Recent content by Fil

IMHO If your cold side procedures are upto the task and you kept to em during the bottling the beer should have as good a shelf life as the keg it came from or one bottled from the fv. Beer from pegas taps like peebees above are advertised with a 2-3week shelf life but that probably has more to...

before fitting check the nuts and not bolt heads are on the outer face. If not switch before fitting as once installed the clearance between the valve and pot wall may not allow you to reassemble in this configuration. with the nuts on the outerface its a tad quicker (debatable i know..) to...

welcome aboard.. with a successful brew under your belt it sounds like your doing well already having sussed a good cleaning and sanitation procedure.

imho look at your fermentation spot/area and consider the largest volume and multiple number of brews your likely to want to have on the go at any one time and buy the cheapest foodsafe containers that will fit into your area the best. personally i use a mixture of vessels, for my larger brews...

imho strip the keg down when you first get it for a deep clean and check/replace the orings and popetts.. Can you really trust anyone else when it comes to the sanitary storage of your valuable beer?? 40 minutes of work in advance could save a whole batch of beer :) Just take care when...

the 'traditional' solution is to use nonfermentable sugars such as lactose, iirc lactose is less than 1/2 as sweet as your usual sucrose. another solution pre artificial sweeteners was to mix up a sugar solution/syrup and dose each pint as its poured which would also help decarbonate the pint...

i would suggest a calibration 'wet run' with the heater in a beer free waterbath to double check the built in thermometer/controllers accuracy with a known good thermometer. That way if it reads wide you can accommodate that with and adjusted setting before use with valuable beer.

fwiw i use an off the shelf tattoo gun psu with my lil brown solar pump, circa £10 from ebay some time ago, it also doubles up as the psu for my pcfan magnet stirbar solution ;) be mindful that they can deliver upto 18v at full power iirc but mine has a nice easy dial and led display to...

And be prepared for a very lively and dirty 1st 1/4pint when cracking a keg of live beer with sediment from conditioning

the top bung has a central plug might have a bigger flange on top but pull n twist as directed to vent and then pull a bit more, it will come off. probably leaving a bit behind, this you just push out of the way with the tap dip tube ;) the dip tube should be s snug fit down the hole left...

+1 Patience can be the hardest brewers skill to acquire, but it can also have a huge positive impact on your beer, Also it can take some skills to successfully repeat the same brew and have it quafable at an 'early' age with a consistent flavour and quality. And you may well have all the...

My bad for missing your location.. All in all you got a good bundle there.. As for connecting your tap to standard 3/8" semi rigid beerline, those US style taps are generally terminated with a hosebarb and not the user friendly JG fitting most UK sourced taps will have. yours may arrive...

YOu should at least try 1 test brew with your local water imho, treat it with a campden tab to neutralise chlorine and chloramines.. and brew a british bitter or another beer suited to hard waters and see.. As a rule of thumb the heavier/darker brews tend to be hard water friendly while the...

Patience and save an ebay search, there are still a few pubs left to get redeveloped up a bit into tesco 24hr shops. You want to find an ex pub font on your doorstep as they are large awkward shapes and heavy. And ideally sold as is with stale beer trapped in the rough cut pipework - as thats...