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I think Gose is one of those things that makes no sense at all, but then suddenly does. Given my low salt tolerance (see above), I hated every Gose I'd tried until I found one I absolutely loved (Garage Project's "White Mischief"). A real lightbulb moment: oooooh, that's what this **** is...

I'm the opposite end of the salt tolerance spectrum (my family are always complaining about the fact that I don't put salt in my cooking except for the water for pasta and potatoes). The technique I decided to use is to add 1.5g/l initially, wait till the beer is finished then add more if I...

Downy mildew of hops is caused by a pathogen that originated in Japan and didn't reach Europe until the 20s. It is far more likely that the advent of downy in these hops gardens is related to its increased prevalence rather than to changed mesoclimatic conditions.

It's a great idea, works a treat. We routinely used continuous aeration* on the starter cultures at the last large scale winery in which I worked. I ran a trial where I did continuous oxygenation side by side with standard aeration on two cultures; it improved performance** but it chewed...

If we ever do get reform of excise it will probably be called the Rekorderlig amendment: it's basically apple based alcopop but the apple base means it pays half the tax.

My understanding is that was introduced a long time before the GST and for two reasons: so that excise is not payable on "no alcohol" beer* and to skew the excise so that light beers paid less. You can tell how old it is by the number: 1.15% ABV is 2 degrees proof in the old English system...

You are more likely to get a reply if you provide the information on which you want help.

Large breweries have hard lines between brewhouse and fermenters* but most craft scale breweries don't, they simply use a length of Brewer's Delivery hose. At HB scale you'd get away with a few metres of silicone hose. *Fun fact: When I worked for the first large scale "craft" brewery in...

I've never seen a setup with injection on the hot side. The reasoning has always been that due to the solubility being lower and the reaction rates being higher there will be an increase in undesireable side reactions.

It would if you had a long enough hose: 6 metres should do it.

Sorry I thought that was what you meant.

Your argument is not with me. BTW I diasgree that most craft breweries fail because of tax. They fail because they think that making beer well = running a brewery.

It's much easier with the tool. It's basically a screw press which hooks onto the head and compresses the spear internals, allowing the lock ring to be removed. The internals are then decompressed and removed. The one illustrated comes from MicroMatic, works beautifully and costs an arm and a...

Well that's weird: my Fuggles went apeshit, having broken the surface about 5 weeks ago the first one will reach the top of the trellis in the next day or so. The trellis is 5.5 metres so that's over a metre a week or about 15 cm / day. You can almost watch the buggers extend.

As I understand it, since GST replaced state based license fees and sales tax on alcohol sales, it's part of the legislation that the money raised by the GST component must be returned to the states.

Nothing has changed because the decision would send a large number of the grapegrowers in the Riverina and the Riverland broke. They are already being paid unsustainable prices for grapes, this would wipe out something like half of their market and prices would get even worse.

Treasury has been trying to fix this since the Henry review. Their answer is create a level playing field by making all alcoholic beverages pay the same level of excise. If this happens it would most likely be the current level for spirits, which is about $1 per standard drink. If this gets up...

I routinely use sulphuric acid as a mash pH adjuster, you could also use hydrochloric. Note that you'll need to take the anion into account for your mash and kettle salt additions. Since I don't make any beers with high chloride levels it works out for me.

True that. If you mix sodium percarbonate and metasilicate you get an excellent cleaner for red wine stains.

If you mix sodium percarbonate and metabisulphite you get sodium sulphate*. I know that ammonium sulphate is bad for worms, perhaps sodium sulphate is too. * this is a classic case of neutralisation: whilst each has an antimicrobial function, they cancel each others' modes of action so the...