Jim's Beer Kit

Hi all, I decided to clear out my bits and bobs of malt and hops, basically anything leftover from other brews and either out of date or very nearly! So I put together a leftovers RIS of sorts using: pale malt 3000g roast barley 1100g wheat malt 375g chocolate malt 350g caramalt 300g carared malt 25...

Last autumn I made cider from fruit for the first time, I collected apples in fermenting bins and I reckon I got 5 gallons from roughly 3 bins of apples. So 1 from 3 by volume, I never weighed them though, I did pears too and I got 22 litres from 2 bins full. Pears are much juicier!
Hth

I found the most important thing to remember is that steam loves to condense, so whatever extraction system you use try to minimise the cold surfaces (ie metal) or you'll have to cope with drip catchers , condensation drains etc. I tried a few things, making hoods to catch steam, fitting drip trays ...

Have you seen this?
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=69638

Hi cider man, Totally agree with oldbloke, I tried using a good quality juicer a few years ago, it did work but was agonisingly slow and I gave up in the end. I ended up reading through all the posts on here about making your own scatter to pulverise the apples and a press to extract the juice and f...

Loads of 'how to' stuff on the equipment thread. Read through a load of different self build threads and get a good idea of what you'd like to try. I recommend doing a cheap as chips job to start with then use it for a while, and when you begin to see what's wrong with it your next build will iron o...

Chivelegs, if I'm not too late I'm pretty sure I have one or two burco simmerstats floating around, you're welcome to one if you want it, BTW they're used working ones not new
Lg
YUP - got a working spare controller that matches yours - if you want it let me know !

I use them for my RIS brews, they do take standard caps. Pay heed to ayepee though, don't get the twistcap bottles

If you turn it upside down you get the liquid butane/propane coming out of the gas jets rather than the gas vapour-, usually known as a flamethrower. I did this once with a blowtorch that used disposable gas canisters. Absolutely terrifying!, a small diy blowtorch with a 3-4 foot jet of flame. God k...

Not much of a muchness beware, most cheap coolboxes are twin walled with air between, the good ones are foamfilled. The air filled ones won't hold temperature at all for a mash. The foam filled ones are generally excellent. Look for ones that boast 5day performance, Coleman xtreme, igloo maxcold, an...

Thanks everyone

If it's chilling but not freezing reliably then either the thermostat is faulty or the refridgerant is starting to leak. If it's the first then you could replace the stat using an stc1000, fit a heater too and bingo you've got a multipurpose fermentation \chiller\ temp controlled cabinet. That's a v...

I've just bought a 5l mini keg of wheat beer from lidl and I'm worrying about the instructions . it says to open the valve on the top, to release pressure, then pull out the tap and pour the beer. My concern is the first bit. If I open the pressure vent will the beer not go flat? I'm not going to be...

I imagine you've already thought of it but you could put the pump on the chiller output, the wort should be down to a very manageable temp by then?

Yes trust it. You will always get temperature variations depending when and where you take the readings, just opening the door will trigger changes in air temp, but not so quickly in liquids. Don't forget digital readings which measure to one degree are by their nature rounding up or down to a singl...