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Really hard to pin down. I've been brewing 13 years and still get the odd one. When were they brewed? I tend to get more gushers with brews made in mid-late summer. Probably wild yeast. Just started making Sourdough, am amazed how much wild yeast is in the air in the house, left the containers...

Well, here it is after 10 weeks in the bottle: nicely clear and a good head. Taste-wise, it's OK, the sweetness has gone and it's a nice malty brew....just not on a par with my AG brews. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but when I started brewing this was the best canned kit I brewed and I...

Not sure what effect cutting them back this late will have, always cut mine back at the start of winter after picking the hops, late Sept / early Oct. You should have new shoots appearing now.

I live on a bit of road when the kids like to race around, we get a few cars in the hedge every year, occasionally one of top of the hedge, and recently one car managed to hit the speed sign and launch his car completely over the hedge and land in the nearby field. I always go out to see if...

You can still buy Gervin Ale Yeast, just not from Wilko - I've seen it in my LHBS and a quick Google shows many homebrew suppliers stock it. Like you it was my go-to yeast for ales.

In a word, no, I've not experienced anything like this in over 200 AG brews. I got a 3% efficiency increase when I changed grain suppliers, and then a 1% drop when I changed again, but 15% is huge. And it sounds like you know your kit and your process, so it can't be that. I'd go with the above...

They look just like the commercial ones that breweries sell. Not very good for re-using in my experience: hard to clean and the beer develops a metallic flavour after a few brews. I ended up throwing all mine away. You really need stainless steel if you're going down the minikeg route. More...

4/5/6 year old hops....will they be any good, even though vacuum packed?

Hofmeister, although the brand has re-emerged applied to some German lager. Good luck with that, drinking this was the last time I barfed on "beer" circa 1984.

Yes, seal it up with tape and store it in the fridge - done that many times when doing 10L brews.

Looks good to me. You'll only need half a packet of yeast. I wouldn't worry about which caramel malt, any one will do for your first brew. Same with the malt extract, I brewed with extract for years and had no idea what grain it came from. Cascade is a good choice I'd change those late hop...

When we had the kitchen refitted some years ago I went for a Franke Triflow tap: hot, cold, and cold filtered via a cartridge under the sink, much like the filter jugs. This is their latest product...

The problem with the Muntons kits is not the quality of the yeast but the quantity: you really need 11/12g of yeast for 23L and the kits come with 6g. Whilst this works sometimes, sometimes it runs out of steam and you end up with a stuck brew, finishing high around 1020. Any generic ale yeast...

This is worrying Clint, you are the curry king - hope you get your curry mojo back. BTW bit of feedback on the no-base-gravy Madras: was excellent but didn't half make me f@rt with all those onions, so went back to base gravy with a dollop of that baked onion puree.

No water meter is the answer athumb..

It does make a difference to your beer e.g. many recipes are worked out for 75% efficiency whilst many of us get less than that, I'm currently getting 67% and it seems to depend on grain batch/supplier (have had 73% from another supplier). So if I tried to brew a 4.5% beer from a 75% recipe, but...

Regarding cost, you don't need to spend hundreds of pounds: my setup cost about £20: a 12L stockpot and a grain bag. I already had a 15L stockpot. Here's my process Mash in the 12L stockpot with the grainbag. It just fits in the oven on it's lowest setting which helps keep the temp up. Halfway...

Did a BIAB this morning, took just over 4 hours. And you don't have to be there the whole time, you can fit other things around it. I did a kit over Xmas just to see what the difference is as I have fond memories of some kits: it's bigger than I thought, BIAB beer quality is way better.

Target. I wouldn't say never, but I'd be very selective in the beers I used it in, as it imparts quite a distinctive slightly-unpleasant flavour (to me anyway). I looked up the least-liked beers of my youth and all of them used Target for bittering. Not that common these days, although works...

I'd love a ferment like that, in 257 brews including many stouts I've never had one come out of the airlock.