Jim's Beer Kit

gregorach wrote:Man, my instincts are just screaming "that's not sterile"...

Why do you feel it isn't sterile? The wort is transferred above 80C and all the interior surfaces of the container are exposed to that heat, if you do it properly - where could contamination come from?

You are looking for ~83% apparent attenuation there, which is high, although the 7.8% simple sugar will help. US05 and Nottingham (re-packed as Gervin?) are both high attenuators, but S04 won't get you there. Given the lack of late hops, the classic Notty trick of muting the hops won't be much of an...

Another idea that has come to light, is using bottles of SuperMalt drink. De-carb by boiling and allow to cool then pitch into as you would normal malt. Apparently it works. I've done the same with Malta many times. The list of ingredients looks like a pretty standard beer recipe to me, it even lis...

Or don't worry about it. You can't taste chill haze.

Strictly speaking, at least as pertains to yeast, the difference is in the yeasts' ability to metabolise raffinose. A true lager yeast can, while an ale yeast cannot (or cannot fully.) But they can come pretty damn close. Notts, US05, 1007/K97 etc can all produce a very very clean and neutral ale at...

I'm using a 20L jerry atm, and cleaning is a doddle. Fill halfway with sodium percarbonate and water and soak. Put lid on, invert, and soak. Shake, rinse and drain dry.

Or BIAB. With an artificial filter bed (of any sort) fine flours become much less of a problem.

I can recommend Fermentis Saf-189 Swiss Lager. If you can find a homebrew size package, use it. It's very forgiving and quick.

You could try using saccharomycodes ludwigii, a slow moving and weak yeast, if you can find a source. It is apparently suited to making low to "no" alcohol beer.

quixoticgeek wrote: 1 litre of WATER.

Much better. OK, as you were....

Ale yeast and bread yeast are both saccharomyces cerevisiae ; but just as a Great Dane and a Dachshund are both Canis lupus familiaris , they have been bred differently over countless generations and have become specialised to very different roles. Beer made with bread yeast is almost always bad. Di...

Look up "cream ale".

quixoticgeek wrote:... in a litre of milk...

Huh?

A heat mat, placed away from the fermenter to avoid cooking the yeast cake.

An STC1000 and a bar fridge is hardly elaborate; it makes this kind of control a total cakewalk. Free rising temperature is as simple as setting a max "possible" temp, unplugging the heat source and letting the yeast activity and ambient temp do their worst, confident that any high spikes will be cu...