Recent content by SimonS

These guys are fairly close to me! Great beers. Local off licence sells them, always get a couple when I am in. Very friendly whenever I pop in. The brewery, not the off licence. Well, both actually!

Hi there, Depends on the volume of beer and how carbonated you want it. If you look up a carbonation calculator online that should tell you. As a rough guide my 23L volume ales get about 60g of white sugar and two weeks (give or take). You may want it a bit more carbonated if it is a lager...

Hi guys, Looking to make the next upgrade, and I want to control my fermentation temps a bit better, and want to make a lager! Does anyone know what the internal dimensions of an undercounted freezer are? I'm keen on the stainless brew bucket from the malt miller, but at 52cm tall I'm not...

Thanks guys, The extra element is a good idea, but I'd rather not cut holes into my Buffalo - I don't feel confident cutting stainless, and would rather use it as a HLT. I think I will go ahead and get a 70L Kettle! Home Brew Builder here I come! Simon

Hi guys, Thinking of upgrading my brew kettle from my trusty 40L Buffalo - it works fine, but takes FOREVER to get to the boil. Wanting to head to the great outdoors. My usual brew length is 25L, but I have a big mash tun (60L) and it would be good to be able to do larger brews...

Hi guys, I need a load of hops for some forthcoming brews. Simplyhops.co.uk (one of the forum sponsors) is selling a 5Kg bag (of 2012 harvest) of EKG for £60 (plus about £10 P&P). I don't need that many hops! Anyone fancy going halves on a bag? I live in Stockport, so sharing with...

AG No. 6 - Barclay Perkins 1849 Export India Porter (Monday) AG No. 7 - Barclay Perkins 1848 Imperial Brown Stout (on the yeast cake of the above) AG No. 8 - Truman XXXXK 1846 LOVING the historical ales at the moment. No. 7 is to replace a previous batch that got infected in the cornie, but...

Cheers Ron, that is appreciated. I will be getting a cook on soon. Incidentally, has anyone else been banned from 'breaking bad' euphemisms when brewing?

Boiling water from the HLT - now that is a bloody obvious idea I had not thought of… So basically, once (very) clean, it is getting attacked with noxious compounds then boiling water.. Thanks for the heads up about VWP - I shall get some of the other stuff as suggested. And I do like the...

Cheers guys. While scouring the forums I noticed that a lot of people use Iodine (as Vindine). Has anyone used Chlorhexidine (Hibiscrub). Reading up on wikipedia it will kill anything (except viruses and prions) if in a high enough concentration. I must confess I have used it to wash cups...

Hi guys, My beer has an infection in the cornelius keg. The rank taste/smell (very sharp/sour) is very similar to the smell when the keg arrived (bought off ebay and still had the last dregs of beer in it - smelt terrible!). I know some people say infection in cornelius kegs can be difficult/...

I have noticed a few variations in hop rates between beers also. I suspect that the old brewers used to brew in a different way to us. While we expect a recipe to be exact to the decimal place, I believe that they were less precise, and used what was to hand a lot of the time. I also...

As a keen follower of his blog I was really looking forwards to this book coming out. Lots of recipes, and a little history - great! Even has instructions on how to make invert sugar. I felt the book was a little dry, and missing out on some of the personality which shines through on his...

Cheers Rob. Interesting the infection only presents later. I don't have the time to empty it and give it a thorough clean for a few weeks, so I will see if it develops the same smell as the corny had when it first arrived. In any case, a bloody good clean with sterilising agent and hot water...

Having a nightmare! AG No.3 was a slightly optimistic Barclay Perkins 1848 Imperial Brown Stout, way back in September. All went OK, although efficiency wasn't great and I ended up with 18L at an OG of 1.093. Fermentation want well, and it was legged into a corny in mid November. I have...