Jim's Beer Kit

Deebee, what temp do you take your first sparge water to? I've noticed a slight hike in efficiency by raising it to 90° but at 73.5% I'm nowhere near your levels. Cheers, Barry My sparge is at about 80 ish. Thunk mine is to do with the crush. I have found a crush that is perfect for my mash. My mas...

It sounds like you're going the opposite direction to me, Wonkey. Good luck with it - hope it goes well! Deebee - thanks for the steps - this is great. I was thinking I'd be happy to risk a slightly lower efficiency if I can reduce my sparging time, and I will add a little more grain to compensate ...

1. Add the total deadspace to the mash figures. It makes it easier. So mashin at 3l/kg gives you 12 l plus the 3 under the fb.. son15 total. I started flysparging and it did indeed take ages. The estimate is about .3 l pr minute so if you have 20 l thats at least an hour. That said you 28 l preboil ...

Ditch wrote:Wouldn't know how to calibrate one, mate. But, the fact that two of them read the same differences in two FV's ....? I figure that must be enough flies.

True.
An easy way is to boil water and check that.

:shock: The plot thickens, my man! Tested them both, today. Each with Two different thermometers. (Yes; No one can say Ditch isn't thorough!) Turns out # 16. FV# 6, one with the Aqua heater set to 23 is actually reading 21! I'll be amongst that one tonight. It tasted great, this afters. # 15. FV# 2...

I just dumped in 185 of pellets. I have leaf hops. I've just knocked up a stainless steel mesh cage type of thing from some spare sheet I had laying around - so will stick them in that. Some put them in a blender and whizz them. Leaf hops suck up about 100ml pr 10 grams so you will lose a couple of...

I just dumped in 185 of pellets.

Personally i think the cascade will overpower everything else in there. I am not sure that this would be considered as a "proper ipa" either due to it being under 5% it would be a great brew with the goldings and fuggles combination( used by adnams in several of their brews by the way) My opinion is...

My last measurement is usually at bottling stage, just to check I had reached expected FG.... Sometimes it is slightly under :| People do things differently. I take readings with say 48 hour inbetween. When i have 2 readings that are the same i leave for around another 2 or three days before bottli...

Did you measure your FG. Sometimes my beer takes a good 2 weeks and more before i get a stable fg.

I tried the drops in my early brewing days and sorry but I do not agree with your statement. adding the sugar to the secondary bucket seconds before transfere beer and leaving for 30 minutes before bottling could not be simpler. Handling drops and placing one into each bottle has a greater risk in ...

Orlando.... It is interesting your comment about length of first fermentation, as my last brew was fermenting for two weeks (first time ever) only because I had to fly down to Cornwall, and therefore no time available that weekend. I was then in the secondary for 8 days before bottling. I haven't h...

I've just upgraded the kit. Have a brew fridge for small batches but need bigger. I think it's hard to make an undrinkable all grain if you have a reasonable mash tun. Currently my challenge to myself is stop overcomplicating and experimenting a more closely follow some brewing classic style recipe...

Loads of good stuff there thanks for the link - hadn't seen that before as I always just read through the single recipes. So whats the best way to gauge if a beer is similar to another beer, e.g. lots to choose from on the almanac, how would I tell from a recipe that it might be similar to ones i l...

Hi All First post and all that but been a lurker for a while now. Anyway Im looking for some AG recipe inspiration to try out - Ive just got my hands on a 40l buffalo that I intend to use with BIAB. Previous to this have 3 brews under my belt based 2 extract recipes and 1 AG using stovetop stockpot...