Recent content by Daveee

Well it's happily fermenting away, although it seems to have lost about 0.5l volume. I haven't really noticed this happening before? I guess it's the suagrs fermenting out? Also does anyone know how long I should let it ferment for or what sort of SG i should be aiming for? It's using an ale...

timmy, do you mean the country brewer in drummoyne? or is there a brew shop i dont know about in north ryde?

ATM I have about 8 cases of long necks full of beer. I also have about another 8 cases EMPTY! I am brewing as fast as I can to fill them!

Well, ATM I store all my longnecks in milk crates. They are OK, but take up a fair bit of room compared to a conventional case. Also I often take beers with my places and its hard taking them in milkcrates as they can rattle around a fair bit making them a bit fizzy. So I was wondering if...

Well I finally put this one down. To be honest the hardest bit was waiting for the malt extract to come out of the bottle! God it was thick! Either that or constantly stirring the *******. It all went well, when it got to boiling it boiled over ever so slightly, but I quickly cleaned that up...

Yerp, just using kits, with malt/good sugars, and some hops. Good idea nick!

Well most of my beers lack good head retention. When I pour them I get a great head, although it is not that "thick". And it fairly quickly dies down. But I do get bubbles rising from the bottom of the glass. How can I increase head retention?

So is anyone else out there going to try this? My next brew (after the 2 i have waiting!) will be an "el-cheapo" brew! Nothing but the (Woolworths) finest!

Ok my last lager done like this took about 4 weeks to finish primary fermenting! Would it be alright to leave it to continue cold conditioning for another couple of weeks? What is a good temperature to do it at?

Sorry, I got it a little wrong. The instructions are a little vague. I'll type some of the steps word for word 3) While the malt is heating, empty the contents of the large sachet (grain) into the malt bottle and then half fill with hot water from the tap ... rest the cap on top and leave to...

Well I was in my local Country Brewer amd was asking about porters. I noticed they have recently released these new "wet-paks" , which is deemed full malt extract brewing. After much deliberation I bought one for $27. Inside is what I guess is about a 2l bottle filled with the malt extract...

I am doing just a Blackrock Lager using a proper lager yeast. It has been fermenting at about 13c for coming up to a week. Should I rack it into my secondary now? And any tips for a first time racker?

I wouldn't panic yet. What temperature did you ferment the brew at? It normally takes a bare minimum of 2 weeks for bottles to prime in warm conditions (~25c), so it could definately take a few weeks longer in the colder weather! And anyway! What are you doing tasting after 3weeks! Patience!

Thanks for all the replies guys! esp. PostModern. Ok, so secondary fermentation sounds very good. In fact it should solve the biggest problem with my beer, sediment. Is it ok to do my primary fermentation in a carboy, then rack it into another carboy, then wash the first one and use it for...

Well I'm going to go and buy another fermenter and associated goodies from my home brew store tommorow. Now I'm just wondering about the basics of 2 stage fermenting. Do you do it with every beer? When do you do it? How do you do it? Why should I do it? Also any bulk priming tips people? I'm...