Recent content by fivetide

One week in warm, then one week for every ten gravity points is the craftbrewer maxim. Once you know that, you can choose to drink it as green or conditioned as you like using that as a line in the sand. Also, I've been priming with spraymalt for some time now, and go 120% the amount I would...

Same problem, one year on - this just helped me again, thanks.

Thanks so much for all the help and guidance.

I've found some recipes drink well young, especially nice late-hopped pale ales, whereas for my palette more complex malty bests and specials are better after more conditioning. But it's just preference and experience I guess. This particular beer tastes pretty good from the fermenter and I'm...

Well craftbrewers often say a week priming at fermentation temperature then a further week cool conditioning for each 10 original gravity points, but I think after experience of brewing the same recipes you can tailor that for each brew (and for me, with little conditionign temperature control...

Right, I'm now using two-part finings ahead of racking. Will crisp it up while avoiding putting the isinglass in the cask. That 75g you mentioned, was that for a stout? There are a lot of head grains in this recipe and my test brew came out great in a king keg with 50g sugars, but then that...

No finings at all, I had hoped? It's a stout so I can keep it veggie with no concerns about clarity. I'm filling the shive hole on the rounded side of the cask - the keystone is already banged in. I'll boil up 75g dark spraymalt with a quarter litre of water, throw that in, then siphon up to...

Ah James! Good to see you! Right, so 75g sounds perfectly reasonable. Is it okay that the beer is fermented out and at room temperature (24 degrees-ish). And is it okay to fill to the very brim? I know it would probably have been more sensible to rack it with a couple of points of gravity...

Hi there - I was hoping to get a little advice ahead of casking my latest brew. I have brewed and fermented a 50L batch, most of which I now need to get into a brewer's Firkin, ultimately to be served at a beer festival. It's a standard looking steel Firkin cask that has been cleaned and...

Thanks for that link. Bit pricey for plastic perhaps and can't see the measurements, but not a supplier I've seen before so that's great -- maybe importing from the US at expense really is the answer? Mashing 10-12 kilos in a thermobox is making my current equipment curl up in flimsy...

I can only find spoons up to about 15" and not that impressive looking. No paddles outside US. How do you feel about wood? :P :oops:

I've been using the usual weak bendy white plastic long brewers paddles and spoons available from Youngs and most brew shops. Can anyone suggest an alternative? Where might I get something equally as long, but much stronger and just as easy to clean and sanitise in the UK? Stainless would be...

Well this did well - it's very quietly got itself down to 1.013 on its way to 1.012. We'll transfer it all into secondary sometime this week to get that extra point and drop the brew a lot brighter before kegging/bottling - maybe at the weekend or the week after. Deceptive stuff that US-05...

That's exactly the route I took. You'll have loads of fun. If you get another kit along the same lines as the Wherry, then Woodfordes Great Eastern is a good golden ale, and Munton's Smugglers is a nice darker one. In other brands, Fixby Gold is good, and that whole Brupaks series let's you...

That's brilliant John! It might not go a huge amount lower than 1.012 but a lot of people, me included, have had these kits stick at 1.014, so it's done really well. Monitor it until all bubbles have slowed and you get the same reading 24hrs aprt, then prime a keg and rack it up! I recommend a...