Jim's Beer Kit

Ditto.

Steveicky wrote: I then pitched this directly into my next brew and to my shock it was fermenting within 2 hours. How much? I pitched about half the yeast cake from a previous brew. It was about 400ml into 50L of OG 1048, which I think was way over what i should have pitched based on the Mr Malty c...

Got the first page, unsure if there might be anything on pages 2 or 3. New to you? I might have been around a long time but I'm no old hand at this, just want to help if I can. You want to know alkalinity in mg/l CaCo3 (which is what I presumed you had), and the amount of calcium, magnesium, sodium,...

I then pitched this directly into my next brew and to my shock it was fermenting within 2 hours. How much? How do you tell how much viable yeast there is and should be? What margin of error isn't significant? have a look through the Mr Malty web site.it's thee web page of Jamil Zainasheff author of...

That link wasn't very friendly, it wouldn't let me see anything and didn't want to let me go. The information in your post is of limited use, manganese and pH are usually irrelevant. Alkalinity is important and while that water is suitable for the palest beers, it would benefit by a slight increase ...

Glad it's going Guy. Here too the vial is pitched directly into the FV, which I believe should retain enough viable yeast for a 5 U.S. gallon brew at the best by date. I don't know much on this subject, but wonder what and how much I should learn. Unless an 80 mile round trip is done to select one o...

Did you do your best to get some oxygen into the wort? My last two different White Labs took longer than this. Keep it covered and look for white specks on the surface tomorrow morning. Hopefully you'll be top cropping to refill that vial before long.

Adam, it seems to me your water contains only half the calcium necessary, so I'd suggest you invest in some gypsum and mix a well heaped teaspoonful with your grain before you mash (assume 23 litre brewlength). You should then get better extraction and hop utilisation to more than cover the addition...

I've got it thanks to you Adam. It still doesn't detail magnesium, which surprises me as our water is from a bore hole into possibly the biggest bit magnesian limestone in the country. Yes, the variations are significant, but I would guess your alkalinity will be mostly suitable for brewing without ...

It might be easy for you Adam, but I'll have to try again later because I've just gone around in a circle. Right, 3 readings from 12 samples for alkalinity in mg/l CaCO3.......... minimum 18, average 48, maximum 82. Readings from 4 samples for calcium in mg/l Ca.......................... minimum 15,...

Hi Adam, from where did you get those figures? This morning Northumbrian Water telephoned me in response to a request for such data and promised to email me a report on Friday. It seems they alter their web information frequently and much of the scant data downloaded less than 2 weeks since has gone...

Yes, I think you are asking how long an apprenticeship you should serve doing kits before taking the plunge. If that is so, the answer is given above. You will learn some aspects of brewing from kits and extract, but AG is the total process, analogous to making a meal with skill from fresh ingredien...

Agree with that Fil, would also be surprised if it was the element that rusted, could it not be a stain? I'd at least give it a good rub with one of those plastic pan scrubs and then in a waterbath with citric acid crystals.

Lactose won't ferment and could be responsible for up to 7 points of your FG. From what you say, I believe your SO4 has done what it does. Adding sugar will make it more alcoholic if that's a priority and as you suggest, some other yeast might take it further down. It could be a really good drink as...

I wouldn't have thought adding water to reduce gravity would reduce the fermentabilty of sugars in the wort, but wonder if that more violent heat could caramelise or otherwise convert simple sugars to more complex ones.