Jim's Beer Kit

How much of the above applies to kegs vs bottles? I bottle excusively and wondered if using fining agent (Inc gelatine) in secondary affected carbonation. Obviously not an issue if kegging.

Pat

I went through the brupacks trials and went the same way - I use it as the HLT and it runs via PID control. My existing 50 litre Kettle is just being converted to electric and I'm going with the 3kw lwd element from brewbuilder just to avoid any future issues if I'm unlucky enough to move to a hard ...

Have used both QD and camlock and much prefer the camlock. Never had one leak on me and on the hot duties, the arms make it easy to hold without getting any hot liquid on your skin when moving them. Take off the key rings though as they will get in the way, no matter how tempting it is to leave one ...

thought it might be more relevant here than in the bargains bit; just picked this up for kindle.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/CloneBrews-2nd ... one++brews

Pat

Hmmm. Missed the lack of earthing. Cover was going to be a fabrication, but on closer inspection it's a non-starter. Back to Brewbuilder then?!

Pat

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Heating-Elem ... 1438.l2649

looks ok; long element length gives lwd if not ulwd. Stainless construction and not too large a hole to cut. Anyone tried one?

Pat

Firstly thanks to all contributors - loads for me to absorb. My main take aways are; 1) Kolsch is more beer than lager, but lagering is unlikely to make it worse..... sounds like sampling may be in order! 2) Up the Vienna. I'm thinking 50:50 now. 3) Do a DAR after 5 days if only to get a dry finish ...

Going from gas to electric and therefore need a 3kw stainless element. Whilst the obvious is stainless, there are plenty of other materials to consider - as an engineer I'm used to using a variety of alloys for corrosion resistance, but to make the right selection, you need to know what you're up ag...

I can't get a bubbler on mine either so I use a blow off tube. As you cool, it will just lift some fluid back up the tube. If you are really worried, just pipe the blow off from your IPA through the kolsch until it's at a steady 2 degC.

Pat

Thanks for the reply.

Transfer off the yeast after 2 weeks and then lager is fine, but what temp after diacetyl rest for the balance of the 2 weeks initial fermentation?

Pat

1st ever lager, so thought I'd try a kolsch. Standard recipe, but it's the fermenting/lagering schedule I'd like comments on. 4000g Pilsner 500g wheat 40g Saaz @ 60 10g Saaz @ 10 10g Hallertau Traditional @ FO. OG 1049 FG 1009 CML kolsch yeast 4-5 days @ 15degc (basically end of primary fermentation...

sorry to resurrect an old thread - looking at selector (on/off) switches for the elements and I'm struggling to find anything over 10 A - I want to run 3kw so need 16A switches and cannot find anything that doesn't look too industrial. Any pointers?

Pat

Another tactic is to use a hop spider. That way you can recirculate from the base back into the spider (sub surface to avoid hot side aeration/oxidation) and only require a guard filter at the base. Simples!

Pat

Cheers all for the replies - largely what I expected in that it will always come down to "if you can't taste it, it probably isn't there". My latest brew has 150g dry hop, so I'm limiting it to 5 days then bottle - the potential to go wrong us bigger so I'm not risking it!
Pat

My usual brew schedule is the simple - 2 weeks FV, 2 weeks warm, 2 weeks as cool as I can find then drink (these last 2 weeks are negotiable!). I generally bottle. This has yielded some great results to date especially having gone AG, and I'm now trying to cut out mistakes/variations so I can better...