Like we have with Mash steps, enable the recipe to specify temps, duration, dry hop additions etc... of primary, secondary, lagering phases. I personally don't do a secondary but recording that a given recipe could require one would make the recipe more complete, especially for shared recipes.

This is the next batch on the schedule... FERMENTABLES: 1.6 kg - Pale (40.5%) 750 g - Wheat (19%) 500 g - Flaked Barley (12.7%) 350 g - Crystal 140L (8.9%) 350 g - Crystal 60L (8.9%) 350 g - Pale Chocolate (8.9%) 50 g - Roasted Wheat (1.3%) HOPS: 8g Flyer - 60 min 16g Flyer - 10 min MASH...

I've used crushed melegueta pepper in my last two beers - an old ale and a belgian dubbel respectively. Historically it's been used to make beer taste stronger in alcohol than it normally would be. The old ale received a quarter tsp while the belgian dubbel got half tsp. You can really notice...

Has anyone tried this? In addition to the usual roasted barley, I can also get hold of roasted wheat or even roasted rye. Roasted wheat is supposed to have a milder flavour than roasted barley and I'm thinking it would be interesting to make a stout with it. I made a stout last year using the...

Now that the temperature is well into single figures, I though it might be useful to gather some info together for those (like me!) who've never attempted lager with their homebrew setup. My understanding of the key difference in process between ales and lagers is that the lager fermentation is...

Someone who regularly samples my creations said they didn't much care for beers with an ABV of less than 5% as they're "a bit watery and tasteless". Not normally a problem as most of my beers have been in the 6% region, but I've recently been drinking a batch that I deliberately brewed well...

Brewery still out of action (waiting on replacement parts), but to pass the time I've tried to devise a couple of recipes to brew over the winter months. One of the recipes I'm creating is a Baltic Porter. I'm not obsessed with sticking to the style guidance, but I'm told a Baltic Porter should...

I've noticed a few items available from UK maltsters which aren't in the BF drop-down fermentables list. It's possible to get; - Vienna Malt - Pale Rye Malt - Roasted Rye - Crystal Wheat - Roasted Wheat - "Flagon" Pale Malt (as opposed to Maris Otter, Optic etc...) - Peat-smoked Malt Also...

A quick question on hop socks. Imagine two identical recipes being brewed with only one difference in the process. Batch A uses a hop sock during the boil, whilst the hops are thrown into batch B "freestyle". Would identical hops result in different IBU levels simply because of the hop sock? I...

I tasted a sample of my current batch during the bottling run last weekend. It had an unexpected element to it - a "cask" ale taste. This was the first batch where I'd used a new fermentation bucket, and I think the cause of this was a poor seal around the airlock in the lid due to my shoddy...

I went to start a batch this morning, but couldn't get the boiling bucket to kick into life. I'm using a 33ltr polypropelene bucket with two 2.2kw kettle elements mounted in the bottom. The supply is regulated by a PID/SSR combo box, which I've tested and it appears to be working normally. As...

As we're now into September, I'm starting to think about brewing something stronger to drink during those cold, wet winter nights that aren't too far away. Here's what I've come up with; Grain Bill: 5.5kg Maris Otter Pale Malt 1kg Crystal Malt 500g Spelt Malt 500g Melanoidin Malt 100g...

I brewed batch number 5 today (following this recipe). In preparation over the last couple of days I've been thinking about how to improve clarity in the finished beer, and it struck me that the sometimes-there, sometimes-not-there flavour I got for the first time in batch 4 might be because it...

When bottling a batch, do you bother to label the bottles? If so, how do you produce the labels? As I'm currently bottling all my batches, this has crossed my mind a couple of times. I don't currently label anything and I'm wondering whether it can be done relatively easily.

Does anyone know why the same strain of yeast sometimes produces different coloured sediment in the bottle? I've seen it vary from a toffee-brown colour in some batches to almost white in others. Does it indicate yeast health or something?

OK, now I know I probably shouldn't be sampling a beer only a week after bottling it, but I usually open one at this point to see how it's getting along - both for carb levels and flavour. The most recent batch does seem to be carbed up, but the flavours aren't quite there. I did use hops I've...

The current batch gets bottled tomorrow and frees up the fermenter. The next batch in planning will be consumed en masse at a hogroast in October, but I've not put a great deal of thought into what recipe to try. As this is going to be consumed by a lot of different people with different...

I currently bottle my 5G batches using different sized brown glass bottles I've collected over time. I originally decided to use this method because it meant I didn't have to worry about obtaining a CO2 supply and additional dispensing equipment when I was first starting out. Having gone through...

Hello everyone from the South of England. Having brewed my first beer in March, I'm fairly new to home brewing. It's been an interesting journey so far and I've got four batches under my belt to date. I did a bit of research online before plunging in and decided to go straight for all-grain...