Recent content by howard86

@Tobor_8thMan yep, I can see the funny side of it, bit like the time I had some hawthorne berry wine fermenting and it blew up and repainted the walls and ceiling. Seems awful at first, but then you have to laugh at the stupidity. Least now I wont be raging whenever the beer turns out...

@Sammy86 Thanks bud, I can't believe something as obvious as not having the damn program in uk units has been the cause. I checked the hydrometer today and it was bang on 1.000 in tap water. I'll try and pencil in a brew day this week to see how things go with a bog standard english IPA...

@Velnerj you hit the nail on the head there, I didn't realise the program was set to US units. What a mong. I've set it to imperial so it's changed the water levels completely. Can't believe who stupid I was not to realise that. Thanks again! :D

@Velnerj sorry, I didn't see this post first. 2.5 gallons I should have said was where I stopped at, there was still some in the tun. I'm not sure why I didn't run it off. In previous brews, I always let it all run out. I used 18.5 litres to mash. Sparged 2.5 gallons (in litres here, its about...

@rsquared Sorry, I said UK gallons because I presumed most here are in the USA. Litres are the same here as there from what I gather. I wish we had a universal format as it gets a bit confusing between recipes. The recipe I'm guessing is the usual that to get 5 gallons, you boil about...

Hi everyone, Warning, long post. I posted a year or so back about having continuous mega low SG when brewing with all grain. I've still got problems with it and tried again today with a Belgian Dubbel recipe so while it's all in memory will try and explain what I did and some queries about...

I didn't take a gravity reading after sparging, but in previous cases I have and some usually come out about 1.037 though on the previous attempts at this tripel I think it was nearer 1.040. I tend to always put the recipes into beersmith, but I'll do a test on the next brew to try to work out...

I will look at getting a mill then to see as a lot of the grains husks are cracked open but not really crushed as such. As for brew efficiency, I'm not entirely sure. I got my kettle, tun and cooler from a friend who's brother was an avid brewer but had passed on and they didn't have the need...

@dmtaylor sorry for the lateness in getting back about this. I brewed last Friday and had a colossal accident on saturday morning (dropped the 5 gallon carboy and it smashed). So today I brewed a 2.5 gallon batch. I was brewing this tripel I'd found on the net that I had a go at earlier in the...

@dmtaylor thanks again for the advice. I've checked the water and it came up at 7.04 on the ph reader that I got, so when I do my next brew I'll add some gypsum to the mash water and do the raking idea you've suggested during sparging and see what happens. I'll post the outcome on here, should...

@dmtaylor hmm, if that is the reason then I'd better try it on Friday which is my next brew day. Turns out I've got some gypsum stashed away in some bits and bobs I inherited so I'll try that as well and see if it makes a difference. About the bit left in the tun, I've got one of those ice...

Sorry, being in the UK means most of the replies come during the night here. I used a calculator for the amounts of water - https://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Sparge-Water-Calculator.html @grampamark Being in the uk, our litres and gallons aren't the same amounts as in the usa. But...

@9Kegs - I don't remember the crystal malt type..the homebrew place I get it from doesn't do the whole 10l, 20l thing, it's mostly crystal, dark crystal or extra dark crystal in it's terminology. This was just the standard crystal so I guess it's around 20-30l maybe. I could get some kind of...

Thanks for the replies again. There is a chance the husks are higher up. There is a lot of finer powdery bits too whenever I scoop out grains to use, but I'm relatively new to this so not sure if that's usual or not. @dmtaylor - I just halved a recipe that I had found for a basic 5 gallon...

Thanks for the reply, if there is an issue with the malt, I guess it'll be the maris otter. I've been using a big bag of it which is about 45kg's worth. Whereas previously I'd just been getting 3kg bags. I could pick up some of the smaller ones and do an experiment at the weekend and see if it...