Jim's Beer Kit

Has Chris White at Whitelabs gone mad?!! Has his business sense deserted him, is he just trying to make a fast buck? I've just looked at the MM site and the WLP001 'next generation' is £13.95 a sachet. A 55% increase over the earlier version. Chris White claims it contains 7.5 million cells/ml. The ...

Hi Roger Nowadays I find that by lifting the lid and having a look, aided by a calendar, I get a pretty good idea of the state of the fermentation. Ian Completely with Ian on this. I used to have a 'Tilt'. It always got covered with yeast during fermentation and gave wrong readings. Watching the ra...

Good grief, Eric. If the slants produce that much head every time there's no way I could use one! My fermenter has 23 litres of wort/beer in it with only about 3-4 litres head space. There's a blow off tube which vents into a bucket, but a huge bucket would be needed if that much yeast was produced....

Personally, I can't stand the Wyeast smack packs. Never managed to break the inner pack, never managed to get a good fermentation.

Give me Whitelabs any day. Easy to use, always work.

Guy

MashBag wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 03, 2022 1:05 pm

I get that. I have to confess I don't check it at all.

Don't check what?!

Guy

MashBag wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 03, 2022 7:22 am

Big_Eight wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 02, 2022 8:22 pm

I agree you can't beat the thermapen; I repeat you can not beat the thermapen.

So you like it then?

Love my thermapen. Easy to use and allows me to check the temperature deeper into the mash, or wherever, than an IR theremometer.

Guy

Did you say you made wine in this quantity in an earlier post, MB? I'm just having trouble getting my head round everything you do! You make wine and beer, bread, pickles and kombucha. Did you once say you also make cheese? So, come on, tell us. Do you run a small (or large!) business doing all thes...

I am using warm vodka to extract the flavour from the hops then adding the vodka to the fermentation. Hop tea but with vodka not water. I discovered it by accident when I was blending beer. Amazing. I'm intrigued. How did you discover it 'by accident'? Which part of beer blending involves soaking h...

clarets7 wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 29, 2022 1:40 pm

Please enlighten us MB, just what do you ferment in your 500L FV?

And???

What's the answer?

Guy

Fermentation temperature is usually around 20C. Your friend's 'fridge won't need to work very hard to maintain this during the hotter months. Just getting it to turn on and off, as Cobnut suggests, should be fine. You can probably leave the 'fridge thermostat wherever you want-it won't be calibrated...

I am not sure if you have used one? I have for many years to great effect. They are also recommended by trading standards. Each to their own, of course. How do you use it, MB? And what is the recommendation given by trading standards? Probably for checking surface temperature of chilled meats, cook...

That's two of us advising against an IR gun, both for the same reason.

Guy

LeeH wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 27, 2022 7:36 am

Have you thought about ditching the percarbonate and using caustic/TFR?

No, I haven't. Is it more effective than percarbonate?

Only thing is, there's about 7kg of percarbonate in my brewing room!

Guy

Thanks again Jocky

Your suggestion makes a lot of sense now. Great explanation. Those camlocks aren't expensive so, next time I order from Malt Miller, I'll get some.

Guy

Thanks Jocky, but I don't really understand!

Surely it would still need PTFE tape on the threads and would still get all gunged up like before.

I'm probably just being thick, but wouldn't I still have to unscrew the fittings and remove the PTFE tape to clean it properly?

Guy