Recent content by Birdsnestbrewery

@kenstel this was a while ago now. How did it turn out?

I seem to recall Harris Suresan is described as breaking down to water after an hour, hence it's described as no-rinse. Certainly I have had no issues using it as such, although I have pretty much switched to star san or equivalent other brands. I still have a tub of Suresan that I will use from...

Q: "I bought X and I have trouble making it work, what shall I do?" A: "don't buy X" 🙄

Did you manage to communicate with it for setting up at all? Or is that what you are trying to do now? IIRC it creates a WiFi hot-spot for initial setup and you connect your phone to that. That allows you to configure it to talk to your normal WiFi.

If the SG is matches expectations then it's probably fine. Leave it alone for another week. I suspect you are expecting more obvious signs. After a week the active fermentation is pretty much done.

Sounds good. My rule is don't rush it and it always improves with time. As long as it's not infected, that is.

Regarding the progression of the fermentation, here is a typical graph from my Pill floating hydrometer. Ignore the actual SG numbers, they are not exactly correct but the key point is the shape. Notice that the vast majority of the fermentation happens in the first 3 days,then it drops off...

I have a system like you describe, cool box mash tun, catering boiler etc. Where I did think it was worth spending a bit more was on the Grainfather conical fermenter, simply due to the temperature control, most importantly the cooling. I got the cooling pump kit and a chiller unit to provide...

Obviously there are multiple things that can go wrong. What is "the homebrew taste"? The most common undesired taste I get is a bit of yeast.

Never used bottling yeast and never had a problem with bottle conditioning. The closest I have got to that was making an Orval clone, which used a MJ Belgian yeast for primary then added the dregs from a couple of bottles of Orval during secondary, a while before bottling.

Hi Simon welcome to the forum. Great story! I am in IT and thinking of going the other way in due course, to pro brewing but for semi retirement as I am under no illusions about the potential income from brewing! Are you still in the Cambridge area? You might be interested in the Cambridge...

We have a second fridge in the garage and I sometimes keep a 5l mini keg in there with a party tap. The fridge is still used for food (and bottles/cans of beer).

Not sure how it varies for dextrose but I generally use about 3-4g of ordinary table sugar per 500ml bottle. I dissolve in boiled water and add directly to the bottles with a syringe. Avoids) around with a bottling bucket. Regarding the temperature were you saying that you were able to keep the...

Search for its full name: GNU Image manipulation program. I used to use it a lot for astro photography.

1. Everything is in the garage - 3-vessel system, gravity driven until the copper. 2. Pump to conical fermenter. No secondary. I gave up that when I got the conical but its doubtful that it gave much benefit even before that. 3. Bottle vía gravity, with syringe to dose bottles with sugar solution