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Ok we can agree that the yeast in the kit is really a bare minimum rather than an ideal pitch. It would be a good investment to get some better yeast when you are doing a brew, or even double up with the same yeast if that’s available. To the best of my knowledge Black Rock are using 514 Ale...

I've never seen one of these, had a bit of a look at what it does and frankly I wouldn’t be spending my money on one! If you got a 20L pot, a hot plate , fermenter and ideally a temperature controllable fridge (just an STC or similar and an old fridge with a computer fan in it) you could be...

I don’t know the details of the Malt King, had a look at the blurb on KK. Looks like the first (feeder rollers) aren’t adjustable, so you can only adjust the third roller. Getting the gap right can be a bit of an art rather than a science. It's really important to get the bottom roller parallel...

Sorry if I’m missing something here, but. If both the recirculating wort and the sparge are running through the grain bed too quickly, add in low extraction. Wouldn’t that suggest you’re a grist bit too coarse rather than too fine? With a three roller mill there are two gaps to set, the first...

Most "Soda Water" has Potassium Bicarbonate added, largely to adjust the pH. The Bicarbonate raises the pH caused by CO2 in solution forming Carbonic Acid which gives the soda water an acidic twang. Somewhere around 200mg/L (0.2g/L) would be a good starting point and experiment from there. Some...

I was talking about beer in a corny keg (or similar), which is what the OP was asking about. Agreed the container would be the biggest factor, but given that we are talking impermeable Stainless, the next place to look would be the hatch O-Ring. What Keg-Land said is true Silicone wouldn’t be...

Close, call it Partial Pressure and you will be even closer. It’s the concentration of molecules of each gas and they have to be looked at individually. In a given volume at any pressure we can calculate how many molecules there are. The bigger the difference between the sides of a...

Not being a believer in either Christ or mass I’ll settle for- Season’s greetings and all the best for the coming year. Mark

Last I heard my local (Brewman) had plenty, worth a call or an email, you won’t get them by Christmas but... Have had a go at this style; it is possible to do 100% wheat without adding rice hulls. If you crack very very carefully. Set the mill so it just touches the wheat, then close it a...

Old yeast has a bad habit of mutating, particularly Lager yeasts. Yes it can still be viable and I too have found the odd old yeast in the back of a fridge, one was a Czech Pilsner that threw lots of really strong sulphur notes. If you were going to use an old yeast it would a good idea to...

One of the tricks with Lager is to keep the yeast active as it cools from fermenting temperatures (8 to12oC) to lagering temps (-1 to 2oC). The yeast needs to be active to finish a bunch of reactions, including Acetaldehyde reduction. If you crash chill, the yeast is likely to go dormant and...

Don't Mark

Just roughly the lactose (1kg in 25L) will give a FG of ~1.016 on its own, so we are only looking for 0.004 from the ginger and LME. Best guess is that it’s finished Agree if you give piss poor information you will get pretty crappy answers. Good idea to keep notes, volume, mass added...

Probably referring to the mellowing effect of Chloride on beer flavour, there is a lot of difference between Chlorine and Chloride. That many of the most notable IPA’s came from Burton, famous for it’s remarkably high Sulphate content, doesn’t really support the assertion either. Sadly the...

Sort of agreeing, it isn’t the Shive that come in hard and soft, hard Spiles are fitted first, a couple of days before serving, to let some pressure out bringing the beer into the right condition (fizz). Just before serving, the soft Spile (mostly made from bamboo root is fitted), it allows air...

I'm not a wine maker, but have taken some interest and I would view the assertion that all wine improves with age with a great deal of care. It has a lot to do with the style and what’s in the wine that predicts how well it will improve and for how long. Many of the low cost mass market wines...

Cut my brewing teeth on Graham Wheeler's books. They are perhaps a little lacking in information on Yeast and water chemistry. When they were written there was a lot less information on, and much lower availability of yeasts, and what it takes to manage water properly. Braukaiser in another...

No, but the Durden Park guys do some amazing work, booklet is well worth the investment if anyone is interested in historic beers. Mark

Dont know about NZ but my local (Brewman) had some of the Weyermannn Caramel Rye in stock last time I was there. Mark

In that case I have no idea why he puts his magnet in a zip-lock bag! Mark