Recent content by craigev

Anyone figured out how to integrate a beer engine into a fridge yet ? or is it impossible. I assume its been thought of, but strangely no one seems to have said anything about it. stupid idea i suppose logistically.

Thanks, but unfortunately I think the "slurry" they are calculating for in that calc is for harvested yeast from normally fermented beer slurry. It predicts viability of only 10% after slurry is kept for about 7 weeks. This is undoubtedly true for beer slurry, but what about starter slurry ? I...

Anyone know, if splitting after making the 2L starter, will the resultant vials follow the same viability depreciation levels as shown in the yeast calc ? eg approx 50% after 2 months from making the starter ( assuming the original smack pack was 100% viable at the time of starting) Or is this...

I had the same issue with Global maltings bohemian grain recently. Never used it before, but it was way darker than expected just coming out of the mash tun. I was making a czech pils with 100% of this (presumable) pils grain - nothing else to add to the colour. Does anyone know if darker grain...

I use 26L thin stainless stockpots. have done for a few years now. great. no drawbacks for me. cheap to buy. most expensive bit is if you add a tap - which I did. I bought the standard spigots from US they use for kettles and tuns etc. No worries for scratches so should last a lifetime. If...

I have a tap but dont use it for racking to kegs. I only use it for taking gravity samples. I find it pulls some air through if I use the tap when it gets to bottom. I can actually hear the air being sucked in ! So I would lose more beer since I would have to stop short. If I siphon I dont...

I read a lot about all these cheap and cheerful bottling techniques recently and followed some advice and tried out the keg - dedicated beer line - picnic tap - more beer line with stopper on. Worked fine, but I had a lot of sanitisation work for this stuff that only gets used for rare...

I'll have a go... Does ale yeast contribute to conditioning at 1 degree C ? I didnt think it did, but everyone says to cold condition for a while. If it doesnt then you could (optionally fine the beer) keg it and cold condition in the keg. I (my current half-baked theory) prefer to warm...

I used to loose about 5L to trub. Then I got a hopblocker and now only loose 2-3L. So, saving 10% of each batch will pay off the cost of the blocker quite quickly. Only catch is that you need a very wide kettle to accommodate both a wort chiller and the hopblocker - or use a plate chiller. I...

guys, do you know if strong alcohol like wine can be kept in these cubes or picnic coolers ? since wine especially doesnt require carbonation then it could presumably just be kept in the cooler in the fridge without any co2 or spunding valve ? bit like those wine boxes you get with a plastic tap...

just noticed a thread on serving from cubes which i think are similar to picnic coolers, in fact the first posting the author said he actually used a picnic cooler to server beer. I wonder if its ok to serve wine then. My main concern is the leaching of plastic or metals from the cooler inside...

Is it safe to store beer or wine in picnic coolers stored in a fridge and just dispense using their built in tap ? For wine it doesnt need carbonation, but will the high alcohol level cause any leaching of the cooler plastic or metal into the wine ? If beer is poured straight into the cooler...