Jim's Beer Kit

MTW wrote:Filtered water. Low calcium?

Hmmm - should I just give it a go with water straight from the tap instead of the filtered..?


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Sorry if these questions seem daft but; Are you using fresh grain? Are you crushing it yourself? Is your scale accurate? Is your thermometer accurate? Not daft at all :) Grain is fresh - 25kg sack of Crisps Maris Otter bought end of August. Not crushing myself (see above). Scales are accurate as fa...

Rhodesy wrote:Have you checked your hyrdometer at 20c with water to see if it still reads 1.000?

Yes, and it does.


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What software are you using to calculate your OG? Also is it possible that your water volumes are out? If you can post a recipe and volumes that may help? No software - just looking at the expected OG in the recipe book and using a hydrometer at the end of cooling to pitching temp... The collected ...

Have you worked out your actual efficiency, 75-80 is usual. It was a while ago, but I’d calculated it to around 70 - 75... I’m on same kit and brewing recipes from Wheeler’s BYO - ones that I’ve already done previously with no adjustments. Usually hitting within a point or so, sometimes slightly hi...

Hi all, I’m back to brewing after a few years. I’ve made three brews in quick succession and each time I’ve totally missed my OG target by a large margin. #1 Target: 1.044 – Actual: 1.030* #2 Target: 1.040 – Actual: 1.031 #3 Target: 1.054 – Actual: 1.045 In the third brew, I even upped the grain bil...

Hi all, Long time no see... in fact, I'm ashamed to say I haven't attempted to brew anything since October 2013! Where does the time go? In a nutshell: leaving a 9-5 to go freelance (again), giving my brewing kit to my brother, a stint in that-there-London, giving up the freelance life for a 9-5, bu...

Hey Churchy,

Glad the instructions came in handy! I'll look out for your brewday post

Cheers,
FB.

Cor!

Shiny...

Really nice job Darthballs!

But credit should also go to everyone who helped to make my kit - especially the shameless rip-off of PDTNC's builds, advice from Jubby, Kev888 and anyone else who posted on my threads.

Here's to the forum!

Cheers,
FB.

[edited for typo.]

Future Brewer, I am unashamedly copying your designs for my first foray into all grain brewing (which I am documenting and will upload once I have finished the build) and have a question about the mash tun manifold. I have made the manifold and you said that you used a hack saw to cut slots into th...

For batch sparging I heat the water to 85ºC, drop the top up liquor in after the 90min mash which raises the temp to 77ºC. Leave for 15 mins, recirculate 4 x 2litre jugs then run off into the boiler with the tap half open. Second lot of liquor heated to 85ºC again and mixed into the grain, left ...

What temperature was the yeast when you pitched? For this brew, the temperature of the rehydrated yeast was around 28C when pitched into wort (at about 24C). This was the temperature the yeast had dropped to as it rehydrated. I was following the guide (I linked to above) which gives the optimum tem...

First thing is to tell us what was the unpleasant taste and aroma like. Yes, good point... :lol: Difficult to describe really... Taste is pretty subjective, but here's the result of my tiny focus group who have sampled the latest beer: Nastiness coming through includes: sherry-ish/biscuity-like aro...

Hi all, I've got to admit, I've been really disappointed with a lot of my brews... They seem to have an underlying 'unpleasant' taste AND aroma to them. They're drinkable, but just not particularly that enjoyable. I KNOW I can do better because my very first AG was a BELTER of a brew! :D So, time to...