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Fermentation Temperature Controllers

Thursday, May 14th, 2020

Article and Photos By Mike Dalecki  

Most experienced brewers will tell you that their beer took a major leap forward when they began to do Fermentation Temperature Control (FTC). This article shows the range of methods to control fermentation temperature, from the simple and inexpensive to the complicated and pricey. At the end of the article, I’ll point out a way you might avoid worrying about temperature control altogether. Most of the discussion here presumes ale brewing, but lagers have similar issues–there are optimal temperatures at which they should be fermented, and your ability to control those temps will reward you.

Why Temperature Control is Important

Different yeasts have different ideal temperature ranges. Yeast fermenting too warm will express unintended flavors, many of which are undesirable. Estery/banana flavors, an alcoholic flavor–these are to be avoided in normal beers and you can do that by preventing the fermentation temperature from becoming too warm.

There are a couple of exceptions; farmhouse or Saison beers use yeast designed to ferment at higher temperatures in order to express certain flavors; if all you brew are these beers, FTC may not matter to you. Kveik yeasts (covered below) can handle extreme temps up to 95 degrees without creating off-flavors. But for the most part, most fermenting beers benefit from some sort of temperature control.

Further, temperature control works both ways. There are times you want to warm up the fermentation (a diacetyl rest, for instance), and times you want to chill the beer (crashing prior to packaging, e.g.). The more control you have, the more you can do–and the more consistent your beers will be batch to batch. If you cannot control fermentation temperature, you’ll find it difficult to reproduce beers you like. Here are ways brewers control fermentation temperature, starting at the least expensive.

Ambient Temperature Only

Many new brewers assume that ambient room temperature is fermenting wort temperature. However, yeast is exothermic, meaning the yeast produces heat while it works. Actual wort temperature during fermentation can be 5-10 degrees higher than ambient temperature; further, the higher the temp, the faster the yeast works, and the more heat generated. If the ambient temperature is low enough it may not matter much–and by low enough, I mean in the mid-to-low 60s. You won’t be able to control fermentation temp but it won’t run away on you.

Swamp Cooler

The redneck way to cool things without electricity is to use a Swamp Cooler; you place a piece of cloth over a vessel, wet it, and as the water evaporates it cools the vessel. Put the fermenter in a turkey pan ($1 at the Dollar Store) filled with a couple of inches of water, and drape a t-shirt or similar over the fermenter, allowing the shirt to dangle in the water. The shirt will wick up water that, when it evaporates, will cool the fermenter. I was able to produce about a 5-degree drop with my swamp cooler setup, but your mileage will vary with ambient temp, relative humidity, and size of the water pan. Some brewers live where ambient is just too high for evaporation to work on its own. They use frozen water bottles added to the pan in the morning and at night to help keep the temp down.

Refrigerator or Freezer Fermentation Chamber

This is probably the most common approach besides doing nothing. Brewers will use either a refrigerator or freezer and an electronic control like an Inkbird 308 to manage fermentation temps. The refrigerator is turned to as cold as it will go, and when the temperature probe indicates the wort is
too warm, the controller turns on the refrigerator to cool it. If a heat source is also used, the controller will turn that on when wort temp is too cold.

The temperature probe can be held against the fermenter with a piece of insulation and a bungee cord or string; the insulation ensures the probe picks up the temperature of the wort, not ambient temperature. Some will use a thermowell, a hollow tube that extends from the bung into the wort, and into which the temperature probe is inserted. Typically the brewer will also use a heat belt or mat wrapped around the fermenter to allow warming the wort toward the end of fermentation for a diacetyl rest or even just to help the yeast clean up after itself. It’s also common in areas where ambient temperatures in the winter, such as my garage here in Wisconsin, can drop well below the desired fermentation temperature. There needs to be a way to warm the fermenter at times like these. In fact, if you have a pretty cold area to manage fermentation, you might not even need a refrigerated fermentation chamber–just a way to heat the wort up to the level that the yeast requires.

Probably the two most common ways of warming a fermenter like this are a FermWrap, or a seedling heat mat. Wrapped around the fermenter and held in place with string, wire, or a bungee cord, they apply warmth directly to the fermenter and thus, the wort. If ambient is fairly cold, some insulation like a towel may be wrapped around the fermenter. Some brewers use a light bulb inside a metal can, or a reptile heat bulb to add heat inside the fermentation chamber, but it’s a slower and less direct way to control heat.

It doesn’t matter much whether you use a refrigerator or freezer; it’s a personal preference. I prefer a refrigerator, as I don’t like lifting a fermenter into a freezer. You can get these cheaply used; Craigslist is a good source. I use both a large refrigerator that can handle two fermenters at a time, and a tall dorm-style refrigerator which is perfect for those whose space won’t allow a larger unit.

Glycol Chilling Units

Glycol, which mixed with water reduces the temperature at which it freezes, is used to chill coils suspended into a fermenter. Commercial units range in price from about $700 to $1000. The advantage of glycol is speed and control, as the chilling is applied directly within the wort through stainless coils inside the fermenter. The better glycol chillers can handle up to four fermenters at a time; each fermenter simply needs its own pump to control flow. Some have had success with a DIY glycol chiller. I created a Glycol reservoir inside the freezer compartment of my large fermentation chamber; it was quite effective in controlling fermentation temp, though less effective in crashing.

Others have repurposed air conditioners to glycol chilling, and still, others have used small dorm-style refrigerators for this purpose. If you’re interested in researching this, search “DIY glycol” on Homebrewtalk and you’ll find a number of threads dealing with this, including my own.

Kveik Yeast

This last isn’t fermentation temp control but rather a way to ignore it. Kveik yeast is an ancient yeast that developed in northern European countries. It is fairly immune to high-temperature fermentation, meaning it can handle fermentations up to 95 degrees without producing typical
off-flavors. While Kveik doesn’t offer the variety of strains that dry or other liquid yeasts present, it is an option for those who for whatever reasons simply cannot keep ferm temps down. When using Kveik yeast, high temperatures aren’t a bug, they’re a feature.

Posted in Brewing, Equipment | No Comments »

How to Use Chocolate in Your Beer

Thursday, April 9th, 2020

By Jesse Southard

Personally, I love chocolate beers. Before I was a homebrewer, I took a trip to the Czech Republic and had my fair share of beer. However, a chocolate beer stood out to me called Opat Chocolate Stout. I remember thinking how did they get so much chocolate flavor into this beer? Anyway, looking back I laugh because adding chocolate to your beer, in my opinion, is one of the easiest ways to elevate your beer’s flavor. You can bring out more chocolate flavors in a base recipe or build a recipe around chocolate. Either way, you need to have some basic knowledge on how to use chocolate in beer, what type of chocolate to use, and some tips on how to get the flavors right. The end goal is to have a chocolaty beer without the beer tasting artificial. So, my advice is to always use whole ingredients such as cocoa nibs, 100% cocoa powder, or pure chocolate extract. Let’s dig a little deeper.

Using Cocoa Nibs In Your Beer

Cocoa nibs are the closest thing you will find to the raw cocoa bean outside of the tropical regions that it is grown. The bean is harvested, fermented, and crushed to produce a raw cocoa nib. The nibs are then either packed for sale as a raw item or slightly roasted to produce a richer chocolate flavor. At any rate, if you buy raw or roasted you should taste the product before brewing with it to ensure it has the flavor you are looking for. If you are wanting control of the chocolate flavor, buy the raw nibs and roast them in your oven at home. You can accomplish this by setting your oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 degrees Celsius), then laying the nibs on a baking sheet and roasting them at five-minute intervals until they have reached the flavor you are looking for. If you fail to roast raw nibs before adding them to your beer, they will impart little-t0-know chocolate flavor. You can use cocoa nibs in any step in the brewing process.

In The Mash

If using cocoa nibs in the mash, you should crush the nibs as you would crush your grains and add them in with the rest of your grain bill. Adding to the nibs to the mash will extract a more bitter dark chocolate flavor which is preferred in more robust stouts and porters.

In the Boil

You can add the cocoa nibs to the boil which will also extract a more bitter dark chocolate flavor. When adding to the boil, I suggest pitching them into a hop spider so you can strain them after the boil.

Primary & Secondary

You can add them to your primary or secondary by first soaking them in vodka overnight. Pitching earlier in fermentation allows for more flavor extraction. Pitching in primary provides a more mellow dark chocolate flavor which is preferred in porters and brown ales. Pitching in secondary will produce a more subtle chocolate undertone which can be experimented with in nontraditional ways.

Using 100% Cocoa Powder In Your Beer

Cocoa powder is a more refined version of cocoa nibs. It has already been roasted to the manufacturer’s specifications and milled into a fine powder. You have no control over the roast factor; however, cocoa powder is a great way to get chocolate flavor into your beer. I do caution about using only 100% cocoa powder as anything else will have fillers, fats, evaporated milk, or other unnatural ingredients. 100% cocoa powder, in my opinion, is the most convenient cocoa product because it is sold in nearly all big box stores and is relatively inexpensive.

Using cocoa powder in your beer is fairly easy as you can add it at any stage to achieve your desired results.

In the Mash

You can add cocoa powder directly to the top of your grain bed when mashing or sparging. You do not want to mix this in when you dough in unless you enjoy having a stuck sparge. When you are finished doughing in, wait 15 minutes and sprinkle your desired amount of cocoa on top of the mash. Adding to the mash allows the chocolate flavor to be extracted while leaving the powder behind when lautering. You can achieve a more subtle chocolate flavor by adding it to the top of the grain bed when fly sparging. If you batch sparge, you can achieve the same effect by adding the cocoa after adding your sparge water. Both methods work perfectly for use in stouts, porters, brown ales, and out of style experiments.

During the Boil

You can add cocoa powder directly to the boil, any time during the boil, or at flame out. Adding at these times, gives you the same result in my experience. Adding cocoa to the boil provides a darker bitter chocolate flavor which is desirable in robust stouts and porters. If adding to the boil, leave the black sludge behind when transferring to the fermentation vessel.

Primary & Secondary

You can also add cocoa powder directly to primary or secondary. To keep things sanitized, you will want to make a vodka cocoa slurry by mixing cocoa powder in vodka. Just like cocoa nibs, adding cocoa powder in primary provides a more mellow dark chocolate flavor which is preferred in porters and brown ales. Pitching in secondary will produce a more subtle mellow chocolate undertone which can be experimented with in nontraditional ways.

Using Chocolate Extract In Your Beer

The simplest way to add chocolate flavor is by adding a chocolate extract. Now, there are plenty of chocolate-flavored extracts on the market, but we do not want to end up with an artificial tasting beer. So, do yourself a favor and ensure you are using pure chocolate extract. Unlike using cocoa nibs or cocoa powder, extract needs no contact time to achieve the chocolate flavor you want. However, it will impart an alcohol flavor that may be detectable in lighter beers. You can make your own extract at home with cocoa nibs and distilled spirits. A simple extract can be made by adding 6 ounces vodka and 3 ounces of cocoa nibs. Let them soak for a week and then straining off the nibs. You can get quite creative with cocoa nib roast time, extraction time, and type of distilled spirit. I personally like to soak my nibs in bourbon when making chocolate stouts.

To use pure chocolate extract in beer you will want to add it any time after the boil. However, since this product needs no contact time to extract the flavor, you can easily add too much. So, I prefer to add extract at packaging. When adding at packaging, you want to minimize oxygen exposure so you can rack off a few cups of beer to experiment with before adding the extract to your brew. I add drops of extract from an eyedropper to each glass, starting with three and going up three with each glass. You can experiment with more or less extract in each glass, just remember how many drops you added to reach your desired result. If you are adding extract to a five-gallon batch there are 80 cups in a gallon, so if you like nine drops of extract in a cup, you will need to add 720 drops of extract (9×80=720). According to Traditional Oven, there are 98.5 drops in one teaspoon, which means you would add just shy of 7.5 teaspoons (720/98.5=7.3) of extract to a five-gallon batch of beer.

Chocolate is a sweet treat that can be enjoyed in many ways; however, there is nothing like having a nice chocolate beer, especially one that you made yourself. It can be a nice compliment to freshly baked cookies, campfire smores, or even as a dessert beer. Whether you are chasing after that one chocolate beer of your dreams, or just want to experiment with chocolate, I hope that this article helps you in your homebrewing endeavors. Cheers!

Recipe Spotlight

Bill’s Double Chocolate Milk Stout is a great way to test the waters with several of these chocolate-flavor producing methods.

Posted in Brewing, Ingredients | No Comments »

Ensuring Success With Your First Lagers

Friday, March 20th, 2020

By Old Standby Brewing

You’ve been homebrewing for a while now and have pumped out some pretty tasty ales, impressing the hell out of friends and family; probably some IPAs, stouts, maybe even a porter or an ESB. Now you’re thinking you might want to try your skills at a crispy lager since you’ve been seeing them pop up more and more at breweries lately. Well, here are the most important things to consider before you take on the challenge of producing a tasty lager. The 3 most important things to remember when crafting a quality lager: Yeast, Temperature, and Patience! Let’s discuss further.

Your First Lager Recipe

Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash

As far as recipe development goes, it’s best to keep it simple in the beginning. Start with a basic malt bill that uses high-quality Pilsner malt and only small percentages of 1 or 2 specialty malts. Don’t worry about step mashing for this recipe. Pick a single infusion temperature (around 150°F) and mash in just as you would with all the ales you’ve brewed. Next, collect all that sweet wort into your kettle and once again, keep your hop schedule pretty simple. Refer to the BJCP guidelines for the lager style you’re brewing and keep the IBU in the suggested range. Perhaps you’ll want to use a noble hop variety or two here to really capture those traditional aromas and flavors. Once your boil is complete, which you may want to increase to 75 or 90 minutes to help reduce some off-flavors associated with high levels of pilsner malt, try to chill as quickly as possible and transfer to your sanitized fermenter. This was the easy part! If you’re looking for a great go-to lager recipe check out the Oktoberfest recipe created by Daily_Brewer. You can also check out the recipe section for more lager recipe inspiration.

Yeast Strains For Lagers

Here’s where your lager really needs some tender love and guidance to reach its full potential. Since lager yeast moves slower & does its best work at cooler fermentation temperatures, you’re going to want to pitch at least double (or maybe triple) the amount you normally pitch into your ales. This yeast also needs to be fresh so check the packaging dates. I try to use yeast that is dated within 1-2 months of my brew date. If you can’t get super fresh yeast, you’ll either want to purchase more or make a starter to get your yeast ready to tackle your lager. Remember, the yeast is doing all the work here, so make sure you’re adding enough to make your first lager attempt successful. I find that the pitch rate calculator on Brewer’s Friend is an excellent resource to determine how much yeast I actually need to use. It’s better to pitch more viable, healthy cells than not enough!

Lagers And Temperature Control

Now that you’ve brewed the beer and pitched plenty of fresh lager yeast, it’s time to create the optimum fermentation environment for your lager yeast to do the important work it needs to do. In order to create a choice lager, you have to be able to keep your fermenter at consistent lager temperatures for a long period of time. This means in the range of 48-52°F for 2 weeks and then down to almost freezing temps for a month or more. Each variety of yeast that you use will have an optimum fermentation range so use this information as your guide. If you don’t have the ability to control your fermentation temperature yet, you may want to consider not brewing a lager at this point in your homebrewing career. Sorry for the brutal honesty here, but I’m just trying to save you the heartache of your lager not turning out very good!

Stay Patient With Your Lagers

Sticking with the theme of keeping it simple, hold this temperature for at least 7-14 days before you do anything. Now, you’re going to be used to the activity that you’ve seen from your ale fermentations; you’ve possibly even blown a few airlocks off the top of your carboy, right? Well, lager fermentation happens much slower. Picture the sloth DMV scene in Zootopia or maybe even your last service call with your utility company! I digress. There are a few very well-known techniques for attempting to speed up your lager fermentation by some very well respected brewers, but I would urge you to keep it simple for your first lager and stick to a basic fermentation schedule which takes a few more days, but is less complex and doesn’t require you to take a bunch of gravity readings. Once your lager activity starts to really slow down after 7-14 days, raise the temperature of your fermentation vessel a few degrees, to the upper end of the range that we talked about earlier from the yeast manufacturer, and hold at this temp for at least another 3-4 days. This warming at the end of the fermentation will give your yeast a chance to clean up any off-flavors that have been produced. This is also known as a diacetyl rest. Diacetyl is a buttery flavor that you don’t want in your finished lager so be patient and give the yeast a chance to tidy things up. If you’re still seeing some activity in your blow-off, take a gravity reading to see if your lager is getting close to being finished. If not, give the beer a few more days to wrap things up.

Packaging Your Lagers

Photo by Adam Barhan via Flickr

When all activity in your fermenter has stopped and you’ve hit your final gravity, it’s time to start cooling your beer down to start the lagering process. The word lager, or lagern in German, means “to store” or “to keep,” so really you’re just beginning to create the amazing flavors that you’ve come to love from a crispy lager. Lower the temperature of your fermenter about 2-3 degrees per day (patience, remember?) until you get down to 32-35°F and hold at this temp for as long as you can possibly stand it! Usually, 3-4 weeks is a good lagering time, but some of the more powdery yeast strains will need longer to drop out of suspension completely and some higher alcohol lager varieties will need even more time to fully mature. It is best to do this lagering phase with all of your yeast still in the fermenter, so don’t worry about racking into a secondary fermenter at this time. This allows your lager yeast to continue working its magic and creating the delicate flavors that you’ll want in your finished beer.

Now that you’ve completed your lagering stage you’re probably really thirsty and hopefully, you brewed enough ales before this lager to get you through the last couple of months! If you have the ability to keg and force carbonate your lager, you could be enjoying pints in just a few days. If you bottle condition your beer, then you’re going to have to wait a couple more weeks for your lager to fully carbonate. Bottle carbonation happens when the remaining yeast in your beer consumes the priming dextrose that you add at bottling, but since you’ve just finished a month-long lagering phase, there isn’t too much yeast left in your beer. So once again be patient because carbonation will take longer than usual. I probably don’t have to remind you, but I will anyway since you’ve come this far, sanitation is so important when making quality beer after your boil is complete. When you make a lager there is nowhere for off-flavors to hide, so make sure you’re cleaning and sanitizing everything that will come in contact with your beer once it leaves your boil kettle.

When it comes time to pour the first pint of lager that you crafted and cared for over the last couple of months, you’re going to have a new appreciation for lager brewing. Pay close attention to the delicate and subtle flavors of the pilsner malt and the traditional aromas of the German hops. Planning your next lager is a great thing to do while you enjoy your first few pints of the brew you just completed! Prost!

Posted in Brewing, Lagering | No Comments »

6 Hops That Can Make an Impact Next Brew Day

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020

By: Ryan Celia

Hops are 1 of 4 ingredients required to brew beer according to traditional German Reinheitsgebot. They impart bitterness, flavor, and aroma to beer when used during specific times before, during, and after the boil. Hops come in several forms, the most common being whole leaf hops, pellet hops, cryo hops, and hop extract. Here are 6 hops that can make an impact on your beer on your next brew day.

Everyday Hophead Hops

These are the hops that every hophead uses on a regular basis. These hops are readily available online and at your Local Homebrew Store. You’ll also be able to find them in a variety of forms, not just standard pellets.

Simcoe Hops

Simcoe hops are very popular among professional and home brewers due to them being very well rounded and predictable. Simcoe hops usually range from 12% – 14% alpha acid and work well for a bittering addition as well as a flavor and an aroma addition, making them a triple purpose hop. Not all high alpha acid hops work well as a bittering hop. Some high alpha hops don’t have the clean or desired bittering profile needed to add them early in the boil. Simcoe hops work well in a SMASH beer due to their high alpha acid content that works well for bittering and their exceptional ability to provide their flavor and aroma as advertised. A SMASH beer is a beer brewed with a Single Malt And Single Hop. Simcoe hops are known to impart flavors and aromas of grapefruit, pine, and citrus. Simcoe hops can be found in a wide variety of beer styles but are typically found in IPAs, Double IPAs, American Pale Ales, Wheat beers and Amber Ales.

Citra Hops

Citra hops are in high demand among professional and home brewers due to their incredible ability to add highly desirable flavor and aroma. Citra hops are known for imparting aromas of grapefruit, citrus, and tropical fruit. Citra hops typically have an alpha acid range of 10% – 15%, however, they are one of those hops that the higher alpha acid doesn’t necessarily translate into being a great bittering hop. The bitterness they produce tends to be a bit harsh for some people’s likings. Citra hops make their magic happen when added towards the end of the boil, the whirlpool, and as a dry hop addition. I’ve had and enjoyed several all Citra hopped beers, but the common thread was that the bitterness of these beers was quite restrained. Citra hops can typically be fund in IPAs, Double IPAs, American Ales in general, and New England IPAs.

Mosaic Hops

Mosaic hops are another high demand hop that can be considered a triple purpose hop. They continue to grow in popularity. Their alpha acid range is typically 11% – 14%. Mosaic hops typically impart flavor and aromas of tropical fruit, pine, citrus, and blueberry. Mosaic hops can be found in New England IPAs, American Pale Ales, IPAs, and Double IPAs. I’ve had a few beers that were dominated by Mosaic hops and the blueberry flavor really shined through. This made these beers and this hop very enjoyable.

Sought After Hophead Hops

These hops may not always be hard to find online but they may cost quite a bit more than what you’re used to spending, they may only be available certain times of the year, and they may not be readily available at your local homebrew store. They are hops that all homebrewers need to try at least once to see the impact they make on their finished product.

Galaxy Hops

Galaxy hops are one of the most in-demand hops on the market today. The demand has driven the price up to anywhere between $30 and $40 per pound, one of the highest-priced hops on the market. Galaxy hops are a triple purpose hop coming in between 11% and 16% alpha acid. Galaxy hops have flavors and aromas of peach, passionfruit, pineapple, citrus, and a lovely generic tropical fruit flavor that is close to being unmatched by any other hop. Galaxy hops are best used late in the boil, post-boil, or as a dry hopping addition. Galaxy hops are a desired addition to any hop-forward beer.

Amarillo Hops

Amarillo hops are primarily used as a flavor and aroma hop. Amarillo has some uniqueness in that it’s grown in both the United States and Germany and the hops you get from each country are noticeably different from one another. They typically range from 7% – 12% alpha acid, which can be fairly high for a hop that is primarily used for floor and aroma. The higher alpha acid version of this hop are usually the ones from Germany. The American Amarillo hop will have flavor and aroma characteristics of citrus, orange, floral, and tropical fruit. The German version will have a few distinct variations to include a tropical / fruit punch version, a lemon/citrus version, and a stone fruit version. These are one of my favorite hops to use at the end of the boil, in the whirlpool, or hop stand when making a hop-forward beer. Give them a try, I assure you they won’t disappoint.

Sorachi Ace Hops

Sorachi Ace hops maintain their popularity and demand due to their unique flavor characteristics even though they are grown in limited quantities. Sorachi Ace hops contribute flavors and aromas of lemon, dill, and citrus. Their lemon and dill flavors are the most noticeable, with the lemon being in the forefront. They range in alpha acid from 11% – 16% and have been used successfully as a bittering, flavor, and aroma hop. Some commercial breweries have even used Sorachi Ace as the only hop in certain beers that they’ve brewed. I’ve used them in IPAs, American Pale Ales, American Barleywines, and Saisons. This is definitely a hop you must try once either on its own or combined with another fruit-forward or citrus-forward hop.

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Brewer’s Friend Is Looking For Writers!

Thursday, December 5th, 2019

Brewer’s Friend is looking for passionate homebrewers who are interested in sharing their knowledge with the community in the form of articles for our blog section. The topics we’re looking to cover span a wide range of skill levels and subject matter. They will be technical in nature. Writers will be able to choose from a list of available topics or even pitch their own ideas

If this seems interesting to you, but you don’t have much experience with writing, don’t hesitate to reach out as well. You can email the editor directly via email at editor@brewersfriend.com or fill out the survey in the link below for more information.

» Start Here «

We’re excited to offer brewers a chance to share their love and passion for brewing with the community. 

Cheers and happy brewing,
Dave

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Check out our New Features on our Changelog!

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2019

April 2019 brings updates, new features, and support for more wireless hydrometers.

https://docs.brewersfriend.com/changelog

2019-04-02
Added

• Fermentation chart BPM for Plaato.
  
  
• Additional API stream fields for MyBrewBot and Fermentrack.
  

2019-04-01
Fixed

• Recipe Builder pH prediction showing with no water profile selected.
  
  
• Recipe Builder, Inventory & Shopping custom brands now showing up prior to being approved.
  
  
• Recipe View can now show fermentation chart from multiple brew sessions.
  
  
• Recipe Builder water calc sometimes missing acid additions from the recipe.
  
  
• Inventory & Shopping can now enter yeast temp in °F or °C.
  

Added

• Recipe Builder drag and drop photos!
  
  
• Plaato Wireless Airlock support.
  
  
• Brand Settings turn off brands that do you use or care about.
  
  • https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/profile/brand_settings
    
• Shopping option to hide mashed column in print view.
  
  
• Brew Step Cool wort down to ~70F / 20C will now show the fermentation temp set in the Recipe Builder from the Yeast block.
  
  
• Recipe Builder ability to add custom yeast.
  
  
• Bar unit to keg carbonation calculator.
  
  • https://www.brewersfriend.com/keg-carbonation-calculator
    
• Complete list of Crisp and Briess malts to BF catalog.

Check it out today, and let us know what you think!

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Pre-Order Your Brewer’s Friend T-Shirt – First T-Shirt Ever!

Thursday, January 24th, 2019

For the first time ever we will be offering a run of BrewersFriend.com t-shirts!

Pre-order now!

We will accept pre-orders until March 31st, 2019, then print the t-shirts and ship in the weeks after that.

These shirts are awesome! Next Level brand, 60% cotton/40% polyester.
They are incredibly comfortable and very soft with a solid amount of stretch to them.
We have gotten these brand t-shirts from other companies in the industry and they are our absolute favorite.
The photo above is a general mock-up. The logo/design will be the same but the t-shirt color might be a bit lighter.

Pre-Order Now:

Size:

Extra Small $19.99 USDSmall $19.99 USDMedium $19.99 USDLarge $19.99 USDXL $19.99 USD2XL $22.99 USD3XL $22.99 USD

CUSTOMERS IN THE UNITED STATES ONLY!We will refund any orders outside the US. If you are interested in a t-shirt outside the US please e-mail us for pricing at support@brewersfriend.com.

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Import your Brewtoad files into Brewer’s Friend- Quickly and Easily!

Tuesday, January 8th, 2019

Exporting recipes from Brewtoad, or any type of *.xml file, and into Brewer’s Friend is simple and straightforward.   When you are on the Brewtoad website, you can export the recipes one at a time easily.   However, that could be very tedious,  so you could try using this technique for exporting all of them found on here:   https://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/a4lx1v/brewtoadcom_is_shutting_down_at_the_end_of_the/ebg48iu/?sort=new

Please be advised that we did not write that script, so please be cautious in trying it.

Brewer’s Friend accepts both *.bsmx (Beersmith) and the *.xml file formats, so you can import ANY .xml files into Brewer’s Friend from other software programs or from recipes on the internet that have an .xml or *bsmx file type.   Once you export your recipes,  save to your computer or in a dropbox if you have a very large number of recipes.  It’s a good idea to save it to your desktop, for ease in finding it again.

Then, to import your recipes into Brewer’s Friend, just open your internet browser, and go to Brewersfriend.com. 

Log into your account, and choose “Tools” in the orange tool bar.

Then choose “Import Recipes” in the dropdown.

 

A screen will appear, telling you to choose a file, or to drag it into the box.

You also have a choice about what to do with ingredients in the recipe that may not have an exact match in Brewer’s Friend.   When importing from Beersmith or Brewtoad (or many other programs), the bottom box should be checked, as this will allow those unmatched items to be listed in your recipe:

 

When you have made your selection here, scroll back up a little and once you have chosen the file(s) to import, click “import”.

When the import is finished, the new recipes will be listed in your dashboard under “My Recipes”.

You’ll see that a notice will say:  “! Recipe just imported, Edit and Save to fill in stats.”

 

 

Click on the title of the first recipe you wish to save in Brewer’s Friend.   Then, click “edit” on the right side near the top of the screen.

 

That will bring up the full recipe and here you can save it.   You can also choose whether to make this recipe public (shared) or private by moving the slider (see below).

 

Once you click save, this recipe will be in “My Recipes” in Brewer’s Friend as one of your regular recipes.

 

That’s all there is to it!  It’s quick, easy, and enables you to keep your entire collection of recipe files on our cloud.  Cheers!

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Migrating Your Recipes from Beersmith To Brewer’s Friend

Wednesday, December 19th, 2018

Exporting recipes from Beersmith and into Brewer’s Friend is simple and straightforward.   When you are in the Beersmith program, you will have two options for exporting your recipe files.    The “Export All” command exports all of the items in the current view or folder to a file which you can save to your computer or email to other brewers.

The “Export Selected Items” choice exports only the items you have selected in the current view.  You can select multiple items by holding the Ctrl key while you click on the items you are choosing.  The blue highlights in the view above show the chosen recipes.

Beersmith files have a *bsmx file extension which can be directly imported into Brewer’s Friend, or you can import those files as BeerXML files (with a .xml extension) as well.   Brewer’s Friend accepts either one of those file formats, so you can also import ANY .xml files into Brewer’s Friend from other software programs or from recipes on the internet that have an .xml file type.

After you choose the “export all” or “export selected”, the following screen will appear: 

 

Choose the file type that you would like to use for importing.   Either *.bsmx or *.xml will work in Brewer’s Friend.   Save to your computer or the cloud as in a dropbox if you have a very large number of recipes.  In this case, this file was saved to the desktop for ease in finding it again.

 

Open your internet browser, and go to Brewersfriend.com. 

Log into your account, and choose “Tools” in the orange tool bar.

Then choose “Import Recipes” in the dropdown.

 

 

A screen will appear, telling you to choose a file, or to drag it into the box.

You also have a choice about what to do with ingredients in the recipe that may not have an exact match in Brewer’s Friend.   When importing from Beersmith, the bottom box should be checked, as this will allow those unmatched items to be listed in your recipe:

 

When you have made your selection here, scroll back up a little and once you have chosen the file(s) to import, click “import”.

When the import is finished, the new recipes will be listed in your dashboard under “My Recipes”.

You’ll see that a notice will say:  “! Recipe just imported, Edit and Save to fill in stats.”

 

 

Click on the title of the first recipe you wish to save in Brewer’s Friend.   Then, click “edit” on the right side near the top of the screen.

 

That will bring up the full recipe and here you can save it.   You can also choose whether to make this recipe public (shared) or private by moving the slider (see below).

 

Once you click save, this recipe will be in “My Recipes” in Brewer’s Friend as one of your regular recipes.

 

That’s all there is to it!  It’s quick, easy, and enables you to keep your entire Beersmith recipe files on our cloud.  Cheers!

Posted in Brewing, Brewing Software, Recipes | No Comments »

New Brewing for Beginners Tutorial Available Now!

Tuesday, December 4th, 2018

Have you wanted to homebrew, but never knew where to start?  Or have a friend who does?

Designed for beginners, this illustrated article can help you, from choosing the equipment you will need as well as give you step-by-step directions through the brewing and fermenting process.

Check it out now!

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »