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I usually pitch (all yeasts) about 25C, then put in to an old fridge at 17C for a week, then move to room temp for 3 weeks Before I did the 17C part I was having problems with temp causing too fast fermentation and off flavours - the 17C stage has really helped

It's hard to gauge what final beer will taste like out of the fermenter - I've had it go both ways (got better, got worse) The first few beers for me were discovering what works with my water/setup/air temp etc. (porters, stouts etc. it appears) Also getting the mash temps, water volumes, hop...

My first 3 or 4 brews were all short, then next 10 or so where too long ... Now I've got it just right - for 6.5KG grain I'll use 34L of water in total - to get to around 21L at the end with 150g+ of hops used

Sanitisation is over exaggerated Just make sure the ferment kit is clean - give it all a bit of starsan I watch some YT videos of people spraying and washing everything like they might get some STD You've got to seriously mess up to overwhelm a good dose of brewing yeast The real risks are...

lol, good luck recreating that again I had a beer that went nuts for first few days - sounded like a chainsaw - blow off pipe was just ripping (I should have recorded it) 3 or 4 weeks in it was one of worst beers I'd ever made (probably the worst) fruit cocktail, alcohol, banana, peach...

You might need to move away from extracts if you're sensitive to sugar (I am) I find even using 100% maris ends up too sweet for my taste Doing all grain (even with my cheap setup) I can take out the sweeter grains - and ramp the hops a bit My main brew now is some random dark porter - with...

I keep my stronger beers for 4-12 weeks in the carboy Nothing good has come from bottling too soon for me (and soon is usually <4wks) Now I've been brewing for a bit - I'd rather buy some for a couple of weeks than bottle early

In my experience it's hard to do much that will damage yeast - that a clean and feed won't fix I washed with tap water some M44 only 30 mins before pitching the other day (it was dregs of a previous batch but it was a bit citra smelly so I quickly washed it just to see what would happen) The...

I didn't get really clear light coloured beer until I started using mostly pils with protofloc(sp?) Tbh - I prefer the colour and whatever is going on with the water here really benefits darks beers and works against the light ones

I rarely say this (as I've a high threshold for mold and grime generally) - but even I'd bin that - it looks like it'll be tainted If it was a steak, I'd rinse, season, get some flames under it - and still eat it blue

Old thread I know - but I just want to get this in I've done 22 batches now with 4 different yeasts - almost all, especially the darks, have been great with US-05, M44, Ringwood - but all but one of the S-04s I've made have had a taste - now I've varied everything I can (except used RO water)...

As others say - move it somewhere a bit warmer and yeast should get going again if it's not finished My advice is to try everything possible before adding something (like more yeast in) - it's pretty hard to get an infection especially after ferment has started - most infections I've seen are...

I don't use Nottingham but I always put a full pack in and try and do 17C(ish) for first 3 days at least before moving it to room temp I always use a blow off tube (rubber bung, plastic tube pushed in that goes in to a jug with star san) 1 out of 3 brews I do blow off even on a low temp -...

I usually stick 500g Special 1, 2 or Special 3 in which darkens it a *lot* as well as the chocolate - my 'stouts' are by far the best beers I brew at moment - I think our local hard water helps I leave out Crystal and go heavy on the bittering - I don't like sweet porter/stout beers Also I...

I have a cheap old fridge that is big enough to comfortably fit a carboy and blowoff in at it's lowest setting at stays at 17C which is great for fermenting what I brew - so it doesn't need any controllers etc.

1. nail your mash temp and nail your ferment temp in first 3 days 2. use a blow off tube 3. don't stress about screwups - they are almost always fixable if you nailed the temps and kept things clean after the boil 4. don't stress about being under/over numbers or quantities, make small...

I really can't taste diff on the 60 min additions so I just buy cheapest but no more than a year old - which seems to be Target and Northern Brewer quite a lot

You're right - I shouldn't be knocking things I've not even tried - geez I say that to others enough

My 2¢ - don't cross the streams. I like a rum chaser sometimes with a Porter - but I don't get adding liquor to beer in the bottle.

Also @MSK_Chess - in 1997'ish I was living in Altrincham - there was a pub the Market Tavern - they had TT on every other week or so - the original post I made was thinking about those days. When I buy bottles of TT now - it tastes nothing like (I remember) the draught did in '97 - maybe I've...