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You don’t need to screw the PRV in after filling a bottle. Just close your tap, then count to 10 while the PRV bleeds off a little pressure, then you can release the bottle without it backfiring beer everywhere. The PRV needs to be screwed in enough so the bottle fills without foam, but not too...

You need to unscrew the pressure relief valve until it starts releasing pressure.

You need to find a home brew club, and then go and see how someone else (that makes good beer) brews. Perhaps also then get them to brew with you. They should also be able to taste your beer and tell you what has gone wrong.

I just use a spare gas line so my Tapcooler gas is more like 12 psi. You should get gas escaping before you start filling.

I sometimes find that the prv seal sticks a bit. Once it’s popped once for a filling session it’s fine. Unscrew the prv entirely and take the poppet out. Perhaps give it a little silicone grease on the poppet seal to stop it drying out. It should work after that.

Sorry to bring this one back from the dead, but I was wondering how it worked out?

That is very useful to know! Thank you!

Beyond the theory, how many people have actually tried adding metabisulphite at packaging? Seduced by the idea of an extra buffer against oxidation I've experimented with adding small amounts of sodium metabisulphite to a keg when racking from my fermenter. I did this with 3 beers, and I've...

I think that Wilkos beer finings is chitosan, so it just needs to be mixed in to the beer once fermentation is done, and before packaging.

The short answer is that you should add it in the fermenter when fermentation is done and give it at least 24 hours before doing anything else with the beer. You mentioned siphoning to demijohns - personally I'd just go straight into bottles a few days after fermentation is done. Less chance...

Circus peanuts sound equally as horrible as foam bananas we have in the UK. 🤮

Your water profile isn't too far off from what most of southern England has, aside from the high amounts of sodium and chloride. If you can get food or lab grade sulphuric acid* for alkalinity reduction then you can balance the chloride out, and it will work well for all but the palest or...

I agree with @Vale71 that the airlock pressure is insignificant. My view is that open fermentation avoids trapping CO2 in the headspace, and that somehow causes the yeast to under perform or not produce the expected esters.

Always happy to learn, so can you expand on that? I've seen some yeasts stall mid fermentation when under an airlock, and have seen many brewers claim the openness is essential (Schneider Weisse say the oxygen exposure increases 4vg production). Is this all misleading?

From Brewing with Wheat: "Research in Germany has found that levels of both 4-vinyl-guaiacol and isoamyl acetate increase substantially in open fermenters". Follow this link to read the relevant section: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jc2QAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA110&lpg=PA110 Isoamyl acetate =...

The one thing I haven't seen you do is ferment actually open. i.e. no airlock or blow off, just put a cloth or other loose covering over the lid of your fermenter until the krausen starts to drop back. I've found that this brings the most character out of the yeast, be it saison, weissbier...

Big enough to have the 12 bottle (500ml/17oz bottle) washer above it and all the water drain back into it.

I built something similar. Mine can shoot water 6 feet into the air, but I found it wasn't really loosening yeast that was stuck to the side of the bottles. Since then I've found that having the PBW solution hot makes all the difference. If I wasn't moving to kegging I'd probably install a...

If you want to do lots of bottles then there is an accessory for the tapcooler to connect it direct to the keg. It has a ball valve which screws onto the top of the filler, and replaces the bit that normally sticks in to a tap. It's also a bit of a rip off and I'm pretty certain I could have...

And FYI here's the really cheap option: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun.24678/