LEARN SCIENCE BY BREWING BEER -- Home Page

Brewing beer at home can be as simple as boiling an extract kit which requires little knowledge, or it can be just as complex and sophisticated as a large mega-brewery involving lots of science in both brewing and in building equipment which can help you brew better beer. As a homebrewer, I have learned quite a lot about science, and in such diverse fields as biology, chemistry, electronics, metallurgy, physics, and thermodynamics. But don't allow that to scare you away, because brewing beer is FUN ... which makes learning about the underlying science fun, too ... and the 'fringe benefits' are GREAT!

This site will begin by discussing equipment, and will eventually include other areas about beer and how to brew it. To help exchange ideas and knowledge about the equipment used in brewing, I formed a Yahoo-Group in October 2005 called "BrewingEquipment" -- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BrewingEquipment -- and it is devoted exclusively to that subject in order to attract people specifically interested and experienced in that area; because the group is moderated, visitors need to join to access the photos, files, discussion forum, etc. It is a FREE group, of course, and everyone who is interested in brewing beer is welcome. Yahoo-Groups does have some limitations, so I transferred my "Glossary" over to this site so that I can do some advanced things with it.

Now, there is also a certain amount of science involved in the somewhat related activities of growing, preparing, and storing hops, herbs, and grains used for brewing, so information regarding "homebrewer gardening" is also included in this site. Just as with equipment, I decided that there should also be a Yahoo-Group devoted exclusively to growing hops to likewise attract the greatest amount of expertise and experience in the field in order to make our group the foremost Internet resource for hop growers; the "GrowHops" group -- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grow-Hops -- was formed in May 2007, and quickly expanded to include the growing of brewing-herbs and barley because of the logical connections between them and hops, including many shared aspects of gardening, preservation, and storage.

My Glossary (still under construction) is a very ambitious undertaking, and is more like a mini-encyclopedia with helpful tips, suggestions, photos, and even a unique method of navigating to be able to 'tour' specific categories of the glossary without needing to read entries that most brewers are already familiar with; for example, a user can follow [formulas] or [methods] throughout the glossary, skipping from one to the next. I hope that you find this site helpful, and that it will give you an idea of how much you can learn on our Yahoo BrewingEquipment Group so that you will come to visit us there, too.

In November of 2005, I formed the HomeBrewers grid-computing team whereby members can donate their spare (otherwise wasted) computer power on their PCs to the World Community Grid (WCG) -- a non-profit organization which does computer research into cures for diseases such as cancer and AIDS. The WCG uses a program developed and donated by IBM, and is supported by many reputable institutions such as the Mayo Clinic, the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and even the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. HomeBrewers is an international team, so all brewers are warmly invited and encouraged to join in our valiant effort to help mankind. It's absolutely safe and secure: no hacking, spam, viruses, or spyware. Our team has now donated the equivalent of over a CENTURY of continuous computer calculations for the good of humanity.

For more info, please click here or on banner

One of the Best Teams on the World Community Grid:
Now ranked # 96 out of 19,669 teams!

Please join my HomeBrewers team and we'll tackle the big boys in a friendly competition!
Let's show the whole world that HomeBrewers are a force to be reckoned with!

Thank you for visiting. Please come back again.
Please inform me of any broken links -- Bill Velek, Greenbrier, Arkansas, U.S.A. Last updated on 6/17/08