Jim's Beer Kit

IPA wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 07, 2023 7:49 am

I've got two of them for controlling fermentation. The probe is in a thermowell and they control the temperature to within+/- 0.5 °C

Yes, they control fermentation very well, the issue is with controlling mash temperature which they are not really designed for I guess

I have 2 Inkbird ITC-308's for controlling my fermentation fridge's. They do a pretty good job of keeping them within a narrow range. One has a weird issue though where every now and then the temperature display will shoot up a couple of degrees, turn the fridge on and then shoot back down to where ...

I think the yeast strain will be critical for correct flavour and as you last drank this when it was owned by Whitbread then perhaps Wyeast 1099 might be a good choice, maybe somebody more knowledgeable has different information though?

The 4th Ed. of The Real Ale Almanac lists Higson's under Castle Eden Brewery but I can find no mention of this elsewhere. Both Higson's and Castle Eden were aquired by Whitbread in the 60's so there may well have been some connection there. Whitbread closed Higson's in 1990. The brand has been throu...

MashBag wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 01, 2023 9:05 pm

I thought they had a branch up t'North?!?

Dunno but I did just find this but no indication of any stores as far as I can see.
https://www.independent.ie/business/iri ... 75742.html

MashBag wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 16, 2023 7:11 am

Loughran Brewers select.

Find a branch, if they are near enough, collect. Great bunch. £50 for 2 sacks of pale last week.

Do they have branches, I only know of their warehouse in Peterborough

I'll try and give them another prod and see if owt comes of it... I rang Severn Trent recently and they were very helpful. You need to speak to the Water Quality Team, they said I could ring any time I need the info and they are open 8am to 4pm Mon - Fri Direct Line 024 777 16744 Their numbers were...

I can report that Neil is currently doing water analysis, in fact I have just today sent a sample off, next batch date is 14th June

I have an OSH clone 4 days into fermentation, it was my own recipe tweeked more from Roger Protz Real Ale Almanac then GW In the Almanac Protz lists Brewing Sugar, which I am sure would have been invert sugar, in fact in the early edition of GW & RP Brew your own real ale at home, it lists Invert Su...

Oh dear, now you have me paranoid about drinking bottled homebrew

Anyone can make cloudy beer,I made loads when I started 50 years ago, now it gives me extreme pleasure to brew beer that can be poured from a bottle to the last drop with no trace of sediment in the glass. Something I have yet to find in a commercial brewery's beer. I suppose it's a bit late to com...

Terrific post Eric, there cannot be too much of this kind of information and that will be integrated into some of my brews. I wonder who holds the copyright to Grahams unpublished book, there must be appetite enough for somebody to take this to print.

That's right, but IIRC I manually adjust the sparge water volume. The recipe shows, say, 12L sparge water + 6L top-up (post boil), but I add a further 2L to give total sparge water (in the water calculation area) of 20L. Without this adjustment, I think the water calculator doesn't account for the ...

Here's an example recipe: https://share.brewfather.app/LZ7XVXfXzrtbpn I always adjust the sparge water volume in my BF recipes; I add a couple of litres in the water calculation area and the salt additions get adjusted. This is to account for a bit of dead space below the tap in my sparge water hea...

I use a Grainfather which is usually good for 23L batches with ease - less if you want to brew a really strong ale! - but I have also made 30L batches by creating a stronger than normal wort and liquoring back post boil. I heat my sparge water in a separate "tea boiler" (which used to be used for B...