Recent content by Algernon

A good supermarket version is the Cannonball from Magic Rock. The big sell-outs have sucked up to Tesco ( I jest - well done to them and thanks for putting decent beer into an accessible and affordable format) so it's everywhere now. If you want to go large, the unhuman and neohuman cannonball...

Oops - I may have neglected to reply to this thread, however given that I stumbled on it looking for info on Wai-Iti and there is so little info out there, I'll just cast my old "raise from the graaave!" and necro this ancient thread back into the land of the living. So, I brewed twice with...

Should be fine, although the proof of the pudding is in the drinking. Did you do one or two plastic 500ml bottles so you can do the squeeze-test? It can be helpful to do so just so you can keep an eye on carb levels without having to keep opening them up.

..but PM's don't seem to send very effectively for me, it seems. I am loath to post up my mobile number on a public forum as I get enough PPI spam etc as it is. Just pondering the best way to get in touch to make arrangements. Maybe if you can figure out the PM system better than me then you...

I have done stout, imperial stout and a braggot which was over 11%, all fermeted with wilko gervin ale yeast. They all came out fine. I also used Danstar Nottingham a few times and had no problems with it. You should be fine with wilko's - rumour has it gervin is notty in a different dress anyway.

Nope, but I have also thought about it. I was just thinking about how long it would take my little jug to filter 40-odd litres tho. I shall watch this thread with interest if anybody does decide to go for it, just in case it has a noticeable effect.

If you have already primed them, I would say store them in a cardboard box inside a thick bag and only approach them when wearing a full face mask, gardening gauntlets and a thick waxed or leather jacket. I suspect that if they don't explode spontaneously they might do so if disturbed, e.g...

Well, after much debate and furious internetting, I decided I will try s33 on a small batch another time, maybe when I have rigged up fermenting fridges etc. Looks like a lot of effort and delay for not much benefit. Notty it is :-)

I have used Danstar Notty before and made a good beer. Bought S33 recently and not tried it - might be interesting to try it in a familiar brew to see how it turns out. Anybody got any thoughts on this?

I used the English ale yeast in a strong stout recently and it was fine. I lack the experience to tell you if it was better or worse than any other, but certainly it did everything I expected it to.

Boiling water into glass bottles usually makes the glass bottle smash as the inside tries to be bigger than the outside. How do you get round that problem? I assume yours don't smash, or you wouldn't keep doing it :-)

Not a huge amount you can do to reduce the head on it, but you could try getting a short length of plastic tubing one the tap so you dispense to the bottom of the glass, not the top. Congratulations on a good brew too! :drink:

Vinegar is not a promising fragrance. Do you have any way to remove a sample without risking further infections? I have to say, quite a few of my bres have smelled really quite nasty and then turned out nice once the yeast has finished up, so all may not be lost. Can you get a picture uploaded...

Sounds good - nobody else seems terribly interested but they have a long sell by on them :-)

80-90 will be fine, middle of the road fizz. I use more as my other half likes fizzy beer, up to around 120 for 23l, but that's a lot, esp for a stout. Once you have made this batch you can decide whether to do a little more or a little less next time. Good luck.