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Second brewday of the week 🎉 A Dubbel - which started off being v2 of my previous Dubbel but I’ve tweaked so much that it’s going to be quite different. I milled the grain yesterday so had the water in to heat earlier this morning and now on for a stepped mash. Ignore my comment from earlier in...

Another warm welcome, though really just back myself after a few months away. There seems to be a lively home brew scene in Glasgow with quite a few people here from the area.

I think your mates can legally drink as much as they like provided it’s on your premises and there’s no value transaction. It’s all a bit moot really as the common sense rule applies. My knowledge of this is that there’s a low threshold for action against those distilling but brewing is much...

…. And for home brew it may only be consumed on the premises it is made in. So no picnics 🙁. Clearly this sort of level isn’t enforced however any transaction that you benefit from that involves the alcohol you have brewed, is liable to more scrutiny.

Going back a few years before I had such nice things as waterproof thermometers, I did resort to using this from my bag. It is pretty accurate but the risk of damage while brewing is too high to risk it these days. If you had a normal plastic version though it would work…. And definitively no...

The cells will still grow and divide if oxygen is available once the nutrients are depleted but will portion out their existing nutrients with each division until no longer viable or dormant. The exception oddly being when the glucose concentration is high at the beginning or with a stronger...

I realise I'm the deviant here, not being a fan of the thermo pen or any of the thermometers with the probe hinged from the device. These all require hands on use, sticking you hand near hot things or liquids you'd rather keep your hand well away from. Risks of dropping said device into such...

Wee bit of pedantry - they’re bacterial spores not fungal 🤓… Bacillus cereus Or as it is known B ‘serious’ … and yes it is v serious.

This is the one I use most of the time these days. Big clear screen, water resistant casing and probe, battery lasts for ages, and I can leave it on throughout much of the brew process. https://www.thermometersdirect.co.uk/calibrated-waterproof-thermometer-black-digital-handheld.html

Sounds like you’ve done an excellent job I hadn’t clicked you were working with a 5litre batch - that makes it a lot more difficult than a bigger one to do most steps. As for bubbles- much of the first couple of days with a lager in particular is the yeast growing using the oxygen and any CO2...

Sort of regretting the selfie in the heat of the moment, my hair was a mess, smiling squint in a sort of awkward way and hardly any makeup... sheesh you can tell I'm a wee bit older than the social selfie generation... ho hum. Right beer is tucked up in the fridge at a cool 9°C, I will let it...

I’ve tweaked the wattage to make sure it doesn’t get there but yes checking regularly!

I know it’s not the done thing to post selfies here. Just about to get to the boil, dancing around the ‘Brewery’ to Måneskin and having adapted my youngest daughter’s headphones to Bluetooth and replaced the padding things … I get my own personal brewery disco at a volume I like without...

The boxes look quite smart but I'd worry they'd go soggy in the freezer longer term and so would need the label on the hop packet itself - and being black it's going to be difficult to use a sharpie on it! I'd never heard of Ernest hops though, and just looked the history up of it being...

Interesting with the mash temperature today.... Garage temp 12°C, target of 30 min @63°C then 30min @70°C for a max fermentability lager wort. I've had issues with the strike temp being too high in the past and the last thing I want to do is go too high, so mashed in at the water at 64°C, but...

Always go cold with a lager yeast. It doesn’t matter if you go too low as it will always recover. The last thing it needs is heating up. If you have a room that is at 14 then leave it there for a week then move it to the room at 18 for 3 to 4 days. Most importantly though is don’t add the yeast...

Hell yeast is absolutely fabby 🥳 , it will contentedly ferment down to 9°C quite comfortably. If you have an outside shed then put your fermenter in that or otherwise even put a thick bin bag over it in the back garden providing the sun doesn't get to it, just make sure to do so before the...

Along with all the above, which is all very sensible, I suggest boiling the rice for 30 min first and add it with the boil water...the rice grains needed cooked first for the enzymes in the malts to access the starches. Theoretically you could finely grind the rice instead but I'd be suspicious...

I do appreciate that as a first brew for a few months, a 46 litre brew isn’t quite easing myself back.. but hey I’m planning an update to my Dubbel next which is anything but simple. Rather than dark candi sugar I’m going to use dark Demerara sugar as I can pick that up from the local...

I’m feeling a bit happier…. I’ve not been brewing for a while. Bit of post trauma from the roofing disaster that damaged so much of my kit 😔. I am though on leave for a week and so I’m determined to do a couple of brews with current stock. I have though ordered some new yeast to play with...