Home brew? Homebrew? Winemaking

I need to calibrate it to be sure. I think it's 27l to max fill level and 30l to very top... as I usually aim for a 23l brew length it's ideal for MT but a little small for a copper or HLT. Fortunately I have the trusty burco too.

In need of some festive assistance... we have a family friend interested in getting into cider making. They've got apples and are thinking of sharing the use of a press, they're both retired (time on hands) and not big internet users so i was wondering if there's any books or something they might appreciate/find useful? Cheers :)

"Craft Cider Making" by Andrew Lea is a very good book. http://www.cider.org.uk/book.html

Looks good, bonus points for not being from Amaz*n either!

I used this one and its also good.

How are you getting on with this, have you used it much? Have you found an improvement from your burco?

I'm currently using a cheap buffalo, but thinking of getting one of these instead.

Yes and no. It's not quite big enough to be a HLT although you can always add sparge water after the mash. We've used it successfully as a passive mash tun for a straight infusion mash and it holds heat well with a blanket thrown over it. The temp control adjustment is not fine enough to hold an infusion mash steady, nor is the bottom plate method really suitable - I think you'd need to go HERMS or RIMS. The false bottom and tap are both good. HTH.

Thinking of drinking & storing some cider which should now be about ready... Bottles questions...

I'm bike only so getting new bottles from the homebrew shop will be trickier to transport than just the capping doofer and caps.

Can I safely assume 'real ale' bottles will hold my cider ok without exploding?

Are there any bottle I should avoid? Does brown / white make a difference?

Should I have utfs'd?

Brown is better. All my home brew is in ex full beer bottles from beer delivery companies.

No problems so far.

Thanks for the info, I might stick with what i have for now then as my plan was to use it for brew in a bag, which I have been doing successfully with my Buffalo, but it doesn't hold a constant rolling boil so i end up boiling for 90+ minutes to make sure it's sterilised.

You can bypass the Buffalo's thermostat, not too tricky, should help the boil situation. Lots of into on the forums.

If weight is an issue you could consider Coopers 500ml PET bottles, 24 in a nice light box.

Real ale bottles and a re-capping should be fine, just inspect bottles carefully for damage and don't over-prime.

Ta.

Ta. I only need another 6 so will drink some from cupboard & save. Will keep the PET option for when/if I up the volume.

I had read ages ago that you could add a kettle element which seemed like too much hassle, can't believe it is as simple as either unscrewing it from the element and taping it up, or just cutting the wires out and using a block connector!

Get a cheap PID controller, temperature probe and Solid State Relay from China. Rip out the old thermostat and rewire the element.

Our hops have started strong this year. Expecting a bumper crop. Got over a kilo last year and they were excellent in the dark Trappist style ale I made.

Happy to share come September...

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Just bottled my latest beer via a corny keg using a blichmann beer gun. Took 10 mins to bottle 20 litres. Beer is force carbed in the keg. Life changer if you brew as much as I do

OMG. That's worth looking into. Bottling usually wastes an hour of my life, not including mopping the fecking floor after.

Do your corny kegs ever get bunged up? I brewed 340L for my wedding last year (with some help!) using corny kegs and forced carbonation but a couple of them got blocked up - luckily one of the guys from the brew club was present and managed to unblock it by reversing the gas feed or something.

Edit: Oh and 100L was bottled, which was soul-destroying!

First time I've used the corny keg so not much experience in terms of things getting bunged up.

Only issue with the beer gun is that you have to keep the keg, bottles and line in the fridge beforehand otherwise you just get foam coming out.

Any tips about what to do with the yeast left in a demijohn after fermentation?

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You can make bread out of it but treat it like sourdough i.e. 12 hours rising times

Yes good idea
I suppose keeping it in the fridge till I next brew is pointless considering the cheap price of trashed packets

https://t.co/nF9inz0SRb New Fashioned - I brew my first rye beer