Jim's Beer Kit

darkonnis wrote:I am mashing with 4kg of malt +6L (1.5L per kg grain)
Cooky

Hi Cooky

1.5 litres per kilo of grain? Does this work? I always use 2.5 litres per kilo as in Graham Wheeler's 'Beer Engine'.

Or have I misunderstood?

Guy

What cooky says is absolutely spot on. OR--you could wing it a bit! Beer Engine (a wonderful tool) tells me 3.893kg of grain (weird amount!) will need 9.7 litres of mash liquor and total liquor of 32.2 litres. In other words, 22.5 litres of sparge liquor or, if you want to stop the sparge earlier, t...

Good decision.

Have you also got a nice big long handled spoon to stir the wort once you've got the chiller?

Nothing beats a long handled spoon, I always say!!!!

Guy

jonnyt wrote:Just go no chill cube instead.

What does this mean, please?

Thanks.

Guy

£35 ready made is dirt cheap. No hassle and you'll have it for decades. Mine must be 30 years old by now.

Here's a link to one from Hop and grape. Others are available.

Guy

I stir my wort in the boiler while the cold water from the outside tap is running through the cooling coil. Brings the wort down from near boiling to about 30C in 10 minutes. Hard work, though! Guy i worry that constant stirring will screw up the cold break? I think it may actually help it because ...

So I can add 4g/litre priming rate to a 40litre batch (1 x firkin). What rate would you prime at? For priming a 23 litre-ish batch I'd dissolve about 80g of sugar in a small amount of boiling water, let it cool a bit then tip it in and swirl it around. Not very precise, but then I don't think you n...

I stir my wort in the boiler while the cold water from the outside tap is running through the cooling coil.

Brings the wort down from near boiling to about 30C in 10 minutes.

Hard work, though!

Guy

Hey Hogarth--love your dad!

Wish I could make a really low gravity mild.

In fact, wish I could make a really good mild of any gravity!

No idea how they did it in the good old days.

Guy

Why do you want to prime with a 1.100 solution?

Guy

Making more sense now!

Still not clear, though. Are you planning on donating it (giving it away) ot selling it?

Guy

Not quite sure what you mean, Mr Martin G. You talk about giving it away, then you mention £8 per pin, which means you're selling it. If you're giving it away there probably isn't a problem. Even if you sell it for a penny you're in different teritory. Your local council may have said what they said...

I use one of these stainless steel hop filters. For some reason it's called a 'bazooka'!

Fits over the back of the tap in the boiler and works fine for me.

Guy

The usual advice is to drop the coil into the boiling wort about 15 minutes before turning the heat off. This can be a bit of a pain if hops are also being added at the same time. I find the hops all congregate inside the coil and I have to keep stirring them out. Is there any reason why the coil ca...

This is another advantage of having a closed FV with an airlock - the krausen ring never really dries out, and is easy to wash off provided you do it immediately after racking the beer out. Oh. I had an airlock on my FV, and washed it of within 20 minutes of racking. Still all crusty round the top!...