Jim's Beer Kit

"to stop anything being drawn up from the bottom of the keg is fit a float take off." You can also give your keg a swirl and then let the beer settle with the keg at an angle with the "beer post" of the keg uppermost. That way any solids will settle in the opposite side of the keg and give you clear...

"I lost 5.5 litres after starting out with 24.5 litres in the pot at the start of the boil." That doesn't sound like an excessive boiling loss. On Sunday my pre-boil volume was 33l and post-boil volume was 26l for a 60 minute boil. As a percentage that is very close to your figure. I think your prob...

One of the main reasons Ashbeck water is popular amongst brewers is that is is very low in alkalinity, in fact low in everything, and cheap. This is the Ashbeck water profile : Calcium 10.0 Magnesium 2.5 Sodium 9.0 Potassium 2.0 Bicarbonate 25.0 As CaCO3 20.5 (Calculated from the bicarbonate) Chlori...

Were you drinking beer at the time of brewing??

Here is some information on building a hopback.

https://byo.com/project/build-a-stainle ... l-hopback/

What Jocky said.

You could also consider letting the mashtun drain into a hopback or any small stainless pot or kettle.
Then pump from the pot and not from the mash tun.
You can make this into a closed system.
But you would still need to restrict the pump outflo if you cannot control the pump speed.

.....that it was like there were several horses in my wort when I boiled it,.....

Hi Rick, I ma guessing that English isn't your first language, but I am struggling to work out what several horses in your wort could mean

probably a vigorous boil....?

I have made quite a few pseudo lagers with Nottingham Ale yeast. Ferment at 14 degrees C for 8 days and then raise the temperature to around 17-20 degrees C for a dyecytil rest. Your fermentation temperature must not exceed 14 degrees C .This prevents any esters from forming. Because of the low temp...

Did you confirm that alkalinity measurement with a Salifert kit? I also agree with S_I_M that the staring alkalinity could have been higher than what you accepted. It is good practice to test the alkalinity before every brew because the alkalinity can change. (I also test my calcium levels before e...

Thanks. I ask these questions because I find it interesting that we (this side of the pond in the UK) and the USA have quite a different approach to brewing water. In the USA, it seems that the water pH is important. Here, with my brewing, I could'nt care less about the water pH. I care about the al...

Thanks.
And the water pH at mash in?

In my opinion sampling for mash pH 30 minutes, or better yet, 45 to even 60 minutes into the mash will be far more representative of the true mash pH. At 10-15 minutes things are still evolving chemically and not all of the crushed (and pH basic with respect to a mash pH target of 5.4) base malt ke...

S_I_M,
have you done this brew yet?
What was the mash pH about 10-15 mins in?

For a Bohemian Pilsner with its smooth yet very high 40 IBU value, you need to maintain calcium and other ions at only single digit to at most low teens levels.

The above article does not agree with your stance on calcium levels .

My apology to the original poster, I do not mean to hijack your thread! For a Bohemian Pilsner with its smooth yet very high 40 IBU value, you need to maintain calcium and other ions at only single digit to at most low teens levels. There is a very informative article by professor Charles W Bamforth...