Recent content by ballantynedewolf

Great 19 page thread. Admirable restraint and good advice from Airgead/Dave. If you love Breton cider like I do, you might try keeving, but otherwise sweetening in the glass is surely the safest and easiest if you can't take it dry. My question concerns conditioning in timber. Are timber barrels...

I mean 3-4% - low for a fan of the Belgians! Is three steady FGs on 3 consecutive days enough, or should I spread those readings out more?

Thanks for your advice.

I've been reading about hop creep because I'm getting increasing carbonation in older bottles and this lack of stability bothers me. I'm unsure what the thresholds are though. I tend to only lightly or not at all dry hop, but I make (or try to!) lower alcohol beers with lots of body, and I don't...

I asked a yeast retailer this question, but they weren't able to answer. I know what attenuation is. Final gravity sounds like it might be alcohol tolerance?

Yeah, you are overly optimistic with that OG off 4.5kg of grain. However your 1.030 is too low for an average efficiency. You'd expect around 1.040 - could you have a 100 error as often experienced by carpenters? That's where you concentrate on the last two digits and get the third last digit...

By the way, I hear that the hydrating and dehydrating properties of beer are equal at between 2.7% and 3% ABV, hence my rekindled interest in milds. We didn't see much need for supplementary hydration in South Wales, but here it could be a good thing. Is not Australia's most popular beer a 3%er...

I never knew RD stool for Red Dragon. I guess everything stands for Red Dragon in Wales! Tails for Wales, as they say at the coin toss. This will be my first go with chocolate malt. Thanks

I'm not going to make syrup - I reckon CSR Treacle is close enough. I don't have a beer engine, I bottle. I assume the flaked barley is for head retention? I might try that, or oats can be good too a la Belgian dubbels. I like to prime low and pour from a height! I'm definitely not going to...

Hi Aussies, One of my all time fave beers is Brains Dark Mild, from Cardiff, Wales, where I failed to do well at uni thanks to see above. From what I can gather, Brains Dark and other milds of its ilk use invert sugar at some low percentage. Obviously brewing a low alcohol ale (3-3.5%) you run...

We're going to have to agree to disagree. There are excellent reasons to rehydrate and it's easy to do. But I totally respect your decision not to.

Like you, I make OK beer, and have done so without rehydrating. But if I knew the yeast was top shelf, then my beer would be maybe better, and certainly more predictable. Everything I've read about rehydrating says it should foam up, so when it doesn't I'm concerned.

I rehydrate my dry yeast in 30C mineral water before pitching. Sometimes the grains sink v slowly and there's great foaming, other times they sink fast and sit there seemingly dormant, as just happened with 2 packs of MJ French Saison. I'm suspicious this yeast is in poor condition. I got it...

Thanks everyone for your comments on this topic. I've now got a bit of a manual in my head: No lifts higher than 16kg. No moving hot vessels Pull bag w double purchase tackle (already did this and felt much better) No drinking till fermenter fill on brew day Kettle as low to the ground as poss...

I just came across this great environmental initiative Toast Ale - using waste bread to make beer eg from sandwich factories. It's made under licence in several countries now and the recipe is open source. https://www.toastale.com/toast-ale-recipe/ Has anyone had a go? Can anyone suggest why...