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  1. Madhouse

    My Holy Grail

    I find that adding dextrin malt / carapils / oats to my mash bill helps head retention a lot. But you're also disappointed in your carbonation levels which suggests you need more bottling sugar. Alternatively it's a great excuse to move to using kegs, CO2 and a beer gun / counterpressure system...
  2. Madhouse

    Does it get expensive?

    It's as cheap or expensive as you want it to be. It's a hobby, so for me it's about enjoying the process as well as enjoying the final result. Yes, I end up with some great beers at a fraction of what I'd pay in the shops (let alone in the pub!) but if I was in it for that I probably would have...
  3. Madhouse

    Brewing Apps

    Used BeerSmith when I started out. Am now using Brewfather as I got an iSpindel and wanted the integration, works fine on web/iPad/phone and I prefer the brew day experience using it. Fair to say it takes a few brews to dial in your equipment profile but that applies to any software.
  4. Madhouse

    Oxidation using Boel itap

    Could be process - couple of things to think about: How did you purge the bottles before filling? as all the 'action' is at the top of the bottle you probably want to pressurise it and then release a few times rather than having both inlet and outlet valves open at the same time. Did you cap on...
  5. Madhouse

    Murky beer

    By 'poured a drop' do you mean from the tap in your fermenter? Could be that it's got full of trub and that's what you've poured out. Of course that's a rubbish theory if you've opened it up and it all looks like that. I use protafloc in all my brews.
  6. Madhouse

    Pumpkin Beer

    Got a pumpkin spiced stout in the keg at the mo as it happens! It's tasting good, 2 cans of puree into a 10L batch at then 1/2 teaspoon of each of nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger in secondary, all on top of a nice roasty milk stout recipe that I put together. It's come out nicely balanced and not...
  7. Madhouse

    What did you brew today?

    Made a pumpkin spiced stout a couple of weeks back, it's been a while since I brewed but it mostly went well apart from the obligatory leaving open of a tap along the way. It's now carbing in the keg but couldn't wait so had a taster yesterday and it's very nice indeed. Now wondering if I can...
  8. Madhouse

    Help with equipment purchase please.

    This. It made a huge difference for me and all you need is a temp controller, cheap tube heater and a cheap/free fridge off facebook/ebay. There's so many factors in brewing that can impact the final beer though. Advice to the OP would be to get whatever kit you want/can afford and then...
  9. Madhouse

    Help following mistake

    What @crowcrow said seems the simplest route. As for the dry hop, I'd go Simcoe and then one or two of your C hops. If I'm going for a really hoppy beer I aim for somewhere in the region of 15 to 20 g/L of hops in total.
  10. Madhouse

    Is a Blow-off Tube Actually Necessary?

    I use a blow off tube just because it's easier - both to fit in the ferm fridge and on the rare occasion I run out of headspace, to clean up the resulting yeasty mess.
  11. Madhouse

    Another ruined batch !!?

    Another advantage of using a hydrometer to check your FG is you get 100ml of beer to taste as that's a definite way to know if it's gone bad or not. As others have said, stick with it and see. As for the dry-hop, 3-4 days will be fine, but I see you're planning on chilling/cold crashing - my...
  12. Madhouse

    Malt Suggestions ( from maltmiller)

    I find a bit of dextrin malt helps with body and head retention if you want that kind of thing.
  13. Madhouse

    POLL - Would you rent a grainfather?

    Firstly I'm not your target market as I have my own kit. If a brewer is at the stage of AG brewing there's a good likelihood that they have a lot of their own kit already, so I suppose are you coming it from the angle of 'try before you buy' or just rental? I think there's legs in the 'try...
  14. Madhouse

    Mash pH - How Important Is It?

    Slightly off topic as it's probably not your water. If you want to up your aroma and flavour make your hop additions later in the boil and do a dry hop. You will have to wait longer though as that's usually added in secondary and requires 3-4 days. For me that's usually day 10/11 for day 14...
  15. Madhouse

    Bottling Guns

    I’ve a beer gun, just checked and it’s the Kegland one. Personally I’ve not had any issues and have found it a useful bit of kit. Key is not to bottle at too high a pressure, I started out chilling the bottles but got fed up with that and room temp ones have been fine. The beer line I have is...
  16. Madhouse

    Carbonation drops advice

    When I bottle carbed I made up a sugar solution of 60g sugar to 100ml water and then used a calpol syringe to squirt 1ml of sugar syrup per 100ml of bottle volume. Just adjust those ratios to get the required amount of sugar in the bottle.
  17. Madhouse

    Biggest influence on beer quality

    Biggest single thing for me was the brew fridge and therefore controlling the fermentation temperature, although something a simple as a tap in my brew bucket so I didn't need to use a syphon was pretty revolutionary at the time. The brew bucket's gone from plastic to stainless since then and...
  18. Madhouse

    Recommend a Stout recipe

    great, thanks. Will get the chips into some rum tonight then.
  19. Madhouse

    Recommend a Stout recipe

    Out of interest what ratio of wood chips to beer volume did you use? thinking of making a Lost Dog clone this weekend.
  20. Madhouse

    How to brew lagers?

    Having tried making one, I'll just say to think about what air-lock you're using and the impact of cold-crashing. I used a blow-off tube and forgot that cooling = suck-back. Cue half a pint of sanitiser in the brew and it going down the drain.
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