Jim's Beer Kit

What sort of height are you guys expecting though - that's my main worry. Can they be trained across or over rather than up? I seem to recall that even when people attempt to train them along wires horizontally they still try and make a bid to go vertical! Apparently the Sovereign is a restricted va...

Hi all, Looking to get some thoughts from those that have been growing their own as to what might be best to start with. Based in south Manchester and have a fairly decent sized garden. At the bottom we've recently removed 8 large conifers and had it properly fenced (backs on to a rail line). it's u...

Some cracking setups! I think for me the tinkering with the setup will be just as much a part of the hobby as the brewing itself. I'm a frustrated engineer at heart, and as I no longer muck about with cars I have to get my kicks somewhere.

Excellent stuff. I'm thinking of something similar myself. I may even get a picture tonight of the space that I've got to play with.

Keep 'em coming chaps/chapesses

Excellent! This is exactly the sort of stuff I wanted to see. If it wasn't tucked up in my dad's garage I'd get some pics up of my own Heath Robinson setup.

Would love to see more though, especially those that are lucky enough to have a static setup in a brew-shed or suchlike.

Been a very long time since I've been on here - been busy moving house and doing things on said house! The good news is that the new place has a nice brick outbuilding/shed which is a pretty decent size. So guess what that's ear-marked for :) It's now getting to the point in time where I need to sta...

It has definitely stopped at 1.011. Will rack off this w/e for a stint of conditioning.

Boingy, that's certainly what we've got on the boiler, but we opted for a washing machine tap on the mash tun. I think it was a balls up when we put the kit together and we didn't make sure the plate was sat flat to the bottom of the tun. To get round this happening in future I might try fitting a p...

pdtnc wrote:I find a good bit of poking with a spoon handle frees up stuck mashes (I batch sparge)

The grain was in the actual tap, so we just couldn't get the remaining wort out.

Minor update: I strongly suspect that after jugging in additional boiled water to up the volume, we actually lowered the OG by more than we should have. I just can't remember whether we took a reading after doing so. A lesson in better planning and noting down what one has done I think! So on that b...

Not posted on here in aaaaaages! Fired up the brew equipment today for AG #3. And it didn't go as smoothly as the first 2 :evil: Still, we were due a bad 'un I suppose. Here's the recipe. Was starting out trying to achieve a Hooky Gold sort of beer, but got carried away and wanted it hoppier and mor...

On 2nd tasting, (last night for the purposes of this friday's works x-mas doo beer tasting) I actually think it's just fine on the fizz.

I'm in danger of necking it all before Christmas though!

Ta-daaa!



Could, if I'm being really fussy, do with a little more fizz. But bloody hell it's gorgeous. Seriously one of the nicest souts I've ever tasted.

Get tank connector, use a round file to remove the collar internally, push copper piping through.

Fit ball valve to one end and manifold/false bottom to t'other.

Get a bit of copper piping cut to fit to the outlet of the ball valve and then get a 90deg elbow on the end to form your tap.

AG#1 was an SL clone so used US05. Had a bottle of TEA beforehand and whilst I managed to disturb the yeast (deliberately I might add) it just broke up into clumps, rather than the cloudy wispiness of the HB.