Jim's Beer Kit

McMullan, for example you take issue with me saying 'many brewers don't bother with this as there's more than enough sugar in the wort for the yeast to do well'. That is a direct quote from Graham Wheeler, who I hope lives up to your expectations. I'm not uncomfortable with water treatment at all an...

I'm told that some people have the site open 'on the bench on brewday' which I guess is the modern equivalent of printing out a pdf. I get emails from as far afield as Japan, New Zealand, Canada... people who have never heard of this forum until they read about it on my site. So visitors to this for...

Good Ed, thanks for the kind words about the website. The site isn’t new, having first seen the light of day in 2007. I take your point, one could refer a newbie to a book. On the other hand one could put everything a beginner needs to know in one place and this is what I’ve attempted to do. If you ...

I second the call to loosen up. McMullan, correct me if I’m wrong, but reading between the lines of your posts I somehow get the impression that you don’t like sensible mole dot com. 😊 I wonder what I’ve done to engender such angst. As someone else has kindly pointed out, my site isn’t anything othe...

Oops! Sorry about that Jim. Thanks very much for fixing the link.

Jim, please delete if not allowed. I’ve just finished rewriting and redesigning my website which shows how all-grain brewing can be done, producing quality beers with the minimum of equipment and fuss in the kitchen without the need to spend £££s on shiny brewing systems. It’s ideal for brewers of k...

A question for Inkbird users. I’ve seen a video, from Malt Miller if memory serves me right, in which the guy recommends putting the temperature probe in a jar full of steriliser solution instead of taping it to the outside of the fermentation bin. The jar then sits in the fridge next to the fermie ...

That strawberry beer does look like a brill Summer drink; my mate makes a fantastic raspberry wheat beer using shedloads of his own raspberries. When I mentioned a fruity taste and aroma though I was thinking about the more subtle fruit notes produced by hops. I'm old school when it comes to equipme...

I know it’s very fashionable these days but I’d like to brew a pale ale/NEIPA that has a fruity taste/aroma and which, most importantly, retains those qualities for a considerable length of time. Both I and a friend have tried and failed; our beers initially have these aspects, but very quickly the ...

Thanks for that Mashman, I'll get in some Ashbeck next time I have a brew day just in case! I'm assuming you don't boil and you just top up straight from the bottle, as it were.

Can I ask why Tesco Ashbeck in particular? And wouldn't that still need to be boiled beforehand to sterilise it? I use CRS and DLS too, following a lab analysis from Murphy's.

[quote=vacant post_id=853747 time=1605538583 user_id=743] If your beer turns out fine why change? Your "excess spargings" have been held at 60C plus for some time which is probably good enough but not as near sterile as wort after an open boil. I don't know about tannins. [/quote] I guess I have a v...

Hi, frequent lurker/very infrequent poster here. One of my many failings as an all grain brewer is to have too vigorous a boil far too often. The last brew I did had an evaporation rate of 22.5% (I know it’s wrong to talk about evaporation rates in terms of percentages, for the sake of clarity, I lo...