breakdown homebrew » references http://www.beertastic.org/homebrew blog about possibly good chicago homebrew Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:25:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 breakdown water analysis http://www.beertastic.org/homebrew/2010/breakdown-water-analysis/ http://www.beertastic.org/homebrew/2010/breakdown-water-analysis/#comments Tue, 20 Apr 2010 01:09:40 +0000 Andy http://www.beertastic.org/homebrew/?p=532 wateranalysis
Water is crucial to making great beer. Why is Dublin water excellent for stouts? Why does Burton make great pale ales? It’s all about the water baby. To help me learn water adjustments and to satisfy my geek-out requirements, I built a water analysis tool. Fundamentally, it is built on top of the excellent spreadsheet from John Palmer with powerful pH analysis from Braukaiser (seriously, go read this guy’s white paper right now, good stuff). Not only does it combine a bunch of great analytical tools, I also built macro’s that automatically solve for the required salt additions to reach a target water profile (in a somewhat unoptimized nonetheless effective way right now).
COMMENTS ENCOURAGED!


Give it a shot for yourself: Download here.
Let’s call this the beta testing release without any instructions provided.

Please note at this time this spreadsheet’s macros will ONLY function in MS Excel. Sorry open sourcers, I feel your pain.

]]> http://www.beertastic.org/homebrew/2010/breakdown-water-analysis/feed/ 1 getting started http://www.beertastic.org/homebrew/2009/getting-started/ http://www.beertastic.org/homebrew/2009/getting-started/#comments Fri, 08 May 2009 00:32:21 +0000 Andy http://www.beertastic.org/homebrew/?p=10 I’m not entirely sure when it dawned on me; in retrospect, I’m surprised it took so long to realize I needed to start homebrewing ASAP. When the last week of school wrapped up for me in March, unemployment loomed in the future. To keep my sanity I was determined to immerse myself in something, and my first idea was to review my chemical engineering fundamentals. Very soon after combining studying heat transfer and bio engineering while enjoying some hoptherapy the light bulb went off and I dashed over to the public library to get schooled in the art.
Even though I haven’t even brewed my first batch yet, I think the last month of constant reading has made me MORE than adequately prepared. If you’re interested in starting yourself I highly recommend one of the following resources. Let me know if you know of any others!


introductory:
‘Basic Homebrewing’ – Jim Parker.

median:
‘Extreme Brewing’ – Sam Calagione.
‘Dave Miller’s Homebrewing Guide’ – David Miller.


science geek:
‘Principles of Brewing Science’ – George Fix (Ph.D)


also insightful:
‘Premium Beer Drinker’s Guide’ – Stephen Beaumont


to be read:
‘The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Third Edition’ -  Charles Papazian
‘Ultimate Beer’ – Michael Jackson

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