Wednesday, 2 April 2025

KegLand Duotight Push In Fittings - Review

Duotight is a range of push in fittings for gas and liquid connections often used in homebrewing keg/draught system setups such as kegerators for connecting beer and CO2 gas lines to and from regulators, kegs, taps and other bits of equipment. The range was first released by KegLand in 2018, with a design update/revision in 2020.

Tuesday, 1 April 2025

Understanding Hop Creep: Causes, Effects, and Prevention

Introduction to Hop Creep

Hop creep is a phenomenon that refers to beer becoming over-attenuated due to additional diastase enzymes being introduced to the wort/beer when quantities of hops are added for dry hopping. These enzymes can cause the conversion of long-chain unfermentable dextrin's into fermentable sugars. 

Sunday, 30 March 2025

Homebrew School: Understanding Floating Hydrometers

Hydrometers are a simple but incredibly important piece of equipment for professional brewers and homebrewers alike. They are used to measure the specific gravity of a fluid, which gives a reading on the density of that fluid. In this Homebrew School lesson, we'll take a look at why hydrometers are important and how to easily test their accuracy to ensure you're getting the most out of yours.

Saturday, 29 March 2025

DIY Kegerator: How to Convert Your Old Fridge into a Beer Dispenser

When starting out, most homebrewers opt to package their finished beers into bottles. It's almost inevitable that at some point down the track, most will start looking into options for kegging their beer - to save time and the hassle of endlessly cleaning bottles.

Friday, 28 March 2025

How to Fix a Stuck Sparge or Mash on a BrewZilla

If you're using a single vessel brewing system like the BrewZilla and like incorporating ingredients like wheat and oats into your grain bill, there's a good chance you're going to experience a stuck mash or a stuck sparge. In this article, we'll take a look at exactly what these are, and what you can do to save your brew day if it happens to you.

Thursday, 27 March 2025

Homebrew School: What is a SMaSH beer?

SMaSH beers are a fantastic way for homebrewers to explore the unique characteristics of individual malts and hops. This brewing method simplifies the recipe, allowing the true flavors of the ingredients to shine.

Wednesday, 26 March 2025

Do You Still Need to Do a 60-Minute Boil When Brewing Beer?

Most homebrew recipes, books, and other literature reference a 60-minute boil time. For decades, this has been the standard boil time. However, we're seeing an increasing number of recipes calling for shorter boil times, typically 30 minutes. This prompted us to dive deeper into this topic: what are the pros and cons of shorter or longer boil times, and do we still need to do a 60-minute boil when brewing beer?

Tuesday, 25 March 2025

NEIPA/Hazy IPA - Recipe Creation Guide

NEIPA's and Hazy IPA's are undoubtedly one of the most popular styles of craft beer at the moment. Consumers are craving heavily hopped beers more than ever before, but don't necessarily want the assertive bitterness that is typically associated with loads of hops being thrown into a beer.
In this guide we'll go over all aspects of recipe creation to make your best NEIPA/Hazy IPA

Monday, 24 March 2025

Homebrew School: What are Flaked Grains?

Flaked grains are a common and versatile ingredient used in the world of homebrewing. They offer unique characteristics that can help to enhance the body, flavour and mouthfeel of your beer. Let's take a look at what they are, how they're made and what makes them different to the more commonly used malted grains.

Sunday, 23 March 2025

How to Fit Straps to your FermZilla Pressure Fermenter

These straps are a simple and effective way of tethering your FermZilla to the included metal stand. This makes it much easier to move the FermZilla by picking it up by the handles and having the base move with it. 

Saturday, 22 March 2025

Scaling Brewfather Recipes for Your BrewZilla Brewing System

In a previous post we covered how to select and setup the BrewZilla equipment profile within Brewfather. But did you know that you can then use this equipment profile to automatically scale any recipe found within Brewfather to suit your BrewZilla?

Friday, 21 March 2025

What is an IPA? A Comprehensive Guide to India Pale Ales

The beloved IPA has taken the craft beer world by storm, captivating enthusiasts with its bold flavors and rich history. In this article, we'll explore the origins of IPAs, the unique characteristics that define them, and the various sub-styles that have emerged over the years. Whether you're a seasoned IPA aficionado or new to the world of craft beer, this guide will provide you with everything you need to know about this iconic style. 

Thursday, 20 March 2025

Say Goodbye to Foamy Pours: Fixing Over-Carbonated Kegs

In our previous blog post we ran through some different methods of force carbonating your beer, where some of the methods involve a risk of over-carbonating the beer inside. If you've ever poured a beer and ended up with a glass full of foam, it's quite possible the cause is over carbonation. Here's a guide you can use to correct this if it happens to you.

Wednesday, 19 March 2025

Flamin Galah Brewing Co - (Award Winning) Hazy Pale Ale Recipe

In a recent YouTube video, Flamin Galah Brewing Co ran through a double brew day of their award winning Hazy Pale Ale, and were kind enough to share the recipe in the description of the video as well. We've gone ahead and created a scaled down version of the recipe which we'll include below along with a breakdown of key parts of the recipe and a link to the recipe on Brewfather.

Tuesday, 18 March 2025

Force Carbonating a Keg: A Homebrewer's Guide

Kegging beer into cornelius (corny) kegs is great - much less mucking around compared to bottling, but once your beer has finished fermenting and transferred to a keg, you will need to carbonate it to get the required amount of "fizz" into your beer. 

Monday, 17 March 2025

Understanding Malted Grain Colors: EBC and Lovibond

When it comes to homebrewing, the color of your malted grains plays a crucial role in determining the final appearance and flavor of your beer. Two common scales used to measure and describe these colors are the European Brewing Convention (EBC) and Lovibond. In this blog post, we'll dive into what these scales mean, how they differ, and how you can convert between them.

Sunday, 16 March 2025

Water Chemistry Adjustments using Brewfather

In our previous blog post, we gave an introduction into the world brewing water chemistry and how some of the key elements can impact on your brewing and final beer product. In this post, we'll be covering how to take the information you already have about your brewing water, and enter it into Brewfather to get the details on how to adjust your water profile for your desired beer style.

Saturday, 15 March 2025

Kegerators vs Keezers: Which is Best for Your Homebrewing Setup?

When it comes to homebrewing, one of the most exciting decisions you'll make is how to store and serve your beer. Two popular options are kegerators and keezers. Both have their unique advantages and can significantly enhance your homebrewing experience. In this article, we'll dive into the differences between kegerators and keezers, helping you decide which one is the best fit for your needs.

Friday, 14 March 2025

Homebrewing Water Chemistry: An Introduction

Ever wondered why your homebrew doesn't quite match up to your favorite craft beer? The secret might be in the water! Water is the most significant ingredient in beer, yet it's often overlooked by home brewers. This post aims to break down some of the daunting and overwhelming concepts of water chemistry, making them easier to understand and giving you the confidence to begin adjusting your own brewing water.

Thursday, 13 March 2025

Dry Hopping Your Homebrew: A Comprehensive Guide

Dry hopping is a crucial technique in homebrewing that can significantly enhance the aroma and flavor of your beer. In this post, we'll explore what dry hopping is, why it's used, various dry hopping methods, and recommended dry hopping rates for popular beer styles. Let's dive in!

Wednesday, 12 March 2025

Pressure Fermenting 101: Faster, Cleaner, and Better Beer

Pressure fermenting is a relatively new concept in the world of homebrewing. As the name suggests, it's a process that involves having your fermentation occur in a sealed vessel that is capable of holding pressure. These can be made of stainless steel, or in some cases, even specialised plastic.

Tuesday, 11 March 2025

How to Set and Adjust a Spunding Valve for Pressure Fermentations

Spunding valves are a relatively simple but crucial bit of equipment when dealing with pressure fermentation. A spunding valve allows you to set a predefined level of pressure within your pressure fermenter which the valve will maintain by venting or releasing any pressure above this predefined level.

Monday, 10 March 2025

How to Improve Mash Efficiency with Your BrewZilla System

A big factor for many brewers is the efficiency they're able to get from their equipment. Efficiency refers to how much sugar they're able to extract from the malts or grains in their recipe - and the more you can extract, the better (and stronger) your beer will be. In this post we'll look at some methods you can use to ensure you're getting maximum efficiency from your BrewZilla all-in-one brewing system.

Sunday, 9 March 2025

FermZilla - All Rounder - Leak Troubleshooting Guide

The Kegland FermZilla is a great bit of kit that can be used for pressure fermenting. When fermenting under pressure though, it's important that the vessel does not have any leaks. Thankfully, the All Rounder model is quite simple in it's design, so there's really only a few places that leaks can come from, so troubleshooting it really isn't all that hard. Is your FermZilla leaking or not holding pressure?

Saturday, 8 March 2025

FermZilla - How to Open a Stuck Lid or Collar


Ever had issues getting the lid or collar off your FermZilla? It's a common problem that we've had first hand experience with ourselves. Read on for some useful tips on how to get the lid or collar off your FermZilla if it becomes stuck.

Friday, 7 March 2025

BrewZilla 3.1.1 - Brew Day Step by Step Instructions

The Kegland Brewzilla is an excellent piece of brewing hardware but is missing some detailed instructions on how to actually use it. We've compiled this post as a follow up to our Getting Started & FAQ, to give an easy to follow step by step guide on completing a full brew day using the BrewZilla.

Thursday, 6 March 2025

KegLand Bottle Filler Beer Gun - Review

Introduction

After making the jump from bottling to kegging - we still wanted a way to be able to bottle our beer occasionally so we could share it with friends and family - or take a couple of bottles to parties etc. Counter pressure bottle fillers looked good but cost more than what we were willing to pay - so we thought we'd give the KegLand Bottle Filler Beer Gun a try. 

Wednesday, 5 March 2025

Troubleshooting Pressure Fermentation: Identifying Leaks vs. Gas Absorption

Introduction

Pressure fermenting can be tricky - especially for beginners who are often grappling with some of the different concepts and potential problems along the way.

One of the questions we were asking during our first pressure fermentations was whether or not we had a gas leak, or if the gas is being absorbed back into the beer which is causing a reduction in pressure in the fermenter? 

Tuesday, 4 March 2025

Master Homebrewing with Brewfather: A Comprehensive Guide to Using BrewZilla Equipment Profiles

Introduction

Brewfather is our top choice for homebrewing applications. While it offers a free version (with an option to upgrade for additional features), we find the free version more than sufficient for our needs. It's particularly useful for inputting recipes, and it comes with a built-in BrewZilla equipment profile that has proven to be very accurate based on our brewing experiences.

Monday, 3 March 2025

Why Fresh Wort Kits Are Perfect for Beginner Homebrewers

If you've ever been curious about homebrewing but felt overwhelmed by the complexity of the process, fresh wort kits might just be the perfect solution for you. These kits offer a fantastic entry point into the world of homebrewing, combining convenience with quality to help you brew your own beer with ease. Here's everything you need to know about fresh wort kits and why they are one of the best ways to get started with the worlds greatest hobby - homebrewing.