Recent content by BeerMat

Cane sugar gives the beer a "cidery taste" and should be avoided. I would recommend a 50/50 mixture of dextrose and dry light malt or a pre-mix such as Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 which also contains dextrins to give the beer more body and better head retention. Home brew stores and other...

I find you get that vegemite taste from the yeasts supplied with kits. The higher temperature probably didn't help either. Try a Safale yeast instead, eg. Safale US-56. Also make sure you aerate the wort well and pitch plenty of yeast to reduce the chances of autolysis.

Thanks Dude. I'll try the St Peters Brewery Mild. Actually it doesn't have to be a AG recipe. Partials or extract based recipes are easy to convert to an AG equivalent. ----- Edit grammer and quote thing didn't work 1st time.

My pale ales are generally 4.5% to 5% and stouts and porters a bit higher - 5.5% to 6.5%. I would like to make a lower alcohol beer, around the 3.5% mark. My only attempt at this was an English Ordinary Bitter but it turned out a bit bland and watery. Can someone point me to an AG recipe...

When I first tried the Fresh Wort APA my first thoughts were "this isn't an APA, it's just an amber ale - not hoppy enough and no real cascade flavour". So although I haven't tried the amber ale, I'm not surprised they are very similar. I agree with other posts that the Fresh Wort kits are low...

MAH I agree with what you said but I don't think the majority of people have selected their mash time for that reason. Choosing the right mashing temperature would be a more reliable way of obtaining the desired fermentability of the wort - ie. mash at a lower temp for a more fermentable...

Another troubled youth put back on the straight and narrow. My work here is done. :D BTW, if you want to try a starch test without going to all the trouble of doing a mash, dissolve a small amount of cornflour in some water, add a drop of iodine and it will turn black.

I mash until conversion is complete. This can be as quick as 20 minutes and has taken as long as 2.5 hours, depending on the grain mix (the 2.5 hour mash had a large amount of wheat and other grains with did not have enough enzymes to convert themselves). I confirm the mash is complete by...

I bought a set of pocket scales on eBay from Multipoint Technologies (http://stores.ebay.com.au/Multipoint-Technologies). They were a good company to deal with as they sent the goods same day. They have a few different types of scale to choose from; the one I bought has a 250g capacity and is...

The other thing you could try is to pitch in a higher attenuating yeast. I would recommend Safale US-56 (assuming you are brewing an ale). You should make a starter first to increase the cell count before pitching.

Due to a severe lack of storage, my maximum is 8 milk crates of long necks = 8 * 16 = 128 bottles or 96 litres. Currently at just under half capacity; around 40 - 45 litres. Was down to 2 bottles in late Feb (too hot to brew over summer). When the weather cooled down I put in 4 batches back to...

I normally use dry but occasionally use liquid if going for a particular style. I once split a batch of stout and used S-04 in one half and WLP004 Irish Ale yeast in the other. I then taste tested them side by side and really couldn't tell much difference - one certainly wasn't significantly...

Trough Lolly's calculations of 1.041 sounds right. I've often gotten false readings when testing the OG of a kit beer because the wort hasn't mixed properly - ie. I've added the dissolved kit to the fermenter then added water. The wort at the bottom of the fermenter near the tap is more...

1064? That's very high. How much water did you add? 150g of roasted barley is quite a lot for a porter. My last recipe had 80g and I thought that was a bit much (beer was quite dark; probably use 50g next time). It might be closer to a stout than a porter but it should taste good regardless...

I agree with apd - I often rinse the grains but wouldn't do a second steep. 2 liters of water is a lot for a few hundred grams of grain so even the rinse isn't 100% necessary.