Jim's Beer Kit

You could consider a spare lid, one with an S30 valve. Saves a lot of hassle once you get the knack.
http://www.copperkettlehomebrewing.co.u ... 77fe5e1a65

Certainly worth incorporating decent interstage filtering, it is simple, inexpensive and will pay for itself over and over by reducing losses.
Cold break is possibly the inclusion for least concern, but you can't know that from experience unless you stop all the other crud first.

Can anyone else help or just tell me that your barrel pours like this? Your barrel shouldn't pour the way you describe, either the beer isn't producing enough CO2 or the barrel leaks gas. I normally cask a week to 10 days from pitching, priming with 50gm or so of sugar, then check daily to confirm ...

so i can use my tap water of 7.4 and adjust in the wort if needed,cheers neil Hi Neil, Most tap waters are suitable for brewing. It would be highly unusual if your water wasn't. Most waters can be bettered with treatment. Individual waters will be suited to brew a particular style of beer, the bigg...

pH 7 is neutral, a pH value of less than 7 is acidic, a measure (count) of free hydrogen ions, while one of more than 7 is basic and measures free hydroxile ions. Mix the two in water and the acid will donate hydrogen ions to the base and the resulting balance can be measured by the pH of the soluti...

That figure is a mean value of manganese in micrgrams per litre. It seems they nowhere provide a figure for magnesium, despite them assuring me on the telephone last week that they did. I'll be getting back to them about that as the water will contain some magnesium. I'd guess there was little in yo...

Work out what it costs per pint. Then decide if it's worth seeking an alternative.

Another Pensioner.

Yes, I too would like to know the answer to question 1. I think you are right and must start with a higher level of alkalinity, else you won't get the right pH at the start of the mash. The level will depend upon the kind and quantity of darker malts and the ratio of grain to liquor. What concerns m...

I would advise the use of CRS only when you know the amount of excess alkalinity in your water and safer still if you are also able to confirm that the desired alkalinity is retained for the style of beer being brewed. Water is called hard when it has a high content of dissolved minerals, soft water...

If I'm running low on volume during a boil, I add boiled water shortly before removing the heat. This avoids leaving the otherwise heavier gravity boiled wort in the hops. Never thought of the impact it might have on hops and aroma, perhaps more important on the scale you propose.

Well Stephen, as expected, I forgot to take the kit so brought back a sample and have just done some testing. Alkalinity was very low, quite difficult to measure with accuracy, but of the order of 10mg/l CaCO3 meaning you need more for any but the palest of beers. N. Water's figure for Calcium was 1...

Try it for yourself. Cut some aluminium/kitchen foil big enough to cover the top of the mash with an inch or so folded up both sides and ends of the cool box. At the end of the mash, with a sharp pointed knife, pierce about a dozen half inch regularly spaced slits in the foil, then pour on a half or...

If my memory helps me to take the gear tomorrow, while at our eldest daughter's home I'll do a test as they are on the same supply. While haze can be a product of excessive alkalinity, I wouldn't have thought it with your water, but could be wrong. When I can, I use it to wash my car for better resu...

Same source of water as your previous location Stephen. Northumbrian Water gives the following three figures in mg/l CaCO3 from 12 samples taken for alkalinity. Minimum 17........... just low of optimum for pale ales. Average 54............ Not wildly out for a vast range of British style beers. Max...

Pleased to learn of the potentially high extraction efficiency, that should be so if the figures you got are somewhwere near correct. Improvement shouldn't stop there, any calcium carried over will influence later processes, often for the better and the form in which the calcium is supplied will inf...