Skip to main content

Contributing to this guide

This guide is a living document. It reflects the research and findings available at the time of writing, but the homebrewing equipment landscape changes — manufacturers update formulations, new products arrive, old documentation disappears, and gaps get filled. Contributions from readers are not just welcome; they are how this guide gets better over time.

You do not need to be an experienced brewer to contribute. In many cases, newer brewers are better positioned to spot what is missing — because they still remember what confused them when they started.

What makes a good contribution​

Glossary terms. If a term in this guide was unfamiliar and you had to look it up elsewhere, that is a signal the glossary is missing something. If you found a definition that was unclear or incomplete, that is also worth raising. The glossary is one of the easiest places to contribute — a term and a draft definition is all that is needed, and the result appears as a tooltip across the entire guide.

Corrections. If a claim is wrong, outdated, or unsupported by the source it cites, please raise it. A correction with a better source attached is ideal, but flagging an error without a replacement is still useful.

Better sources. If you have found a primary source — an SDSSDS — Safety Data Sheet A standardised document providing detailed information on a chemical substance or mixture — composition, hazards, handling, and regulatory status. The primary source for confirmed chemical composition data. EU format governed by REACH Regulation (EC) 1907/2006., a manufacturer's Declaration of Conformity, a product specification, a peer-reviewed study — that supports, contradicts, or fills a gap in something written here, it is worth sharing. Primary sources are always preferred over secondary ones, and many open items in this guide are waiting on exactly this kind of confirmation.

Manufacturer responses. If you have contacted a manufacturer or retailer and received a response that clarifies a material, a chemical compatibility question, or a regulatory status, that correspondence is citable. Vendor email responses are Tier 2 sources — not as strong as primary documentation, but genuinely useful and often the only answer available for products where documentation is sparse.

New content. If a piece of equipment, a process, or a material is missing from the guide entirely and you have relevant knowledge or sources, a draft section or even a structured set of notes is a good starting point.

How to contribute​

Fork and pull request. The guide lives in a public GitHub repository. If you are comfortable with Git, fork the repository, make your changes on a branch, and open a pull request with a description of what you changed and why. This is the preferred route for anything substantive.

Open an issue. If you have spotted an error, have a question, or want to suggest something without writing the change yourself, open an issue on GitHub. Describe what you found or what you think is missing. Issues are tracked and reviewed — nothing gets lost.

Direct edit. GitHub's web interface allows you to edit Markdown files directly without cloning the repository. Navigate to the file you want to change, click the edit icon, make your change, and submit a pull request from the interface. No local setup required.

All three routes go through GitHub. The repository is at github.com/r-colvin/craftbrewer.se.

A note on sources​

This guide follows a three-tier citation standard described in detail in the introduction. In brief: primary documents (SDSSDS — Safety Data Sheet A standardised document providing detailed information on a chemical substance or mixture — composition, hazards, handling, and regulatory status. The primary source for confirmed chemical composition data. EU format governed by REACH Regulation (EC) 1907/2006., Declaration of Conformity, manufacturer PDFs, regulations) are Tier 1; product pages, blog posts, and retailer communications are Tier 2; forum posts and anecdotal accounts are Tier 3 and must be labelled as such.

Contributions that introduce new claims should include a source, and that source should be as close to primary as possible. If the only available source is Tier 3, that is still worth including — but it should be presented as anecdotal evidence rather than confirmed fact, and flagged as an open item for follow-up.

What we are actively looking for​

Some specific open items where reader knowledge would be directly useful:

  • Material confirmations from manufacturers — particularly KegLand EU (FermZilla lid ring, lid O-ring, grommet materials), Enolandia (compact airlock plastic grade: GPPSGPPS — General-Purpose Polystyrene The standard grade of polystyrene — amorphous, rigid, transparent, and inexpensive. Carries RIC code 6. Susceptible to DDBSA-driven environmental stress cracking (ESC) under WDC conditions — rated B at working dilution, D under accumulated WDC. Confirmed in Enolandia compact airlock (cod. 14037/14038) and cylindrical fermenter with float (cod. 11965) by Declaration of Conformity. or SANSAN — Styrene-Acrylonitrile copolymer A transparent plastic used in some airlocks and equipment. The acrylonitrile content gives better chemical resistance than GPPS, particularly against DDBSA in acid-based sanitisers. Rated A for ABNS, unlike GPPS which is rated B/D. copolymer), and Biltema (Viton cure system in the pH 1–9 spray bottle)
  • Sanipro Rinse usage instructions — working dilution and contact time currently sourced from a retailer page rather than a primary manufacturer document; a formal instruction sheet from Behrens Group AB would resolve this
  • No-rinse approval status for ChemiPro SanSAN — Styrene-Acrylonitrile copolymer A transparent plastic used in some airlocks and equipment. The acrylonitrile content gives better chemical resistance than GPPS, particularly against DDBSA in acid-based sanitisers. Rated A for ABNS, unlike GPPS which is rated B/D. — Brouwland's product page and blog give conflicting guidance; formal confirmation of the regulatory basis for food-contact use without rinsing is outstanding. See the documentation problem page for background.
  • Glossary gaps — any term used in the guide that was unfamiliar and is not currently in the glossary