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How fine was your grain crushed for this batch? I buy my grain crushed and my mash efficiency was consistently between 60 and 65%. On a brew day about 18 months ago I noticed some of the grains weren’t really crushed at all so I gave the entire grain bill a few pulses in my food processor and...

I mainly do 23l batches, usually with an 18 litre mash or thereabouts and two slow sparges of 4 litres each. It depends on how much grain is in the grain bill really and what my efficiency is from an initial gravity reading. There’s 8 litres of dead space between the bottom of the mash tun and...

I have a HopCat Mk II. 88 brews in and still going strong.

I went to uni in Leeds and ended up living there for ten years after. I still have friends there and visit frequently. It’s a wonderful, amazing city but… I’d go to Norwich because I’ve never been!

Fermentis. It’s the dry version of Weihenstephaner lager strain. I’ve made pale ales, IPAs and even a stout with it. It’s very versatile and will ferment clean at a wide range of temperatures.

The 34/70 is the best floccer that I’ve used which is unsurprising really. It makes super bright beers with amazing clarity. In terms of ale yeasts, the MJ M44 flocculates really well, even without cold crashing. I use White Labs 565 a lot for my saison and that flocculates really well too. Most...

Harvest your yeast and as well as saving a tonne of cash, you’ll have a plentiful supply of different yeasts to use at the drop of a hat. Just make sure you have a spare fridge or in my case, a wife that is (mostly) supportive of my home brewing.

I have early morning starts for work, plus young children, so I don’t frequent the local public houses anywhere near as much as I used to. The upside is, whenever I do go out, I’ve saved so much money over the years brewing my own that I never baulk at the price of a pint. “Eight fifty you...

Me too, please. Redneck all the way.

This oxidisation advice is from Charlie Papazian’s Home Brewer’s Companion. I’ve done this with pretty much all my beers since reading this and never had a problem with oxidisation (I batch prime and bottle condition all my brews).

At the start of the first lockdown, Brookhouse started selling 1kg packs of hops on eBay really cheap. Between £11 and £30 ish depending on variety with free delivery. They stopped doing this shortly after but I emailed them directly and they sent me back a price list with all the 1kg stock they...

I would also recommend buying some yeast nutrients. It’s about £4 for 100g and you only need a pinch in a 5 gallon brew. I ran out not so long ago and the beers I made during that time (with top fermenting ale yeasts) had a sulphury smell during fermentation because the yeast was stressed too...

I need to do this. I need another freezer too for all my hops.

I used to do both too but now just save the trub. The washed yeast took longer to get going when repitched, plus it’s a bit of a faff washing it and you’re adding another stage where there could be possible contamination. When I’m syphoning into my bottling bucket, I try to leave a good pint’s...

I’m a fully paid up member of the yeast harvesting fan club. My wife isn’t too happy though that there’s a self full of jars filled with ‘mud’ in our fridge.

I can attest to this, it works wonders.

Glad it worked out well for you. I go down Belgian beer rabbit holes from time to time. I get hold of a yeast I like and brew a bunch of different styles with it over a few weeks like some kind of mad monk. Then I’ll fancy something pale and hoppy and all I’ve got are dubbels, tripels, saisons...

I have a Hopcat Mk 2. It’s the only all in one system that I’ve ever used but I’ve done 70+ brews on it and it’s served me well. Word of caution though: it arrived two and half months late and other people have had that experience too. Still, the kit itself is very good, as are the whirlpool...

Thanks for sharing these. Do commercial brewers use the Hall paper too?

I just read a very technical article about ABV calculations which really made my head hurt.