homebrewandbeer.com

Racking is the careful transferral of your beer from one fermenter to another via a siphon/racking tube. Racking gets your beer off your primary yeast/trub cake which aids in clearing your beer and assists in avoiding off flavours. You need to do it carefully to avoid oxygenating your beer. No ...

BK,

I posted an extract 'n grain porter recipe in a previous thread which I was very happy with. Try a search, it is worth a go IMO. If you can't find it I'll post it again.

Shawn.

G'day Beerkrout.

You are right in thinking that 1kg of Choc malt will be overkill. It will swamp your brew and likely end up very astringent. Try 200gms tops for your first attempt and don't overheat your steeping water. Between 60-70 degrees for about 30 minutes will be fine, or you can do it in ...

That makes more sense. Commercial techniques are a fair bit different to what most of us are doing at home. Ah, to have some nice shiny new stainless steel conical fermenters...

Shawn.

This quote 'probably' refers to someone who has boiled their full wort and then chucked the whole lot in the fermenter without making any effort to leave behind the break material (trub). That's the only reason I could see for suggesting it, and even then I'd only be worried if I was trying to ...

Evo,

You'll get it to 20 degrees easily enough even with sydney - 'cough' :) - tap water. Then for a lager chuck it in your brew fridge nice and sealed up including air lock and within12 hours you should have it down to around 12-14. Pitch your yeast and set the fridge to 10. Should ferment out ...

Ah Evo, us working class types up here digging the coal and respecting our betters can only understand the one true game The evil rah rah's may mock us but they still only function when they buy our players...

Here we go Knights!

Shawn.

Evo,

Beer + footy (sorry, tragic Knights fan!) = life. Well, a big part of it anyway

Shawn.

goatsby wrote: so when i come inside the horse

Life is just different in the country, isn't it...

Shawn.

G'day Baron,

Everything is probably fine. Can you take a gravity reading? Trust your hydrometer rather than your airlock. Could just be a leak. Any other signs of fermentation? Fluffy 'head' on your brew, brownish stuff clinging around the top of the brew on the walls of the fermenter etc?

18 ...

Hi Dogger,

I just used the flexible copper pipe and slowly and gently wrapped it around the bucket as tightly as I could. It actually bent pretty easily, but did cause a bit of cursing during the process... Bending the ends over was the trickiest bit 'cause they really wanted to crimp, but I ...

My first effort came out on predicted gravity, but with only 19 litres in the fermenter instead of 22 :oops: I sorted that prob by the next brew and have been fine since, but sh!t happens...

Have you guys tried this program? http://www.beersmith.com It is great in putting your recipes together and ...

Gotta say I just use tap water. I haven't died so far :) I reckon there is a difference, but it depends how anal you want to be when cloning beers. I brew a few Czech style pilsners 'cause it is a favourite style of mine, I've got one ccing in my brew fridge behind me right now, but I know I'm only ...

G'day Evo,

I use a standard 47 litre esky with a drain and tap. Works fine and has a fair amount of extra capacity for brewing bigger batches without being too big and having too shallow a grain bed. See the howtobrew.com site for more detailed info.

Oxygen is only really good in the brewing ...

Evo,

The esky will be fine. I built a copper manifold for the bottom of mine and it connects to the tap hole in the esky. Easy.

As for not sparging, sounds a bit odd. Maybe for a partial the bloke was trying to keep it nice and simple. You can get away without sparging the smaller quantities of ...

Pelican,

Rainwater might be a bit soft for some styles of beer, but I can't see too many probs with using it if that is what is easiest for you. Your low alc probs might be due to a stuck ferment as someone has suggested. Try aerating your cool wort before pitching your yeast, and make sure you ...

Best thing: - It is a dead heat between the extra fermenter etc. for racking - made a huge difference to my beers from the first time I tried it - and my temp controller/thermostat so I can brew lagers properly and ales in summer.

Worst thing: - Carbonation drops. Tried these out on two brews ...

Good stuff thehipone! How's the wort tasting so far? What did you brew?

Shawn.

G'day Greg and Dogger,

I reckon you should go for it mate. It is time consuming and a bit of stuffing around, but the beer is better IMHO and you can basically brew anything you like - you have control over the whole process. The howtobrew.com site suggested by Dogger is excellent and covers ...

Evo,

Getting your starter going at a higher temp is a very good idea. Get those yeasties nice and fiery! Wyeast recommends 18-20 degrees or thereabouts for most of their lager starters. Bringing it down slowly to pitching temp is a good idea. Basically if you can get your wort and yeast starter to ...