Acid

Tart, light, and utterly quenching, a great Berliner weisse is the perfect summertime beer, and it can win the hearts and minds of stone-hearted skeptics. Best of all, it doesn’t need to be difficult to brew.

In this extended bonus clip from his video course, Urban Artifact cofounder and COO Bret Kollman Baker explains how to dial in acidity, sweetness, and a carefully managed fermentation for a fruit beer that excels.

It used to seem so simple—know your hops and when you add them to the boil, and you’ll know how bitter your beer will be. Now, thanks to IPA’s evolution and lots of new research, bitterness is getting … complicated. Here are key takeaways to help you dial it in.

From high-gravity brewing to pushing new techniques in quick-soured fruit beer, Monday Night brewmaster Peter Kiley isn’t afraid to tackle difficult projects that make life easier on his team of brewers—as long as quality remains the number-one focus.

The world can thank beer for a greater understanding of acids, how they behave, and how best to measure them—and this knowledge continues to be of great asset to brewers today.

Weizenbock is so dangerously easy to drink, but the brewing process behind a great weizenbock is surprisingly complicated. It may be worth the trouble, since its potential for easygoing mass appeal remains largely untapped.

By taking a step back to think more deeply about why we love fruit—and why some fruit beers really shine—we can better plan a truly great one. Randy Mosher peels back the layers and gets to the core of it.

Brewers who want to build an enjoyable level of acidity into a beer have a growing number of options. Gordon Schuck, who cofounded Funkwerks as well as Jessup Farm Barrel House in Colorado, digs into those techniques and explains the pros and cons.

Long dismissed as gimmicky and relegated to a bit part, fruit beer has never gotten the respect it deserves. Yet the craft of brewing with fruit is poised to enter a golden age, with a bag full of tricks and seeds planted to grow much wider appeal.

This easy-to-follow, three-step plan can help your brewery establish a safe and effective cleaning routine.

Know your bugs and how fast they work, and keep an eye on that pH. In this clip from our full video course on kettle-souring, Resident Culture's Chris Tropeano talks about careful kettle-souring.

James Priest of The Referend Bier Blendery in Pennington, New Jersey, has thought a lot about pH and making sure it’s just right for his beers. Here he shares his insight on what he’s learned and put into practice.

Brewers are experimenting with white koji to speed up the time to acidify their kettle sours.