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For those that skim read the thread there is another route into AG brewing and that's BIAB (brew in a bag)

 

This effectively negates the need for a mash tun and sparging as you brew with the total volume of water at the beginning, in one vessel ( a boiler which you build really cheaply!!!)

 

Regardless of what anyone says this is a cheap easy and viable route into brewing real ales from grains, people that have tried some of my efforts can't believe it was brewed at home.

 

Pub standard and beyond levels can be achieved easier than you might think.

 

Any questions on biab I'll do my best to answer.

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Fair enough, there is a lot of kit and faff involved with AG. I can only guess that it is the processing cost that makes malt extract so horribly pricey.

 

Look forward to hearing how the beer turns out.

 

Given the quantity of honey in the beer do you think using something like Nottingham instead would make the beer too dry and thin?

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It could do, it is a bit of a funny recipe though - I am guessing that when they say amber crystal they mean medium or dark crystal, and that biscuit is either British amber or Belgian aromatic malt. I think that the quantities of each of those would make up for some of the dryness. I just hate Windsor yeast though, so I am biased!

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It could do, it is a bit of a funny recipe though - I am guessing that when they say amber crystal they mean medium or dark crystal, and that biscuit is either British amber or Belgian aromatic malt. I think that the quantities of each of those would make up for some of the dryness. I just hate Windsor yeast though, so I am biased!

 

I bought medium crystal and was sold the biscuit as biscuit so can't tell you what it is. Hopefully I can get on with the brew soon, I have had the ingredients for over a week but my stock pot was lost in the post (last extract I did I used two pans and it was a nightmare to juggle) so they are sending out a replacement. Has taken over two weeks!

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  • 2 weeks later...

So, a couple of days ago I brewed the White House Honey Ale:

 

1. The ingredients -

 

1_zps81b852bd.jpg

 

2. Steeping grains (biscuit and crystal malt) measured out -

 

2_zps92160f25.jpg

 

3. Grains tied up into a bag with muslin and string -

 

3_zps4b9365be.jpg

 

4. Steeping grains at 68 centigrade -

 

4_zps88d18b5e.jpg

 

5. Bittering hops -

 

5_zpsa2b61828.jpg

 

6. Honey added five minutes before end of boil-

 

6_zps58f423e8.jpg

 

7. Windsor yeast starter -

 

7_zpsd507f1b3.jpg

 

8. Krausen -

 

8_zps1658418e.jpg

 

The original gravity of the wort was 1.065, after some very very lively activity I took the gravity reading 36 hours later and it has already dropped to 1.020. Given that the yeast is Windsor and not famous for high attenuation I don't think it will go substantially lower. I am however planning to stick to the White House timings.

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Only just picked up on this thread so really sorry to do this after you've bought all the bits - but if anyone else wants a go then the Whitehouse recipes are both available as kits containing exactly the right weights of DME, grains, hops & yeast here. They do loads of others too (including Timothy Taylor, Old Speckled Hen & London Pride) and I can vouch for their quality. They're a good way to progress past 'can & kilo' kits and the results are great. Their 'Way to Amarillo' is particularly good although sadly out of stock at the moment.

 

I've just done the Whitehouse Honey Porter and it looks & smells amazing.

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Only just picked up on this thread so really sorry to do this after you've bought all the bits - but if anyone else wants a go then the Whitehouse recipes are both available as kits containing exactly the right weights of DME, grains, hops & yeast here. They do loads of others too (including Timothy Taylor, Old Speckled Hen & London Pride) and I can vouch for their quality. They're a good way to progress past 'can & kilo' kits and the results are great. Their 'Way to Amarillo' is particularly good although sadly out of stock at the moment.

 

I've just done the Whitehouse Honey Porter and it looks & smells amazing.

 

I came across those and thought I'd stick with te lme for the honey ale, but if I decide to do the honey porter I'll pick up the kit from there. Will be bottling on 19th so will add observations then.

 

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Guest cookoff013

I've heard good things about those St Peters kits. The actual bottled Ruby Ale is a lovely drop too.

I brewed the St Peters kit last year and it was really good well recommended

 

yup got it on the recomendation of a few guys, these kits are made to emulate the st peters ruby ale, but the kits are made by muntons, muntons prettymuch make a huge range of kits.

i`ve got some more, better yeast !

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  • 2 weeks later...

Folks

 

For a while now I have been pitching in on the forum and helping members out who are interested in getting into homebrewing in its many forms. After a bit of headscratching, it was decided that we should have a sticky in Food and Drink so that advice from whoever is interested can be available to all.

 

I am an all-grain homebrewer with 4 years experience under my belt. Before this I did approximately 10 beer kits of the sort sold by Wilkos and others.

 

All Grain brewing is brewing in its purest form, ie taking malted and unmalted grains, hops, water and yeast and manipulating these to produce various styles of ales, lagers etc. I can help with all aspects of kit brewing, bottling, kegging, all grain brewing, malts, hops, yeast strains and water treatment, plus other bits and bobs. I skipped extract brewing, so I'm afraid I cant help with that.

 

I know nothing about wine making or the production of country wines and spirits such as sloe gin etc, so this thread will hopefully become somewhere people with that experience can share.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Heyalp, heyalp (said in girlie southern US voice!!)

 

Just barrelled 2 loads of beer into Wilkos pressure barrels and as calamity would have it, I've lost the top bit of the CO2 injector (that holds the gas bulb) - On the basis that the barrel is airtight, do i really need it?

 

 

Just loathe to spend another nineteen quid on the whole unit at Wilkos - Help me Mr Z!!!

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Ok, how badly "lost" is it likely to be?

 

As long as the barrels are truly gastight then they will pressurise themselves from the fermentation of your priming sugar, and so you will be able to draw a good amount before that pressure runs out. If you drink really slowly, you may be able to get away with just letting the barrel regas itself in between sessions.

 

If your barrels are not gastight then you have a problem, and need to get another injector.

 

In the meantime, try to find that injector, because if you drink more than a couple of pints at a time you are going to need it. What you absolutely mustnt allow is air to glug back in via the tap. Once that happens, the beer is oxidised and will go off in 4-5 days.

 

If the beer is for a party and is likely to go quickly (ie within 4-5 days) then you can actually release all the pressure and have the cap sitting on top so that the beer runs freely and is replaced by air. The CO2 the beer produces, being heavier than air, will create a blanket that will be good enough to protect the beer for a few days as long as you crank the cap shut at the end of each session.

 

Have a look here. Give the owner (Yonny) a call, he might be able to suggest a cheaper sollution:

 

http://www.copperkettlehomebrewing.co.uk/gas/427/gas-bulb-holder

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Cheers fella - Lost in this instance means that my missus cleared our shed out, put all the useful stuff in our new shed and then chucked all the rubbish that was left on the floor - On the basis that the cap ain't in the new shed, i'm reckoning it's part of Essex landfill at the moment!!

 

I tend to pull the beer into a 4 pint jug anyway just to let the froth clear down a bit, so looks like i should be OK - I will give Yonny a ring though as there's some good looking bits on that site.

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It does both, to some extent.

 

By maintaining a CO2 "blanket" in the barrel, you keep oxygen off and lengthen the life of the beer. Also, by keeping the beer under pressure, you stop the dissolved CO2 created by the fermentation of the priming sugar from bleeding off, giving your beer sparkle. Think of a 2 litre coke bottle with the lid off slowly going flat, it is the same principle.

 

It is possible with steel kegs to force-carbonate beer (ie give it sparkle without using a secondary fermentation of priming sugar) simply by putting enough pressure into the keg and allowing the CO2 to dissolve into the beer. This wont work with plastic homebrew kegs though, as the safety valves will kick in, and if they didnt the keg would burst.

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Just noticed this thread,,, and thought I'd say hello :good:

 

Also an all grain (AG) brewer but use the BIAB method as the kit needed is minimal.... a big pot ... a nylon bag ... and a fermenter. Considerable kit and space saving over the more traditional AG methods and the results are just as good.

 

Currently got an IPA in the fermenter and drinking my way through some stout.

 

Cheers all

Edited by The Shootist
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  • 2 weeks later...

Just bought a C02 valve cap to go on my pressure vessel (about to try out my first brewing attempt!) and I noticed that the valve appears to have a length of rubber hosing covering the drilling that the C02 comes out of. Is this normal or is it intended to be removed before use? I'm struggling to see how the C02 could escape if the drilling is sealed up by the hose, but I don't want to try to remove it if it's intended to be there.

 

Has anyone else remove it from theirs? And if not, does the valve work ok with it in place?

 

Pic below pointing to the hose in question.

 

post-42233-0-62533200-1353691976_thumb.jpg

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