Recent content by sstacey

The best thing I did was to build a dedicated brew stand and the mash tun on a tipping hinge so that I can empty and wash it out without having to lift anything. I fill the kettle using a hose (not lifting water buckets). Just go through your process systematically and engineer out the worst...

Ok, thanks for the replies. I was only concerned about autolysis risk, but it seems there is not a problem.

Aussie Brewer, if this is the case I am looking for the genuine Fawcett maris otter floor malted. The wrong one would have been selected.

Question for the brewers who are using Brett yeast. For non-lambic beers, when fermenting with a mix of saccharomyces and brettanomyces, is it good practice to rack the beer off the primary yeast cake after the initial ferment is complete, or is reasonable to leave the beer on the yeast cake for...

In the past I have tried diacetyl rests and didn't find it much better than my current simple method of pitching high rate of yeast to already cooled wort and fermenting at 9C throughout, with a little time in the fermenter after the primary ferment is finished. I rack to keg and naturally...

Lyrebird, can you explain why keeping at 10C throughout will give excess diacetyl? I usually ferment at 9-10 throughout and don't have a problem.

Don't chuck it. Keep it cool for at least a month. You might find after a couple of weeks it cleans up with the yeast reabsorbing the diacetyl. All pils beers need time for this to clear up.

Ok, I missed that. Good question. I would like to know too as I have a bag of MO in the spreadsheet. Their website shows two types, a regular MO pale malt and a low colour MO. I'm guessing the more expensive one would be low colour but that's just a guess. Matt do you know or could you find out?

Maris Otter is the name of the barley variety. Fawcetts is the brand.

You've already got the name down. Maybe that will get you a discount.

If I remember correctly, Andrew first said that he was looking to sell about 6 years ago. They didn't sell at the time so I don't know if he has been waiting for the rjght buyer all this time or is just having another go now.

Should be cheap because it doesn't have pedals.

Yob, do you worry about air spoilage while you are part dispensing, or do you replace the air with CO2 before refilling? Did you add any brett yeast to the barrel?

Thanks for all the answers. The blend of old and new beer sounds a lot like old London porter. I'll listen to the sour hr. I still think someone should write a comprehensive wiki on barrel ageing. It would be an excellent post.

Yob, I assume you are using 18L kegs and the barrel is about 100L. So by cycling 5 kegs through, are you drawing 1 keg worth off the barrel and then refilling with a freshly fermented batch - so you have a mix of fresh and old beer in the barrel? Or are you doing it batch wise by filling the...