Jim's Beer Kit

Cheers IPA !
Have you sampled the Double Stout, got thoughts on the recipe ?

It's been a while between posts ... I've had a couple of these Double Stouts, enjoyed them enough to brew something similar Can't see much online apart from Seymour's post above and a similar recipe on brewers friend. I was thinking of a ~1.050 batch, 40 IBU with 68.5% Pale 11% Brown 6.8% flaked oat...

You could check out the recipes here for suggestionson what to use them in http://www.nzhops.co.nz/recipes/index.html

Cheers, jaytee

OK, the 18% is obviously way too high. Must have bad memory due to, err, umm, err, drinking a fair bit of amber liquid

Go with the extra 10% using whole hops

QUOTE I've only got loose hops, but the receipe uses pellet. I want to know if the loose hops can be substituted into the receipe at the same weight as the pellets. Utilisation of whole hops and pellets are different. I recall reading in one of Charlie Papazians books that if using whole hops in pla...

Hi chaps, haven't been past here for awhile ... I usually add the first half (1.5kg) of the extract to to pot with some boiling water, disolve and then bring to the boil. I add the other half (another 1.5kg) after the boil's finished If I'm doing a partial mash I just boil the liquor from the mash a...

If I bother to use finings, I add isinglass in the liquid form

I've tried powdered finings, can't remember if they were IG or gelatine, but they didn't mix well.

I add them when I rack to secondary so they're generally there a week.

Excellent results, crystal clear.

Daft as a Brush - never boiled grains - thought this extracted unwanted flavours ? Always steeped at 65-68C and always in water, never with extract The Thermos & sieve is good for grain upto about 500gm - over that and I wish I had a grain bag ! Never used the W1056, been using the W1968 - wicked fe...

I use grains with extract all the time. I steep upto 300gm grain (choc, crystal etc) in 1.8 litres in a large thermos for 30 mins. While that's steeping I start bringing my extract to the boil in about 7 litres of water. At the end of the 30 minutes I pour the wort from the thermos into the pot and ...

I downloaded the Promash trial version - use it now & then as a double check on my own calculations. Very useful for calculating strike temps etc

Also use the free version of beertools to check a recipe for style if I'm attempting something new - http://www.beertools.com/

All useful in their own way

Better fill that fridge with more beer/yeast - don't want the foodies to think they own it !

QUOTE Even bottom working yeasts throw a head in the early stages Think you'll find that the Coopers yeasts are mainly ale yeasts anyway, damned hard to ferment at 8-14C in Aussie without some good cooling. Coopers kits/yeasts usually have instructions to ferment in the 20's which is way too high fo...

This time, a thick yeast head did not form again quickly, suggesting that fermentation is tailing off.

Are you taking hydrometer readings to confirm wher fermentation is at ?

QUOTE It was well away when I looked at it this morning, but I'm slightly concerned that bugs may have got in while it was dormant. I'm going to drastically increase my pitching rate for future batches. Jim, I can't beleive you'd leave the front door open and let the bugs in ! Sounds like all going ...

So Jim, it's over a week since you got it.
How'd you go making up the starters, have you kicked off a brew with it yet ?

I had a week off brewing last week, have a bitter planned for this weekend and an Irish Red the week after