Jim's Beer Kit

Hello Folks. I have made several brews of brown ale to one of Dave Line's recipes in "The Big Book oBrewing". Its called "Dark Ale" A sturdy brown ale, full of body and flavour, balanced by the sweetnes of lactose. I live in a soft water area and have happily followed the water treatment given in hi...

Hopefully not to late to make a small contribution. Bit dangerous clamping glass bottles between your legs. Try putting a wood screw through the base of an empty baked bean tin and screwing it to a short plank of wood. DONT use one of those tin openers that leave a razor sharp cutting edge around th...

Welcome to DerbyDabler and micromaniac. Watering down strong ale has a long established, respectable face to it. I cannot remember where but I have read in a couple of books that beer for export from the UK in Victorian times was first warmed to evaporate a lot of the water. The alcohol was also dri...

Sorry folks my spill chicker is playing up.
That should have been maturation in the previous post.
Cheers again.

Many Thanks to FatGaz and Rookie for their contributions. I found a little information in Graham Wheeler s book "Brew Your Own British Real Ale". Talking about maturtion of beer, "As a general rule allow one week for every 10 degrees of gravity- so four weeks should be allowed for beer with an origi...

rocket ronnie and seymour Its nice that other people have the same sentiments. Whilst on the subject of raising a toast, let us not forget one special politician. My view on politicians is very simple. "Just like nappies they need changing regularly and for the same reason." But one politician deser...

I have found a source for barley malt extract , also known as barley syrup. There is a footnote on the page saying " Please note that this is not the same as brewers malt." That said, I think that Dave Line could just have easily reached for a tin of brewers malt extract if that was what he wanted b...

Hello killer.
Many thanks for the info.
Ive got something to start with now.
Hopefully a few others will chip in with their positive experiences.
There must be a few more like minded people out there saving full bottles for the future. Sure beats collecting beer mats!
Cheers from minesapint

To Underground Joe and Beer ' Clock.
There is always one kid that manages to eat all his butties and drink his bottle of pop, long before the picnic party even gets to the end of the street.
Ring any bells chaps ?
Yes I must admit, beer is very moreish.
Cheers to you both.
minesapint

Greetings all. Difficult to find a topic to enter this under. As I only brew "allgrain" I figure this is as good a place as any. I would like to accumulate a selection of beers but I have no idea of the keeping properties of the various styles. I have some high alcohol brews that should be OK for a ...

Greetings. I was also contemplating brewing a couple of recipes using barley syrup from a book by Dave Line. The only sources I could find were a couple from ebay and a good few on Amazon.co.uk . All still available as I tap this keyboard on 12th November 2012. The snag is , that the postage is as m...

Hello and Thanks to darkonnis and gregorach. Talked to the owner of a homebrew shop, and he had never given it a thought . A couple of his customers came down on either side of the fence. So it's fifty -fifty. I will still stick to the black bin bags, it's not a lot of effort to cover the kegs at th...

Hello Befuddler. Thanks for the very prompt response . I have never managed to keep beer in a Kingkeg for over a month, I find it very moreish. Perhaps as you say , the problem has been overstated in the past. I shall continue with the bin bags , at least they keep the spiders and dust off my kegs. ...

After reading about the merits of green and brown bottles , preventing light from spoiling the finished beer. I am now wondering why my Kingkegs were not made from opaque plastic, instead of being translucent. The garage where my kegs reside has a transparent corrugated plastic roof and so is very l...