Jim's Beer Kit

Brewferm instructions recommend fermenting at 25C (yes, higher than I would have thought) so maybe 19C was a bit low for it?

I've wondered about this too, and like other are suspicious - why would it be cheaper than LME?

They sell a St Austell 'Proper Job' recipe pack here which they claim was reviewed/judged by the creator. It's spot-on (at least to my taste). Made it several times. Last time I took a few bottles on holiday and did an A/B comparison with Proper Job from a St Austell pub, pretty much identical. Nee...

I'm still new to this game and would like some advice if possible. I've had Admiral's Reserve in the fermentation vessel for the recommended 6 days and the SG this morning is 1020. Oh dear, it sounds like you have the classic Woodfordes "stuck brew": Woodfordes kits are well know for it, especially...

I hope you get more success than me: I got the Salifert kit and used the calculators, for whatever reason I ended up over-compensating and with a mash pH way lower than intended. O Level Chemistry was never my strong point! I've read and read the advice on water treatment but I really struggle with ...

I believe that it has cascade in the real stuff. There's a lot of debate about that. Wychwood list the hops on their website and say nothing about Cascade, only Fuggles & Styrians: https://www.wychwood.co.uk/beers/ Also, it's been around for quite a long time (90s maybe even the 80s), way before an...

Coopers do an approximation, not tried it but it looks passable
http://store.coopers.com.au/recipes/index/view/id/37/

If you're adding hops only 15mins from the end, does that mean you're only doing a 15min boil? Doesn't seem much point in boiling for, say, 45mins with no hops, and then adding the 15min hops - or have I missed something?

Glad I found this thread - Butty Bach is one of my favourite beers and Wye Valley my local-ish brewery :D I've cultivated their yeast before, managed it from a single bottle, gradually stepping it up. I've also had a shot at Butty, unfortunately the recipe (my own approximation) is on my other PC wh...

I've made an extract hefeweizen in the past several times with wheat dme/spraymalt. Turned out great, can't remember the brand of DME I used, maybe Youngs?

I used WLP300 the 2nd time, but the 1st time I used Danstar Munich dried yeast - think I actually preferred this.

I don't think you need to boil it, DME is a sterile product and I've made up loads of Extract recipes without boiling it, and they've produced fine beers. Some theories say that having some DME in the boil helps hop extraction, so for Extract brewing I usually put half in at the start of the boil an...

A suggestion for next time - rather than using brewing sugar, get some Maris Otter crushed grain and mash it at 66C for an hour in a saucepan, give the resultant liquid a quick boil to drive off any nasties, and use this with the kit. A cheap way to boost a kit, easy to do with kitchen equipment, wi...

Yes I'm a Nog fan, haven't done one for a while. I think you'll be OK for Christmas. I'd be tempted to give it a little tweak if you're after a Hobgoblin/Peculier type of brew, by using the final hop stages from the AG brewing process for either of those two: - Hobgoblin: 15g each of Styrian Golding...

This will work great. As Fil points out, this is a mini-mash, as grains like Maris Otter require mashing rather than steeping. Worth doing a bit of homework to work out which ones do and which ones don't. But irrespective of this, grain (and hop) additions to kits really improve them. And using the ...

I've only used M15 Empire Ale Yeast "A top-fermenting ale yeast suitable for a variety of full bodied ales, with exceptional depth. " I wasn't that impressed, was trying to get a real fruity English ale but the flavour was bland and the FG finished much higher than I was expecting. Went back to usin...