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This made me smile. +1 on the wild yeast theory, especially if they continue to deteriorate in the bottles. I had an a extract brew that tasted great at bottling and just after carbonation but the turned acrid, dry and almost flavourless. Heart breaking.)

Will do. Should be ready to bottle this weekend, so ill put up a review once it's carbonated (that's normally as long as I can wait before curiosity gets too much and I have to try one).

Your heat mat should be up to the job. I gave up using mine because it would overheat my brews because I didn't have a temperature controller to turn it on and off. I replaced it with an aquarium heater set-up where the FV sat in a tub of water being heated by the aquarium heater. This was much...

Glad to hear good reviews for the Devils Half Ruby Porter - I have this in the FV at the moment. I had some leftover grains from recent AG brews, so I steeped 100g crystal malt, 100g chocolate malt and 50g flaked barley for 30mins and added this into the kit (after boiling for 15 mins). I was...

I would increase the cacao powder. I've just made a milk stout following an AG recipe, but I added in 150g cacao powder to make it a bit more chocolatey. It only just gone into bottles, so a bit early to tell, but from the samples I've had it doesn't have much chocolate flavour (it's still very...

Thought I still had one of my Blushing Blondes from last year. Had a root round the garage last night and opened this one. Not bad for a year old beer! Here's a couple of pics to show you the clarity:

I made a nice winter spiced ale last year using a Cooper Dark Ale kit as the base. I was aiming for a festive Christmas pudding style ale! My recipe included: orange zest, 175g chopped prunes, 225g black treacle, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ginger, 1/8 tsp nutmeg and 1/8 tsp allspice. All this was...

Completely agree with Hoppyland with the recommendation for a bench capper. They do cost more money, but it's money well spent. So much easier than a two handled capper (which I ditched after bottling my first brew) and you don't need to worry about it not working with certain types of bottles...

I made the Coopers Blushing Blonde recipe last November. Brewed it with it 700g of frozen raspberries and 1kg of spray malt. It was interesting(!) but not sure I would brew it again. It had a good raspberry taste and colour but it was a very dry fruitiness and quite tart. I made it it the same...

Phew! Thanks for all the responses guys. 1022 FG is starting to sound pretty normal. Wish I'd posted earlier now as i could have bottled this last weekend. Ah well, know what I'll be doing tomorrow night now!

Thanks stigman. Reassuring to hear from someone who's made the same brew - it did taste pretty good from the trial jar. High hopes for this one!

I brewed up a Greg Hughes AG Milk Stout recipe a couple of weeks ago adding 300g of lactose and 150g of cocoa powder on top of the grain bill from the recipe. This was a BIAB with a concentrated wort to which I added extra DME after the boil so I could make a full 23ltr brew adding extra water...

This thread is going to keep me awake at night. I've gotten a bit lax with my bottle cleaning - a thorough rinse after pouring a beer and then leaving to dry and storing away until the next use. Then just a quick rinse in hot water and a squirt of starsan before bottling. I'd always taken...

Worth trying some of the fruitier, citrusy American varieties. Amarillo, Citra or Cascade all add a good flavour to a one-can pale ale kit. Before you commit to drinking 23 ltrs of it though, it might be worth trying a commercial beer that uses the same hops. Marks and Spencer do a nice range of...

Long hot soak in a bowl of VWP should do the trick

Sounds like the perfect excuse to treat yourself to a bench capper. They're so much easier to use and will cap all types of bottle: no problem capping San Miguel or pesky Hobgoblin bottles.

Not many reviews for this kit so thought I should add one. I brewed this 4 weeks ago without any tweaks or additions. To be honest, I wasn't expecting that much as I tried the St. Peter's Ruby Red Ale kit a couple of years ago and was a bit disappointed. However, that was one of my first brews...

I've brewed three Wherry kits and the first two (brewed with the kit yeast) both stuck at 1020. For the third I used a packet of Wilko Gervin yeast and it was trouble free.

You're so close to the finished gravity, I wouldn't add anymore yeast. Leave it a few more days but if it doesn't go any lower it will be fine to bottle at 1016. I bottled a wherry at 1018 and it was fine (although I did keep a close eye on it while it was warm conditioning!)

I'm with you pms67: surely just one bottle to check the carbonation! :whistle: