The cooler mash tun versus stainless kettle mash tun comparison is the foundational equipment decision for all-grain homebrewers building a traditional three-vessel system, and having built and used both over many years I have a clear preference that
John Brewster
John Brewster
John Brewster is the homebrewer and writer behind BrewMyBeer — over a decade of all-grain brewing, 80+ BIAB batches, and 1,000+ guides on fermentation science, water chemistry, hops, yeast, and homebrewing equipment. Every guide is written from genuine hands-on experience.
The efficiency debate between BIAB (brew-in-a-bag) and malt pipe systems is one of the most practically important comparisons in all-grain homebrewing, because your mash system choice directly determines how much grain you need per batch.
- Equipment & Tools
Anvil Foundry vs. Digibash: Budget Electric Brewing
by John Brewster 5 minutes readThe Anvil Foundry and Digiboil (often called “Digibash” in Australian homebrew communities) represent the best-value all-in-one electric brewing systems in the budget-to-mid-range tier — both produce quality wort for a fraction of the Grainfather’s p
- Equipment & Tools
SS Brewtech vs. Blichmann Engineering: Pro-Sumer Gear
by John Brewster 4 minutes readSS Brewtech and Blichmann Engineering occupy the same “prosumer” tier of homebrewing equipment — above mass-market all-in-one systems, below full commercial fabrication — and the choice between them is one of the most deliberated in the serious homeb
Clawhammer Supply and Spike Brewing are two American all-grain brewing equipment manufacturers whose 120V electric systems target the serious homebrewer who wants to move beyond all-in-one systems without committing to 240V infrastructure.
Grainfather and BrewZilla (Robobrew) are the two all-in-one electric brewing systems with the largest installed homebrewer base, and the comparison between them is one of the most practically consequential equipment decisions a homebrewer upgrading f
I’ve brewed on both the Grainfather G30 and G40 and the upgrade question gets asked constantly in homebrewing forums — the honest answer is that the G40 is genuinely worth it for brewers who push the G30’s limits regularly, but …
Yeast flocculation is the most misunderstood variable in brewing clarity, and the relationship between yeast flocculation behavior and NEIPA haze specifically is more nuanced than “low-floc yeast = hazy beer.
Koji rice and amylase enzyme additions both solve the same fundamental brewing problem — converting starches in adjuncts that lack native enzymes into fermentable sugars — but through completely different mechanisms that produce distinct results in t
Bread yeast in homebrewing sits at the intersection of historical curiosity and practical experimentation — before commercial brewing yeast was available, bread yeast and beer yeast were the same organism, and bakers and brewers shared cultures freel