Jay's Brewing Blog

The water that you use for your brew will make the world of difference.  Most homebrewers don’t give it too much thought, at least I didn’t.  It wasn’t until earlier this week that I was helping trouble shoot a beer and we realized that something was overlooked.  Actually the biggest ingredient was overlooked, water. So […]

I hear about customers having bad experiences with their homebrew and really it can be boiled down to handful of different reasons, and by a handful I mean 9.  I was inspired after reading the beertools blog and decided to come up with my very own, 9 ways to jack  up your beer.  Just know depending on […]

You might have seen in recipes the use of rice hulls. And when you see rice hull in a recipe you might be asking your self, “What are rice hulls and how do I use them?” The Answer To Your Question… Rice hulls are the protection covering of rice.  For homebrewers these can be a […]

When it comes to kegging homebrew, the topic is a little up in the air.  Everyone has an opinion (like everything with homebrewing). Sometimes it can feel as if the blind are leading the blind and the information well,  sucks.  At the end of your quest for knowledge you still have no idea what you are doing, […]

To me brewing is fun and relaxing but one thing that is not, is when you start brewing and all of a sudden you forget something that is pretty important to the brew.  When brewing beer things can happen and it’s good to have an, “emergency kit”.  What I mean by an emergency kit is, having […]

The one aspect of making your own beer and or wine that so unique to this hobby versus other ones is customization.  You can literally do what ever you would like to do when making your own beer and wine. A personal favorite for me with making beer and wine is having your own fictitious company and calling your recipes what ever […]

Sometimes I get asked, “What is the difference between alpha and beta acids for hops?”.  Well I can tell you, but I must warn you – beer nerd talk is about to get put into full throttle. When it comes to hops there are usually two types that come to mind: 1) Alpha Acids 2) Beta […]

This will be a short post but a post that is well  needed.  Recently a few customers have come up to me with a question about if their carboy has scratches can they still use it.  Yes, yes you can. Many people are concerned about bacteria or other micro’s dwelling in the scratches.  I don’t […]

It’s happened to many home brewers and home wine makers, your rubber stopper falls through the neck of the carboy.  When it happens to you, you can feel desperation in your belly.  Well there is a way to get your stopper out of the carboy easily. I actually learned this trick for when wine a […]

When you’re looking at yeast when it comes to home brewing, normally you see a few things about the yeast: 1) Attenuation 2) Flocculation 3) Alcohol Tolerance 4) Flavor Profile. Alcohol tolerance and flavor profile are easily understood.  We have a post all about flocculation as well.  But what is Attenuation? Attenuation is normally expressed […]