Recent content by JamesG

Response to Clibit's message. Far be it for me to disagree with a senior member, but my Graham Wheeler book refers to a maximum temperature of 30C for rehydrating yeast . Am I doing it wrong? 5 - 10 degrees difference is a large margin. I always rehydrate my yeast, and the advantages to me are...

I brew kits, and I have tried Clibit's great how to guide a couple of times. As others have said it is a time thing. Kids seem to take up my weekends with sport, so all I have is evenings after work. Also, I only started brewing last year. Between a lot of outlay last year, inexperience and no...

Do you know where its leaking from? I assume you vaselined the thread. I had this on a kingkeg, and used the hissing to tell me when I had the correct seal on the lid. I used a few CO2 bulbs, but found that it was undertightened then overtightened but got the seal right in the end and its grand...

That's interesting Slid. I have done the Youngs Saison,which is coming good now. Did you brew it above 25 degrees? If you used a saison yeast at say 20 degrees would you get something similar to the wherry? Just thinking how you might get the attenuation of the saison yeast without the esters...

That does look good Crusty. I found the Wherry a bit thin, even when brewed short so added 250g of DME and 30g of Goldings hop pellets and was pleased with it. I have a Wherry in the FV now, been in a week and it is at 1012 and I plan to dry hop with 20g of East Kent Goldings and 20g of Fuggles...

I've done the Oaked Ale. It is in the keg now, and it is very good indeed. I mentioned the yeast on review, it only comes with 6 grams packet of ale yeast which doesn't seem man enough for the job of getting the beer to 5%. Although they have put some effort into the packaging it doesn't feel...

I kegged this on 25th February, 2 weeks warm conditioning and then nearly 2 weeks in the garage. It is already very good and I am really pleased with it. The beer is very dark, can't see through it at all yet so it looks like a porter, it has a good brown head which stays all the way to the end...

I kegged this on 25th February, 2 weeks warm conditioning and then nearly 2 weeks in the garage. It is already very good and I am really pleased with it. The beer is very dark, can't see through it at all yet so it looks like a porter, it has a good brown head which stays all the way to the end...

Slid no worries, it was polemics like yours that alerted me to the risk of the Muntons yeast. I added Wilko's gervin ale yeast, rehydrated it and pitched at just under 20 degrees.

Just finished kegging this tonight. Original gravity 1050, started 14/2. 11 days later it was 1010 so a good strong pint and a bit stronger than the expected 5%. I did use extra yeast because the kit only comes with a 6 gram pack. Also, instructions say to brew between 18 and 20 celsius so you...

Couldn't find a thread anywhere for this, so here goes. After a few hoppy kits I fancied a few more traditional ale, and the sound of the Oaked Ale was tempting in spite of a lack of reviews and a fairly hefty price tag. The kit comes with 2 tins of fermentables, a sachet of American Ale Yeast...

Started this 19th Jan and bottled on 2/2 - exactly 2 weeks which was plenty of time. My OG was 1056, and it ended up at 1006 so this is going to be strong. What I did find though is that the beer was clearing nicely in the FV after 12 days to the extent that I drank the hydrometer sample - yum...

Pleased with my Hammer of Thor. The kit didn't come with any yeast, so the good people at the Home Brew Shop sent me a belgian lager yeast. Its turned out really well, I only got the gravity down to 1014 from 1056 which is annoying but it is strong enough for me anyhow. Not sure if its the...

I've done this kit twice now. I also found it a bit light, so when I did it again I added 250g of spreymalt and 25g of Goldings hop pellets. I am really chuffed with the second batch. Leaving the first batch for 2 months + left it a good pint, but the beefed up version was drinking well quicker...

First post! I have been brewing since September,and am on my 8th kit so still very new to this. For me, patience is the real thing. I did struggle my first kit, not to keep checking the fermentation vessel. The other thing is, a good period of warm conditioning followed by plenty of time in the...