Jim's Beer Kit

Measure the temperature of whatever medium you are directly heating. i.e. if you are using a tube heater in a fridge, you are heating the air, meaning you should measure the temperature of the air. If you measure the fermenter temperature you'll end up with very hot air around the fermenter for a lo...

2013 harvest is on order at The Home Brew Shop - they are due in next week
http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/aca ... acked.html

Expect them to appear at Simply Hops and others soon too.

bob3000 wrote:could there be an issue with oxidation, putting beer or water into a blender with your hops?

Use a small amount of boiled (but cooled) water to help with pureeing. It has no ill effect on your beer.

For the first time in my life I may actually have a small interest in gardening...

Loads of aphids on all my hops...but here comes the cavalry! Hundreds of ladybird larvae. Going to be write a few of them flying about soon. http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a286/chivelegs/20130713_181554.jpg Those look like Harlequin ladybird larvae, a non-native species imported from the USA (or...

There seems to be a serious lack of ladybirds this year, too. I've only seen one, so far. You can buy ladybirds, fully grown or larvae - larvae sit leaves instead of flying away and as chivelegs photo shows above, they have an appetite for aphids. Buy them from here: http://www.greengardener.co.uk/...

Cheers guys. Looking forward to when I have a house with a garden (hopefully next year) so I can grow my own!

Does anyone know any hop growers that would be willing to sell some hops 'green' from this year's harvest?

I'd like to make some green hop beer.

My general measuring is as follows: - A moderate amount of dry hops is 1.5-3 grams per litre (6.8-13.6 grams per Imperial gallon) - A heavily hopped beer (and I'm talking American style heavy hopping) is 6 grams per litre (27.2 grams per Imperial gallon). So you're definitely on the heavy hopped sid...

Yes, I agree. I don't think you'll ever get the 'in your face' hop experience of massive fruity aromas with current English hops (although at least one breed has been discovered that might provide that in a couple of years time), but strong flavours are possible - I'm certainly happy with my recent ...

I know I'd be fascinated to try a sample of the end product!

I think with my brief saison experience you would want to replace the oats with more simple sugar to keep it dry, but that's just me.

Had a very nice Topaz IPA from The Kernel brewery a few months ago.

Think single hop American Pale Ale/IPA.

Going with the 'dog eating off the pavement' theme - why don't you use this as a user upper? Look at what ends of malt you've got, or stuff that is getting a bit long in the tooth. First addition hops you just want to use whatever cheap high alpha hops you have (or whatever you want to get rid of fr...

Interesting reading your findings and initial tasting notes. I did an English IPA recently with all First Gold in an attempt to see what could be done with English hops if I started to up the hopping rates. Lots of late hops, ended up at around 5.7% and 47 IBU, and I dry hopped at 2.5g/l at the end....

Saison yeast has munched its way down to 1.006. As I overshot my starting gravity and started at 1.060 that makes this Saison around 7%. :shock: I think I may have to get some 330ml bottles for this. A quick taste and there's still plenty of yeast in it, but it's slightly dry, somewhat tart, with hi...