Jim's Beer Kit

Have waited another month and as everyone has said the beer has improved further - thanks everyone

Morning Everyone,

After 3weeks bottle conditioning I cracked open a bottle last night. Very smooth with cinnamon on the nose and deep red in colour.
Think I need to get another while there's still some about as it's a limited edition.

Hi,

I've got the Wilko Winter Warmer in the fermenter at the moment, today was the day to add the spice pack. The christmas smell of cinnamon is incredible.

Can't wait to try the finished beer. Has anybody got to that stage yet, is it as good as it smells?

Evening everyone, Well tonight I took the plunge and opened one of the suspect IPA's for a taste as bottled for 2weeks now. I was shocked at how the beer had mellowed and was completely different, still a slight aftertaste but so much better. To think this nearly went down the sink. From here things...

Many thanks McM and Guy, From now on it will be a clean with oxi, rinse, deep sanitize with bleach solution, then chemsan. No shower lol. Chemsan spray for a last minute re sanitze. Will also hydrate the yeast, maybe grow it a little with some DME. Next planned brew us the wilko 2 can winter ale :D ...

So much great advice, thankyou :D Chemsan is similar to starsan, a no rinse foaming sanitiser, 10ml per 5L. I couldn't get hold of starsan but a few online homebrew shops offer this as an alternative. I just read the instructions, it also says that if the solution is cloudy the pH of your tap water ...

Thanks everyone, I will crack this, everything was sanitised as follows: the FV was filled with warm water and cleaned with OXI, the lid, airlock, bung, spoon and everything was put inside and left to soak. then tipped away, rinsed with the shower and then soaked with a little bleach for about 30min...

Evening everyone or should I say morning, Day didn't go as planned so started bottling very late. Unfortunately the brew had that same vinegar smell and tasted very sour. The OG was 1043 and finished at 1007. I decided to bottle it anyway, for practice if nothing else to get an idea of how much time...

Good evening everyone, Thankyou for your support so far. Well, the brew is now 10 days old in the FV, the plan is to bottle in the morning. However, removed the airlock tonight briefly for a peek and was greeted by the same vinegar type smell so i'm a little concerned at the moment. I can see there ...

Morning All,

36 hour update:

Still no bubbles in the airlock, i removed the clingfilm last night having read your post Orlando thankyou.

I can still see there is a head on the brew so crossing my fingers.

12 hour update: No bubbles in the airlock yet but can see through the FV that now it has about a 1.5inch head, hopefully the start of a krausen. temperature of the cupboard is 19degC. I had a thought this morning, dangerous I know, even though brand new could the seal on FV lid be letting by? I've s...

Thankyou everyone for your advice, Round 2 is in progress, everything cleaned to within an inch of its life, soaked in a weak bleach solution and rinsed well. This time I used less boiling water at the start and using chilled water had hit 23degc at 15litres from there managed the temperature up to ...

Many thanks Orlando, will be bleaching everything to be safe. I will look into making a yeast starter to beat the bacteria in future. This has been a steep learning curve from believing everything is fine to understanding what can go wrong. Thankyou Nitro Jim for your method with this kit, i'll foll...

I never considered the extra time delay for the dried yeast to wake up. I had used bottled water, in hindsight I could have chilled them down prior to starting the brew. It's a lesson learnt the hard way but one I won't make again lol. Thankyou for the ice tip, i'll make sure I have some on standby ...

Hi Guy, Many thanks for your reply. I had to let the diluted wort sit for about 5 hours before pitching as the temperature was 29degc after diluting. I was concerned about pitching too soon. Sounds like I need to cut back on the boiling water a bit at the start and pitch a little warmer to eliminate...