Jim's Beer Kit

Well 12 days in the fermenter and the last 5 days sat at 1018/1019 and I've decided to crash cool to 3 degrees for a couple of days ahead of bottling. It appears the Beersmith programme / app has no way of taking Lactose into account when calculating Final Gravity....

Will it drop to 1011 with all that lactose in? I read it stays around 1020?

So brewed my first Milk Stout based on a rather beefy Mackeson clone recipe on Beersmith; Screen Shot 2015-09-24 at 21.27.57.jpg Its been in the fermenter for 9 days and is sat at 1019 which I assume is seems fine due the Lactose Milk Sugar added in the boil? - Do you crash soon to drop the yeast ou...

An update, emailed Hampshire Trading Standards and got a call from a very helpful chap; things I had done right - ALC in % instead of ABV - required - Address of Brewery - required - Volume of beer - required - Alcohol units - optional Things I had to modify; - There has to be a description of the a...

I'm in the process of going 'legit' and have registered with customs and excise / environmental health. I've had some bottle labels designed but want to make sure it complies with all labelling law and requirements. Does anyone have a link to a list of what is REQUIRED on a beer label and what is NI...

I've tweaked the recipe a bit; how does this look;

Thanks for the replies; I have both HSB Bottled with the yeast but I plan to use the Wyeast 1332 Northwest Ale which I Have split and have stepped up in a star for the past 3 days ready to go into this brew. I think I will back off the Treacle, revert to Golden Syrup and use some Brewers Caramel to ...

I'd like to start making some Winter Ale brews. Ideally I'd like to re-create Gales Winter Brew but this was just a blended beer using Prize Old Ale and Butser. I've found a Roger Protz recipe for Gales XXXXX Ale which is a very old winter brew style beer; here is the 'raw' recipe; Screen Shot 2015-...

Or use pellets and not use a hop filter at all :D 400 grams of hops, be that pellet or full flower, is a lot to expect to just sit in a nice cone after whirlpooling; it's enough to be a couple few inches deep when settled out. I've got large muslin hop bags on order and am talking to Utah Filters a...

Hi Ben, yes this was the one from Utah Biodiesel - REALLY expensive by the time you add shipping, customs ~£120 for the BM20l one. I had trouble cramming just under 200g of whole hops in there for one very hoppy brew I do. On a 50L batch thats 380g of hops, a good bucket full so I am at the point of...

Ben - we're on a very similar learning curve; here is my evolving BM50 set up, with a similar looking chiller and solar pump behind the FV. IMG_4263.jpg Some questions; 1)Is there a technical reason for the pump BEFORE the chiller? I've put it after but your set up makes priming the pump that bit ea...

Thanks for the reply Brooster; I test my water with a Salifert Kit and each time test the Mash PH which is usually circa 5.5PH. I treat with CRS and DWS each brew based on the CaC03 Salifert test result. I use a Braumeister and I have both sparged with 78 degree water or I now go the 'no sparge' met...

This Hop Head clone is my favourite brew right now; It's a great session or summer ale BUT when I pop it in a domestic fridge it suffers from chill haze due to high hop content and this, for some, is off putting. The wort also goes from crystal clear to very cloudy when I chill using an immersion ch...

themadhippy wrote:sod the brewing,wotcha doing with a par can in there?

Beer party ?

To give you an idea of what this hop spider looks like 'in action'; IMG_3514.jpg This was in my BM 20L which I have now sold on and moved up to the BM50L. Some feedback; - It's a great way to keep the boil clean and get the hops out - The Spiedel immersion chill slides wonderfully round the hop spid...