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The Beer Festival at Tuckers Maltings, Newton Abbot, is being held again from April 21st to 23rd. Organised by SIBA, it features beers from the South West, and if anyone is thinking of attending you can view the beer list on https://irp.cdn-website.com/3c152e2a/files/uploaded/CASKSPDF.PDF For...

Three years ago I was very enthusiastic about using a Whale Flipper Mk IV caravan water pump as a mini beer engine. I have since discovered a shortcoming which I must bring to Member’s notice. Whilst most parts are beer compatible, there are some made from light alloy, and after about a year’s...

In 1990, I made a video of brewing on my recently acquired 36 gallon (164 litre) plant. Twenty years later I made another, highlighting changes made in light of experience, and combined them on a DVD. I have forced a copy on a few members of this forum over the years, who in the main have been...

Wasn’t that roaring lion’s head that suddenly appeared at the London New Year fireworks fantastic. How they can pre-programme 500 drones to fly with such precision for the duration of the show is a miracle. I wonder if they all returned to their base safely, or whether some were lost in action.

This day next month the date will be 2/2/22. I remember the day it was 12/3/45 would you believe! I was attending a Prep School in Yorkshire at the time, run very much like Wackford Squeers’ Dotheboys Hall – canings were administered by the Headmaster in a ritual held in the Gym every Monday...

Our local Jazz Club has resumed holding Jigs after 20 months of lockdown, and yesterday evening I was taken by my assistant brewer (retired) to see Black Cat Jazz at the British Legion. Past experience has shown that the beers there are served so cold as to be tasteless, so I went prepared with...

I was surprised to see this description of ‘polished’ in one of the first books on Home Brewing to be published after the practice became legal, written by the Editor of Home Winemaker, C.J.J. Berry. A quick check on the web turned up this Ingested asbestos in filtered beer, in addition to...

My Dad started it all the day he came back from the 1955 Motor Show at Earl’s Court excitedly waving a piece of paper. ‘Look what I’ve been given’ he said, ‘a recipe for making beer at home!’ ‘I thought that was illegal’ said Mum. ‘Well it is really, but the chap who gave this to me said it’s...

All good things have to come to an end sometime, and as I am now finding that putting a brew through my 36 gallon plant is more of an ordeal than a pleasure, I have decided to call the beer we are brewing on Monday ‘Grand Finale’, and hang up my mash paddle for good when it is finished.

I see that St Austell Brewery have re-branded HSD - which officially stands for ‘Hick’s Special Draught’, but is universally known in Cornwall as ‘High Speed Diesel’ - as plain ‘Hicks’. Available from Tesco’s in bottle-conditioned form, it is a magnificent drink, and lists Rye as one of the...

My mobile phone looked a bit odd this afternoon, it seemed to be swelling. I showed it to my Grandson, who supplied it, and he said it could burst into flames or explode any minute, and put it out in the garden. As it had lived in my trouser pocket for years, that was rather worrying! Has...

I thought this page from my Brewery Log might be of interest. August 1995. BAD NEWS. PLYMPTON BREWERY CLOSING. Allied Breweries decided to close this excellent small brewery after some 11 years. Idiots. Heard this when leaving tub for yeast. All 3 employees, Ian, Stefan & ? given 90 days...

These are my hydrometers. The Mickey Mouse one designed for homebrewers has a range from 9 to 110 along a 75mm stem, and the three professional ones cover the ranges shown along 120mm stems. The bulb and stem diameters of the little one are 180mm and 66mm, and of the others 400mm and an...

Can anybody tell me who supplies White Labs range of yeasts in the UK? I am particularly interested in their 037 Yorkshire Square yeast, has anyone tried it?

There is something strange going on, a Postman just delivered two packets to us. Not only is it Sunday, but its Bank Holiday as well. When asked why he was here, he replied ‘We have to keep up with the opposition’. Wonders never cease.

Brewed Gyle 310 yesterday, counting from my first all grain brew. 34 ½ gallons of Premium Bitter with an OG of 46, which I am calling ‘Double Celebration’, as it is my son and daughter-in-law’s Silver Wedding Anniversary and her 60th Birthday today. Only difference with this one is 204 gms...

Claims to Fame. For those who don’t know, this was a running gag on ‘Wake Up to Wogan’, where people with strange names like Mick Sturbs, Norma Stitts, or Rudolph Hart, wrote in with their ‘Claim to Fame’ – like they once had their foot trodden on by Henry Cooper, or had once stood in the next...

Has anybody got one of these? If so, could you tell me what the bore of the outlet pipe tail is. (The hole in its middle, not the bore of the pipe that fits on it.) Thanks.

The brewing industry has a great heritage that should be cherished, and it would be a shame if this was lost through indifference. For example, irrespective of what it is made from, the vessel in which wort is boiled and hops added is called a Copper, and in most breweries it will have the...

We brewed another 34 gallons of my favourite beer last Monday, which this time is called ‘Oral Vaccine’. (Two or more 568cc doses to be taken 30 minutes apart)! The photo of the copper, almost empty, shows how clear the wort is after the boil and whirlpool, which bodes well for the finished...