that the yeast is so active, the krausen behaves like it is a kraken released from the gates of hell and it foams up like a fiery tempest and blows out the airlock, just making a heck of a mess all over your brewing equipment!

These beer explosions typically occur with glass carboys which allow pressure to build.

A solution to krausen 'blow out' is a using a blowoff tube. 

One simply replaces the standard carboy airlock with the tubing.

The tubing can then release into a bottle, bucket or whatever to help with reducing any blow off mess.

Check out the image to the right for an idea on how to set up the blow off tubing. This example uses a steel tube.

If you're not convinced this tubing is worth the effort, consider this.

A common krausen issue is that the the airlock can get clogged with foam and any added hops. This leads to a strong pressure buildup in the fermenter which when is it great, the barrel lid, bung or airlock blows off, spewing stuff everywhere and making for a very messy and frustrating clean up.

There's even the potential for damaging your equipment.

We suggest if you have brewing conditions where this has happened more than once, you may wish to consider grabbing some tubing from Amazon!

Chill haze and the 'cold break'

You may have heard of ‘chill haze’. This is a really common cause of beer cloudiness where the wort has been boiled and the cooling process has not generated enough ‘cold break’. 

The cold break is the proteins from the beer that are precipitated to the bottom of the beer by the cold temperature.

Using a copper wort chiller allows for an effective way to get more cold break forming and thus reduces the chance of chill haze in your finished beer.

Cooling and refrigeration

One of the reasons why beer does go cloudy is due to improper refrigeration timings and techniques. 

The process of storing beer is called laagering (sounds like lager eh?). Lagers are lagers because they are best stored cold. Nordic Vikings learned this method years ago when they laagered their beer barrels in cold caves over the winter or something...

Refrigeration of storing beer in a cool place helps to clear beer rapidly. The science behind this is at lower temperatures it is more difficult for the yeast, tannins and proteins in the beer to remain suspended. 

Cold stored beer will also clear much more rapidly than beer stored at a normal room temperature. 

If you intend to 'lager' your beer you must wait until that first round of initial carbonation has occurred. This is usually done at a warmer temperature than required for lagering. If you cool your beer too soon, you run the risk of disrupting the yeast from its secondary fermentation process and carbonation may not occur (or it will be very slow to do so).

Get the bigger kettle or pot, in the long run you’ll save money

For many first time homebrewers, the first purchase is a starter equipment kit. Once they have that, all they need is a brew kettle or pot and ingredients. So they get the cheap, smaller size kettle – and then suddenly they find they want to keep going with beer making and so need to purchase the bigger kettle or brewing pot. 

If you have an inkling you are going to do a bit of brewing, get the 5 or 8-gallon size unit, save the smaller ones for making jam! Big is better for most of your brewing equipment needs.

O is for Oxygen, get that element away from your beer

We mentioned oxygen above as being good for fermentation. This is true. 

But no longer when you are ready to begin fermentation or when bottling your beer.

Once your beer is ready to have the yeast pitched in, this is the last chance for oxygen to be exposed to the beer. Once the yeast is in, the fermenter needs to be properly sealed.

The presence of excess oxygen can result in poor smelling beer.

Allowing the fermenting beer to be exposed to oxygen can allow beer spoiling bugs and organisms such acetobactor to sour your beer by using the oxygen to ferment the alcohol into acetic acid – commonly known as vinegar. Keep your fermenter well sealed!

This has actually never happened to us but if you are following best practices with your beer, then do your best to keep the air away from your wort. 

The same goes for bottling – try to avoid getting too many bubbles in the bottle as your pour.

 

The best time to add hops to your beer

Typically the beer wort is boiled with the hops added at crucial moments before it is cooled down to begin the fermentation process. The timings of when to add the hops in the boil can be critical as the different timings can cause the hops to work differently on the beer.

If you are making your own wort (that is you are not using a beer kit) then it's best practice to follow a tried and true recipe, at least as you start out.

If you're at that point, you'll want to understand that the process is sometimes known as the “hop schedule”. A hop schedule will lists the length of time that the hops should be in the boil, not the amount of time you should wait to add the hops.

This allows you to making your timings correctly.

The rough guide is the longer you boil the hops, the more bitterness they will impart. The shorter you boil them, the more flavour will be added. It depends on how you want your beer to benefit from the hops addition.

But what about adding hops to beer kits?

If you are using a simple beer extract kit then you can add the hops when you are preparing the batch of wort. Just throw it with your wort and nature will do the rest.

Some people like to delay adding the hops until a few days later. This is fine, but in our experience of using brewing kits, it makes little difference to the end result in the hop aromas and taste your beer will have. 

Just because the fermentation bottle has stopped bubbling, that doesn't mean you need to bottle your beer straight away

If the bubbles in the airlock have stopped completely, this is not necessarily a sign that the fermentation process has completed. It's quite likely that there's still some fermentation quietly happening in the drum.

So let that play out a bit longer. It could be that you let your beer rest longer than the written instructions that came with your beer kit.

This is because there are still things happening in your beer. The yeast may have consumed all the sugar but additional processes are still occurring - let them because the will make your beer taste better! 

How to properly condition your beer bottles

The short advice is that it's best store your beer in a warm place. This will encourage secondary fermentation (this is sometimes described as bottle conditioning).

The ideal temperature range is between approx 18 - 25°C for 5 to 7 days.

HOWEVER after that period, you should leave them in a much cooler place with a temperature range between approx 8 - 12°C.

You should then leave the beer for a total minimum of three weeks since the bottling date before some well-deserved consumption.

You should not easily dismiss this advice about the correct temperature storage of your beer. I had an experience last year when in the middle of winter I just bottled the beer and left it in the shed for about a month.

When I when to crack open the first beer, there was no fizz, just cold flat beer.

No fizz on the second or third either!

I thought I had ruined my beer somehow. 'Had fermentation actually occurred'? I wondered. Of course it had. The problem was the cold. I brought the beers inside and left them in the living room. I waited a week for the yeast to warm up and do its thing, and boom I had fizzy beer!

If you are feeling like you want to try something new with your beer, try using oak chips.

pH testing

Smart beer brewers will test that their beer is within the ideal ranges for beer brewing. A beer with a pH balance that is out of whack will not produce the best results. You can test for pH using paper strips or for a very accurate result, use a digital pH tester. 



Now what are you waiting for? Take these tips and make great tasting beer!

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