Recent content by IanCompetent

I'll give you some advice that was given to me when I started to brew and it was invaluable: use StarSan as your sanitiser. It's a bit pricy, but it's no-rinse and infinitely easier to use than the no-rinse pink powder. Also 19-21 degrees is an awesome fermentation temp for ales. Blankets will...

Most people on here seem to have hit on most of the common issues. Do you use the same syphon for kegs as you do for bottles?? Your syphon may have an infection or your caps may be infected. Also, are you doding anything fermentation-wise that is different from bottle to keg?? People tend to...

You weren't confused at all - that 30% of late addition hops thing is constantly referenced if you look up FWH anywhere, but it's not entirely true. The rule of thumb with FWH is that you get 60 minute addition IBUs with 20 minute addition flavour and bitterness. You may ultimately try it and...

I haven't found the "30%" rule to be true at all, personally. People have tried to establish all kinds of rules for it, but it's much more simple than it's made out to be. I first wort hop every beer I make and just use whatever my 60 minute bittering addition would be and put it in the kettle...

The American IPA is a strange beast. Over here, there seems to be a race on as to who can make the hoppiest beer. A Canadian brewery called Flying Monkeys currently has an IPA that rates at 3000+ IBUs. If you go by that logic, your beer will never be hoppy enough!! Your hop choices are awesome...

First off, I want to thank all of you guys for your replies. People over here are really into bottling and kegging; cask-conditioning is generally a forgotten art form. dennisking - I pretty much do exactly what you do. I usually shoot to rack to the cask at about .012 and serve it at .010. I...

Thanks Rob, those containers look like they could work. Somebody from England posted a YouTube video and I noticed that they were using something similar to one of those. The spigots are in different places on both of the examples that you have posted. Is there an advantage of having one over...

Hey everybody - greetings from Canada!!! I have an affinity for British beer and in the last few months have begun to do cask-conditioned ale on the home brew level. My system is relatively simple; I use plastic polypins, priming them with corn sugar, adding a few teaspoons of yeast and storing...