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Wort boils around 213 °F (~100.5 °C), at sea level, depending on its specific gravity. Water boils at 212 °F/100 °C, but the dissolved solids in wort raise its boiling temperature. Chris Colby Editor http://beerandwinejournal.com/

A guy in my homebrew club (the Austin ZEALOTS), Mark Schoppe, has made a spreadsheet comparing the new, proposed BJCP guidelines to the 2008 guidelines. (You may also remember Mark as the 2012 Ninkasi winner.) His spreadsheet is a great resource for competition-minded homebrewers. You can...

There isn't one best hop utilization curve (slash way to calculate IBUs), only the method that will give you the best results given your brewery, water, techniques, etc. Pick a method that seems reasonable and stick with it. Alternately, get a couple of your beers tested and see which method...

Have you see Triangle (2009, with Melissa George)? Chris Colby Editor http://beerandwinejournal.com/

A 2-gallon cooler will hold about 4 lb. of malt, and — if you fully sparge the grain bed — yield a little over 2.5 gallons of wort at approximately SG 1.044. That's a good size for doing 5-gallon partial mash batches. A 3-gallon cooler will hold about 6 lb. of malt, and yield almost...

Here's one way to get better efficiency than just dunking a bag of malt when making small all-grain batches — use a small beverage cooler, lined with a steeping bag, as your lauter tun. You can mash in your brewpot by dunking the bag of grains. This way, you can keep the mash temperatures...

Did the rehydration instructions say anything about cooling the yeast down before pitching? Usually you need to gradually blend some chilled wort into the yeast to cool it down before you pitch. Chris Colby Editor http://beerandwinejournal.com/

Here's some information on pH in mead, along with the need (in many cases) to add a little potassium to a mead must. Mead musts can be low in pH, and this can cause the yeast to struggle. Taking care of your pH and potassium levels, combined with "SNAs" (staggered nutrient additions) will do a...

You could do a step down mash, but you'd need to stir in fresh malt when the temperature drops. (In fact, stirring in the malt would cool the mash somewhat.) Beta-amylase is progressively denatured at higher temperatures and by the time you cooled the mash down, there would be little enzyme...

A turkey fryer is great. A 7.5-gallon pot for a 5.0-gallon batch is workable, but limiting. You'd better off with a 10-gallon pot. You don't need a grain mill right off the bat, but they are nice to have if you brew a lot. I've written a few things for beginning all-grain brewers on my website...

Use the "concentration times volume" (C1V1 = C2V2) equation to calculate the dilution rate. For example, if you wanted to make 3 quarts of yeast starter at SG 1.020, and your saved wort is SG 1.058, you would set the equation up this way: 20(3) = 58(X) Solving for X would give you 1.03. In...

Start with the basics — were the dry hops green and did they smell fresh and aromatic when you used them? Chris Colby Editor http://beerandwinejournal.com/

You would probably be better off just bottling it as is. It will be somewhat stronger than you intended, but if the fermentation went well, the beer should be fine. You could dilute it to its intended working strength if you deaerated your dilution water. However, as boiling is the only...

I've made some odd beers over the years. I've brewed with potatoes, sweet potatoes, cocoa powder, Jolly Rancher candies, bread, and even used Mt. Dew (the soda) as my brewing liquor. Here are a couple recipes: Beelzeboss -- a witbier-like brew with Mt. Dew...

If you transfer early, you run the risk of separating the beer from the yeast while the yeast cells are still taking up residual diacetyl. Transferring a few days late should not have any negative impacts. Most importantly, remember that the time frames given in recipes are just estimates...

It's hard to beat White Labs WLP001, Wyeast 1056, Fermentis Safale US-05, or any other "Chico"-derived strain, for American IPAs -- they do exactly what they're supposed to for that style of beer. And, they decrease the amount of hop bitterness during fermentation less than most yeast strains...

Adding sugar doesn't subtract malt. If you swap some sugar for part of the malt, you will dry the beer out. But if you simply add sugar on top of the malts, you'll just boost the ABV a bit. The malt flavor (which comes from the husks of the grains) will not be lowered; neither will the final...

Is it possible you collected less wort than you normally would have? That would explain both the volume and efficiency issues. Chris Colby Editor http://beerandwinejournal.com/

If you boiled enough that your wort volume was low, the wort in the kettle would have a higher specific gravity (SG) than your target (assuming you hit your numbers in the mash). Adding water to dilute the wort to your target wort volume would also lower the SG to your target OG. Chris...

Unless you splashed or intentionally aerated the recently boiled water, it would take a little while for the oxygen to dissolve back into it when cooled. How long, exactly, I can't say, but it isn't instantaneous. If it was, we wouldn't have to aerate our worts (and aquarium owners wouldn't have...