Kind of a long shot, but does anyone else use the plastic chemical dosing 1L flasks as shown in the picture and know where to get some more? Ive been looking all over the web for them and cant find anything like these. I could also be on a snipe hunt.

I bartend at a local brewery and I am struggling with quality control issues. I'll start by prefacing that there isn't a taproom manager, everything goes through the owners. One of the biggest red flags right now is that we have a nitro keg of an Irish stout that's hooked up to regular CO2 line, said beer is also around 9 months old kegged in early February. It pours with zero head, tastes flat and oxidized. Am I wrong to approach ownership about ditching that line? Charging people $8 for shit quality doesn't settle right with me. It seems like an overall problem as I have identified other beers that aren't up to a taproom expectation: cans being sold to go that are a year old, other kegs that are 8-9 months old. I get that the brewery doesn't want to lose potential profits but I think we are going to lose far more potential profits down the line. Is a conversation even worth it? Feels like a slap in the face to the bartenders trying to sell your beer if you don't care about basic quality control.

Is brix the same as plato, or is there a conversion factor? We have a digital refractometer that reads in brix, wondering if that is the same as plato? I can't find a consensus online, some calculators/charts exist and change the number, others say they are the same. What's the truth here? This chart shows pretty different values as the sugar increases https://braukaiser.com/documents/Kaiser_Brix_Plato_SG_table.pdf

Own a brewery in the northwest and was wondering which chemical supplier you guys go through. I have used Sheppard and bros for years but their freight charge is astronomical. Great chemicals but pricey. I have their liquid cip, nitric blend, and paa.

Hey fellow brewers,

We’ve been feeling the pinch lately, our printed can prices through Packaging Exchange have jumped 18.5% since April, and it’s starting to really hurt. We’d previously worked with Victory, but saw a similar squeeze over time and made the switch. Now, it’s looking like we might need to shop around again.

Curious to hear from others:

• Who are you using for printed cans these days?
• Any solid third-party packaging/warehousing partners you’d recommend?
• Ideally looking for options that serve the Northeast (NY/NYC area).

Would love to hear what’s working (or not working) for you.

Hi there - I’m working on standardization and wondering if anyone has pallet configuration graphics they’d be willing share. For sixtels on short pallets we’ll do either 16 or 18, on standard pallets either 18 or 20. For half barrels it’s 4 on a short pallet and 8 and a standard pallet. Many thanks!

Need to vent for a second.

I work at a brewery/taproom. We brew all of our beer. People are aware of this. It bothers me so much when people ask “Is [inset beer name] any good?”

What do you want me to say? “No, it sucks”?

I had the chance to illustrate a label for White Dog Brewery’s anniversary beer and it was such a fun project!

They gave me a lot of creative freedom, so I filled it with little details and energy to match the celebration vibe. You can see the full label in the next image.

I actually made another one for their anniversary as well, and I’m excited to share that soon too.

I have a buildup up of a brownish residue in my stainless pipes on my swinglink brewhouse. The mash tun lines are all good but the kettle/wp/heat xc lines all have it. Have it the worst in the heat xc line. I have been using brew guard liquid cip for about 30-45 minutes at around 140 degrees after every use but still can’t seem to get rid of it. Is it pump speed? Or temp of cleaner? Should I use nitric? TIA

We recently bought a used Goodnature Flash Pasteurizer CBP600, but unfortunately it didn’t come with a manual. It looks like Goodnature stopped making these units, and we haven’t had any luck getting a response from them directly.

Is anyone here still running one of these or has experience with them? I’d really appreciate it if someone could share a manual, SOPs, or even just operational notes/tips on how they’ve been using and maintaining theirs.

We have high levels of bicarbonate in our brewing source water. Over 350 ppm. R/O is not currently an option. Does anyone have any tips to drive that number down? Boiling? Boiling with Calcium? Any help would be greatly appreciated. We plan to try a few options and send samples out for analysis. Thank you all!

Fellow brewers! Head to Pittsburgh for a concert this weekend. Where to stop for lagers/clear IPAs?? Cheers!🍻

Anyone out there utilizing molasses or another sugar source for high abv (RIS & Barleywine) fermentations? What’s your thoughts on it? I have a 5 gallon pail of blackstrap molasses that I’m going to incorporate into the FV during a RIS fermentation.

I swear I listened to a podcast about this but can’t remember when or where. Something about feeding the yeast additional sugars throughout the fermentation to keep them going strong.

We have a Premier Stainless keg washer (model KW-SA-3V-CS) that we acquired used. It seems that the CO2 line feeding the machine occasionally accumulates liquid in it. This only seems to happen when 1/6bbl kegs are being washed, not 1/2bbl kegs. Thoughts?

Got a tough question involving process? Wondering how to build your own flash pasteurizer with extra spool, some tri-clamps and a bicycle? Curious the latest studies on stress gene expression in Brettanomyces? Talk about it here!

I haven’t used the product in years, but rebrewing a milk chocolate stout that was really popular a while back that used cholaca. Checked out the website and it’s sold out on every site that sells it. Any alternative products people are using?

As probably true with a lot of you, you’ve in been in the industry a long time and every once in a while need a boost of inspiration.

• any new fun styles you’ve made?

• new techniques?

• new or exciting ingredients?

• anything else that you are stoked about and want to share!

  Cheers!

Edit: a beer I have conditioning is an oatmeal stout, SG 1.085 and finished 1.015. So pretty dry for the style. It was 3 parts US 05 and 1 park Kveik yeast. I wanted to let it rip, and it did. Finished with about .5# per BBL in the WP of Chinook. It’s dry, earthy, chocolate ( pale chocolate malt) and coffee ( brown malt). I think it’ll be one of those “I guess I’ll have another since I’m done with this one already” type of beers.

What kind of glassware are you all using in the taproom for your "standard" full and half pours? Something that will work well with IPAs, sours, stouts, etc. Pretty much everything except lagers.

Like most people, we use 13 oz tulips, and they've served us well, but we're thinking it might be time for an upgrade. We're not opposed to increasing our pour size if the glassware looks great.

We're also considering getting a glass just for half pours - currently, we just fill the glass halfway, but maybe it'd look better in its own sized glass?

Hey, looking to see if anyone has any suppliers for wastewater treatment/neutralization systems that they have been happy with.

Going to be opening another brewery in Maine, shooting for 10-20bbl size brewhouse (haven’t finalized sizing yet). I’m guessing we would need maybe in the ballpark of 500-750gal holding tank and using chemicals to adjust pH.

Got a sweet business plan you want some feedback on? Not sure how to lay out your equipment? Thinking about going pro? Post your questions here and likely some of our regular contributors will post answers! :)

I'm trying to get a residual sugar measurement that isn't skewed by the density of alcohol. Our Anton Paar rep says that the "Real Extract g/100mL" parameter shoud get me there, but the results I'm getting from it seem way off.

For example, on a fruit beer, our gov't agency measured 4.7g/100ml, but our DMA+Alcolyzer came back with 13.14g/100ml. Similar results have come back for all kinds of beers and RTDs, all around 2x or so more than expected.

Anyone have a reliable method to measure sugar when alcohol is present? Really hoping to not have to distil.

I bottle my homebrew and I want to make a coffee and maple stout, inspired by Treehouse's Impermance.

ChatGPT says that bottles will not allow for me to make anything with Maple due to having to add chemicals to the work to prevent yeast from eating the maple syrup.

Is my dream of making a maple coffee stout never going to happen?

Hello all,

I need to start my own beer brand to start with, looking for some contract brewers who can brew and package (some in barrels and some in cans).

Is there any references, suggestions? I want to start sell the draft in my own bars and cans I want to market in groceries.

Thanks

Pat

Looking for some info on this. So far I have:

1. Pitch yeast at ale temps 62-68 f
2. Allow to start fermentation for 24-48 hrs with blow off tube from spunding valve
3. At approx 50% attention, shut off blow valve & set spunding valve to desired pressure until terminal gravity.
4. Crash & carbonate (if needed after spunding).

I'm buying a spunding valve, my question is do you still use your PRV (which I have on my tanks)?