Jim's Beer Kit

It depends what you're brewing. If it's a session ale. Then getting the starter going now and pitching tomorrow or even straight from the packet might be ok.

However, if it's a cold fermented lager or a strong beer I'd build the starter and brew next week.

I do two weeks in primary, add gelatine and leave for a few days then rack off to secondary and lager for 4 weeks.

Hi,

I would cool to fermentation temperature before pitching. I've found that 2 packets of yeast are just fine for 25 litres. How big is your batch?

I don't carbonate before lagering, instead doing it in a fermentation bin in the freezer.

I've not used it myself but there are threads on other forums that indicate that 60% attenuation may be what you'd expect from that yeast. I'd rouse it and give it a few more days and if still stuck chuck in the Nottingham which should get you 75-80% attenuation. Or if you'd be happy with a bit less...

What was your OG? Nottingham is normally a high attenuation yeast around 75-80% or more. If you're stuck on a lot less I'd wonder about your mash temperature.

Some breweries in the US that dry hop and bottle condition have been having exploding bottles. It seems that hops contain alpha and beta amalyse and can reduce long chain sugars to short chain sugars which are then fermented by the yeast and cause the exploding bottles. https://www.acs.org/content/a...

In that case I'd reoxgenate the wort and pitch the US05. If you can get a 2nd packet then that would help with that size batch.

If you get 75% attenuation that will be between 1.013 and 1.014

That's about 60% attenuation. According to the spec sheet Windsor is a yeast with moderate attenuation. I've never used it myself but that might be the end point for that yeast. US05 should give you 70-75% attenuation. I'd rouse the beer and throw in the US05. I've just exactly the same issue myself...

Actually I tried making a beer entirely out of malted oats and golden naked oats. It set into a horrible mess and some of the liquid burned onto the bottom of the Grainfather. It all ended up in the bin.

On the other hand 10% of jumbo oats in a porter works really well.

Well they're all malted which you don't need unless you don't have enough pale malt to achieve conversation. The difference between 1 and 2 is that one is flaked and one is torrified. They are two different processes that release the starch from a grain kernel. Flaked uses steam and high pressure ro...

As long as you have plenty of pale malt in the recipe too, you can use porridge oats that you buy from the supermarket. Just make sure that they're not the instant porridge sort with built in flavours. I tend to use the jumbo oats just because they help with allowing the wort through during the reci...

ah but you put it so much more eloquently than I did Guy

OK if your measurements are correct then you had 12 litres at 1.045 which you added a litre of water to giving 13 litres at roughly 1.042. Post boil you ended up with 8 litres which you added water to giving 10 litres at 1.042. Losses due to evaporation don't lose sugars so somewhere you've lost 3 l...

As Rob says it's probably a suspect reading for some reason. The hops will absorb wort but not as much as that.

Probably not. That happened to a lot of the hops I used to harvest from my hop plants. They need to be dried immediately and really quickly. I never managed to get this quite right and ended up with a lot of brown and frankly horrible hops that ended up in the compost.