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Apparently Wyeast 1007 is one of the most difficult yeasts to clear. It doesn't flocculate well. I've read somewhere that the only sure-fire way to clear a 1007 beer perfectly is to filter it. However I would have thought that cold conditioning it in a fridge close to freezing would do a...

You might want to allow a bit more than 2 inches above the keg as I nearly kinked my gas line because the shelf above the keg was a bit close to the disconnect fittings. I guess it depends on the type of line you have, mine is not very flexible.

Orfy, I have had some responses on another forum and the threat of scorching is apparently not an issue. A number of people said it works fine but don't mash in it or it burns the grains.

Has anyone had any experience using an electric hot water urn as a boiler. I can get a 30 litre stainless urn with a 2400 watt element. I found this idea on another site and it can apparently keep a rolling boil going. This is similar to a device you guys in the states have called an...

You mean you found a shop in Queensland where they do something other than just sell kit beers!!! All the shops around me (in Brisbane) just want to concentrate on kit beers. They sell grains, unhopped malts and hops but are not exactly pushing it or able to give tonnes of advice. I've...

Usually you add the can plus 1kg of sugar when you make up the brew (prior to boiling or fermenting etc). You then use a small amount of dextrose (corn sugar) during bottling. If you use 1kg of sugar or corn sugar, you'll get a thin, not very malty sort of beer. If you replace the 1 kg of...

I clean them when I drink them and then on bottling day I rinse in hot water again, then boil the kettle and pour a bit into each bottle, put my thumb over the opening (with rubber glove on!!) and shake like hell. Pour out the boiling hot water and that's it. I've never had any problems...

I used a very cheap (A$30) battery powered digital thermostat that I wired in series with the existing fridge thermostat. Therefore it just hangs inside the fridge and controls it to the desired temp. The thermostat relay is latched to save the batteries, so if the batteries go flat, the...

In Australia, we can get dry malt extract that the manufacturer claims is spray dried (Muntons from the UK). The other stuff is heated and vacuumed until crystalisation I think. I thought this was better because it had less heating but then I thought of oxidation, which might be bad?? It...

I have a reference that says the following: 1 unit of dry malt extract = 1.2 units of liquid malt extract 1 unit of dry malt extract = 1.45 units of grain Obviously the grain conversion depends on your mashing and sparging equipment and general skills. I've done some experimenting with...

If you want some plans, there is a book called "Brew Ware" by Karl Lutzen and Mark Stevens (Storey Books - Vermont). It has all sorts of plans and materials lists for making home brew equipment (including gravity flow towers). They also do some equipment surveys, discuss growing hops...

Hi there Stuart, good to see another foreigner joining the ranks. I don't know what the homebrewing information and support is like in Scotland but it is pretty poor here in Australia, unless you just want to do can kits. If you want to get more adventurous than this the home brew shops...

31 this year and brewed about 20 batches in the last 4 years. Even tried a few all grainers.

Holy crap, you could run a jet engine on that!!!

I've used women's stockings (managed to steal a pair of wifeys). Tie knots in the legs as high as possible, and cut the legs off below the knot. Stretch the waist band over your fermenter and hey presto, one hop strainer. It works OK, but probably doesn't remove all the small stuff. Just...

I think you might have trouble getting it to ferment right out. This might leave unfermented sugars in the bottles and cause them to explode. Just check your final gravity. If it is normal then you might get away with it. The problem is that normal brewing yeasts don't like too much alcohol...

I use plastic "cling wrap" held on with a large rubber band, instead of a lid and airlock. I just put a small pin hole in it to let the gas escape. This way you can just look in and see what is going on. While it is fermenting there is no easy way for anything to get inside because the...

Can you form it into small blocks, dry it and burn it in your fire place? (Assuming you have a fire place or wood stove?) Portland's a cold place right?

That's a cool site..Thanks for the link. That guy ended up with a very clear wort. I've done two all grain batches and they were quite cloudy, probably because I didn't recirculate the first runnings enough??. Does everyone else get nice clear wort like that guy?

It probably doesn't matter what metals you use, but just be careful that you don't let certain metals touch each other in the wort. If they are at opposite ends of the galvanic table, one will corrode like hell. Have a read of any decent materials or physics text book and you'll find a table...