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Had pictures of Chuck plastered over my bedroom walls as a teenager and was and still am in awe. Saw him in the 70s at festival hall with members of Daddy Cool backing him. Have every record he made. Love em all. This man introduced me to a world of music from Muddy to Louis Jordan to hillybilly...

Suspend sacks of grain over acid baths.

Wage costs snap at the heels of an inferior product/service. Started my working life at 16 for a company that paid adult wages and expected adult work and attitude. All the penalties and most of all, a culture of respect for the workers. They were raking in the money and knew their staff were...

I guess if we stick together they can go get another time and motion expert.

Hi H, brewing stories of the past are always interesting. A mate of mine used to make god awful piss which he bottled in 1lt fruit juice glass bottles like orchy or something I can't remember. But we used to get good and pissed on that stuff and I'm sort of amazed none of them ever exploded and...

On our door-step in East Timor a similar struggle occured, no thanks to us. Fidel stood up to the might on his door-step in Cuba and whatever your political pursuasion, the story is epic. In 200 years people will read in awe of Senor Castro. Without him we wouldn't have petrol and Castrol is a...

An incandescent bulb and a tea-chest. "What's a tea-chest ?" I hear them say.

Go ahead and do what you wanted to do. Just make it a 15lt brew or bang in some white sugar to up the fermentables if you have to make it over 20lt. You have the temperature control so go for it. Style guidelines suck. Dry-hop, steep speciality grains, experiment just for sake of it and brew on...

Last year I did a 14.5 lt brew that I called a Sticke Altbier. 50/50 pils and vienna, wheat, carared and chocolate. Tettnanger. OG 1.054 FG 1.004. I used US-05 I can't remember why but in my diary I wrote "This is a very wonderful beer that should be repeated." With the correct yeast next time...

I like chop and 3 veg every night and me cocoa at 9.30 in my pyjamas. Change just complicates life and the only hop I use for all my beers is, out of boredom I've forgotten. Maybe that green one.

Blow-off tubes are easy to rig up and great insurance against wasted time cleaning **** up. I learnt that from making wine in these 30 litre fermenters. I have no room for more fridges and today I wrapped a couple off damp towels around 2 fermenters. It works at a pinch, but summer in Australia...

Things will go into overdrive in the US. He'll either be impeached or whacked before his term is out. Wonder if I can get a bet on?

When I was a wee lad I used to help my dad with his "brewery duty". For a couple years he brewed in a plastic rubbish-bin covered in a cotton sheet held on with an ocky strap. The hose got the sod-met treatment ( no bottling wands back then) as did the bottles. Not ever did he have to dump a...

Just use a bit of sandpaper on the bottling wand. I've been using standard taps for ages with no issues other than the standard they **** me issues. Bought a snaptap to try out and man, what a revelation. Love em. Australian made too.

I reckon simple recipes are a great base to build on. As earlier said, you have a ****-load of sweet unfermentables in your recipe that even a ***** like champagne yeast couldn't gobble up. Or maybe this is a piss-take?

Emu Export. Jeez. I drank gallons of that stuff in the late 70s over west. Used to take chaff-bags off cans to the tip when I worked in a dry community in the 90s. That fella drink too much. Napisan soak works a treat, but those hook norton silver ones can get ******.

Call me old fashioned, but I always taste my starter wort. If it tasted sweet or ****** then it'd be off to plan B, a sachet or 2 of dried yeast. I've never had to do this luckily. You know, sometimes I make a starter out of dried yeast cause that's how grandpa did it.

Que? No more smoke. Only beer.

I believe with wine it's the opposite. Half bottles reach their peak faster than 750s and if you want to age and store wine, bulk is better. Plus a bulk body of booze is far more stable to any unseen temperature fluctuations. Everyone hates bottling. It's like death and taxes. I stored mead in...

420 litres and that's starting in early may. 20 litre all grain BIAB brews. All bottled and delicious. Quality over quantity comrades.