Recent content by tubby_shaw

Use roast barley by all means instead of/as well as black malt :-) you can add some flaked grains if you like for flavour but as they won't be "mashed" they won't add much in the way of fermentables and could cause clarity issues, which isn't much of a problem in a stout :-)

It is probably something as simple as the temperature where your bottling bucket was stored. As the temperatures drop then more yeast will fall out of suspension, this means you'll be bottling clearer beer that will have a longer shelf life, but as you are transferring less viable yeast then it...

It'll be fine :thumb: It will be slightly different to the original but should still be a fantastic beer :thumb:

Hi mak :) I didn't really do a sparge iirc, you can give the bag of grains a rinse with some de chlorinated water at 70C if you feel the need but it's not really necessary :thumb: After bottling it was left for a week in the warm to condition then 2 to 3 weeks to mature :thumb: I hope this...

Guys chat should be open now :thumb: Could someone remind me to close it Monday night please :cheers:

Yes HERE

Thank you for the kind messages guys :D As well as it being my birthday yesterday it was also the culmination of 7 months intense training as I passed my Nidan Iaido grading yesterday :D So I will be around a bit more now guys :thumb:

As you are adding the hops to a kit the procedure I would use is; Take a generous tablespoon of the malt extract from the kit and dissolve it in about a litre of water in a large saucepan, bring this to the boil then add up to 50g of your chosen hops, boil for 10 minutes. You can then use the...

I would reduce the amount of copper hops to give maybe 45 IBU Just my personal opinion :thumb:

:whistle: Do I need to bring some to the hot break? :drink:

Glad you like it :thumb:

Theoretically yes, but calculating the required hops might be a little tricky :hmm: Also there is the issue of sanitising the wort which boiling does. How do you fancy 'taking one for the team' and brewing a small batch using the method you describe and reporting back ?

Keg was primed with 50g of white sugar and each pint bottle had 1/2 tsp of white sugar :thumb:

A good modified kit is Coopers Stout made with Dark spraymalt :thumb: Full of body and flavour :grin: Just replace the sugar called for in the kit with 1.2 times the amount of dark spraymalt, so if the kit calls for 1kg of sugar add 1.2kg spraymalt, if the kit calls for 700g of sugar add...

For your first attempt with any kit I would advise making it up as the instructions errr instruct :) The darker spraymalts do have a roastier/maltier taste and I would advise using pale/light spraymalt to add to a kit :thumb: As for using treacle or darker sugars in a kit, they do add a...