Jim's Beer Kit

Barkeepers friend is excellent for cleaning residue of stainless steel vessels. I have found the cream version best. Needs a good shake.

Hi Jim, Welcome to a fantastic new hobby and incredibly helpful folk on JBK forum. I am three years ahead of you on the brewing beginner learning curve and coincidentally, probably a few more years ahead of you on the professional career! Recognise and love your enthusiasm. If you can get hold of it...

Hi Jstinchy, Welcome to the hobby and Forum. I have only been brewing for three years and plunged straight in with all grain. I aspired to brew beer is similar to the draft cask bitters I enjoy in the pubs. I managed a few tasty bitters, but they didn’t emulate the pub beers particularly closely. I ...

a-slayer wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 06, 2021 10:05 am

I always use a mix of pellets and leaf, as long as there is over 40% leaf content my copper pipe filter in my boiler works fine.

Thanks, useful to have that ballpark figure to work from.

I have a Grainfather and have settled for using leaf hops as the couple of occasions I used pellets gave trub issues. The leaf hops, when settled form a great filter bed for each other and the hot break proteins. I have considered using some pellets with the leaf hops to reduce my wort loss for tran...

I have found that Liberty Bell seems to very slowly chew through more complex sugars after primary fermentation producing over carbed bottles after a couple of months or so. Clearly, this won’t be an issue if you don’t bottle, or drink your batch relatively quickly! Liberty Bell has a nice flavour a...

I remember a thread on here, which frightened me away from using readily available, unscented supermarket percarbonate to clean the Grainfather. Something to do with rate of oxygen release/bubble formation which can impair the pump I think. I have stuck to PBW at 55°C, similar time brewing with the ...

It is also really critical to ensure the sugar is dissolved and mixed evenly. Otherwise you risk exploding bottles! Less dangerous with plastic, but still very messy. Although more hassle than bulk priming, I dissolve the calculated quantity of sugar in a jug with suitable volume of boiling water, a...

Would be very interested in his reply, really enjoyed the same Stout courtesy of my brother in law, who regularly buys from that excellent microbrewery.

Good luck and for a much better year and time ahead.
A small positive sounds as though you’ve managed to avoid Covid loss of sense of taste and smell and so will hopefully enjoy your brew very soon.

If you haven't already come across it "Brewing Classic Styles" might be a useful book; award winning recipes (American) all with extract +/- steeped grain versions. Covers most general beer styles.

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I'd just have a lower threshold to use both packs for the one batch, especially if at the higher end of range for OG or volume of 1 pack.

Hi, I researched this late 2019. It is the favourite beer have a friend who is due to stay with us last year, Covid-19 stopped that, but I still experimented with the Brew. All grain, rather than extract and steep, but you’ve obviously done your research. Other friends enjoyed the first batch so muc...

Same stuff, different producer. If you want Starsan, though, it's available from the Malt Miller --as is almost everything you're likely to want! Hi Guy, I know it's meant to be the same, but I bought some when it was launched at 1/2 price at MM and it looked like I'd not be able to get more Starsa...

Sorry to hear you’ve had problems. I agree it’s much more likely to be a process and sanitation issue than US-05 yeast.
I keep considering moving to liquid yeast, but have adopted US-05 as my go to yeast over the past year or so and have had no problems at all.