My Grainfather is Broken
Mid brew, grain all nicely bedding in, recirculation pump on but the temperature was dropping. What was wrong with my trusty grainfather that had done so many brews? I’ve had my grainfather for many years, I was quite an early…
How to Build a Wort Chiller
Since I started all grain brewing I’ve always used the ‘no chill’ method of cooling my worth after boiling. This involved simply filling a plastic jerry can with the hot wort and letting it cool overnight before pitching the yeast….
Essential Homebrew Equipment – Refractometer
A refractometer is one of the pieces of brewing equipment I bought on a whim but it turned out to be a great purchase. Checking the gravity of your wort while you’re brewing is a fairly important factor in producing…
Making a Hop Tea
For my American Pale Ale recipe rather than dry hopping I thought I’d give making a hop tea a try to add that extra hop boost I was looking for. A hop tea is an infusion of hops and water,…
Palmers Brewery Tour
On a recent tour of the south coast I managed to shoehorn a tour of Palmers Brewery in Bridport into the schedule, luckily with my wife being pregnant she offered to drive so I could thoroughly sample the beers on…
Fermentation Fridge Build – Brew Fridge
The lovely long hot summer we’ve had this year has had one major drawback; I’ve not been able to brew as it’s been too warm for fermentation in the house and stocks are beginning to run low! Most yeast that…
Alcoholic Elderflower Champagne Recipe
Following on from the non alcoholic elderflower champagne it would have been wrong of me not to do an alcoholic version of it to enjoy on hot summer evenings we’re having. The recipe I used for this is pretty much…
Alcohol Free Elderflower Champagne Recipe
There’s a lovely self set elderflower in my back garden which is covered in white flower heads and it would be a shame not to use them for some kind of brew. I’d already planned to make some alcoholic elderflower…
5 Tips for Fast Home Brew Bottling
Once your lovely new beer is fermented you’re faced with a choice, to bottle or to barrel. I won’t go in to the merits and drawbacks with each method but one of the reasons given for not bottling by a…
Your First Home Brew Beer Kit – Equipment
So you’ve decided you want to try your hand at brewing some beer, but not quite sure what equipment you need to make your first home brew. You can actually make beer from a kit with very little in the…
