Recent content by TomBrooz

Muntons gold kits are great. Comes as two cans of liquid extract, you can just use that and top up with water. Super easy and decent results. I know you're just getting started but for light lagers I would definitely recommend some hops for that fresh lager flavor. For alcohol content, check...

I lived in China for five years, and the standard beers there were absolute piss. Large proportion of rice in the grist, about 3% ABV and I suspect literally watered down. Back then Budweiser was a step up in flavor. I don't think bud is bad, just lacking. Never forget it could be MUCH worse...

Can anyone give me a reliable quote for weyermann LME points per gallon gravity from experience? I'm aware standard LME is about 37, but I've not worked with weyermann before and the numbers I'm getting from their brochure and my calcs give me about 30. please tell me I'm wrong.

I would argue that nobody has the ability to measure IBUs accurately, and that's why we're in this situation. If IBUs could be measured accurately, surely there would be less debate. Measurements on Ph, temperature and gravity are all definitive. However I doubt anything short of gas...

True true. Sources commonly state that another factor influencing hop utilization is the vigor of the boil, a variable which is just about impossible to measure and reproduce accurately. Even if you were to entirely reproduce a recipe, different burners and pots could influence results. I think...

Does anyone know a formula or calculator to achieve a target pitching temp for a given volume of wort by adding cold water?

As long as its covered I can't see how it would get infected, the brew kettle is sterilized from boiling. You were just going to put it in a different covered container to ferment for a matter of weeks anyway, should be sanitary. I think the concern here is DMS. As I understand, hot wort...

mmmm.... Buttering hops...

I think the issue here is that there's a fair chance that in fact utilization is not affected by gravity, I.e. late additions leading to low boil gravity, or on the other side low boil volumes with full extract additions early on leading to massively high gravity. Unfortunately all the...

Yeah, I've decided to go with Tinseth and have put a spreadsheet together to make hop schdules easier to produce. I've also decided to boil with one pound per gallon dry extract consistently, and add the remainder of any malts and adjuncts at flameout. This should avoid models directing me to...

Yooper had in fact said that utilization was independent of boil gravity and that her source was direct communication with John Palmer. This question is baffling me at the moment too, I plan to do two gallon boils with one pound per gallon, using utilization data at 1.045 gravity. I don't know...

What are the most reliable online calculators for IBUs? They all seem to return sometimes drastically different figures. Some sources also say that boil volume and gravity do not affect utilization at all. If so, what figures should I use to calculate my bitterness. Full boil? 1.000 gravity...

For real? I don't have to account for boil gravity when calculating IBUs? I have a calculator that reduced my Bitterness by three quarters after accounting for bio gravity relative to 1.000. I was considering rehopping the batch during fermentation with hop tea. Should I forget this and trust...

Correct, I have one smallish brew pot, and a large fermenter, hence the small boil and concern for blocking the utilization. Btw the brew is in the can as of yesterday, I only discovered the discrepancy after the fact.

Can you post your carb syrup recipe and/or process please?