Jim's Beer Kit

Just the Neilsen Massey stuff from sainsburys - our usual pro supplier is indefinitely out of stock it seems. What sort of volume/25litre batch would you suggest trying with Mandarina hops too? A local brewery has a pale ale with apricot extract which I hate, tastes synthetic, but is perversely the...

Thanks Kev, I probably didn’t phrase that carefully enough. Really just want to gather practical opinion from the trusted users of this site!

Rather than start a new thread, this is the closest I could find to a discussion on Kveik yeast. I appreciate it is over two years old, but this stuff is mentioned as though it is the holy grail on several American and Norwegian based references. Some limited supplies are available in the UK, are it...

I too, went straight for the Grainfather from no brewing experience at all. Although I don’t have any comparison, the simplicity, compactness and consistency are massive advantages. I do not have a brew shed or permanent space so the ability to set up the Grainfather as a standalone in the utility r...

Sounds a good deal, just a shame it's 18 months too late for me, already bought separately apart from a cheaper sparge water heater sub!

May seem a daft question but "why!". This set up and hobby is one of the best things I've ever bought/started, along with the help from JBK.

Normski wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 15, 2019 2:21 pm

No, I just went and watched it and thought it was a complete waste of time, So thought I would comment on it as requested by the OP.
I thought it might save others from wasting time on this useless video.

Not watched it and unless anyone contradicts Normski unlikely to do so; thanks for that.

Another potential issue has just occurred to me. My previous FV was a Fastferment plastic Conical shaped with a yeast / trub ball that could be isolated then carefully batch primed in the FV before running off direct from FV to bottles. With my shiny new Grainfather Conical I can now control tempera...

TheSumOfAllBeers wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 13, 2019 9:11 pm

Kingfisher: blow off tubes are better for controlling suck back as the beer chills and contracts.

Thanks, I'm guessing that's because of the greater dead space volume in the tubing before liquid sucks back into the FV. I'll change over as I made up a blowoff tube recently.

A close friend has experimented over many years with various DIY bits of kit ( he has a small orchard at the family home in Somerset) and found it very time consuming and somewhat frustrating until the village clubbed together to get a heavyweight cider apple press. He has also found a couple of com...

I have finally got proper temperature control available so advice on cold crashing would be great. There seem to be conflicting ideas out there! When FG is reached ( mainly bitters / golden british ales currently) how long and at what temperature is cold crashing optimal? do I need to return to ferm...

Great to see you join JBK. I have been all grain brewing for an identical time, shared GF, fantastic quality beer right from the start, just upgraded from plastic Fastferment ( great idea, poor quality) to GF conical and glycol chiller; 1st batch 48 hrs in. JBK is by far the best interactive resourc...

Thanks Guy, I enjoy Challenger and would like to try NS but was underwhelmed by a single hop commercial brew and therefore thought Challenger and NS combination may be ideal for me.

Normski wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 12, 2019 1:13 am

I have bittered with Challenger and late hopped with Nelson, a lovely brew.

Sounds a great idea, would you mind sharing that recipe?

Yeah, I've done it with liquid yeast - definitely worth it for the cost of that stuff. And if you want to learn the skills of re-pitching and managing yeast, why not start with dried yeast? My plan exactly Jim. Will try IPAs method, probably with my first brew using new Grainfather conical next wee...

Great to have someone so far ahead in this to help guide us and reduce the blind alleys, thanks again PeeBee. I had bypassed the Pale ale as I prefer English hops to the citrus American ones generally but will certainly give that a go too. I wouldn't have expected the maturation effect either so loo...