Jim's Beer Kit

fego wrote: I did indeed lose the nickel on my HLT element.

Snap.

Yes, a great pity those postings are no more, a long story best forgotten? Anyway, nicely summarised. With water of alkalinity 287 mg/L CaCO3, you'd likely want to use enough CRS to remove 260 mg from each litre. A problem comes, if say, the water was to contain only 250 mg/L, when not only would yo...

Try as I like, my wort into the boiler is never initially what could call called clear. It eventually does, but obviously by that time there is some stuff in the boiler I'd prefer wasn't. Despite this, the runnings from the boiler are clear, subject to waiting for the contents to settle, gently recy...

It's not what's at the bottom that's of concern, but what is still in suspension. The general concensus on here seems to be, leave it in the FV for a fortnight. I aim for one week, then fit it with other commitments meaning anything from 6 days and have noticed no advantage of a longer period. Why n...

It took me a long, long time to quickly get clear beer and for nearly all that period I never knew why. There were of course many reasons and maybe it might be better to wait a little longer in this case. I wouldn't be worried about the extra debris, just that the more there is, the longer it will t...

Two inches? That's a lot. I think you have more than yeast there, so I'd be a bit more circumspect. Can you chill it?

It must first be said that I find myself at odds with a great deal of current thinking on these matters, but an hour since I had a snifter of a beer mashed on August 27th, fermented with Nottingham and casked on September 4th. This, relatively uncomplicated beer, is in my opinion ready for drinking,...

The only option for reducing the concentration of any ion is to dilute with distilled or RO water. I couldn't honestly say what effect either sulphate and sodium will have at those levels, but I doubt a few ppm here or there is going to make much difference. Surely Dunc, you mean the easy option? A...

The only issue I can see is the accuracy of the water company's figures. I know my water varies day to day, not necessarily much, but often more than the adjustment you made to bring yours within bounds.
Enjoy the brewing.

This is far from a stupid question and there is no simple answer, but it would seem your keg is leaking. Of the CO2 produced by fermentation or injection, some will dissolve in the beer, the proportion depending upon volumes, temperature and pressure. Fermentation can continue and produce CO2 for ma...

Only a little confusing? I'm no chemist, but think it's more than that. Using your figures to feed GW's calculator, it looks as though your water isn't far off what you're wanting. You won't need to reduce carbonate, if anything, you might consider marginally increasing it. If you need campden table...

Can't say I've noticed diacetyl in any Ringwood's beer. Also would suppose they would let their beer ferment no more than 5 or 6 days. From their website they describe their Best bitter as follows............ Nose Tempting hop aroma with fruit notes Palate Good malt feel in the mouth, dry, tangy fru...

Thanks. Could sparge temp be too cold. I used 80c water to sparge but that goes through a hose. Then how much more temp is needed to up the grain bed to 76c? If your sparge water is 80 and grain bed is 66 then probably need higher that 80 water to get bed up to 78, yes? I've not been inclined to us...

Thanks Steve. I sparged until gravity showed 1008 Assuming your end gravity figure is corrected for temperature, you might want to try sparging a little more slowly.That will allow time for more sugar to be dissolved into the sparge water. If however you are not short on gravity after diluting your...

I used to use a smaller box, the clear retangular type that come with lid, that reached about half way up the FV. The only problem was getting enough of the heater into the water. I've two heaters, one is rated at 300 watts, the other is something like half that. To be quite frank, I can't tell you ...