Brewed a single hop Amarillo extra pale ale yesterday. 90% Maris Otter Extra Pale, 5% oats, 5% torrified wheat, plus lots of Amarillo late hops. Aiming for not much over 4% ABV. Currently bubbling away nicely.

Has anyone here made either a Kombucha or a Kvass? I'm tempted to experiment with alt fermented drinks...

Planning a barley wine brew shortly. Going to use my Mikkeller book.

science of brewing and a nobel prize winner in brewing on radio 4 now

Ta!

excellent programme
in the end it was less about brewing and more about a really cool jamaican dude, with some great stories, well worth a listen

he did improve malting process times though saves 2 days in the beer cycle

The brewery have invited me and Alex (who also works behind the bar and is a homebrewer) to come in and brew our own beers one day during the week and sell them behind the bar. Excite.

I will likely be slimming down my homebrew operation so will have some kit going cheap if anyone is interested - details to follow in the coming days, but will have a bottle tree, bottle washer and at least a crate* or two of brown flip-top bottles.

*one of those ones german lager comes in.

Definitely interested in the bottle tree and washer

cracking - well I'll aim to dig it all out of the cupboard tonight and take a couple of snaps and post in here.

Great let me know!

Disastrous commute home means I haven't had time to go through the whole lot of kit, so just the bottle tree (holds 45 bottles) and washer for today! - pics below. Er, fiver each? Seems like @mustardbeak has first dibs.

2 Attachments

Will definitely take them, will pm to arrange collection

Hello again,

I have a few more bits and pieces going free/cheap should anyone want them.

FREE.

2 x 15L fermenters - like these: http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/15_ltr_Fermenting_bin_lid_with_Graduated_markings.html#.Vch5rOGOXGE

1 x bottle crate - the "german supermarket" style ones: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=173242&d=1390138290. Holds 20 bottles.

Make me an offer:

Just over 20 good quality brown flip-top bottles. A mix of 330ml and 500ml. A few delabeled/repurposed commercial bottles but mostly bought-new homebrew bottles. Flip-tops rule. As many or few as you want - make me an offer?

£5:

Big Stock-pot. Holds c.15L - think it's just under (14.8L).

£3:

4.5L Demijohn - like this: http://www.wilko.com/homebrew-accessories+equipment/wilko-demijohn-container-glass-45l/invt/0022556

All to be collected from SE4 (by Brockley Station) during the evenings. Could possibly do some day-times as well.

yeah, i did until i got bored with it and moved on. Kombucha is really easy to make, quite delicious and will keep you as regular as clockwork. The hardest part is sourcing a SCOBY, but even thats not to difficult.

Getting a bonus at the end of the month so have decided to piss it up on a Braumeister.

Very excited.

Nuts. They look great.

Just bottled a Mikkeller recipe barley wine. Should be 11% odd.

Currently fermenting a 4% black IPA. Already smelling very good. S-04 yeast this time to leave a little sweetness.

Should be? Not hit a stable fg yet?
What you gonna dry hop your black ipa with? How did you colour without roasted malt flavours coming through?

Not nitpicking, just new to the thread and genuinely interested!

I used a small amount carafa III when I made a black IPA. I put it in for the whole mash but have heard of others just sticking it in for the last 20 mins to get just the colour.

I have a feeling that Kat_Balou is going to be very, very good at this ... :)

It's currently 10.6% at a stable final gravity but bottle conditioning will add around 0.2% to take it slightly higher.

Black IPA dry hopped with the same as what I used as the late hops: Amarillo, Centennial, Mosaic, Nelson Sauvin. My brewing room smells like a pack of Opal Fruits.

Coloured (and flavoured) as Kat describes: around 5%, but I do a mix of mashing some of it to get some roastiness, and then sparge for 10-15mins with the remainder to get relatively more colour than flavour. The astringency needs to be balanced out with hop bitterness.

Oh, Kat, get Mitch Steele's book on IPA if you haven't seen it. It's great.

Will look into that, love me a Stone IPA.

The Guys at A&H have started using Black Prinz malt in their Black IPA, it imparts no bitterness.

http://www.brewuk.co.uk/bprinz-malt-1kg.html