Jim's Beer Kit

If you can't find the kettles at Tesco, Woolworths have these for a fiver each. The elements are identical. http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee205/hogarth2525/kettles.jpg That's four elements for the price of one from H&G ... keep your inner Yorkshireman happy! By the way -- this confused me at fi...

Try filling it with 80 deg c water (outside) and you'll know for sure. I know people have used fermenters successfully though. Now why didn't I think of that? I just tried it with 5 litres of 99°C water, and although it loses a bit of rigidity I don't think it's anything to worry about. Thanks f...

My 3-tier brewery got its third tier this afternoon! Or, at least, I made the shelf for it: http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee205/hogarth2525/hlt-1.jpg Can anyone help with a couple of questions? My original plan was to stick an element (or two) in this old fermenter. But I vaguely remember someb...

BlightyBrewer wrote: I can't believe you licked your wall!!

All in the cause of science!

Can't say I noticed any volatile hop compounds, mind. The predominant flavours were paint and cheap bleach.

I'd set up a cheap HLT using an old plastic fermenting bucket and an element from beertech or H&G. I used my boiler as a HLT for ages and it was a PITA. I'm on to it already! But as you can see it's a bit of a squeeze: http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee205/hogarth2525/hlt.jpg Although I could pu...

But why dont you use your boiler for a HLT, I do.

I wondered this myself, while I was juggling four saucepans of hot water and trying to mix them to 72°C.

Thanks for all these helpful comments.

I did my first all grain brew yesterday. In the cause of seasonal merriment here are some photos of my clueless flounderings. The Recipe: Dave Lines London Pride: marris otter 3.5kg crystal 250gm demerara 250gm goldings 50gm 60 mins — 4.1% fuggles 20gm 60 mins — 4.5% goldings 15gm last...

Thanks DaaB. Clueless first AG brew to follow shortly...

That makes perfect sense! Thanks.

Thanks, Jim. I thought it might be something like that. Really this is a question about batch sparging. I've been reading DaaB's excellent introduction to it at 18000feet, but one thing puzzled me: why should you calculate the loss to evaporation and increase the quantity of wort accordingly? If it'...

Something that's been puzzling me ... when you boil the wort, what actually evaporates? I'd assumed it was just water vapour, but the stains on my wall have a brownish tinge, which suggests something else. Do the malt or the hops boil off too? (Not that I could taste either when I, um, had a lick.)

Actually -- I should have said -- it was from a little shop in Brixton market and I've no idea what sort of turnover they have. But you're right, I'm probably worrying unnecessarily!

Is there an easy test to find out if bleach has decayed? I've just bought a large bottle of it from the market. It was covered in dust, but I assumed that bleach lasted for ever. Apparently not!

Thanks DaaB!

Apologies for this clueless question, but I want to buy some hops -- standard varieties like Goldings, Fuggles, Styrian etc -- on the web, and the Hop & Grape shop has them vacuum packed in foil from the 2006 harvest. Are these going to be fresh enough, or should I be trying to get hops from this ye...