Recent content by rats_eyes

I was in exactly the same boat when I moved over to a Brewzilla after using a cool box and buffalo style boiler for years. It was a bit disheartening, as I'd spent a long time using the old kit and was confident with it. I got a few stuck mashes in my early brews with the system. I tried...

Having just finished a pint of the mild, it's also very good. I'll need to have a few more to suss out whether I prefer this yeast, but it's certainly a contender and has more character than other dried yeasts I've used. I'd strongly recommend this one at this point. I'm brewing again this...

I used the Verdant IPA dried yeast in a best bitter and a dark mild brewed nearly 4 weeks ago. I've been using liquid yeasts and harvesting from commercial beers (mostly Fullers) for years and fancied trying out the new dried options. I tapped the bitter last night, it's a 4.1% fuggles only...

Another lover of mild here! I'm up in Aberdeen, NE Scotland. We rarely see any mild in the pubs here, with the only exception being Swannay Dark Munro which appears once in a blue moon and is lovely drop. Nearly all the mild I get to drink is my own homebrew. I'd love to see more of it out in...

Developing a belgian beer habit is probably the way I would recommend, as most of them come in heavy duty bottles. If you wanted to do this relatively cheaply, aldi and lidl sometimes stock some belgian stuff in 330ml and occasional 750ml cork and cage.

I made a number of kit beers from tinned extract, some good, some bad. I did a load of reading and was inspired by Charlei Papazian's the joy of homebrewing to try a partial extract mini-mash. I already had a 5 litre stock pot, so used that to do a mini-mash with some grain, thne boil and add...

If I end up with a bit of beer left after filling a keg, I'll fill a few bottles and add a carbonation drop to each one

I have a bouncer filter and can say it would likely help to remove some gunk. However, I would agree with other posters who have advised chilling the keg and letting the loose matter settle. Once it's settled you'll pour a few cloudy glasses which will hopefully contain any bits that haven't...

Malt Miller are great. They are very fast to sort out any issues at all, it's never any bother. There are rarely any issues and there still really helpful even when it's not their fault. Top marks!

I'm not sure there are enough of us to provide the high turnover that a shop needs for super fresh ingredients. They do have ingredients, but I don't know how quick the turnover is. It's a shame, as I live about a mile from the shop, it's very handy if I need something on brewday. On the plus...

Just the one HB shop in Aberdeen i'm afraid. They're good for equipment, but wouldn't recommend them for fresh ingredients, nice folks though. I use malt miller online for ingredients.

If you're right and your beer has a pellicle from a brettanomyces infection, I would not bottle it yet. Brett can chew on sugars that other yeasts can not. Your beer still has a gravity of 1.028 (if i'm understanding you correctly), so it may have a long way to go. If you bottle now, the brett...

Thanks for your detailed feedback Steve, you're a gent. I'm also glad you enjoyed the beer!

Welcome to the forum! There are quiet a few of us up here in the icy north on this forum. I'm in Aberdeen

I've been using hobbyweld, there are a few distributors in Aberdeenshire No rental but not the cheapest out there. I think I was £60 refundable deposit plus £30 for the gas