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A good rule of thumb: If the fault increases in intensity after fermentation is finished and the beer is chilled, it's probably an infection. If the flavour remains static with time, it is probably a process fault. Just a general rule. Don't bet your house on it, but it's a good start. MHB is...

Thanks for the offer to help. I work professionally with yeast. I was trying to provide some cost effective alternatives to try before buying new equipment. I sometimes see people get overwhelmed with the advice given to them for managing yeast at a homebrew scale. I'm happy to talk growth...

There is a lot you can do for virtually no additional cost. Erlenmeyers and stir plates are great and I don't really have anything negative to say about them, but I am in complete agreement with hoppy2B. Give it a crack on the cheap end. A jar isn't as good as an Erlenmeyer, but it is good...

True. Culturing yeast in an environment close to the target wort is preferred and a decent oxygenation setup is great but not essential for for homebrew, especially when getting started and seeing if you even want to pursue this avenue of control. Sugar for a starter and giving the fermenter a...

You can add too much yeast, but it is tricky to do on a homebrew scale. Jump on your favourite search engine and search for "yeast pitch calculator" and you should be able to find something to crunch the numbers for you easily enough. You generally want to increase each pitch by a factor of 10...

Have you considered trying to rehydrate the dry yeast? Diacetyl can be cleaned up b giving the yeast a little more time before lowering the temperature of the beer. 5L erlenmeyer flasks are very usefull to have around. The stir plates I'm aware of are single flask units, so you will need one for...

Hi, In general I would not recomment puring oxygen from a fermenter with carbon dioxide. The yeast will consume the oxygen fast enough. Once fermentation kicks off the fermentation vessel should naturally start slightly pressurising due to the release of carbon dioxide however I would recommend...

That too. You gotta get that head space right. I might be wrong (I don't have a pressurised FV in use yet), but a blocked spunding valve wouldn't be too bad providing there's a PRV. Once the oxygen is purged from the vessel, shouldn't it just keep generating it's own carbon dioxide? Valves can...

Yeast can occasionally respond poorly to excessive head pressure and flocculate out earlier than usual. I don't think this would be a problem on a home setup unless you were getting dangerously crazy with pressurising.

We thought that splitting the judging into two rounds was the best way to get live judging on the day without overwhelming the judges. The first round just found our best three and focused on being really encouraging to entrants. The finalist round brought in a fresh panel of judges with a LOT...

Hi everyone, It is with mixed feelings that I am announcing that the organiser's of GABF have decided not to accept the Grog Cobras proposal to organise the home brew competition in 2017. The club and I had a terrific time running the previous competition on short notice and had already taken...

136.2%. In retrospect I may have messed up my equations.

I've received some phone calls and letters from two different companies both claiming they are the ones who have taken over my bottled gas account and that the other is lying. Currently I have a 20 kg cylinder and nobody to return it to. WRG is going to have a fun time when I bring that in for a...

I always have trouble with this strain. Complete drop out and a stuck fermentation at around 1.020 SG every single time. It is always rehydrated and viable before pitching and everything is set up in a temperature controlled environment for a warm ferment with well oxygenated wort. My thoughts...

Warra - are you suggesting the current Pale Ale isn't good?

All of the score sheets have been emailed out. Sorry it took so long. If anybody hasn't received their sheets, please let me know and I will re-send them out.

All the scores are listed up at www.grogcobras.com Here is a cut and paste from the site: Final winners Champion home brewer Grant Smith Champion Lager Dominic Tyley-Miller (126) Champion Wheat Beer John Fraser (121) Champion Pale Ale Timothy Ivan Ward (102) Champion IPA Grant...

Hi bronson, Sorry that you don't feel like entering. The competition has already ended for this year. I can assure you that all entrants will receive their score sheets. All of them are in good (enough) condition. I personally hand delivered many of the sheets yesterday at the festival. The...

Hi everyone. The winners have been announced at GABF today. http://www.grogcobras.com/2016/02/gabf_2016_winners/ Full results will be up tomorrow. Congratulations to the winners.

The Grog Cobras will be sharing the big old bar under the Gargan Stand. The live judging of the finalists will be kicking off not long after 1200. It seems like it might be a good destination for home brewers to check out. The finalists will all be judged tomorrow for best beer in each category...