Jim's Beer Kit

Well done Scott, brought back memories. Many of mine were horror stories and the beer was still very drinkable. I'm sure yours will be great. I've never boiled in the kitchen and remember once during the boil returning there to clear up after the mash. When I got back to the garage there was a most ...

Hi Scott, funny but I've been thinking along the same lines. Yesterday I had a long walk down the coast and there were some grand smells from the vegetation, especially intense in our Durham denes. Hops were relatively recent in beer history terms but as they have more or less displaced all others, ...

Hi Paul, it is a boring but essential question. The answer depends largely upon whether you mash in or out of doors or if it relates to summer or winter. 80C is a good ballpark figure but keep a logbook and record the ambient temperature and conditions, noting what variations there are in both the c...

Well done, there can be no better advocate than someone like yourself.

It's as well you made the ascension today and not tomorrow, more might have been in awe.

Hi DC, that way has worked for me, hopefully you'll have as much success. It certainly cuts time and energy costs. I'd advise you first write down a procedure line by line. For example, it's easy to run the boiler down below the element without switching it off. Another thing, if you use the kitchen...

A swift and idle way if you have a combi boiler. For a typical brew, very roughly a third is needed for the mash and two thirds for sparging and I heat and treat them separately. A couple of litres more than that needed for the mash goes straight from our hot tap into the boiler, water treatment add...

Currently I'm also using Chris's idea and it works a treat. Compared with a grain bag it is fantastic, but I use it with a difference. I also have a 24 litre cool box without modification (£7 ASDA). This can be used to mash up to about 6Kg of grain and it retains temperature very well with a simple...

Our local ASDA are selling their 24 litre cool boxes for £7

No Scotty, I can't see it reducing the efficiency of cooling, just the capacity of your boiler. If you double the pipes diameter you'll double it's surface area for any given length but quadruple its cross sectional area and hence it's volume. So if you double your cooling pipe's diameter you'll los...

The 6.9 must be erroneous. I don't think you could get a low figure from any bore hole in this area. I'll repeat the recipe doing as you say and see what happens. There were a few things that could have been done better and I will make those alterations, so it won't be a totally fair comparison. How...

Thanks again Chris. I cut and pasted the figures and didn't realise that the layout would change when posted. Let's see if I can do better. Alkalinity to pH 4.5 (Total) Min 6.9 Max 200 Ave 300 Count 12 I think this means 12 samples were taken, the lowest 6.9 (couldn't be) and the highest 300. Calciu...

Just done my first AG brew after many years enforced layoff. The water was treated only with sodium met. to remove chlorides and a spoon of gypsum to 30 litres of water and then a further spoonful in the boil. The mash was made using 4 Kg pale and 150 g crystal but pH was 5.8 after 10 minutes despit...

Thanks Jim, that's great. This is getting better all the time except I've not found time to brew. I suppose it will all work out for the best in the end. I've rewritten my schedule several times, each with better detail than the last hopefully avoiding many problems. I think that might be the last q...

Thanks for this question and the splendid answers so far. I hope you don't mind if I hijack it slightly. Could anyone tell me how long it takes for sodium metabisulphite to dechlorinate the water and is it temperature dependent? I've made up a sodium met. solution for dosing my water. Should I add i...

He's beginning to wonder what Cornies are now, but isn't sure it would be a good idea to know at this stage.

Eric.