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I abandoned the practice a long time ago. The only difference I ever observed was the reduced amount of yeast sediment sitting in the bottom of the bottles after time spent in a secondary. That to me is of little consequence in practice; 1mm sediment or 3mm, it doesn't really matter and I'd...

I have to admit I seriously question this "best" method. Fermentation on a 1.040 - 1.050 OG brew takes around 4- 5 days to reach FG. I've had a 1.040 finish in 36 hours at 21ºC! Diacetyl etc is cleaned up in around 1 - 2 days. Technically the beer can be packaged after about a week and...

I use it to go some way to compensate for what's lacking in my town supply water and it also helps with pH adjustment too. I use as much 10g depending on the brew I'm making. It's not a complete water adjustment regime by any stretch but I figured after studying a water analysis chart and...

Good luck! :thumb: Not sure I entirely agree with this though. Temperature certainly plays an important part in the brewing process (though according to some not as much as we've been led to believe)... but is it really the MOST important thing? :hmm:

:lol: That's cool! I feel inspired now to start being more adventurous with naming my brews :grin:

Today a partial mash bitter based on a Coopers OS Lager can. It's by far the cheapest form of extract where I live so I use this as a base for most of my PM brews. This is a 2nd version of the one pictured below. The 23 litre brew is modeled on a best bitter but using NZ malts and hops...

One of the issues I've read with pouring fresh wort over an existing trub is that this technically represents a gross over-pitch. In practice whether this has any detrimental effect on the beer is hard to say. What I prefer to do is simply collect around 250ml of the yeast slurry, jar it and...

I used to wonder about this too. In the past I used to rack to a secondary and it seemed like the yeast dropped out quite quickly after doing so. However, I later stopped using a secondary after being convinced that it really wasn't necessary. However, not too long ago I read a 'sciencey'...

Actually the photo is a little misleading! The sun was just at the right angle to really help emphasise the colour, but under 'normal' light it isn't quite so vivid! Anyway, in a partial mash I used Gladfield Malts: 1.6kg Larger Light, 400g Toffee paired up with 1.7kg LME.

Another hot Summer's day here in NZ so what better than a nice crispy cold saison (or two)? :drunk: As it happens I feel this one is perhaps a bit too phenolic... maybe more time required? However, served nice and cold it's actually OK. Wifey seems to like it so... :party: I used Mangrove...

This may be of interest: INVESTIGATING THE BAD PALATES ARGUMENT | A GRAPHICAL LOOK AT XBMT PERFORMANCE BASED ON EXPERIENCE LEVEL It seems BJCP judges may not be all they're cracked up to be... :hmm:

It's rarely a good idea to pitch dry yeast into a brew that already contains alcohol. It probably died on impact! I think it's generally considered better to pitch slurry from a previous batch or use a fresh starter if trying to fix a stalled fermentation. Which also kinda answers your...

Actually I used the Coopers Ale/lager yeast blend often through the Winter here in NZ. Seems to chug along quite well at cooler temps but the main advantage was when it came to bottle conditioning in a cold garage. Using a pure ale strain this was often a problem over Winter as I don't really...

Yeah, when I say "warm" I actually mean ale fermentation temps e.g. 19ºC. I was just thinking that once fermentation was established the brew could optionally be fermented more at lager temperatures which in this case may suit the Creveza kit. :)

There's quite a few resources online that give good overviews of the various malts and their uses. E.g. https://www.winning-homebrew.com/malts.html And of course John Palmer's "How To Brew": http://howtobrew.com/book/section-2/what-is-malted-grain/malt-types-and-usages It can seem...

Well, it's 5:15pm on Christmas Eve here in Kiwi land, it's hot, sunny and definitely time for a brew or three... or four... :whistle: This is actually my first attempt at a Dubbel, modeled on, though not intended as a clone, of a Leffe Brune. As it happens I was at a local Belgian Bar last...

I can vouch for this this method. It's very effective. I use the deep tub we have in our laundry which provides a larger volume of water than the bucket shown and hence a greater thermal mass. I think this helps further buffer against ambient temp variations, i.e. overnight temperature drops...

I wouldn't necessarily trust the thickness of the yeast sediment layer as a reliable indication of carbonation level. There's a number of factors that affect the amount of yeast that ends up sitting on the bottom of your bottles. The best way to find out is as suggested... open one and see!

The Coopers Cerveza kit actually comes with an ale/lager yeast blend. Is this the yeast you are/will be using? If so, the 7g supplied is barely enough so kicking off 'warm' wouldn't be a bad idea, but once fermentation is under way you could ferment at a much lower temperature if desired...

Likewise! I haven't bought beer for a few years now, though have suffered serious wallet-surgery a few times on the rare occasion I've been to an actual pub - their pints are stupidly expensive here! :mad: Homebrewing is definitely one DIY pursuit that actually saves a decent amount of money!