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Howdy, Well, it's not a Blichman - it's one I made to copy the beer gun, but is a decent replica that I made in order to bottle a few lagers from a keg. It does work pretty well, and the bottles are well carbed - but it creates too much waste in doing so because of the initial foam the...

Hi, I've been using a corny keg for a year or so and have managed some good, consistent results using the sort of chart that is often mentioned on here: http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php I've now got a bigger keg, with an A-type fitting - also known as a 'german slider' I'm...

Hi, My stir plate has become too much of a pita to be used much more. I'd like to switch to using constant aeration via a stainless airstone. I figure that I'll still have the agitation that is enjoyed when a starter is stirred with a stir bar - but also benefit from increased oxygenation...

Howdy, I'm about to make a big yeast starter from a vial of WLP838 lager yeast, and can't decide the best temp to run my stir plate at? I'm thinking that it should be cooler than the 72 to 75F that I propagate ale yeast at, but not as cold as the ferment temp. As I said it's for a big...

Howdy, I want to use a white labs vial for a lager brew at about 250L/66Gal, and OG 1050. With my ale brews, I always use a stir plate, and make starters that start at 1L, then step to 5L and then 10L over the course of a week - and they ferment out fairly well. My concern is that the 11L...

Howdy, I never was sure if I was under/over pitching my liquid strains, which I store on agar slants and grow up in the days before a brew. So I got a microscope and counting slide to count the cell numbers and use Mr Malty to check the numbers were correct. Trouble is, with flocculent strains...

Hi, I've been using WLP01 for years and love it, but recently I'm finding that it goes off so quick it causes problems for itself. The growth phase creates a huge foam head that climbs up and out of the conical (stir plate) or the FV tank. I know that others find this effect (vigorous growth)...

Howdy, Got my first kegged lager ready to serve for the holidays, and it tastes great! Trouble is all I can seem to serve is a big glass of foam :( The corny is a 41F in my garage, and has had co2 on it for 3-4 days now. I started at 11psi, but it was a bit too lifeless, then someone...

Howdy, I've always bottled indoors during the winter at room temperature, but the kit has moved to the garage this year and I'm worried about following the same process as before. I've a American Amber (WLP001) to bottle which is sat at only 41F, after doing a yeast count I seem to have only...

Howdy, You know how we all do things, but don't really know why - other than just going thru the motions of a habit that we've always had? Mine is secondary fermentation. After 5-7 days in primary I've always racked to another, clean FV for another week or so before bottling with the...

Howdy friends, Just got myself an antique microscope and haemocytometer so I can count yeast cells and then stop blaming the yeast for messing up my brews from time to time I've had WLP300 on a stir plate for a while and have counted the cells and reckon on 59M/ml @ 850ml = 50.15 Billion cells...

Howdy, So I did me a germanish weizen at the start of June using WLP300 liquid yeast, and after 2 weeks in the bottle is was pretty nice. Fairly smooth all round with a decent flavour of banana, which I haven't seen much of before due to not previously having any temperature control. Now I've...

Hi, I want to make a Belgian Blond, not a Leffe clone, but in that ballpark. I see many recipes use Pilsner malt as a base, but I dont have any. Can you use 2-row pale instead? I'm using WLP550 Belgian Ale yeast, and have Belgian aromatic malt - will they alone provide the correct flavours...

Howdy, I've pretty much cracked my Weizen as far as flavour goes, but am finding it hard to get the carbonation level right when bottling. My andriod app says the correct level is between 3.6 - 4.5 volumes of CO2, but when I tried 4.0 vols the result was impossible to open without spilling...

Hey, I've got a drawing of an FV that I'm thinking of getting from China and was hoping that you guys could see if there is anything wrong with it that I might have missed? It's around 80 gallons has a cooling jacket and insulation and will cost $1500, what do you think? many thanks in advance

Howdy, I've been lagering a Munich Dunkel for 2 months and fancy bottling this weekend. The one I did last winter was great, but as flat as a witches t*t. So I fancy reseeding this one as I prime it, but have never done so before. The original yeast was white labs, which has all gone now, so...

After buying a kettle that was too big because it was cheap, I decided that I'd have to go gas as I'm already using as much power for my HLT element as my garage can cope with. Saw the 'Paella ring' burner at: 640mm Paella Gas Burner | Buy Now at gasproducts.co.uk which is 640mm wide - fits...

Hi I've got a lovely new 60gal MashTun and want a false bottom that I'll be able to use if and when I go commercial. Trouble is I cant decide on whether to use a perforated steel false bottom, a bit like this: http://www.nobodybuy.com/product_desc/pid79049/perforated-sheet.htm ... or a...

Hi, Not concentrating hard enough while ordering grains has left me with a huge sack of dark, toasted wheat instead of a small bag! :mad: I realise that using lots of it is no good as it gives a very bitter flavour, but I'm unsure just what proportion I could get away with if I were to...