Jim's Beer Kit

Nick
Your final point about carboys vs bottling, with bottle conditioning being more important, sort of answers my original question so maybe I'll think about cutting back significantly the time spent in the carboy.
cheers

Nick This is all based on previous brews of mine. My plan for this one is based on the results from a brew started in February 2021. This was carboyed for 6 months and then bottled in August 21. I started drinking it from October through to March 2022. Its a big winter warmer for occasional drinking...

I’m brewing a 23 litre batch of Robinson’s Old Tom, a very high OG dark beer (OG 1.085, FG 1.016, ABV 9%). For a previous brew I’ve kept the beer for 6 months in carboys under the stairs before bottling, intended for drinking after 20 months of conditioning. It’s currently spending 3 weeks in the pr...

Many thanks for these are good suggestions that I'll follow for future brews: omit the airlock until krauesen has peaked (I am the only one to spell it this way? - taken from Palmers excellent book published in USA) and fit a wort thermometer to compare to ambient and control ambient accordingly. ch...

Thanks for these comments and suggestions. It might be worthwhile fitting a thermometer to sit in the wort and use those readings as a basis for setting the air chamber/thermostat temperature. I've always assumed that the air and wort temps may deviate due to the yeast activity but fermentation has ...

Thanks for that advice - I'll omit the airlock initially next time I try using Burton Ale yeast. Temperature is constant - I've filled a thermostat to a small laboratory hotplate and everything sits inside a box made of 15cm thick Kingspan insulation. The wort was initially well aerated - poured int...

Yes - I usually do a yeast starter even with live yeast to confirm they are ok. This was active for two days then stopped bubbling through the airlock. I then stored it in the fridge for a day before pitching.

Something new and curious has happened with my fermenting wort for the second time in succession. In both cases, a standard and healthy looking kraeusen developed 24hrs after pitching yeast (but only 1" high), with a normal dark tide mark developing as it subsided. 36 hrs or so later an additional k...

Kev Thanks for that great insight into conditioning and fermentation of high OG beers. This is my first effort with high OG - my usual brews are normal strength and I've usually bottled about three weeks after pitching when FG has been static and the airlocks show balanced pressure. This brew is fro...

Kev Thanks for your comments which are reassuring as I was worried that I might create bottle bombs. I've been using a refractometer and the Northern Brewer calibration tool for alcohol effect. My latest reading at end May was the same as that taken in March and the only reason not to bottle was the...

I brewed my first high OG - a Wee Heavy - last November. OG 1.080. After several batches of pitched yeast (fermentation kept stalling after very vigorous primary phase with large kraeusen), I managed to get the gravity down to 12Bx, 1.026 after 7 weeks. Transferred into carboys with airlocks and put...