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  1. S

    Upgrading a basic kit

    I've been brewing for a few years now and have primarily brewed partial extract and mini mash recipies. Wanting to brew some larger all grain batches and therefore need to upgrade my kit. I am torn between buying an electric water boiler for heating water and the boil and a cooler to act as a...
  2. S

    How to reduce sludge

    I have been brewing beer using extract kits for a number of years and started to make small batches of all grain using a simple set up with a stock pot, grain bag (brew in the bag) and adding hops via a small bag. Results are good but always end up with a huge amount of sludge in the fementer...
  3. S

    No time to bottle

    I have a fermented cider cold crashing and was hoping to bottle before I go on holiday for a week but it has not dropped all of the yeast cake to the bottom yet. Will it be ok at 2 degrees for a week until I get back or should I bottle now? Going on holiday tomorrow morning so would really...
  4. S

    Wine bottle labels

    I am planning on giving some of my homemade wine away as Christmas presents and would like to design some labels for the different wines. Does anyone know any good websites? Thanks
  5. S

    Where to buy decent honey in bulk?

    I've previously made 1-2 gallon batches of mead with cheap honey. Would be keen to make a 5 gallon batch with some decent honey. Anyone know where you can get 10 kg of good honey in the UK without breaking the bank? Thanks in advance.
  6. S

    Heaters - belts or pads?

    Looking for a bit of advice on heating equipment. It's bloody cold in the north of England making temperature control difficult (freezing at night and boiling in the day with the wife insisting on having the heating on all day). Very concerned about temperature control for my fermenting wines...
  7. S

    Bentonite in brewing?

    I always add a ton of hops both in the boil and dry hop which always seems to result in a hazy beer. Not a problem as taste is what it's all about but I just wondered if adding bentonite in primary might help? Would appreciate any thoughts before I ruin a perfectly good beer? Cheers
  8. S

    Cork fiasco

    I've experienced losing a few bottles of wine before where I lay the bottles on their side and the cork slides out. I find that leaving the bottles for a couple of days upright solves this. However, I ve recently lost a couple of bottles of wine where the cork has slide out after a few months...
  9. S

    Elderflower champagne - how to ensure a fizz!!!!

    Normally I achieve this by bottling when the gravity is about 1.01. However, this year I was away and the must has fermented dry. In order to try to create a fizz I added 2 teaspoons of dextrose to each bottle and also kicked up a bit of the sediment to ensure that there is an element of yeast...
  10. S

    Rhubarb saison

    I often use a Canadian blonde coopers kit with 500g of dry malt extract and a kg of dextrose (from craigtube) and dry hop the crap out of it to make a strong ipa style beer. Thinking about doing exactly the same but instead of adding the hops adding rhubarb to make a saison. How much rhubarb...
  11. S

    Orange Mead looks like a lava lamp

    Help please, I made an orange mead at Christmas and all seems to be going well as mead is very clear. However there are bits of white goo floating around similar to a lava lamp. I need to rack again but any idea how to ensure all the goo settles on the bottom of the demijohn? I have finings and...
  12. S

    Clearing fruit wine

    Can anybody recommend a good clearing product for fruit wines which is available in the uk? Thanks in advance.
  13. S

    American double IPA

    I tend to brew a lot of partial extract beers and have a pretty good formula, however I'm keen to try to replicate the taste of the double IPA s I recently enjoyed on a trip to Seattle (I'm from the uk). I want full on hop flavour, what hops would you recommend? I tend to dry hop in secondary...
  14. S

    Measuring acidity of fruit wine

    When's the best time to measure the acidity of the wine, I would have thought better after fermentation as adjustment would be easier but I saw an elderberry wine recipe which indicated that the acidity should be measured pre fermentation. Any assistance would be appreciated as always!
  15. S

    Adding Camden tablets after fermentation

    I recently added 5 crushed Camden tablets to a 5 gallon batch of rhubarb and strawberry wine after fermentation to stabalize. The wine was clearing nicely before I added the Camden tablets but it's now gone very cloudy. A week later it is still the same. The approach above is similar to all...
  16. S

    Measuring alcohol content

    I have been working on the assumption that starting gravity minus finished gravity divided by 7.36% gives me my alcohol per volume which is used in the UK but someone mentioned the other day that I was using the US calculation which is different. I d appreciate some clarification. Thanks in...
  17. S

    Elderflower champagne

    A tip to anyone out there who enjoys making elderflower champagne. I made a 5 gallon batch this year and used 100 florets of elderflower. The tip is to use about half of that, way too powerful a taste so it will have to be used in long drinks. However, despite the ridiculous amount of...
  18. S

    Bottle from carbonated keg

    I normally keg half of a finished beer (approx 20 uk pints) and bottle the rest but with the last batch I ran out of time and did not bottle any. Has anyone tried to bottle finished beer (ie after it has carbonated and ready to drink) directly from the keg? Would be keen to try it but I'd...
  19. S

    Measuring Acidity of fruit wines

    I ve made a variety of fruit wines over the last couple of years from fruit grown at my allotment or foraged. My tastes are fairly simple and I tend to like what I make but I have never thought about testing acidity levels before so surely there is room for improvement! Does anyone out there...
  20. S

    Apple Juice

    any thoughts on where one can buy fresh apple juice in yorkshire for cider making?
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