Jim's Beer Kit

I don't know how much sugar there will be in hops, but it is hard to imagine there will be significant quantities, even in those that feel sticky. The reaction I've found has been in proportion to the beer present and not the quantity of added hops. Whether the action is on the beer, the yeast or b...

Enzymes in hops can reinitiate fermentation if dry hopping. Thanks Eric. In late Summer when I start batches of Paul Theakston' Regwelter, I encourage a decent head and batch prime with sugar, prior to bottling. However with my IPAs I prefer a flatter beer. Therefore I'd like to avoid any secondary...

Many thanks Eric, MashBag and guypettigrew. That's certainly uncorked the mysteries of dry hopping. I use the fermentasaurus 30L All-rounder. All previous batches (4.25 Kg grain bill) have reached target of 1010 fg after 7 days. I'm tempted to DH on day 7 with say 5gr of Cascade and bottle on day 9,...

On Monday I'll be starting a batch of St Austel 'Proper Job' IPA. Graham Wheeler states"adding a few hop cones to the cask after filling". Does he mean - add hops at the start of ferment or when the ferment has finished, just prior to bottling? I'm not sure what the weight of a few hop cones is. I'l...

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Prices are fairly similar but I've just spotted that the capacities are quite different. The Grainfather Sparger (40 litres) at £140 and the Bulldog Sparger (only 18 litres) at £130. So a bit of a trade-off. You can go for the smaller capacity with the ability to pump across sparge water or go for l...

Both sparge boilers sport a tap, thermostat/temp dial and have a similar capacity. However the Master Brewer has a flexible pipe which connects to the Bulldog Sparger and allows you to transfer sparge water via the Master Brewer's pump. Dead handy if you want to use the top tap to control flow rate ...

Thanks I'll take another 2 readings and if all goes well, I'll be bottling on Friday. BTW Graham Walkers recipe for Black Sheep Regwelter is for target of 6% but this is too strong for me, so I've tweaked it down to 4%. I also have doubts about how well camden will kill yeast. In the 80's I had 16 b...

If you put some water into the bath it would moderate the temperature of the fermentation. Would need a bit of experimentation to find the sweet spot but would reduce fluctuations of temperature. Thanks BD I'll def try that with my next batch. I like my 4% brew to bottle mature for one month. There...

Does Nottingham have a reputation of being very volatile? Yes, that is quite characteristic of Nottingham, and in my opinion it is also a clear indicator that you are likely to be fermenting it too hot (which has flavor consequences). It generally behaves much less aggressively when fermentation is...

Thanks IPA, in fact I do have a sheet of 2" thick white foam. I guess I can keep the FV cap hole taped over for 24 hours, then remove and insert circular foam plug.

Thanks Guy, that pump looks quite neat.

How sure are you that fermentation is finished before you bottle? Not priming and getting bottle gushers makes me think fermentation is still not finished and you're getting the oldest ones gushing. If it's a random 20% of bottles then I'd say it's a bottle cleaning issue. Torrified wheat doesn't r...

There may be more reasons for gushers, but I'm only aware of these four: 1) The presence of excessive nucleation sites caused by Oxylates, generally due to insufficient calcium in the mash and/or boil. 2) Fermentation was cut off short of full completion. Bottles were filled too soon. 3) Too much p...

Ah thanks, the present batch I'm drinking - Black Sheep/Nottingham and IPA/West Coast, about 20% of the bottles are fizzers, with a lot of head. I didn't realize that yeast played a part and had assumed that the culprit was the Torrified Wheat, which I use to promote head. My preference is about hal...