Jim's Beer Kit

Cider yeast, both when making TC and more recently, making a Magnum Cider kit with added apple juice, both give me that farty smell. Is dissipates in the bottle / keg after 3 weeks or so. Interestingly, I made a TC with champagne yeast and it didn't have this, and was much nicer, but took longer to ...

Biamoasta ~ yours appears to have much better head retention than mine, but hopefully this may improve a bit as time goes on. As for the socks idea, Monkeybrew, I'm afraid he know it's coming so that's a non starter! Still, I didn't promise an exact quantity, lol. If the lack of head situation doesn...

And it looks like this ~ sorry about the crappy photography!;

1 tsp per demi should be fine, that's what I add for plum wine.

Beerjam, did you treat the blended plums with pectolase / pectic enzyme? The reason I ask is because plums make amazingly good jam because they are jam (ho ho) packed with pectin, which in a wine, is a recipe for cloudyness. Still, some of the best ciders are cloudy, so whadda I know!

Well, cracked one open tonight, after 3 weeks in the bottle. Dad's birthday isn't until September (the something, can't remember, lol) which is good because although it has the perfect level of carbonation, the head doesn't hang around long. Mind you, the last imperial stout I had, a Sam Smiths (whi...

I'm just conditioning a barrel of Magnum Apple Cider. It needs 1.3 Kg of sugar (from memory) so I substituted 900g of that by using 10L of Lidl 'Apple juice from concentrate', which works out about right, as although it didn't state the natural sugar content on the cartons, it's about 90 - 100g per ...

I use tap water, but 'de-chlorinate' it by adding half a teaspoon of campden powder per 25 L and leaving it for 30 mins. As this involves having another sanitized FV to hand, you might like to use bottled water, but it's up to you. You might be lucky and live in an area where they don't think that t...

Another recomendation for Coopers Dark Ale, do it with 1kg of Medium Dry Malt Extract and 250g of demorera sugar. Leave in FV for 2 weeks, plus 3-4 in the bottle / keg, but it will keep getting better and better after this.

I leave mine to condition for 2 weeks at room temp (to kick off the carbonation), then however long I can stand in an outside barn which is pretty cool, temperature wise. However, the stuff I keg is just left in the kitchen until it is ready, which is at constant room temp. It takes longer to clear,...

I've done this kit with 1Kg of Medium dry malt plus 250g of unrefined sugar, and it wasn't half bad. I've also used it in my stout mega brew, but that's an entirely different story

The smell is probably the yeast, which can go through various pongs throughout it's fermentation process. 6 days plus a week in the bottle is pretty young (very young, if I'm honest), so you may well find that the smell will disappear with time. Top marks for a first attempt, though, glad you had a ...

Without wishing to defend the shop (who's yeast comments is just bananas), Coopers Euro Lager is, in my very humble opinion, most like the brand that is definitely not featured on the label on the tin ( :wink: ) if you use 1Kg of Brewing Sugar (Dextrose). It is the only kit I would say this about, t...

I've read 10%, by weight, Crabs, but that's just what I've read. It's what I'm going to do this year, anyway.

Well, in the absence of any stern warnings to the contrary, I did this. Looking at various supermarket apple juices, you are looking at about 100g per litre (not 200g as I said above ~ doh!). So as Lidl had their cheap stuff on special offer, I brought a case. The kit needs 1.3kg of sugar, so I bang...