The Beer Borg archive
Category: how-to
January 31, 2019
Hop Stand Bittering Units – HSBUs
As homebrewers we are always looking at ways to improve our beer and gain consistency in our processes and brewing methods. Over the last year or so, possible due to the popularity of New England IPAs (NEIPAs) it seems like the use of hop stands has become a more prevalent method of adding bitterness, flavor, and aroma to our beer. One of the problems with this method is being able constantly determining how much bitterness and flavor you are actually getting from the hop stand especially across multiple batches of beer.
October 14, 2015
Not Just Another Homebrew Book
It seem like every time I look there is another home brew book available explaining how to brew beer. Many of these books are simply a re-hash of the many brewing styles and methods that home brewers can use to create our favorite alcoholic beverages. Granted it’s hard to really find new content to write a home brew book about and keep it fresh when the basic process for brewing has remained the same for centuries.
February 1, 2013
simple guide to brewing
Beer Nong Fermentation: Making “Rot” a good thing Beer, the fermenting frontier. These are the voyages of Beer Brewers, its 2+ gallon mission to explore strange new brews, to seek out new flavors and new combinations and to boldly go where many have gone before. Welcome to the BeerBorg Information Center, you will be assimilated. Resistance is quite Futile: We have Beer. Now a few words from THE NONG. Some simple guidelines and suggestions for making tasty Beer. 1. Sanitize everything you are going to use. The last thing you want is a “goobie” attack on your beer. 2. Prep your work area and preset […]
January 11, 2013
How to build an electric heatstick
Have you thought about switching to 5 gallon full-boil batches and have concerns about your kitchen stove’s inability to boil large volumes of liquid? Well, I’ve got a solution for you – it’s called a HEATSTICK! It’s really easy to build, and costs under $50. It works together with your kitchen stove to easily boil 7-8 gallons of wort! Here’s a list of parts: 120V screw-in water heater element. I bought a 1500 watt element at Lowes – this requires 14 gauge wires, and can run on any 15A GFCI outlet. If you want a bit more power, Home Depot […]
January 10, 2013
Easy guide to wort chilling without faucet attachments
How does one use an immersion chiller with a pull-out faucet (that’s what I have), or in a situation when there’s no running water source reasonably close to brewing location? You can also use this method if your tap water is too warm and you have trouble getting your wort to pitching temps. Parts needed: Immersion chiller (super easy and cheap to make from a 20-ft roll of soft 3/8″ copper – about $15 from a home improvement store, but that’s another article). Fountain pump (200+ gph works best) – this one from Amazon would work great Vinyl tubing and […]
January 4, 2013
Quick brew.
Ever been in a hurry to fill a 2.5 gallon keg? But not sure what to do? Well, it’s cold in this part of the world. And it won’t be long before your wanting to grab an nice amber to sip on. A while back, while at the local home brew store (LHBS), I was trying to figure out what to brew. I was doing a lot of Irish Stouts then, and if it was dark, I was into it. While looking at the options, I noticed a Munton’s 3.3 pound can of Hopped Amber Malt Extract. THAT got the […]
January 2, 2013
Harvesting that expensive yeast
Have you noticed how expensive yeast has gotten? I did. Ouch. So I got into harvesting that gold in a tube. There are a few things you need for this. 1: Nerve Wait, no, that’s not it. It’s easy. I stressed more then hot yeast over this until I pulled the trigger and gave it a go. What you need is a container for the unwashed yeast. (I could insert a baptismal joke here about the unwashed, but won’t) You’ll need to do a wee bit of pre-planning though. You’ll need the container. I got a few quart plastic containers […]
