Jim's Beer Kit

Got a pack of Vin Classe ale yeast from Ballihoo a couple of months ago. Just out of curiosity really whilst I was ordering a few sundries. I can tell you right now that it is hands down the best yeast, in all the parameters I look for, that I have ever used.

Gut instinct - I'm making a CC soon and I've settled on:

3800g Pale
200 Caramunich
250g Flaked maize
20g Choc malt

All Northern Brewer hops, naturally, and CML Cali Common yeast.

It may be nothing like the real thing, but it'll be nice with or without the label.

"Cold is important too". I know this is true - but why? Cold liquid is denser so should be more able to support stuff floating in it, right??

All I know is that if the steward of our local WMC served up a cloudy pint of his best John Smith's, they'd be brawling in the street.

The present hop craze is very similar to the "who can eat the most/hottest chillies"fad from a few years ago. I'm still into that and the obsession is becoming dangerous... now getting accustomed to Carolina Reapers and the terrible effect they have on the human body. Won't be long before they're n...

Three weeks ago I brewed an imperial pilsner with dry yeast, didn't aerate, and it worked fine. I pitched the yeast at 3 pm and the airlock was burping every 8 seconds when I got up the next morning at 7. 1.012 after two weeks. A man after my own heart. I also count the 'burps' as an indication of ...

i think it's perfect brewing weather. Maybe does get hot in the day, but it drops cool at night; the ale ends up somewhere in the middle, not suddenly assume its surrounding temperature! Without even bothering to check I know that the FV in the corner of my living room will be 20C, give or take a co...

Watch the hop levels on those old Dave Line recipes...... Hop IBUs are much higher than in the 1970s I remember buying kits from Boots late 70s early 80s and every time I went, there was what appeared to be exactly the same few 'Goldings Hops' on the shelf in clear,flimsy plastic bags in glaring fl...

I just thought I would post a quick update on this. I was about to throw this away yesterday and had another taste test just to be sure. The Cardboard taste had completely vanished. I feel like the little boy who cried wolf, but I know it was there a week ago and was overpowering. I am completely b...

Top Tip - fit two elements. If one packs up mid-boil, you've got back up. Also, letting 'em av it both barrels brings the wort to the boil pronto. And firing them both up at the time of adding the protofloc gives an amazingly violent boil which is something to behold and can't do any harm in coagula...

Just don't use rice pudding from a tin. Unless you're making milk stout.

I don't like the taste of torrefied wheat and malted wheat in beer, but I do like my beer to have good head formation and retention. I've found by experiment that 150g of good ol' plain domestic flour mixed in with the grains (completely side-stepping any mash issues)is undetectable taste-wise, but...

I don't like the taste of torrefied wheat and malted wheat in beer, but I do like my beer to have good head formation and retention. I've found by experiment that 150g of good ol' plain domestic flour mixed in with the grains (completely side-stepping any mash issues)is undetectable taste-wise, but ...

I always thought brass was copper and zinc. Why the lead?? Makes it easier to machine :) Thanks - thought as much. Sorry for splitting hairs but if you add lead to brass, how can it still be called 'brass' when it becomes something else? They could at least call it leaded brass, like petrol! I mean...

I always thought brass was copper and zinc. Why the lead??