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My water here is as hard as nails (336 mg/L as HCO3) so I'm always adding lactic to the mash. I work it out with Bru'n Water, which works fine. But the tool also likes to nag me about acidifying the sparge "in order to avoid extracting tannins from the grain". I get the idea, and I've always...

All my kegs are "committed" to upcoming brews, but a friend has asked if he can come round and brew a stout together. He's got bottles, but I'm thinking it'd nice to avoid getting sediment from doing a secondary fermentation. So I'm wondering about temporarily using a Corny as a brite tank...

Planning my first attempt at a witbier in the next few days... I was going to follow the recipe in the GH 'Bible', which has 50/50 Pale Malt and Wheat Malt (and a bit of coriander and bitter orange peel). However I've just read that a Witbier should traditionally use UNMALTED wheat. Hmmm. OK...

I've got a Dubbel that's nearly finished, after a good, vigorous fermentation with Lallbrew "Belgian-style witbier" yeast. As my next batch includes a Belgian Witbier it seems like a no-brainer to re-use the yeast. I've done it before, once by re-pitching straight onto the sediment and a few...

I never planned to do dry January this year, and I've never done it before! It's just that my sister-in-law mentioned she was doing it and it just kind-of happened. I've always taken the opinion that it's a good idea to cut back a bit after indulging a bit more than usual over Christmas, but I...

I think building up a starter is easier than it sounds, but when I first did it I struggled to find a clear and well-informed set of instructions. So I'm just posting this for future reference, from a microbiologist who's possibly a bit better-qualified than most on the subject: The example I...

Morning all - Just setting up to brew a Belgian Dubbel, based on a Greg Hughes recipe. He suggests 35g of Hallertauer Hersbrücker 3.5% at the start of the boil, and then a similar quantity of Tettnang 4.5% for the last 15min. I have HH (2022 harvest) but it must be the lowest alpha I've ever...

Great post by White Labs on where diacetyl (butter/pocorn flavour) comes from and how to control it: Compound Spotlight: Diacetyl. (EDIT: there is another good post on the same topic here) In summary: Where diacetyl comes from Diacetyl comes from a chemical called ɑ-acetolactate that the...

Apologies I posted about this a while back, but forgot to include a pic Recently discovered these things called pump wedges (used by window fitters and various other people) and they are absolutely the dog’s doodahs for the job of gently and controllably tilting an FV when you’re trying to run...

Had some installers at the house last week putting in some new doors, and they were using these things to adjust the position of the heavy frames while they put the fixings in. Not seen them before but they are incredibly strong and very thin when deflated. I was thinking they’d be good for...

I inadvertently left my bitter connected while I was carbing up some lager the other day (oops). So I’ve decided it’s probably time to do things properly and get a couple of secondary regs. The kegerator has already got a manifold so I don’t need daisy chaining or taps, and I only do CO2. So...

GH's recipe for Düsseldorf Altbier uses about 200g of Spalt Select including almost 100g for bittering (50 ibu) Maybe just me but that seems a bit extravagant. As it happens I can't get Spalt Select in whole hop so I'd probably use Hallertau Mittelfrüh for the late hops because I have a 100g...

Has anyone had any success brewing a tasty lower (2-3%) alcohol beer - had a request from a mate for his wedding anniversary party. Obvs not too hard to reduce the fermentable sugars (less base grain, mash short/high/low, possibly liquor back) but I'm concerned I'll just end up with something...

Swirled up what was left in the FV after my lager (WY2308), transferred it to a sterilised flask, added about the same amount of cooled boiled water and gave it a really good shake. But instead of stratification I've got something more like egg drop soup. Doesn't look very promising. Advice...

Planning to brew a sort of dark Helles later in the week based on a recipe found by @Cheshire Cat I don't have any more detail than that, so I'm aiming for about 1.050-55, 18-20 IBUs and at least 20 EBC. Surely "20g Tetnang" (4% alpha) isn't going to be enough for bittering so I'm guessing...

Posting this partly for my own reference and partly in case it's of interest to anyone else. With my old setup I used to sparge from the Burco by hoisting it up. But that: was a bit of a faff was probably an accident waiting to happen, and meant I couldn't start heating for the boil until all...

After dodging COVID for two years I finally got hit with it <24h after pitching a brew. So I ended up being almost completely out of action for two weeks: not a great pile of fun. Mostly over it now thank goodness. One way and another after pitching it at 22ºc (OG 1.046 bitter, Lalbrew 'London'...

I know this is hardly an original idea, but I thought I'd get one of those vac-pack machines to reseal my part-used packets of hops. There are dozens of different machines from the usual online suppliers but I got this one: JML Food Sealer: Vacuum Heat Sealer Machine (on offer at £32) Comes...

A slightly irritating feature of my setup is not having a separate sparge heater. It‘s not a problem because I sparge from the Burco. But it does mean I have to collect the wort in a separate bucket so I can’t easily start heating for the boil until after the sparge. So I was idly wonder...

I don't 'do' finings. Just waiting and letting things take their normal course is the way to go. right? Well... I religiously chuck 1/3 tsp Irish moss in towards the end of the boil; and I usually add 15ml 5ml (oops) of NBS Clarity when I pitch - but everyone does that. Anyway my beer is nice...