Welcome to Braukaiser.com. This site is dedicated to brewing science and topics 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 a rather 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

Blogs

There are also two blogs that I'm maintaining

Braukaiser.com - Blog is a convenient place to report about experiments and ramble about random subjects	Commercial Beer Reviews started as a tasting report of almost 80 different beers that I had on a trip to Germany
10-9-12 Yeast growth experiments - some early results 10-03-12 Yeas un-flocculation for cell counting 09-16-12 Enzymes in the fermenter 09-09-12 Hops From A Can

Icons

More recent articles on this site use symbols on the right margins to indicate the type of content and allow readers to skip possibly uninteresting or complex part

	Brewing Basics: The building blocks stand for basic stuff that is important for the understanding of further discussions and elaborations.
	How Things Work: the cogs mark sections that detail how a particular process woks
	Practical Brewing Advice: The pot stands for practical brewing advice that will help you in home brewing. Oftentimes a conclusion that is drawn from preceding, more complex, content.
	Geeky Stuff: The test tube stands for geeky content. Something that is cool to know but has only little importance in practical home brewing.

What’s New

• May 2013 - added PWM stir plate design
• Mar 2013 - added Lactate Taste Threshold experiment
• Oct 2012 - added Microscope use in brewing
• Apr 2012 - added Yeast Propagator
• Mar 2012 - added Beer color to mash pH (v2.0)
• Jul 2011 - fixed the images that got lost after some post-hacking clean-up
• Feb 2011 - added Mash pH control
• Feb 2011 - added Iodine Test
• Jan 2011 - added A simple Model for pH Buffers
• Jun 2010 - published NHC 2010 presentation about efficiency and how to keep it predictable
• Jun 2010 - added documentation for the Batch Sparge and Party Gyle Simulator
• May 2010 - added How to read a water report
• Mar 2010 - released Alkalinity reduction with slaked lime
• Feb 2010 - released Beer color, alkalinity and mash pH
• Jan 2010 - added Museumsbrauerei Schmitt, Singen, Germany

Preparation

• Keeping Log
• Carboy Washer

(Brewing) Science Basics

• Everything you need to know about pH in brewing
  • pH part 1: An Overview of pH
    • A simple Model for pH Buffers
    • pH Meter Buying Guide
    • An Evaluation of the suitability of colorpHast strips for pH measurements in home brewing
  • pH part 2: How pH affects brewing
  • pH part 3: Mash pH control
    • Residual Alkalinity illustrated
  • Beer color, alkalinity and mash pH
  • Beer color to mash pH (v2.0)
• Effect of water and grist on mash pH (paper)
• Lactate Taste Threshold experiment

Ingedients

• Water
  • How to read a water report
  • At home water testing
  • Building brewing water with dissolved chalk
  • Alkalinity reduction with lime
  • Kaiser_water_calculator.xls | Kaiser_water_calculator_US_units.xls

Wort Production

• Evaluating the Crush of the Grain
• Malt Conditioning
• 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
• Iodine Test
• Understanding Efficiency
• Troubleshooting Brewhouse Efficiency
• Batch Sparge and Party Gyle Simulator

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 and Slants
  • Inoculating Plates and Slants
  • Growing Yeast from a Plate
  • Yeast Propagator
  • Yeast Bank contents
  • Microscope use in brewing
  • PWM stir plate design
• Experiments
  • Pitching Rate and Oxygenation

Bottling/Kegging/Serving

• Kompensatorzapfhahn

Breweries

Germany

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

History

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

Literature

Misc

• Links
• Recipes
  • Various water recipes
  • Obergäriges (Ales)
    • Kaiser Alt
    • Weissbier Hell
  • Untergäriges (Lagers)
    • Dunkel
    • Schwarzbier
    • Maibock
    • Imperator (Doppelbock)
    • Edel Hell
  • Food
    • Treberbrot
    • Brezels and other Laugengebäck
• Glossary of German Brewing Terms
• Tables for Conversions and Calculations
• Foreign Content
• Podcasts