" Ditch's Stout " Master Class .....

[tazzymutt]

Thanks for the reply Ditch.

As for slimy water in the trug, a small slop of bleach stops anything growing in it so it gets a little discoloured, but nothing I'm going to lose sleep over. I might have more of a concern if I had an FV with a tap for bottling, but I never saw the sense in making a hole in the side of an FV, that's just another potential point of failure to me.

With regards to priming the barrel, I'm really not too fussed about having a load of foam on top of my beer; I don't shave so why would I need that? My only reason to prime is to ensure there is no nasty oxygen sitting on my beer and spoiling it...

Thanks for sharing your thoughts over the last couple of books worth of forum,


Ian.

[WalesAles]

Hello Everyone,
Just got home at 6.40am from a 12hr night shift. Oooooh I`m tired, opened back door and there is my Barrel of DS, Hmmm,Everyone in bed, I think a sample is in order! What a lovely pint at this time of the day! I need a shower after work, wife comes downstairs, says `check the oil on the car please`. `OK, No probs love`. Job done, Another pint for `Quality Control`. Wait til my boy gets out of shower, another pint for `Taste Test`. My boy jumps in car `Dad, the Clutch has gone on my car`. Father-in-law tows us to the garage (only 1 mile away). I get home, wife and daughter gone to Cardiff shopping, another pint just to be sure that it was tasting OK. I`m going to have a bath because I think I might fall down in the shower! Good stuff this DS!
WA

[Ditch]

Yep. As Roger Waters himself once put it; " Come at the end of the shift; We'll go and get pissed! "

[WalesAles]

Bought a mixing paddle / stirrer on fleabay from `Chopshoptools2011` £3.47 inc P&P.Ordered it Tuesday night, it was here on thurs morning. Cheap as chips, don`t know how long it will last, trying it out later on today. Worth a look!
WA

[tazzymutt]

Bought a mixing paddle / stirrer on fleabay from `Chopshoptools2011` £3.47 inc P&P.Ordered it Tuesday night, it was here on thurs morning. Cheap as chips, don`t know how long it will last, trying it out later on today. Worth a look!
WA

Do you have a link? The only mixer I could see listed was painted (not good if it flakes) and significantly more expensive (£5.25 + £2.50 postage). My local B&Q is cheaper than that.

Happy brewing,


Ian.

[WalesAles]

Hello Tazzy,
Don`t know how to link but Item No. on fleabay is 221165041886 view sellers shop as chopshoptools2011. Hope this helps.
WA

[tazzymutt]

Hello Tazzy,
Don`t know how to link but Item No. on fleabay is 221165041886 view sellers shop as chopshoptools2011. Hope this helps.
WA

Perfect! Thanks.

I had found the right Ebay shop, but a search did not then bring up the mixers; curious... However, the item number did the deed and my order is now placed. To save anyone else searching, you can find it here.

Happy brewing,


Ian.

[Ditch]

Christ, that's a good deal, lads! And that's exactly the one I've got!

Ye'll find they do get a little bit of rust, or something, down amongst the twisty bits. So what? Don't let it bother ye! Doesn't me.

My one lives on the kitchen counter and, when ever I want to use it, I mist spray it with Iodaphor (or what ever that stuff's called) and crack on. It's probably holding micro particles of dust then? Certainly has some brown stuff in there. Doesn't matter a f**k. Trust me on this. I've made 100's of gallons of my gear this way now. Never had a wrong'n

[tazzymutt]

Ditch,

Any thoughts on priming the pressure barrel? I know you don't, but I doubt I will be able to drink this stuff as fast as you do (if for no other reason than my missus would give me more grief than I need). I'm really not fussed about a head on the beer, just want it to stay fresh to the bottom of the barrel.

Happy brewing,


Ian.

[Ditch]

Like (I think?) I've said earlier, mate; I'm not against priming the keg. I just don't bother myself, these days.

To revise: I used to use CO2. Found ~ as ever, with that stuff ~ I was either getting half a pint of gushing foam. Took me half the night just to fill a glass with beer.

Then, I had shit with getting CO2. So I just gave up and started drinking my stuff 'flat'. Been doing that for years now. Fine by me.

Now; You plan to prime yours with a bit of sugar? Great. Sounds like a plan, to me You go for it, mate. Maybe, if it had occurred to me to do that, I'd have been saying the same myself?

Because, I imagine, if ye get it right? That should give ye that blanket of longer lasting CO2 ye looking for. Yet it *shouldn't* carbonate the f**k out of ye beer.

Yeppers. You crack on, mate. I'm confident that what ye'll produce there will be well within the realms of what I'd recognise as what I produce and like


Between you and me ....? Just now it's getting the balance of the serving temperature that's giving me grief! I store my stuff in an unheated room and am drinking it in a room hovering between 55 / 65 F. Beer's so cold it's searing my throat!

I'm now seriously thinking about putting a low set heater into the FV I'm decanting my pints from. This is Not how I like to drink my stout. I'd hate to think of anyone else out there going to all the trouble to produce a 'perfect Ditch's Stout' too. Then go and suck a glass of crushed ice!


Ditch's Stout; Mastered By No One ~ Yet. Not Even Ditch!

[avtovaz]

ditch, what about 2 glasses? Fill two, by the time the first is empty, the second should be warm?

[WalesAles]

Christ, that's a good deal, lads! And that's exactly the one I've got!

Ye'll find they do get a little bit of rust, or something, down amongst the twisty bits. So what? Don't let it bother ye! Doesn't me.

My one lives on the kitchen counter and, when ever I want to use it, I mist spray it with Iodaphor (or what ever that stuff's called) and crack on. It's probably holding micro particles of dust then? Certainly has some brown stuff in there. Doesn't matter a f**k. Trust me on this. I've made 100's of gallons of my gear this way now. Never had a wrong'n

Praise from Yoda, Stout Master. Tazzy, He is our Father!
WA

[avtovaz]

oh ditch, i went shopping today, ended up in wlkos as the home brew supermarket is shut on amonday. anyway, i saw coopers stout, white can. I had bought the first time coopers irish stout...


oh er, which do you use?

[Ditch]

It's not the end of the world, vazzer. Personally, I think I find the differences more subtle than most people. I simply prefer the straight stout. So, I wouldn't want to pay the premium price for the " Irish " one.

I've made them both, my identical way. I personally preferred my original, plain stout.

[avtovaz]

£13 for the stout, £4 for the medium mault, and i already had some brewing sugar!


So im going to test my fish tank haeter over the next few days and then start with the brew! thanks mate!!!