Jim's Beer Kit

Well since the yeast had just been pitched, I wouldn't have thought that it would yet have an active fermentation. I do ferment on plastic yes. The logo on the bottom of the Ritchies barrel has the correct accreditation showing it is supposedly foodsafe. I suppose I could go down the stainless steel...

Hi, I've got a spare kegerator that doubles as a fermenting chamber sometimes. I use heat bulbs like the ones you get for reptiles to provide the heat. Unfortunately some months ago, some beer line and gaffa tape came in to contact with the heatbulb causing a residue to become stuck to the bulb. Whe...

Ok, so this time I filled to 25L, drained off 2 and sparged with 3 litres. This with a 60 minute boil gave me about 18L in the fermenter BUT I was doing the boil inside this time so there's a chance it was more vigerous because of that. So next time I think I'll sparge with 4.5 litres and see if tha...

No reply from brewbuilder. The mangrove jack one has been returned. I've gone for a slightly different solution. Speidel offer a filter that goes over the tap opening. I've gone for that one as it should be good
Quality and avoids restricting the hops.

Looks similar to the mangrove jack one. I've emailed them to ask about the quality of the metal hoops. Thanks for the link.

Your ideas are all possibilities but I want to use a hop spider!

Just got one of these today.. Have to say I'm thinking of sending it back. The mesh looks great but the stainless steel hoops that hold the shape of it together look dull and rough. It looks like it's been very badly filed at the factory. I'm not sure I'd be happy to presume that it's really good qu...

(I know you said 6 litres but my boil time is shorter)

I'm only doing 60 minute boils. I'm not convinced so far that I have been losing as much as four litres when boiling. I boil outdoors with the heat jacket and domed stainless steel lid on but I don't think the boil is as vigorous as my old gas burner and stockpot set up which I used to lose 5 litres...

Thanks Norm that's just the sort of advise I was hoping for. I'm an experienced extract brewer but totally new to all grain and braumeister.

Thanks, I used 3.4KG of grain. When you use 21.5L, do you use 6l of sparge water? I'm thinking maybe I'll follow your lead next time. I just want enough wort in my fermenter to fill a 19l corny keg. More volume is not desirable because I have to find somewhere to put it. However, I only want to use ...

Thanks for the reply. I have a 20l model. I'm trying to brew a 19l batch. I'm doing as you say regarding leaving the filters on for sparge. From what you say, are you suggesting that for a 19l batch I should initially fill with 19l water? Or go with the method in the link ... http://www.speidelbraum...

Just started brewing with my Braumeister this week. Got a couple of newbie questions if anyone could please help? I read that the efficiency of my mash is likely to be low so I sparged using a kettle at 70c as Norm suggests in other posts. Both brews, I've ended up with way to much volume post boil....

They seem to have changed the Loweswater Gold recipe this year. I had it on cask a couple of months ago in the lakes in two different pubs. It's still a lovely beer but I couldn't detect any of the tropical fruit flavours that it used to have. Makes me suspect they are trying to phase that element o...

As already said 6psi is pretty subtle for one of these regulators. Mine seem happy with small accurate adjustment down to 10psi but after that it's pretty inaccurate I think.