Recent content by flattop

Do you reuse the coopers caps? I hear the blue inserts can fail after so many uses. I use my caps about 4 times and throw them. I also heard some people re-use the cap on the same bottle (i don't). As said, invert them (or shake the hell out of them), warm them a little and they will probably be...

A good hop bag is recommended as the flowers can lead to blocked taps

mate, i've got 3 kids and one on the way..... i either need to find another form of relaxation or start to eat hops 3 times a day... I'd be happy to give Gruit a go but they probably don't sell it at the LHBS....

Lord Nelson is worth a visit and i love the Rocks, i lived in Sydney for 2 years and was always interested in the quay and the rocks.... so much going on

yeah probably be fine but do i understand it was a secondary cold crashing? one hell of a cold crash

Hmm seems like you need to do a little reading Cosmo otherwise you are just going to waste your ingredients and time and end up with a not so great brew. Try to use water that has been pre-boiled and cooled to room temp or at least tap water that may have less bacteria than stuff off the roof...

a couple of suggestions... no direct answers one idea would be to cast around for someone local that has a bigger rig.... size sometimes matters.. another idea would be to get a couple of no chill cubes and make 2 batches, no chill each one (they can be stored for months that way) and when it...

A year or so ago i had an infection (in my fermenters) i put down to being the taps as i cleaned the fermenters religiously, never cleaned the taps. I had to throw the fermenters out as i lost about 4 batches and wasn't prepared to spend more money on ingredients without fixing the problem...

The enzyme is in some particular brands of kit i believe, the Cooper mex doesn't have it by memory.

What temp was it fermented at? Melbourne winters can slow fermentation if you don't have a heater pad, sometimes leaving it for a bit more time is better. 1008 does sound about right but an extra few days won't hurt the same.

One of the reasons beer and wine were popular in the early and middle ages was it was more sanitary to drink that the river water which was often polluted. I guess the fermentation and alcohol cleaned up some of the nasties. When the main dome of the Duomo church in Florence was constructed the...

Yup that's BIAB, doesn't get much easier than that, but i have to say i've managed to burn myself a couple of times, hoisting the brew or cubing it. Once you've got the hang of it though it's fairly easy.

RE dunk sparging, i sort of gave it away after a few fairly minor burn incidents (which could have been way worse), i found the gains weren't worth the danger and potential problems.

Bum, after drinking all that i wouldn't be able to find my plane ticket to get back! Shame there is too much to write up, perhaps a highlights only? Or do it again with sponsorship and we could enjoy "bums beer tour of the southern states" on SBS2 or something... Or perhaps "bum's Yankees in a...

I've used finings and gelatin, to my mind an extra week or 2 in the fermenter will often do the same job but on the balance if speed is needed, gelatin in my mind is cheaper and has the same result.