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@Alastair70 I've got 3 bottles for swapping too. 👍

Yeah, I bought a Salifert kit to confirm my water alkalinity. Just for clarity, 5ml lactic was used in the mash, which was a 15L strike volume. 0.3ml was used in the 6.8L sparge water, so total water volume of 21.8L.

I'm certainly no expert either! I double checked my notes and it is definitely the right way around. I've got my water profile locked into my brewer's friend account and use the water calculator to achieve close to the desired profile and mash pH. Those values are what was given to me after...

I started dabbling with water additions 2 brews ago and I've been using Brewer's Friend for my recipes and water calculators. I use Lactic Acid to adjust pH. For my Golden Ale (20L batch) I only had to use 1.66ml (2g) of Lactic acid and my Tropical Stout (11L batch), 5.3ml (6.5g). I have never...

I got my Klarstein Maischfest from Hifi Tower, 'B rated' for about £124. Not sure if they still do they though - had a quick look on the website there and it doesn't seem to list B grade items now. Have a look anyway @mcscruff, they have the Fullhorn on there for £149.99

Thanks for organising again @Alastair70, really enjoyed last year. Put me down for two please.

10L Tropical Stout Total 12978

Whoohoo - no infection in my MkII Tropical Stout last night.! 16 days in the FV, steady FG of 1020 (under attenuated, as expected!) and smelling/tasting lovely. Bottled 20 x 500ml bottles and one 250ml tester, to be opened in a week's time to sample. Hopefully we have enough time before...

I'd love to enter the dark beers comp but I don't want to potentially poison any members with an infected brew, even if last night's bottle tasted OK. On that note, in the words of one of my favourite bands, I'm still alive!

Checked the SG of my Tropical Stout MkII today. After 8 days it's at 1022. I was so tempted to lift the lid to check if I had another infection, but managed to resist. What will be will be when it's finished fermenting. I also opened one of the 5 bottles from my MkI infected brew. If I don't...

I don't use hop bags these days. I bought one of these and have been using it in my last few brews with success. Cleaning is much easier and quicker. I tie a length of string to the lid and the other end is tied to the handle of my Klarstein. The length is enough for the basket to be submerged...

Here's to a successful brew day. I was expecting this one to be sickly sweet but it's quite moresome. So much so, that I've almost finished the first pour before realising that it has lactose in it. Oh well... 💥💨 Cheers!

The wife's just came home. Not a peep about smells, but she's been banned from the kitchen until I get my wort into the FV. 😁

Tropical Stout MKII. Following my infected brew this week, I decided to use the **** weather in Central Scotland, and the wife on a late shift, to my advantage and let the wee man play his PS4 while I put a brew on. The wife's going to be ecstatic when she comes home to a house smelling of brew...

What do you think of it?

Brewing my second attempt at the Winter Swap Tropical Stout while drinking a Tropical Stout! This is actually really nice, but my palette and sense of smell aren't the best! 😄 Roasty, malty, chewy with little bit of sweetness. Yum. Found it in Aldi the other day.

@YeastFace - No idea what caused it. I followed the same cleaning and sanitisation regime as always. The FV was closed the full 17 days and despite 2 days of vigorous bubbling, there was still sanitiser in the airlock - so a fully closed system for the full 17 days. It's probably just bad luck...

Thanks @YeastFace - Down the sink it goes. Feck feck feck! 😫 I'll need to re-order the gains and try again...and make sure my FV gets a thorough clean.

Oh no, I might have my first infection. Does this look like it's fit for the sink? The sample I took to check the gravity tasted delicious - just as per the BJCP guidelines for Tropical Stout. If I rack about 3/4 of the volume, avoiding drawing any of the top couple of inches, will it be OK? 😟

Checked the SG tonight after a full 14 days fermenting... 1.019. I used MJ California Lager M54, which, according to Brewers Friend, should have taken the gravity down to 1.013. As @pilgrimhudd has also experienced, the curse of the dark malts strikes again. I'll test again in another couple of...