Welcome to Brau-Kaiser.com. This site is dedicated to subjects that are mostly related to brewing German style beers and it is not intended to be a complete reference for the home brewing process. It is rather a loose collection of various articles.

Philosophy

I enjoy the scientific and technological aspects brewing, which shows in the articles, and want to promote a better understanding of them as well as introduce the advanced brewer to various brewing techniques. Being an engineer I like to know what is happening and how I can control the final product and fix problems when they arise. Despite what many readers would think, I'm a fairly relaxed brewer. Some of that relaxation comes from knowing the process and knowing where attention is necessary and where not.

For questions and suggestions contact kai at braukaiser dot com

What’s New

• Jun 2009 - added the infustion version of the Hochkurz mash to Infusion Mashing
• Mar 2009 - created the Efficiency Analysis Spreadsheet
• Mar 2009 - Added two articles on historic brewing : German Brewing between 1850 and 1900 Malting and Wort Production, Fermentation and Beer
• Feb 2009 - Complete review of all older articles. Some of them littered with typos and other language errors. The work is ongoing.
• Jan 2009 – Added the article about Drauflassen
• Jan 2009 – Added the Kompensatorzapfhahn article
• Dec 2008 – The first part of The Science of Mashing has been released. This series of articles is more detailed and replaces the The Theory of Mashing

Preparation

• Keeping Log

Wort Production

• Evaluating the Crush of the Grain
• Malt Conditioning
• Understanding Mash pH
• The Science of Mashing
  • Enzymes
  • Carbohydrates
  • Starch Conversion
• The Theory of Mashing - revised and largely replaced by The Science of Mashing
  • Experiment: Mash Time Dependency of Wort Fermentability
  • Experiment: Effects of mash parameters on fermentability and efficiency in single infusion mashing
• Infusion Mashing
• Decoction Mashing
• Batch Sparging Analysis
• Starch Test
• Understanding Efficiency
• Troubleshooting Brewhouse Efficiency

Boiling and Wort Transfer

• Whirlpooling

Fermentation

• Understanding Attenuation
• Fast Ferment Test
• Fermenting Lagers
• Drauflassen
• Carbonation Tables
• Kraeusening
• Accurately Calculating Sugar Additions for Carbonation
• Yeast Culturing
  • Yeast culturing gear
  • Making Plates Slants
  • Inoculating Plates and Slants
  • Growing Yeast from a Plate
  • freezing yeast (not yet available)
• Experiments
  • Pitching Rate and Oxygenation

Bottling/Kegging/Serving

• Kompensatorzapfhahn

Breweries

Germany

• Museums- und Traditionsbrauerei Wippra (museum and traditonal brewery Wippra), Germany

History

• German Brewing between 1850 and 1900
  • Part I: Malting and Wort Production
  • Part II: Fermentation and Beer

Literature

Misc

• Links
• Recipes
• Glossary of German Brewing Terms
• Tables for Conversions and Calculations
• Podcasts