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I always thought oxidation was the boogeyman too. Then one day I force carved a keg of IPA by setting the reg at 30psi and shaking 2 mins. But I forgot to purge the headspace after transfer. The taste difference between that beer and one from the same batch that went into a proper purged keg was...

That would definitely overcarb it. When you pressure ferment the beer should be partially / mostly / fully carbed by the time fermentation is finished. This depends on what pressure your spunding is set to. I like to set my spunding so the beer is slightly undercarbed at end of fermentation...

You want to start off with low pressure so the yeast don't get too stressed, then increase pressure near the end to carbonate. I aim for 5psi initially, then try to finish at 15psi for lagers or 20psi for ales. Then when you crash cool the pressure drops a bit and the beer is slightly...

What line lengths are we talking about? In general a longer line means you need a larger ID tubing so that the beer will still flow. The problem with that is that you end up storing a lot of beer in the line which can be wasteful.

A heat belt isn't really a complete solution here. You really need a temperature controller to go with that heat belt, otherwise your brew is going to get too warm which seems to be what is happening. My advice is to move it to the coldest part of the house/basement, get a temperature...

So you brewed 10 gallons of all-grain wort - and you brewed this in one pot, ie not 2 separate batches. Then filled 2x 5 gallon carboys, pouring alternately between them for consistency (good idea by the way). And at this point, before pitching the yeast, you noticed that one was darker than the...

Yeah it depends on a bunch of stuff really. If you can buy the starter kits and make ok beer with them and resist the temptation to fall into the endless pit, you can totally save money. That's not how it worked out for me. I totally fell into the endless pit. I started caring about how beer...

Sweet rig @schematix Gotta say I'm pretty happy with corny keg fermentors but I'd switch to that if I could. Question for you though. You are always talking about transferring with a few points to go so the yeast are active and can mop up O2. I don't typically do this, I like to crash cool a...

That looks perfectly normal to me. Brew on.

I've recently switched from BIAB to Grainfather and have had a huge drop in efficiency. Standard for me with BIAB+sparge is about 80%, I hit a new low of 54% with the Grainfather on the weekend which I'm not very impressed about. I'm lost as to what is inherently different about these things...

So I just bought an Easiyo, I dunno if this is a local New Zealand thing or international, but basically a Supermarket yoghurt kit thing that you add sachets of milk powder + culture to. I tried the Greek yoghurt ingredient pack, and honestly I'm blown away at how good it came out. I was...

I just ran this through Beersmith for you. Beersmith has profiles for the Coopers kits available so you can get a better idea of how things will come out. I get this... OG 1.058 FG 1.007 (Beersmith is always wrong with extracts, let's call it more like 1.012) ABV 6% if your FG is 1.012 IBU...

I spent 6 months in Germany back in 2009 and was enchanted by the magic of the hefe. Paulaner and Franziskaner in particular. It wrecked all beer that followed for some time afterwards. So when I started homebrewing, I wanted to claim back that magic. After a dozen or so tries at the hefe style...

It can be any psi you like, so long as its the same in both. You don't want to be changing the pressure of the saurus at transfer time as that mixes the sludge up. So measure the saurus pressure and make sure the keg matches.

Gas is really expensive where I live so I'll avoid having to repressurise the fermentor at all costs. So there's 2 methods I use with success. The first is to depressurise, and add the dryhops at the same time as your simple sugar addition. If I'm brewing an IPA or decent pale ale I will build...

Yep, put it in the fridge and the pressure will drop nicely. Personally I like to let lagers finish at 15psi and ales at 20psi (my gauge doesn't go past 20 so anything beyond is guesswork). This results in a slightly undercarbed beer which ends up perfect with a couple of days on the gas while...

I scored 2 of those black rock cans in a competition and I toucanned them into a passable IPA. I think they use Pacific Jade or Southern Cross. Sounds like you have already brewed this. So do yourself a favour and chuck in some dry hops once the foam subsides, about 3-5 days before you bottle...

Talk to me about this replacement fermentasaurus tubing. I'm using the standard ones and they only fit inside the stainless dip tube. I thought a tube that fits on the outside would be easier to use and less chance of blockage. Is that how it works out in practice?

For lagers its really really useful to repitch slurry from the last batch. 4 packs of 34/70 costs me the same as 15kg/33lb of pilsner base malt, screw that. Aside from cost, repitched slurry can be super healthy if you brew often, definitely better than a smackpack that's been at the HBS for...

I've done this a couple of times with smaller batches 2.5G kegs, a blonde ale and maybe a lager of some sort. The beer quality was exceptional - the fermenter keg having never been opened. And by not transferring you cut out quite a few extra steps from your process. I use floating dip tubes...