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Hi guys! I have done about six batches so far and every single one has come out great (although I was a little concerned that my pilsner had some off-flavours at the start but I realise now that the type of yeast just had a longer maturation period and now it tastes great!) It means I now have...

Hi guys! I started my first mead a few weeks ago (we're about four weeks in now) and I've realised that apart from the advice of 'leave it as long as you can' I don't really know if I should be doing something. It was bubbling away for at least four weeks but in the last couple of days it has...

Great! I'll do a bit of research, but are they generally all useful for brewing? And when is the harvesting period?

Hi guys! So we were collecting elderberries from a neighbours garden earlier today (with him, we aren't animals :D) and the missus spotted a curious plant growing up the side of someone else garage. It looked like hops, and I've never seen them in the wild before. They don't smell of anything...

Mate that's awful! You know you can put a stop to that with a little switcheroo with the real thing. Then when she complains you have proof and she might stop.

Thanks for the advice! I'm definitely taking it slower with the Evil Dog. Could I have bottled the Coopers too early? Now I have the hydrometer I'll trust the readings to let me know when it's ready.

We're looking to work with elderberries soon so thanks for the video. Any additional tips for de-seeding them?

Hi guys! So nearly two weeks have passed since I put this batch in. My (correct) hydrometer finally arrived so seeing as the batch was still bubbling every ten seconds or so I decided to give it a test. It measured 1.014 which after reading plenty of threads 'seems about right'. If you...

Thanks guys! It seems the recipe Terry mentioned would work for the ingredients left over, I'll just need to grab a few hops. Am I right that this produces 12L? So to make just shy of a 5L batch I can multiply all the ingredients by 0.4? In this case how much yeast would I need? Would the...

Hi guys! I have a couple of 5 gallon batches bubbling away and as much as I want to have a lot of great home-brew around, I need to reign it in a bit to avoid having too much to drink. I was talking to my girlfriend this morning and we saw a recipe for ginger beer - which she loves - and I'd...

I went with your advice and boiled 4L of water in the kettle, let it cool to 70 degrees while covered and then added the malt extract. Let it cool to around 50, then chucked it into the carboy. Aerated it, topped up with water and finished at a cool 22 degrees. Pitched the yeast and lugged it...

First two batches - Coopers Pale Ale after 96 hours in the top right, freshly prepared Evil Dog Double IPA on the bottom.

Sounds like a plan thanks! I'll do this - the extract kits I'm looking at all warn against keeping the heat on while adding extract so I'll take that on board. Should I let it cool naturally (how long will this take in 3L of water?) or use the wort chiller (maybe overkill?)

That makes sense. Is there a temperature I should be doing the stirring at that keeps the risk of infection to a minimum? For example with food and meat there's a zone between say 5 and 60 degrees where food is most at risk of bacterial infection. Is it the same with wort? Apart from using...

Hi guys! I'm planning my second batch and am staring at the Evil Dog Double IPA kit. The instructions say to add the malt extract first to the fermentor, follow it up with hot water and stir. The problem is, I'll be using a six-gallon glass carboy, so stirring isn't an option. I thought that...

Wait, I obviously knew about the imperial vs metric mess but US gallons are different?? I genuinely had no idea. My carboys are all northern brewer, so presumably all US gallons. I guess I need to go back and measure them the old fashioned way... Metric all the way... I'm already over this...

Would it be stronger necessarily in a good way? It's only intended to be 4.5% so a bit stronger wouldn't be a bad thing, and I don't see it exactly being some hop monster that's thrown out of balance by being stronger. That said if adding water is a simple fix it could bode well for future...

Hey guys! So I fitted the blow-off tube as it was getting a bit rowdy and now the foam is starting to calm down. We're about 60 hours in. I was browsing through Palmer last night when I realised a second cock-up that I've made. I have one primary 6-gallon carboy and 3 secondary 5-gallon...

RE: Yeast harvesting I think I'll wait a couple of batches before venturing into that (my third batch will be my first partial boil so I'm gradually increasing difficulty) but thanks a lot for the heads up - I've just watched a few videos and read the section in Palmer so it's definitely...

I'll stick with tap. Obviously now my first batch is in the tank it's when, not if I open a brewery, so I'll wait and see if the 'alpine water' thing is good for business :laugh8: