Jim's Beer Kit

I did a test mash today to test the Spotless water and the RO water profile in Brewfather, so I thought I would give a quick update in case anyone else is thinking of using Spotless. I also used DWB for the first time, so I was interested in seeing how Brewfather would cope with that. I didn't do a ...

Understood - thanks PeeBee.

Thanks very much Guy and PeeBee. I think I will have to just test it out. Assuming that Spotless probably isn't completely devoid of any minerals, I'll probably start with the Bru'n water/Brewfather profile for RO and build up the minerals to match a profile and see what happens. At least with Spotl...

Thanks very much for the great answer PeeBee. The reason I'm looking at RO water is my tap water is very unpredictable as it apparently comes from multiple sources and can be quite different from one month to the next. I used to ask Severn Trent for the latest figures before every brew, but they flu...

I know a few people here use Spotless water so I wanted to ask a few questions: 1. How do you build your water profile from it - mix it with local water, add DWB, or build it from scratch with calcium, chloride, etc? 2. Is it totally clear of all minerals as they say on their website - everything do...

Best advice I can give on this one is find a recipe for a commercial example that you like and go from there. Assuming the recipe is legit*, a good starting point would be to keep the mass values of anything added at 20 minutes or less, and change for the hops of your choice. Then modify the bitter...

Thanks very much for the replies everyone - some good points. I use the 66% (roughly) bitterness mentioned in the Brew Like a Monk book for Belgian beers and it does seem to work for that style which made me wonder about other styles. But as you have all mentioned, there are a lot of variables and p...

MashBag wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 20, 2024 7:39 am

Chris

That's a good thought, but it isn't something I have heard of.

Modern hop types & strengths vary so wildly, I think it would be of little help.

Just my tuppence

Ok thanks Mashbag.

I recommend 20 gr white sugar dissolved in a little boiling hot water and stirred gently into the 10 litres of beer before bottling. Every online calculator I have seen advises far too much priming sugar. You could even split the batch in two and try my ratio against the online calculator. Then you...

Rookie wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 17, 2024 4:06 pm

The amount seems about right.
After five months and with 9.3% you may want to consider adding some fresh yeast.

Thanks very much Rookie.

I brewed my first ever English barley wine about five months ago and it has been sitting in a 10 litre carboy since then. I'm starting to think about bottling it soon so I just used an online priming sugar calculator to get some idea of how much dextrose I should use and it is showing 59.69 grams. I...

Hello, Is there such a thing as a ratio between bittering hops and aroma hops when designing a recipe? I understand that some styles will have more of one than the other, but generally speaking is there something to aim for? For example, in the book 'Brew like a monk' it suggests aiming for 66% bitt...

Ok thanks very much.

I know that a few people on here use Ashbeck and I have been trying it myself recently for my last four brews, but I have come across an issue that I wondered if anyone else had experienced. Every time I do a brew with this water my mash ph is always about 0.2 off the predicted. For example, for the...

Thanks JonB. Yeah I think I will just do another dark Belgian - you can never have enough I think!