Jim's Beer Kit

Attenuation is affected mainly by the type of yeast, ingredients and mash time/temperature/type.

Seeing as you have 79% attenuation, I suspect your wort was just a bit more fermentable than normal. What was the recipe?

If everything else went well, the beer should still taste fine

It's definitely a marmite yeast. I like it in stouts, not in pales though.

I've not settled on a basic beer for a standard bitter , I try changing things too much and also brew them rather infrequently. I personally would limit crystal to about 5% and don't like flaked barley. Although some torrified wheat is nice for mouthfeel. I've found the dry yeasts a bit lacking indi...

I've frozen fresh hops in the past and they did actually work fine in a brew - no vegetal off flavours which I have seen mentioned before about that method. The problem is fresh hops take up about 4x as much space as dried hops due to the water content I have a cheap andrew james, 6 level dehydrator...

I have a few trees in my allotment where we had limited space and train them as cordons. You need to select the right type of tree for that though (spur bearing). You can fit more varieties into the space then, if you want that

If it gets old I wouldn't use more of it in a starter, rather use a small amount and do a stepped starter, ie 100ml>1L . The less old yeast in your brew the better!

I got some from lidl, sainsbos and tesco.

The lidl ones were legitimately hidden, really hard to find for some reason. They were near the veg aisle though. i'm sure I saw aldi had some as well but I allready have enough now

The Ritchies stuff is 64 brix I think. the sainsburys grape juice I just bought is 15 brix. So a little over 4x as much sugar

No Maris Piper Laird?

:0

I've always used lactic acid due to Glasgow water being so soft. It's also handy for use in beers if you want a bit of that lactic tang and don't use a yeast that is a big lactic acid producer. Also used it in bread making too as a flavour component and when making invert.

You might hate me even more, check out biershopbayern.de they are good for fresh bavarian beer. Although it looks like berlin has you covered! Weak pound doesnt help though for us in the uk the beers cost about £3 each after shipping. Still worth it though for scratching that itch One thing i notice...

This website is good for franconia as a whole, they also have a very old school discussion forum

http://www.franconiabeerguide.com/

Franconia as a whole is still my favourite beer destination

Annafest is worth going to, start at the top and work your way down

I was thinking of using that one.

I did like the kolsch yeast when I used it, not felt the need to revisit the real ale and us pale again though.

Been wanting a pH meter but the price of the voltcraft has been putting me off, has anyone on this forum/other uk forums used that one LeeH?