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I recently picked up some WLP518 Opshaug Kveik yeast at my LHBS. White labs recommends using this for Pale Ales and IPAs. This will be my first time using any kveik yeast. Thing is, I have a couple of kegs of pale ale and IPA, and what I’d really like to brew is the Numero Uno clone recipe...

I am in the middle of cleaning my SS Brew Bucket after my first batch in it. I have seen conflicting advice on the net about whether or not to unscrew the ball valve and thermowell (I have the Brewmaster edition). Some people say they just take the racking arm out and fill up the bucket with...

I was looking for best bitter recipes that used darker crystal malts as part of the grain bill to better understand their flavor impact. I came across a recipe by Jamil Z. In BYO that was based on Sambrook’s Wandle, a London brewery’s best bitter that called for 5% of the malt bill to be English...

The GF app worked well for me, but I didn’t like designing recipes in it. When I switched to Brewer’s Friend, I found the water requirements to be off using the default Grainfather equipment profile. I read in a post on BF that you can dial in the appropriate water by manually calculating the...

I’ve done four batches of different beers in between the bitters that overattenuated. I brewed a NEIPA using Imperial A38 Juice right before the last batch of bitter that had this problem. The NEIPA fermented normally and was heavily dry hopped in the fermenter in two separate additions, one...

I’ve never had it clog completely either, just slow to crawl. I haven’t taken the spring and ball out of the check valve, but I do clean it regularly. I’ll try taking it out. Thanks! Edit: regarding the boil, I know a vigorous boil isn’t necessary for most styles, and my beer comes out fine...

The last two best bitters I’ve brewed have both overattenuated when dry hopped in the fermenter. I’ve had this problem with two different recipes with different yeasts and hops. After initially finishing after 5-7 days in the 1.012-1.010 range, I added 1/2 to 1 ounce of pellet hops to the...

I have the Grainfather and have been overall pretty happy with it. The main downsides are the weak pump & underpowered heating element. The pump clogs and slows. I can’t get a vigorous boil even with the neoprene jacket. I used the Bluetooth controller and Grainfather app at first but now I...

I'll take out the ball and spring next time I brew. It used to clog before I started using hop bags and then the hop spider, and I'd sometimes have to clean it twice during transfer. That doesn't happen any more, but I can imagine that even if it's not fully clogging it could be slowing down the...

I don’t have trouble during the mash, just after flameout transferring to the fermenter. The hop spider definitely helped a lot compared to free-floating hops but it wasn’t working well with the huge addition for the 80 C hopstand. The filter still got clogged up with trub and hop mush and I...

The pump on my Grainfather is still slow. Even after adding the Grainfather hop spider, the pump filter gets clogged up with trub and hop material and the resulting flow into the fermenter is painfully slow. I have also begun to experiment with larger additions of hops after flameout in...

I found this post when searching for using spunding valves for cask conditioning. I have corny kegs and was wondering if a spunding valve could be used to vent the keg similar to how soft spiles work on casks, to bring the beer into proper condition before connecting to a beer engine (and...

My Grainfather pump (more accurately, the pump filter/screen below) got clogged while pumping to the fermenter for the first time since I got a hop spider. The recipe was a bit different than my usual because it included spelt and oat malt, which I milled mixed in with my regular malt at the...

There around two issues here: the recipe and the conditioning/dispense. Unless your SIL has a very refined palate and tons of experience tasting different British ordinary bitters, the SMaSH recipe below should taste to her a lot like the Boddington's Pub Ale we get in the widget cans here in...

I use the official Grainfather hop spider, which is an 800 micron mesh as opposed to the 200-400 micron mesh of most other hop spiders. That's a MUCH larger opening which allows for far greater circulation--at least twice if not quadruple the area open of most hop spiders--while still containing...

Thanks for the replies, everyone. One thing I noticed was that the sparge went super fast, and I undershot my OG for the first time (just by 2 points, but I normally overshoot). I suspect the sparge wasn't very effective in rinsing the sugars out. I tasted the beer this morning (after about 12...

I was brewing a British Brown on my Grainfather. I was on the phone when the alert for starting the sparge came in, and I okayed it thinking it would just sit there at 75 C until I was ready to sparge. It didn't occur to me that I had changed the settings so the wort would start heating during...

I tried warming it up with my hands, but I kept drinking it when it was still too cold :) I like the warm glass or mug idea. I think I'll give that a try next time I find myself in this situation. Once I get my real keezer built and moved inside I won't have this issue, thankfully. Believe it...

Is there any reason not to microwave a beer that's too cold for style to warm it up? I have an English Best Bitter in a keg in an upright freezer with a temp controller set for 50 F, but it's so cold in the garage that the beer is pouring at 38 F, way too cold for a best bitter. Ideally, I'd...

Thanks for all the great info. I was shocked to see that the Brewer's Friend yeast calculator projected only 28 billion cells from a package dated from just October. That seems recent to me, but I guess it's a long time for yeast! I've looked at the commercially available stir plates, but given...