Jim's Beer Kit

What yeasts did you use? Yeast can have a pleasant flavour (Belgians, Wits) but could be contributing the off flavour. As the yeast drops the flavour reduces.
If you want to test the wild yeast idea you could make a starter, pitch the bottle dregs and taste the resulting beer for the same flavour.

The finished product:

asd wrote:What's a BCS controller?

Google is your friend - http://www.embeddedcontrolconcepts.com

Medicinal is normally due to phenol compounds. Often this is due to reactions with left over bleach so I'd suggest you don't bleach everything. I'd suggest a thorough hot clean and soak with PBW or similar. Then rinse thoroughly and sanitise with StarSan. The other option is replace the FV, plastic ...

Och29 where did you get that nice wood barrel from? Brew looks good, nice to know you can still make a good beer when all your gear fails. https://www.thebarrelmakers.co.uk/department/cider_beer_barrels/ It's oak rather than chestnut. They also do used barrels but not small enough even for my kit!

Having made a batches 2 different ways I'm inclined to disagree. However it will depend on the beer style, equipment, volumes and most importantly taster as to whether you'll notice any difference. I'd say the reason most people think it's a myth is that there are many more important factors that ca...

I think you're missing the point. In some cases HSA can create molecules that will be beneficial to the flavour of a beer either directly or after conversion by yeast. Orval uses a yeast species (Brett.) that given time will transform 'off flavours' molecules into beneficial molecules such as esters...

On a small homebrew scale it might not be noticeable but there are people in the industry who deal with oxidation including HSA. I've noticed a difference between batches with a pump and one where I've had to manually transfer 70L of wort with a small bucket and definitely aerated the hot wort.

There's a BeerSmith podcast about oxidation. The expert on there, although not a homebrewer, said HSA is most definitely not a myth.

Depends on the volumes you're working with but the ProShip are used by most people. It's always worth searching the forum too!

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=66524

Think this would be better placed in the 'market place' section of the forum.

1/2" ball valve works for me. I normally have about 50 litres on top of it which will help push out the yeast.

I had some chestnut ale a week or so ago which had a definite flavour. Think it was dry nut'd adding them to the secondary. Might be an idea to emphasise whatever grain you choose.

One final one... lots of trub but I'm amazed that I've ended up with something so clear: