Recent content by louis macneice

I clean with either washing up liquid and hot water or a cheap oxi cleaner and I sterilise with dilute unscented household bleach...I am a cheapskate. In many brews I have only had two infections. The first was cause by impatience and over checking the FV. The second was even more stupid, in...

Or for that matter a pint of Harvey's Best...contains sugar and flaked corn and tastes wonderful! Cheers - Louis MacNeice

Sugar in beers can be a very good thing and not just in Belgian beers. Try a pint of Harvey's Best Bitter made with soft brown sugar and you'll see what I mean. Also adding sugar for the full boil can produce some very nice caramel and toffee flavours; I've boiled a wort with three different...

I boil for an hour unless it's a barley wine or a dark mild. These I give 2 hours and 90 mins respectively to encourage caramelisation of the sugars (both those extracted from the grains and any actual sugar additions). It seems to work - i.e. I can taste the flavour in the beer - but of course...

Hops can do all sorts of things. They can make beers bitter; like the crisp bitterness of a lager, the dry bitterness of some stouts or the in your face bitterness of some IPAs. They can add all sorts of flavours: grassy, herbal, fruity (from blackberries through peaches and mangoes onto...

I stick a wire cage (like you get on a bottle of Leffe) on the end of my siphon tube, and then place one of the little muslin bags that come with Festival kits over that. The cage stops the muslin being sucked up the tube and the muslin stops the hop debris and anything else going up the siphon...

I have done this a number of times, usually with golden syrup and it has always turned out really well. It has more fruit aroma than flavour, although it definitely is a raspberry beer in the taste department. The background is quite dry, almost lagerish (and before anyone chips in I know it...

Doing a hoppy pale ale for a friends 50th birthday. I will use a Coopers Australian Pale kit plus a mini mash including larger malt, pale crystal and rye. The hops (besides those in the kit) will be late addition Aurora, Bramling Cross and Centenial, plus some Cascade for a dry hop. I might...

I do partial mashes or BIAB all grain; I almost always no chill and pitch yeast the next day. Touch wood I've had no off flavours and the only clarity issues (which I actually don't have a problem with) have been associated with the use of rye...tastes great but doesn't want to clear. I...

For a small extra charge the Maltmiller will do it in 5x5kg bags. Just keep them somewhere cool out of the sun. Cheers - Louis MacNeice

No need to do this as it will have no effect. Cheers - Louis Macneice

Or use the little muslin bag supplied over the end of the siphon tube, but stopped from clogging up and getting stuck in the tube by the use of a 'champagne style' wire cage. Cheers - Louis MacNeice

I too am a 'dirty bleach user'; that and Lidl's finest W5 Oxiclean. As I said above my problem was exposing the beer to nasties too many times and then compounding the error by pitching infected slurry. Cheers - Louis MacNeice

I'm pretty certain the cause is me lifting the FV lid to have sneak peeks and take completely unnecessary 'hydrometer samples' (shame to waste them...cheers); I've been giving the nasties too many chances of getting in and unsurprisingly they've taken one. Cheers - Louis MacNeice

I will be brewing again. The end of next week I'll be doing a partial mash with lots of lovely US hops to perk up a Coopers Australian Pale Ale. Cheers - Louis MacNeice