Recent content by Blind Dog

Averages for Silvan reservoir, from a number of sources a few years back as I couldn’t find it all in one place. It’s good, but has low mineral content pH: 7.3 Calcium (Ca): 3.9 ppm Magnesium (Mg): 1.2 ppm Sodium (Na): 4.5 ppm Sulfate (SO4): 0.9 ppm Chloride (Cl): 7.3 ppm Bicarbonate (HCO3)...

Assuming you have a heat source for the brewing keg as you’re extract brewing currently, look through the BIAB threads here and elsewhere or google ‘brew in a bag’. A ready made bag to hold the grain can be had for $10 or so from numerous suppliers, cheap yoga mat (to wrap the keg in whilst...

Best advice I can give is to keep the recipes simple at least until you’re happy with a few beers you’ve made. Many of the really great beers have really simple recipes (one or two malts and one or two hops). Try a search for SMaSH (single malt and single hop) beer recipes to find one you like...

As Mark said, most of the worlds great beers are pretty simple in terms of ingredients. Best advice I ever received starting down the all grain path was to keep the recipe simple and focus on technique and process. That way you build up knowledge of what each malt, hop, yeast strain etc. brings...

Let it drop to 80 ish then transfer to cube and add the hops to the cube. Still in pasteurisation temp range. It’s how I’ve added late hops for years (learnt from discussions here).

http://beerandwinejournal.com/sparge-water-temperature/ Hope the link works. Basically, at a higher temp and mash pH its easier to extract tanins which will give rise to astringent notes in the beer. The aim is to keep the grain bed at ~77C and mash pH around 5.2 to stop that happening. For...

Personally, I dont like chinook as a bittering hop (too harsh) although it’s a better option in that role than galaxy. I prefer a clean bittering hop (e.g. magnum) or one of the CTZ hops if I want a bit more piney notes. I also tend to aim for 1/3 of ibus from the bittering charge and the rest...

Depends a lot on why it doesn’t seal. Use soapy water to find where the leak is and then you’ll b3 better placed to work out if it’s fixable. If the lid itself isn’t sealing, you can try using coins under the ‘legs’ of the lid handle as that might help seal it. The in and out posts can leak...

It should be fairly clear from the bottle if it contains yeast or not (crap at the bottom or a notice on the label saying bottle conditioned). Most commercial beers that are obtainable easily in Oz don't. Coopers is the exception . Even if it has yeast, it's often a different bottling strain...

My 2c 1. Longer. A) It’s much easier to expel all O2 from a keg, purge with CO2 and transfer to the sealed keg letting CO2 out as the beer flows in with minimal O2 getting in; B) the kegs are generally stored at serving temp and I had to store most bottles at room temp; C) better...

Work well together. Lots of comments on harsh bitterness from galaxy if used early in the boil and strong grassy flavours /aroma if used over 3 days for dry hopping. My experience agrees with those comments. YMMV. Never heard anything negative about Amarillo. If using new hop combos in pale...

I’d also be looking at spending some of the cash on a decent temp control set up. $ for $ it’s probably the best investment I made. Save the rest for when you’ve worked out how and what you want to brew. S/S is shiny and all that, but hdpe plastic is perfectly fine for fermenting. To be...

Link is in the first post

Thatcher. Meglomanic with a handbag May. Waste of f***** space. No policy, no ideas, no support in her own party. Gillard. So divisive they invited Ruddock back H Clinton. Lost to f****** Trump. Racist, mysogonistic, self centred, egotistical shit; and they're his good points. Women...

Depends on budget, whether you want flow control or ok with balancing lines, front seal or rear seal, etc. Most of its a balance of personal preferences and priorities. Personally I like Perlick ss flow control. Expensive, but work really well