Homebrew · Science · Hawaii

Xbier
iments

Every batch is a hypothesis. We brew, we measure, we iterate — and we share every gravity reading, every mistake, and every triumph.

14Batches Logged
7Styles Brewed
15+Hop Varieties
2013–2020Brew History
From the Archive

Featured Batches

SMaSHJan 2017
Out of This Galaxy
100% 2-Row · Galaxy Only · 10 gal
OG
1.060
IBU
~69
ABV
~6.6%
IPAMar 2017
Mosaic Simcoe IPA
American IPA · Chinook / Mosaic / Simcoe · 10 gal
OG
1.059
IBU
71
ABV
~6.4%
HazyMay 2020
SlimHazy BIAB
Hazy IPA · 5-Variety Dry Hop · 5 gal
OG
1.046
IBU
~89
ABV
~4.7%
Brewing
as Science.
Drinking
as Art.

Xbieriments started with a simple question: what actually happens when you change one variable in a recipe? The name says it all — bier is German for beer, and it's what we do to it.

Based in Hawaii, we brew on custom 10-gallon and BIAB equipment, obsessing over gravity readings, hop combinations, and fermentation data. Everything gets logged. Everything gets shared.

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One Variable at a Time

Real experiments need controls. Isolate changes so results are actually meaningful.

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Log Everything

OG, FG, IBU, mash temp — every number from every batch, documented and public.

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Brewed in Hawaii

Tropical climate, unique water, and a crew who love big, juicy hop-forward beers.

The Vault

Recipes

Full grain bills, hop schedules, and real measured data pulled from BeerSmith.

Filter:
Lab Notebook

Experiments

Batch tracking, gravity logs, and the hypotheses behind every brew.

Documented Batches

Experiment Log

Complete SMaSH
Out of This Galaxy
Jan 2017 · BillyJohn · Hawaii Equip · 10 gal
Measured OG
1.060
Total IBU
~69
Est. ABV
~6.6%
SMaSH Hypothesis

100% 2-Row US malt as a neutral canvas. Galaxy hops across 4 boil additions + dry hop — isolate Galaxy's pure character (passionfruit, citrus, earthy pine) with zero grain or hop noise. Begin dry hop when fermentation visibly slows.

Grain Bill Simplicity100% 2-Row ✓
Hop Additions4 boil + dry hop
OG Target Hit1.060 ✓
Complete IPA
Mosaic Simcoe IPA
Mar 2017 / updated Jun 2018 · BillyJohn · 10 gal
Measured OG
1.059
Total IBU
71
Est. ABV
~6.4%
Brew Notes

OG hit 1.059 right on target. Pre-boil gravity 1.040 @ 123°F, temp-corrected ~1.053. Chinook for clean bittering, Mosaic + Simcoe through mid-boil and 4-day dry hop. 72% efficiency on the Hawaii rig.

Mash Efficiency72%
Dry HopMosaic + Simcoe · 4 days
OG Target1.059 ✓
Complete Hazy IPA
SlimHazy BIAB
May 2020 · LHBC · .50 cal BIAB system · 5 gal
OG
1.046
IBU
~89
Dry Hop
5 vars
Notes

First brew on the new .50 cal BIAB system. Huge 5-variety dry hop added May 5 @ 1800 (Cascade, Citra, Liberty, Nelson Sauvin, Simcoe) for a 5-day contact. 26% flaked oats for haze and mouthfeel.

Oat % (haze)26% flaked oats
Dry Hop Varieties5 hops · 5 days
System Test.50 cal inaugural brew ✓
Field Notes

Brew Log

May 5, 2020
SlimHazy BIAB — Dry Hop Day
Added 5-variety dry hop: Cascade 1oz, Citra 1oz, Liberty 0.5oz, Nelson Sauvin 0.5oz, Simcoe 0.5oz. 5-day contact. Goal: layered tropical and citrus aroma from complementary varieties.
Dry Hop
May 2, 2020
SlimHazy BIAB — Inaugural .50 Cal Brew Day
First use of the new .50 cal BIAB system. Grain: 6 lb 2-Row, 2.6 lb Flaked Oats, 1 lb Crystal 10L, 0.5 lb Vienna. Mosaic + Simcoe boil additions. OG recorded at 1.046.
Brew Day
Jun 2018
Mosaic Simcoe IPA — Recipe Revision
Updated March 2017 recipe to June 2018 version. OG consistent at 1.059. Pre-boil measured 1.040 at 123°F, temp-corrected to ~1.053. Efficiency holding steady at 72%.
Recipe Update
Jan 4, 2017
Out of This Galaxy — SMaSH Brew Day
Pure SMaSH: 20 lbs 2-Row US, Galaxy hops only. 4 boil additions at 60/30/15/5 min plus 1oz dry hop. Measured OG 1.060. Note: begin dry hop when primary fermentation visibly slows. No other ingredients.
Brew Day
The Knowledge Tap

Education

Brewing guides from first all-grain batch to advanced hop science — grounded in Xbieriments data.

Browse Guides

Learning Paths

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Beginner
How to Brew Your First All-Grain Batch
Mash, sparge, boil, ferment, package — a complete walkthrough from grain to glass.
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Beginner
SMaSH Brewing: The Ultimate Experiment
Why Single Malt & Single Hop is the best way to understand ingredients — with lessons from Out of This Galaxy.
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Intermediate
Hop Science: Bitterness, Aroma & Dry-Hopping
Alpha acids, essential oils, hop timing, and lessons from 10 Xbieriments hop varieties.
☁️
Intermediate
Brewing Hazy IPAs: Oats, BIAB & Dry Hops
What makes a NEIPA hazy, why oats matter, and the SlimHazy experiment.
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Intermediate
Yeast: US-05, Fermentation & Pitching Rate
Why Safale US-05 is the Xbieriments workhorse and how temp shapes every sip.
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Beginner
Troubleshooting Off-Flavours
Diagnosing diacetyl, DMS, oxidation, and other common homebrew problems.
Quick Reference

Brewing Glossary

Key terms every homebrewer should know.

OG (Original Gravity)
Specific gravity of wort before fermentation — indicates sugar content and predicts ABV potential.
FG (Final Gravity)
Specific gravity after fermentation completes. Combined with OG to calculate actual ABV.
IBU
International Bitterness Units — a measure of iso-alpha acids in finished beer, perceived as bitterness.
SMaSH
Single Malt and Single Hop. The cleanest experimental method to evaluate one ingredient in isolation.
BIAB
Brew in a Bag. All-grain mashing directly in the kettle inside a mesh bag — simpler, fewer vessels.
Dry Hopping
Adding hops post-fermentation to maximise aroma without adding bitterness.
Attenuation
Percentage of fermentable sugars converted by yeast. Higher = drier beer.
Flocculation
How readily yeast clumps and settles. High flocculation = clearer beer faster.
Beginner
All-Grain Brewing: Start to Finish

From crushing grain to cracking open the finished beer — a full walkthrough.

Why All-Grain?

Extract brewing is a fine start, but all-grain gives you full control — grain variety, mash temp, water chemistry. It's also cheaper per batch once equipment is in place. Every Xbieriments batch is all-grain.

Core equipment: Mash tun or kettle, brew kettle (at least 20L), wort chiller, fermenter, airlock, hydrometer, no-rinse sanitiser. That's all you need to start.

The Mash

Crush grain and add to hot water at your target mash temperature — typically 150–154°F. Xbieriments defaults to 152°F for 60 minutes. Lower temps produce drier, more fermentable wort; higher temps leave more body-building dextrins.

Sparge

After the mash, rinse the grain with 168°F water to flush out remaining fermentable sugars and collect your full pre-boil volume.

The Boil

Full rolling boil for 60–90 minutes. Add bittering hops at 60 min, flavour hops at 10–15 min, aroma hops at flame-out. The boil sterilises the wort, drives off DMS, and isomerises alpha acids into bitterness.

Fermentation

Chill wort to pitching temp (65–68°F for US-05), aerate well, and pitch yeast. Fermentation typically finishes in 7–14 days. Don't rush — wait for gravity to stabilise before packaging.

  • Temperature stability matters more than the exact number
  • Two gravity readings 48 hours apart confirms fermentation is complete
  • Add dry hops when active fermentation slows — not during peak activity
Beginner
SMaSH Brewing

Single Malt. Single Hop. Maximum information per batch — the Xbieriments way.

The Concept

SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) is the most experimental brewing method available. By using one malt and one hop variety, you isolate each ingredient's contribution completely. BillyJohn's "Out of This Galaxy" batch — 100% 2-Row US + Galaxy only — is a textbook execution.

The hypothesis: What does Galaxy taste like with no other ingredients masking it? Answer: passionfruit, citrus, and earthy pine — confirmed at OG 1.060 with four boil additions and a 4-day dry hop.

Choosing the Malt

2-Row Pale Malt is the standard SMaSH base — clean, highly fermentable, neutral. It lets the hop character dominate. Alternatives: Maris Otter (biscuity), Vienna (light sweetness), Munich (rich malt).

Choosing the Hop

American and Southern Hemisphere varieties shine in SMaSH beers. Galaxy, Mosaic, Citra, Simcoe — their tropical, fruit-forward character is vivid and immediately identifiable in the glass.

Multiple Additions, One Variety

Even in a SMaSH, use multiple additions of the same hop. The "Out of This Galaxy" recipe uses Galaxy at 60, 30, 15, and 5 minutes, then again as a dry hop. Each temperature creates different flavour compounds from the same variety — it's one variable at a time, but explored fully.

Intermediate
Hop Science

Bitterness, aroma, dry-hopping — and what 10 varieties of hops have taught us.

Alpha Acids & Bitterness

Bitterness comes from alpha acids that isomerise in a full boil into iso-alpha acids. Longer boil = more bitterness, less aroma. The 60-minute additions in Xbieriments recipes (Chinook, Warrior, Apollo) are purely for IBU contribution.

Essential Oils & Aroma

Essential oils — myrcene, linalool, geraniol — are volatile and destroyed by heat. Late additions and dry hopping are how you keep them in the beer. The SlimHazy's 5-variety dry hop is the extreme example of this principle.

  • Mosaic: Blueberry, tropical, earthy — used in 5 of 6 Xbieriments batches. The house favourite.
  • Galaxy: Passionfruit, citrus, peach — the star of the SMaSH and Galaxy IPA batches.
  • Simcoe: Pine, passionfruit, earthy — great in the boil and as a dry hop complement to Mosaic.
  • Citra: Intense lime, grapefruit, lychee — used in SlimHazy dry hop only.
  • Chinook: Pine, grapefruit, spice — used for bittering in Mosaic Simcoe and Pineapple IPA.

Xbieriments data: Mosaic appears in every IPA and hazy batch. It's the most versatile hop in the roster — works as a bittering addition, a whirlpool hop, and a dry hop, each time expressing different facets of the same variety.

Intermediate
Brewing Hazy IPAs

Oats, BIAB, and the science behind intentional haze — with SlimHazy as a case study.

What Causes Haze?

NEIPA haze comes from protein-polyphenol complexes suspended in solution. Flaked oats and wheat contribute proteins that bond with hop polyphenols during dry hopping, creating stable, beautiful haze. This is intentional — not a flaw.

The Role of Oats

Both the HighHopHaze (36% oats) and SlimHazy (26% oats) recipes use significant flaked oat additions alongside 2-Row. Oats contribute beta-glucans and proteins that enhance mouthfeel, support haze, and add a creamy, smooth body.

SlimHazy grain bill: 59% 2-Row + 26% Flaked Oats + 10% Crystal 10L + 5% Vienna. The 26% oat rate is in the sweet spot — enough for haze and mouthfeel, not so much that lautering (or BIAB drainage) becomes a problem.

BIAB for Hazies

Brew in a Bag works well for small hazy batches — no sparge arms or fly sparging complications, full-volume mash, and simpler cleanup. The SlimHazy was the inaugural batch on the .50 cal BIAB system and proved the setup works for this style.

Dry Hop Timing

For hazies, adding hops during late active fermentation (biotransformation) creates unique tropical compounds via yeast enzyme activity. The SlimHazy used a post-primary dry hop at 5 days — a more traditional approach that still yielded great results.

Intermediate
Yeast & Fermentation

The microorganism that makes the beer — and why US-05 runs the house at Xbieriments.

Why Safale US-05?

US-05 appears in every Xbieriments batch except HighHopHaze (WLP001). It's clean, highly attenuative (~81%), tolerates temperature variation, is widely available in Hawaii, and crucially — it stays out of the way and lets the hop character speak. Perfect for the house style.

Fermentation Temperature

All BeerSmith files show 67°F primary fermentation. US-05's range is 59–75°F — 67°F is the sweet spot. Warm enough for healthy, complete fermentation, cool enough to avoid fusel alcohols and unwanted esters.

Key principle: Temperature stability matters more than the exact number. A consistent 67°F will always beat a wandering 65–72°F, even though both are within spec.

Pitching Rate

For 10-gallon batches under 1.060 OG, two 11g packets of US-05 are recommended. The BeerSmith files show two-stage fermentation profiles (primary at 67°F, secondary at 67°F, conditioning at 65°F) — standard Ale practice that works well for American IPAs.

Beginner
Troubleshooting Off-Flavours

Something tastes wrong. Here's how to diagnose it and prevent it next time.

Diacetyl — Butter / Butterscotch

The most common homebrewing off-flavour. Cause: packaging before yeast fully reabsorbs diacetyl. Fix: always do a diacetyl rest — raise temp to 68°F for 48 hours before crash cooling. Confirm with a forced diacetyl test (microwave a small sample, smell it warm).

DMS — Cooked Corn / Vegetables

Cause: SMM in pale malt converting to DMS during a weak boil, or lid left on. Fix: vigorous full rolling boil, lid off, rapid chilling post-boil. Less common with Briess 2-Row (used in all Xbieriments recipes) than with European pale malts.

Acetaldehyde — Green Apple

Cause: packaging before fermentation fully completes. Fix: wait for two stable gravity readings 48 hours apart. Gently rouse the fermenter to encourage yeast to finish cleaning up.

Oxidation — Wet Cardboard

Cause: oxygen exposure post-fermentation. Completely irreversible — prevention is the only solution. Critical for hazy IPAs, which oxidise faster than other styles. Purge all transfer vessels with CO₂, avoid splashing, minimise headspace.

The Xbieriments rule: Most off-flavours are process problems, not ingredient problems. Before changing a recipe, audit every step of your process.