Recent content by troublebrewing

Yep, that's even what they called it... :lol: I think the jury's still out on this! To the OP: Without the starting gravity it's hard to be sure, but the site Braumoasta linked to a FD of 1.020 is about what you should get. Take a couple of consecutive readings to be sure, but it probably...

Early work yet, but I'm liking the image and how it looks in the oval.

They're not great for you... Inside your brew fridge you'll have a high concentration of carbon dioxide, and consequently low oxygen. Take a good lung-full and you could potentially pass out. If it's a fridge you should be right as it'll flow out into the room but in something opening from the...

Depends where you are, in QLD I'm pretty sure that owning a still is fine, fermenting a wash is fine, using a still is fine, but using a still to distill a mash is illegal. "It's for essential oils, officer! And I really like the taste of pure distilled water!"

You didn't mention if you used the kit yeasts or anything fancier? I'm guessing kit, but...

Non-technical question: Why's it called phone ale? I can't see a step in your records saying "Drop phone in wort."... :D

You got a weird definition of mostly. :lol: Are these %'s right, or is 5% wheat a lot?

Then chalk me up as an average man, as I have definitely learned. The next brew will be a FWK as I've always wanted to try one, while I get the cash together for a gas bottle and a decent burner. Apart from that, I know what went wrong and will deal with it next time. A Dr Smurtos Golden Ale...

Good point, Thirsty, I should just brew FWK's and leave real brewing to the big boys. Sorry to have dared to only spend 6 months reading up on AG before making the plunge, and making some minor errors. And then having the audacity to report on my brewing experience on a homebrew forum? Terrible...

Yep, 36 at the moment, love it when the summers are nice and cold like this... :P But yeah, I think the yeast just didn't survive before I got it into a nice comfortable fridge. :( Next time I'll purchase extra ice-packs and make sure I grab it the moment it comes in. And get express shipping...

Yep, the pack was manufactured 9/02/09, so definitely within time. Only possible problem was it sat at room temperatures at work for 3 days before someone alerted me that my package had arrived... :( Definitely didn't swell to even as close as your first piccy. I think it's DOA. If it hasn't...

The little sachet's definitely popped, still had the empty packet so just performed micro-surgery to find out for sure. The pack itself did swell up a little bit, but since then I've seen pictures of fully swollen packs, which mine got no-where near. I left it for 3 hours after smacking it, as...

This batch was the first time I've ever played with liquid yeasts, and I find myself a little perplexed. I pitched the yeast on Sunday morning, it's now Wednesday evening, and there's no signs of life. And the SG's gone up, to 1.051... Is the Wyeast 2042 Danish Lager particularly slow to get...

There's your yeast. He's racking straight onto the trub from the last batch of sack mead, plenty of dormant yeasties from the last batch.

Naah, BIAB's all good Chappo! If it wasn't for BIAB I wouldn't have done my first AG last weekend, makes everything simple! None of this RIMS/HERMS/HLT stuff, I still don't know what they all mean. :( I might get complicated later on if I get a bigger place, but for my unit, BIAB works good for...