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Hi, I brewed a lager beer last weekend, (OG1.045) and I used a pack of the Wyeast Czech Pilsner yeast (liquid activator - direct pitch). The smack pack had worked fine (swollen up nicely) at around 16-17 degrees C and I pitched it into the wort at around 15 deg C. The wort was very well...

Thanks. Yeah I don't like overly carbed bitters, and prefer the tap bitters in the UK which are more mildly carbonated. Does anyone know what a Sambrooks, or a Fullers etc would be in terms of volumes CO2 when tapped ?

I have just brewed a standard/ordinary English bitter and it is sitting in secondary waiting to be bottled. I have hit all my gravity targets, the clarity is excellent after fining, the taste is fantastic and I want to make damn sure I don't mess it up when carbonating. I am going to bottle...

Yeah I have found the immersion heater is actuallly fine. It does get hot, but you get convection and so the beer around it circulates a bit. Also, with a small heater in a large bosy of beer, you get a kind've gradual temperature profile. The thing I like about the immersion heater is it is...

Hi All, When a recipe talks about doing a 60 minute boil, or a 90 minute boil with your hops, do they mean 90 mins from the time the wort starts to boil or 90 mins from the time you heat the mash and sparge runnings? ie, do you heat your wort post mash, then when it starts to boil, stick in...

Thanks Guys. I used Wyeast 1318 which has an attenuation of 71%-76% apparently. I used 4.5kg maris otter and then 0.5kg crystal malt. I think it is going to be good

I brewed a standard bitter on Saturday. I hit OG 1.037, and a targeted FG of arround 1.008 for a light (3.6% ish) bitter. It is only 2 days into fermentation and the fermentation is going along nicely (around 1.017 at the moment) and I tasted the beer briefly after tapping it into the...

This is awesome! I am chucking out my immersion heater and moving to this.

This is great news and very encouraging, thanks Guys ! I have recently bought an old fridge and rigged up some temperature control and can fit a carboy into it and ferment at low temps, and hopefully lager at even lower temps. I have also got my "ale equipment" still free, so can make bres more...

I have one of those temperature controllers, and use the fridge for cooling and an immersion heater for heating. The relay switches between the two, and I house my fermenter (glass carboy) in the fridge with the temperature sensor taped to the side of the side of the carboy and then covered with...

I have been brewing ale for some time and want to start trying lager. I have the equipment now to do it, but find that very few posts on this site are related to lager. Is it just me, or do home brewers not make lager as much? If so, I there a reason for this?

Thanks Guys. I think you are correct. I think I took it out of the primary way too early. Interestingly I made another batch and have fermented much longer and also racked to secondary for a week or so. Will see how this one turns out. I finished the other batch though. Chilled it down, let it...

I made a clone of Brooklyn's Pennant Ale '55. The beer was bottled, and after around three weeks tasted fantastic. I have now had it "conditioning" for about 7 weeks, and each beer tastes more carbonated than the last. I attempted to carbonate to 2.3vols CO2, which is what I thought the style...

Awesome, thanks very much everyone. I have just bought one online at eBay. Now let's see if we can get it all working!

I have seeen the Johnson controls temperature controller on many US homebrew sites. It looks like exactly the thing I need, though I cannot find it in the UK. Given that the US operates on 120V mains voltage, and the UK operates on 230V mains voltage, would I be able to use the unit in the UK if...

you guys have made my day. I was dreading getting a complicated reply with loads of electronic work necessary. Next question : Any ideas on what temperature controller and probe I should buy? I work off 240V mains here in the UK, and ideally want to buy form the UK

I am thinking of trying to turn a chest freezer into a keezer, and want to install a temperature controller. Before doing so, I want to make sure I know what to do. I have looked on this site, and many other places on the net and seen demonstrations and videos of how to make a keezer, but have...

Yeah you will almost certainly not have any ill-effects of using a Coleman as a MLT. The intended design is as a cooler, but those materials are inert at the kind've temperatures we mash at. The manufacturers just put that on the side in case you put boiling liquid into it and the shape changes...

Thanks Guys, I racked to a secondary and will fine the beer now, leave it to clear a couple days and then bottle it. Tastes pretty good so I am not worried anymore...

Yeah the reason I used 3 packs of yeast is because it was a few months old and the mr malty and yeastcalc programs described how many cells I needed. The assumption was that the cells were not that viable because of the age of he yeast packs (manufactured 5 months before use). It is an all...