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Hey Chugguar - in my experience if yer gravity reading is stopped over three consecutive days at the same reading, its safe to bottle. Have you moved your fermenter around lately? Sometimes this can trigger more bubbling which isn't actually fermenting.

Having made yardies recipe (but with 1 lemon not 2) a couple of times now, I can firmly recommend using different types of honey in your GB. I used Leatherwood honey in the last one and it really gives the flavour of the honey beautifully. Pick yr favourite honey type, or maybe just pick a different ...

wouldn't worry too much mate, i've had a few that smelt like a bondi cigar during ferment but magically took on that nice beery quality and taste once bottled. Most of my poo smeller types were lagers, is this a lager? Lager yeasts are a bit prone to some funky stenches!!!

I use some white rectangular sticky labels u can get from officeworks. Size not important, though it does depend on what you wanna put on em. I have three colours of inkpad (red for ale, blue for lager, black for dark/others) and a little inkpad stamp with a wombat on it and I just stamp the labels ...

I usually rinse, drain and screw lids back on, not too tight but enough to keep out any insect type greeblies. Lids off, lids on.....don't know whether theres any great benefit to either, especially since you're going to sanitise before you refill em anyway.

$0.02c.

Ben H

slight tangent here - I am attempting to make the BrewCellar recipe for LCPA. It calls for 2 x12g of Cascade Hops. I got a couple of the teabags, my question is should I simply chuck both bags into the fermenter just before pitching, or should I boil one for a length of time and pitch the other?

I ...

I have minimum 10 beers on tap at anyone time, so some can be on tap a fair while.

Minimum 10 beers on tap at any one time?

God bless you and all those who sail in ye!

Fair cop then, thanks all for the tip. I was a little (only a little mind you, it *is* homebrew) worried about the amount of crud that came out when taking some gravity readings, but i shall remove any residual worry with a tall glass of beer. Mine of course.

Got to be the Two Ronnies for mine - Ronnie Barker is/was a comedic genius. Open All Hours (with nur-nu-nur-nurse Gladys Emmanuel) and Porridge ('Gentlemen.....there is a thief in our midst.') were both good uns too.

Although I did enjoy Are You Being Served? due to all the double entendres being ...

when I reassembled the fermenter tap before putting the latest brew into primary. er...yeah...whoops. :oops:

So, now that the black ale I am soon to be bottling may be chock full of chunky goodness, does anyone have any suggestions to try and minimise the amount of crud that may go into the ...

I used a kilo of Cellarplus Wheat/Malt mix. I don't know exactly whats in it so bit of a downer there, anyone got any ideas on what is in that Cellarplus mix?

IMHO the blue mountains lager (done correctly of course) will give you more of that crisp lager taste you're looking for.

Heya Ash, I just made the Morgans Golden saaz pilsner a few months back, did it with more Saaz, a teabag chucked in right before pitching yeast. Turned out very nice. Kit is reasonably hopped, not ultra strong but its there. Just a little more for aroma (hence the additional saaz i chucked in) and ...

...or you could do what i did and be opportunistic and find the brig kits on clearance at bi-lo for $3.99 each

sure Chris, found the Mt Hood at CellarPlus in North Melbourne. Comes in a 25g sealed pack of pellets. Are you in Melbourne? If so, its just near the Vic Markets and is also known as Australian Winemakers.

AussieClaret - the Mt Hood hops were the pellet type. They certainly didn't smell as strong as Hersbrucker pellets do, to my nose anyway. They were suggested as a finishing hop for a german or american style lager, since i am aiming (very roughly) at a german style lager, should be orright.

Might ...

Righto then. Just put down a brew tonight which was:

Coopers Bavarian can
1kg malt mix from Cellarplus in north Melbourne
Saflager W34/70
25g Mt Hood hops

Boil Malt mix for 10mins in 2.5l water, then add can and boil another 10mins, then 25g Mt Hood and boil for another 1minute. Top up to 21Ltrs ...

Drsmurto

Mine brewed at between 18 and 20. Took 9 days at that temp with around 12.5g of champers yeast. If you can get round that mark inside, then you'll have no problems I would say.

jase - mine turned out about 4.6%. Tastes slightly alcoholic, but not so's you'd notice and not enough to ruin ...

quick capping question: I have just picked up a 2nd hand bench capper. When I cap any longneck, the cap gets stuck in the little bell bit and is really hard to extricate the bottle from the capper with the cap still sealed on tight. Should I be chuckin this capper, or is it my technique?????

I ...

Awesome work Biggles.

Just laid a version of this down tonight - its been a long night, bottled a lager, brewed this one, lucky its cup day tomorra....

I did make a couple of adjustments to yardies yardstick above, namely

250g grated fresh ginger - I noted his comment of "very gingery" and ...

Melbourne Man - you probably should have peeled the ginger first, as if you smell it when unpeeled as opposed to peeled, it releases a lot more flavour. If you are boiling it for any length of time, I don't think it would make that much of a diff, just a bit less gingery aroma.