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Thanks all. I found a bug in my software! All sorted now.

Hi, I am trying to make a porter and I have found a few recipes which call for 86% Pale Malt, 7% Crystal and 7% Black Malt. The finished beer colour is stated as being around 65 EBC. All seems reasonable. The black malt from my LHBS has an EBC rating of 1300. Plugging that into the recipe...

Thanks for your replies. I'll give it go but I'm not aiming high at this stage - if I can make an alcoholic drink that tastes vaguely of apples and doesn't make me ill, I'll be happy :D

For my first attempt at making cider are there any major flaws with the process below?... 1. 20kg apples washed/chopped 2. Pulp apples 3. Pulp into muslin bags 4. Muslin bags into fruit press 5. Extract juice - hopefully around 10 litres from 20kg apples(?) 6. Add Campden tablets, leave for 24...

I didn't trust myself to build one either but I gave it a go and once I got all the bits together it was actually surprisingly easy and only takes an hour or so. The first power-up was a tense moment but I've built 2 now with no problems at all. There's also the satisfaction factor from doing it...

My tap water is very hard but I run the water through one of these http://www.screwfix.com/p/water-filter-cartridge/14377 which reduces the hardness and removes chlorine. Then I use CRS to get the carbonate down to the required levels.

I have 30 litres in the FV and it took about 40 hours to go from around 20C down to 3.8C (in the brew fridge). Sounds like 3.8 is OK then. Thanks all.

I'm using WLP001, so I'll change my question... is 3.5C too cold? :)

I have been cooling my latest beer for a week prior to bottling and I am just wondering how critical the actual temperature is. I've set my STC-1000 to 2°C but the temperature has not gone below 3.8°C which must be the limit of the fridge. I've read in several places that it could do with...

I agree it looks like this but there is no way there would be that much crud in the bottle - I am quite strict in my cleaning regime and I know the bottles were spotless. Also, I have batches where no bottles exhibit this problem and some batches where all bottles are like this. If it was...

I've left beer in the primary/secondary for a total of 6 weeks before bottling and there is always yeast left to carbonate.

Thanks for your replies. I think I will be crash cooling the current brew - my wife is due to give birth in 2 weeks so I need to get it bottled ASAP!

How about crash cooling it for a week before bottling? Would that have the same effect as the concrete floor or would it drop out too much of the yeast needed to condition the beer?

After nearly 4 weeks in the primary I siphoned (carefully) directly into a bottling bucket. Do I need to be doing something else to 'clean' the beer before bottling?

In my latest batch of beer I have what appears to be yeast clinging to the side of the bottles (see picture). The beer has been in the bottle for 2 months and has cleared nicely but some of these deposits inevitably end up in the glass and there is a slight yeasty taste/aroma. I have had this...

Count yourself lucky that she was non-abrasive.

I've never had one of those smack packs work how I expected/wanted by following the instructions to the letter. They have always taken 2-3 days to show any activity in the FV even when the pack has swelled properly and I've had one that didn't work at all. I would always make a starter with them.

My tap water is very hard and alkaline (349mg/l CaCO3). It is fine to use for pale ales if I treat it first with CRS.

Excellent! Thank you. One more question... did you use anything to seal the edges or did you just fold the mesh over itself?

nobyipa - where did you get that mesh to make your strainer?