Jim's Beer Kit

Just a small update The yeast that has started to settle in the fermenter is a nice creamy colour rather than the brown mess that I'm usually seeing at this stage :) I'm hoping that this is another good sign that I might have finally cracked it in ridding myself of the flavour I've been getting........

I tried (ate some) krausen and yeast cake to see how they taste. The krausen was just really bitter but not really flavoured. The yeast cake tasted intensely beer-like (more than the beer) with a lot of hop and especially malt flavour. It was nice apart from the look and texture of untreated sewage...

I'm only a fan cos it allowed me to step from Partial mashes up to all grain without the 800 quid or so investment that a proper three vessel system that i have my eye on would have cost me. My brew kettle already cost me a lot, to turn that into a HERMS system with pumps etc was gonna cost me a hu...

Sounds like you are nailing it. With the temperature drop what you could try is a double wrap, first with a fluffy towel or something wrapped fairly tightly to hogtie the beast first, then a quilt as tight as possible. This avoids any 'voids' around the pot that can steal heat from the pot while th...

Not long got my 1st one on http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=38055 It really was so easy compared to how I was doing my previous brews. My extraction was a little lower but I believe there are ways to get it back without much effort. I'll definately be doing BIAB again Cheers Tom

My last brew a lot of break material made it out of the boiler as the hop strainer blocked and I had to keep using the spoon to unblock it, this caused a lot of the break to get through and the wort was quite turbid, I'm kegging it soon so I'll know if it's done any damage, I doubt it on past exper...

I've never seen so much gunk! I put everything from the boiler to the FV so I assume that my hop bags are acting as some sort of filter to reduce the amount of break material :S Keep us all posted with the new batch off beer. I will look into what smells/tastes I get at the bottom of the fermenter ...

Not sure if it's of any use to you but when I did my last brew I realised that I'd made a simple error with my prevoius one....... I hadn't read my thermometer correctly so during my mash I was reading 168f rather than 68c. Rather high for a 90 min mash :( Simple error made by rushing and not taking...

Good on you for having a crack at it Tom, hope it works out! :=P The BIAB bag should capture all the significant grain debris (so the husk and kernel remnants) as it is lifted out, floury particles which do pass through tend to aggregate during the boil and flocculate as hot break during the coolin...

The-Apprentice wrote:Well done for having a go at it mate What was your SG?

It ended up a shade low at 1.039. Beer engine says 1.042 @ 75% efficiency. Not sure how my brew works out, 70 ish maybe?

Cheers Tom

Sounds good Soupdragon, i'm thinking of trying this BIAB method. Got any pics of your setup? Cheers, Mark He he not as yet, I'm shy :wall There's nothing to take photo's of really. It's just a 15ltr stockpot with a square yard of voile draped inside and held in place with a bungee strap. 12.5ltrs o...

That's the mash done and my bag squeezed :wink: Temp was down to 60c at the end of the mash so I'll dig out some thicker insulation for next time :) 25 grams of Target are in and the boil has settled down from the foaming mass it was. Don't know why but this one foamed a LOT more than my usual mash...

All smells very nice at the moment, as it should.
Irish moss went in 15 mins before the end of boil, now got the pot in the sink cooling. Shouldn't take too long in this weather
I hope the voile takes most of the break out without me having to clean it too often.....

Cheers Tom

That's the mash done and my bag squeezed :wink: Temp was down to 60c at the end of the mash so I'll dig out some thicker insulation for next time :) 25 grams of Target are in and the boil has settled down from the foaming mass it was. Don't know why but this one foamed a LOT more than my usual mashe...

A fair few people use plate chillers and this causes the cold break to form as it pases throught the plates and this, in turn, all ends up in the FV. I think more people that use plate chillers get top results so not sure that break material is the soul problem here. BTW, who is this Black Cat Brew...