Recent content by robertkerr79

OK folks, it's had 8 weeks in the fermenting fridge, 3 weeks in the bottle and 4 days in the fridge. The results... it's delicious. It seems like the WLP820 and M76 were able to put their differences aside and work together. Unfortunately, I smashed my hydrometer shortly before I was planning...

Bucket. No foam.

Got me some M76 and am making a starter before I pitch at 14°C. Still no activity of any sort after 3 days so hopefully this'll get it going.

Thanks Dave. Good to know.

Thanks all. I'll probably pitch another lager yeast. Given I'll be lagering for at least 8 weeks it's not exactly going to ruin the schedule.

This is the first time I've brewed using my new (old) fermentation fridge. I pitched my WLP820 Oktoberfest/Märzen Lager Yeast BB nearly 48 hours ago and haven't had any action in the airlock yet. I pitched at 10°C. I've brewed a lot of IPAs in the past and they'd usually have got going by now...

I once innocently turned on my electric 35L kettle before adding any water. That was the day I learned that the heating element will immediately start smoldering if not fully submersed. It imparted a smokiness to the Belgian Blonde that people were very polite and encouraging about. It wasn't...

I'm keen to revamp this thread as I've been wondering if my approach accounts for the fact that I often finish the boil slightly under volume. I run a continuous sparge into the kettle and start heating as soon as the wort covers the heating element. It struck me last brewday that the...

I brewed my first hefeweizen recently and got nice banana and clove aroma using the aptly named FM41 Cloves and Bananas.

Am I the only one who's happy enough bottling? I'll admit that the sanitising step is a bit laborious, but an evening listening to music and completing the job is well spent in my opinion. When I'm done, the bottles stand before me like loyal subjects. It's very satisfying to see the output of...

I made a Sabro addition at the end of a simple witbier brew. The end result had a very strong, clean bitterness to it that was by no means unpleasant. I was hoping to get some of the tropical fruits and coconut though. I probably won't brew with it again until I can figure out how to harness it...

I'm getting geared up for a Nectaron, Wai-iti and Enigma NEIPA. Someone give me a reason not to (other than none of the hops being from the US).

I find the immersion cooling is the hardest part to shrug off. That's why I've got 2 x 100L water butts setup near my brewing area. It takes about 200L to cool a 5 gallon batch so it sets me up for watering the plants until the next brew day.

It's definitely worth taking an interest in calculating how to hit the right mash temp. I had a problem with efficiency and since I've started being more obsessive about getting the temp and pH in range things have improved significantly.

I get a lot of trub coming out of the kettle too (my kettle has a thermometer, heating element, bazooka, chiller and hop spider in it at the end of the boil so a manual whirlpool is tricky). I've taken to racking from the primary into my bottling bucket after fermentation, sanitising the...