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Brewers use many tools to measure the success of beer production, and one of the most important is the pH meter. Here are a handful of ways that pH meters are used in the brewing process. The mash is the stage where a brewer extracts sugar from malted barley and other grains. There are a number of variables that contribute to this process occurring, temperature being the key, but pH plays a big role too. The enzymes that activate in the mash tun between 62-70°C are called amylase enzymes. These operate by breaking bonds in long chains of dextrins and...

As the name suggests, sour beers are beers that are made to taste sour. This sourness can range from a slight tartness right the way up to a mouth-puckering, ulcer inducing acidity. Sours generally fall into one of two categories. There is a “clean” sour, normally made by introducing a single strain of lactobacillus (commonly used to make yoghurt from milk) to wort, which eats sugar and creates lactic acid. The other variety of sour is called a lambic sour, which is the equivalent of a sourdough bread but for sour beer; the wort is fermented with whatever microbes happen to...

Fermentation to produce alcohol is a vastly complex thing. However, simplified to an almost criminal level, yeast consumes sugar producing ethanol. But, how do brewers know how much alcohol is in their beer?  Arguably, a brewer doesn't really "make" beer, rather a brewer makes sugar for the yeast to consume. This sugary solution, before it's fermented into beer, is called wort (pronounced like the word "word"). At the end of a brew day, the brewer will measure their success in a number of ways. The main way is by measuring how much sugar has been extracted from the barley and other malts....

If you’re reading this, I can probably assume you have a passing knowledge of beer and are therefore vaguely familiar with what hops are and what their role in beer is. So, here’s a slightly more in depth (albeit still very brief) look at hops and how brewers use them. Hops primarily have two functions in brewing; the first is for bitterness, the second is for flavour and aroma. Both of these functions come from using the hops at different stages of the brewing process, and in different ways to yield different results. Hops have been cultivated for centuries to...