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Yes, I have a brew fridge in the shed but its not very good. This brew was very active at 24 hours after pitching and the fridge struggled to keep it below 22C (I had 19C dialled in). I threw in some ice packs to help.

Wyeast 3068

Yes, 3 weeks in and it's pretty poor. There is no sourness or tartness at all but also no hop aroma or taste other than the bitterness. 100g of centennial went into this as well. Overall, its just murky and dank tasting. There is a bit of hot alcohol/fusel in there, but I would expect that...

I might just do that if its not too expensive! I would love to get to the bottom of this.

Worth adding that all my beers tend to under attenuate, but never as low as 1.003! It's something that I will be addressing on my next brew.

Thanks again. It's all fresh ingredients and yes, the lager and ipa brewing is intermittent and with the same equipment. I know, it doesn't make any sense! It can only be because the low temperature in the fermenting and storage of lager. Although, I also brew a hefeweizen that usually comes...

Thanks Mooneybrew. I just use a (calibrated) hyrdrometer and sample cylinder. I would like to believe that it will get better with age but I'm pretty sure this one's only fit for the drain.

Thanks again both. Previous mash times have been 1hr but with long sparging times and time before the boil starts. The low attenuation is likely a combination of both high fermentability and infection. The sparging and mash temperature I can fix easily enough but I am at a complete loss as to...

No, it was BRY97. I've never used a saison yeast with this equipment. Also, tried it for the first time last night (at 3 weeks). It just tastes horribly dank with no hop flavour at all and a dull murky appearance. There's no tartness or sourness but it is undrinkable and will be going down...

Just a star-san rinse after baking. For general cleaning I scrub using a new sponge with soapy water and rinse well followed by starsan rinse or spray. And for anything that I cant get to e.g. kegs, bottles, i use percarbonate. For this brew, I used dried yeast which I hydrated in cooled...

It's an SS Brew Bucket (without the yeast dumping valve). The tap is very small and doesn't have a hex bolt. I've tried to remove the teflon ring but it wont budge. As you can see, there is some discolouration of the teflon which doesnt give me confidence that it is entirely sanitary which is...

Thanks everyone. Interesting discussion and I'm glad I asked the question! I've been racking my brains over this because I had the same view as Clarence in that how can such a small number of microbes cause so much attenuation in just 2 weeks. And at the same time, thinking how can a 90...

Thanks. Posted my reply above as you posted this. The lid seal is also a potential concern even though I bake that and have put it through the dishwasher a few times. I have noticed that the seal doesn't smell great after fermentation. Has a very strong phenolic smell although this isnt...

Thanks for that tip. I use the same fermenter so will try that. I've always had concern that the tap may harbour something because it cant be dismantled (and I've seen the sort of gunk that builds up behind the ball when I strip down my 3 piece taps). I usually put the tap in the oven (after...

Thanks. I'm just referring to the fact that its easier to clean and less likely to scratch than plastics. But, it is looking likely that there might be a wild yeast infection in there somewhere! Although I have no idea how I can sanitise further than I already do.

My latest brew has finished fermenting at 1.003! OG was 1.061, a 95% attentuation. The recipe was 5.45kg Extra Pale + 0.45kg Pale Crystal with BRY-97 yeast. I got distracted during the mash and ended up mashing for 90 minutes at 66C. My sparging isn't great either. I always struggle to get...

I don't know if I'm misunderstanding but you have fermented as normal using spraymalt, then added sugar back in to get back up to 1.050? At 1.007 your abv would be at 5.6%, adding back to 1.050 and refermenting again would, in theory, give you a final abv of 11.2%! That's a toxic alcohol level...

You can put the fermenter in a big bucket/trug filled with water which will create a bigger thermal mass and reduce temperature variation. You can also thrown in freezer blocks and ice to keep the temperature down. You just need to keep an eye on it every few hours doing it this way. A brew...

Yes, straight into the keg (or bottling bucket if bottling) and just tilt the fermenter to make sure I get all the beer out and just leave the trub/sediment. I used to syphon and then got an auto-syphon but don't bother with that anymore. You will get less oxygen contact than with an...

+1 what obscure says., and definitely taste it. It will help you get a feel for how the beer is going to turn out and how much conditioning might be needed. A tap on the fermenter will also help with the transfer so you don't need to syphon (which I find to be a faff and adds risk of oxidation...