Jim's Beer Kit

As an office boy at the start of the sixties, I would go up Stoney Lane to get the men their "bate". This would often consist of something within a round, non-crusty piece of soft white bread about 8 to 12 inches in diameter and an inch thick. We called them flat cakes but on the next river north, t...

Hi Ray, Sorry to hear this, are you sure? TCP tastes and smells are our worst fear, are you sure it isn't just imagination? I've 2 brews just casked and they aren't up to the usual standard. However, I'm putting it down to the recent higher fermentation temperatures. They were not out of range but a...

Hey! Have you drank that first one already?
Good luck DC. A little too much chocolate malt for me but that's because of a personal preference for roasted barley in dark beers.
It's been arranged for me to wave a paintbrush all day. I know which aroma I'd prefer to generate.

All that oxygen will be driven off as it reaches the boil. Remember the noise your kettle makes. The yeast will multiply during the aerobic stage and when the oxygen is completely consumed it becomes anaerobic and produces the alcohol. Introducing air/oxygen at/after this stage gives bacteria a bett...

Hi Spencer,

About to reply and wondering how to put it, I read Parva's offering. All that's needed is to say that perfectly sums up my findings.

Absolutely Scooby, so I'll say this. Make sure you have an accurate thermometer and Hydrometer. You can't easily make 5 gallons of beer with a 5 gallon boiler, so you might want to buy/make something bigger. Buy 2 fermentation vessels, one with a tap. Get a grain bag and make a hop filter as per one...

Are you sure it has stopped. It sounds very similar to my last brew (OG 1047) using SO4, which suddenly cleared after 2-3 days at 1016. However, on closer observation it was still producing CO2 and continued to drop, albeit slowly, for a few more days without intervention. Be careful, it's warm now ...

Yes, you're learning like we all have and I still do.
To be honest, I'd likely get a bit over 1050 with that recipe and that's after quite a lot of brewing. I'm not saying it isn't possible, just that for me, high efficiency extraction is still elusive.

No problem here with a £7 Asda coolbox. The temperature drop is not significant. I drop the mash water from the boiler at a little over 80C and stir it until it drops to strike temperature. A piece of ply underneath for spillage together with a primitive plastic sleeved fibreglass jacket for a hot ...

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/uu354/cirenosam/RIMG2951.jpg I hope that worked. If so, this shows the present stage of last Friday's brew. It was 1047 and you can see where the yeast cap had been in contact with the sides but has now collapsed and it is fermenting still. The lid is kept on of c...

That certainly looks as if it is fermenting. Definitely not stuck.

No Chris, not what you'd expect from a 1040 OG, but what other simple reason in these temperatures after a second pitching?

Could the mash temperature have been higher than you recorded? Maybe 1017 will be its natural final gravity. Maybe you should bottle some now.

Exactly that. My experience is that you won't get down to 1006 and hence you shouldn't worry. It is probable that the extraction efficiency (that is the proportion of malt turned to sugar and washed from the grains) of your first brews will be lower than predicted meaning you will still be rinsing s...

You should be testing gravity to confirm that primary fermentation has ceased or is near completion. Assuming it has (summer temperatures will hasten fermentation) the next stage will be conditioning/secondary fermentation. This isn't done in an FV, but in a sealed, pressure withstanding container. ...