Jim's Beer Kit

I may be getting a wee bit picky here. Orlando mentioned a stir plate to get oxygen in for the yeast to thrive. If the yeast is generating carbon dioxide , then this heavy gas will be sitting on the liquid and contained in the bottle , forming a barrier between the liquid and fresh air, just like i...

Personally, I let my starters ferment out fully and then let the yeast settle out, so that (a) I maximise yeast growth, which is the whole point of a starter in the first place, and (b) I can decant most of the starter rather than pitching it all into my beer. If you're pitching before you've even r...

I just don't know what kind of heat the yeast generates. I've seen up to 4 degrees over ambient, in a typical uninsulated 25L fermenting bin. Plus if you put an 80W heater in, heating the beer via the surrounding air, and controlled by a simple on / off controller, you're probably going to get at l...

Yeah, mashing in at around 68 should probably do the job.

yeah i reckon there is efinitely something in that. i hadn't planned on such a low mash temperature, but wasn't worried enough to care that specific day. but having mashed at different temperatures (65C-69C) with all pale grists before i still find it surprising that a couple of degrees could have ...

Yes. Sterilise the dishes (unless you're using disposables), sterilise the medium, and then pour the plates once the medium has cooled somewhat. That way you don't and up with plates that are full of condensation, nor do you spill them all over the place when loading or unloading the autoclave. Usua...

Sterilizing and pouring plates is a pain in the backside. I do not use the pour and pressure cook method of making plates. It leads to too much internal condensation forming on the inside of one's plates. I dry sterilize my glass petri dishes in the oven @ 350F for 90 minutes and allow them to cool...

I've been looking at the setup you use gregorach, seems to suit my needs as I don't have space for a full size cylinder and don't really fancy having all that o2 knocking around... How long does a disposable bottle last you, usually? Trying to work out if the cost outweighs the benefit. Dunno, I'm ...

I put a stainless scrubbie behind the fine screen in my hop rocket... And I can run off just fine under gravtiy with 100g of hops in it.

It could be the mash temp, yes. Difficult to say for certain given the variability of mash temperature measurement...

I have no idea - I've still got about a hundred.

Just checked my box of Whatman filter papers... Unfortunately the box is completely unlabelled.

IIRC, Blichmann recommend cleaning with PBW after every use, and a flush with citric acid every 6 uses. My cleaning regime after use is to backflush with hot water for several minutes in each direction, then recirculate with hot Brupaks Bruclean (which is very similar to PBW) for 15 minutes in each ...

Sorry, totally forgot about this... I've always found coffee filters very prone to clogging, but then I was using the disposable ones.

If you continuously top crop a yeast it will lose its ability to floculate. According to the yeast book and everything else I've read. They do this all year with the same original batch of yeast? I'm not sure that's right... Top cropping yeasts are usually good flocculators. Cropping from a seconda...