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White Labs are the gold standard in home brewing - or commercial brewing for that matter. If they say it’s true - it is.

Hi Tigerwould, You are right but you could have plenty of sugars and if half your yeast die, regardless of how much sugar is there it won’t fully ferment - you’ll end up with a really sweet beer, that if you are bottling could make hand grenades. The Holy Trinity? Obsessive sanitation...

Not sure what you mean? Hydrating the yeast does just that. Instead of half your yeast dying and having a weak fermentation, your yeast is ready for the job. The only things that affect the ABV are - sugars available and attenuation (how well your yeast goes on the sugars). So, no. Healthy...

OK. one more thing. If you are using dry yeast sachets, even with a Cooper's can, don't just throw it in the fermenter. Get a new 600ml bottle of water (dunk it in sanitiser), tip two thirds of it out. Dip your yeast sachet in the sanitiser and pour the yeast into the bottle. Leave it for 20...

No rinse. If you want to (not really necessary) you could rinse with boiling water - kegs OK but plastic doesn't like boiling water. Make sure you get the betadine to touch everything you are sanitising. So slosh it around - it will foam up a bit but that's fine.

Here is a link to the iconic John Palmer's book "How To Brew" (1st edition) that is free to read. He has updated it a few times over the years, so it's best to use this one as an overall description of brewing rather than a current bible. There are quite a few American quirks that don't...

None at all, as long as you drain it well. Over time it may discolour tubing, funnel etc but that is purely cosmetic.

By the way CB. You can keep reusing the sanitiser solution - if you are sanitising say, a clean keg, swish it around in the keg and tip it back into the bucket. Eventually you will see the colour of the betadine solution go lighter in colour - that is the time to change it or add more betadine.

Gallagher. Yep, everything. You only need a 1/2 to one litre to do a 20L fermenter and the same in a keg - tip it in, swish it all around and drain it. Don't rinse. Every time you touch something or run something out of a tap - use a spray bottle to clean it. Every time. CB As far as "large...

Hey CB, go to a pharmacy and buy a tallish bottle of Betadine. Get a large bucket, fill it with water and put a few capsful in until it is a mid brown colour. Get a spray bottle and fill it up too. Everything, including your hands that's going to come close to your beer (or wort) gets either...

Some of you might be interested in this story (or not lol). Years ago, on a hot summers day, a mate and his friend called in on a motorbike ride around NE Vic. I asked if they wanted a beer and told them it was home brew. They both said they'd been brewing the Cooper's kits which they liked and...

Hi Tigerwould, I agree. Except when the wort kit is ready for the yeast to be pitched oxygenation is a good thing. Either sloshing it around in the fermenter like a maniac, or for the more obsessed (like me) you could get an O2 cylinder and an aquarium diffusion stone lol.

I've never tried the wort kits but in theory (and I've heard from people I respect) they should be a big step up from a "kit and kilo" brew as long as you are still obsessive about sanitation and fermentation temperature.

For anyone wanting to do all grain brewing the start up costs aren't too bad. You need - A mash tun (one of those 50L Gatorade eskies that the winning GF team usually tips over the coach) - my mate even uses a normal 50L esky. One of those stick thermometers to check the mash temp A hot...

Some years in the future… Ireland wins the FIFA World Cup! The hero of the final is goalkeeper Paddy O’Dwyer, who in the penalty shootout makes three miraculous saves. Of course that night he’s celebrating out on the town and has had a few. Walking home, feeling 10 foot tall, he comes to an...

My wife is leaving me and taking the kids with her because she says I am too obsessed with horse racing. They're walking down the path to the gate now. AND THEY'RE OFF!!

Thanks Benji, that was very good.

I've never ordered anything from Dan Murphy's to be delivered in my life. Earlier in the month I got a text suposedly from DM's that said they had received my order and I could follow its progress by following a link. Soon after another text that said my order had been despatched - "click here...

Did you hear about the agnostic, dyslexic insomniac? He used to lie awake all night wondering if there really was a dog.

With apologies to Banjo Paterson. There was movement through the nation, for the word had passed around That the voters there had finally had their say, And had voted independent – who were mostly Canberra bound – The Libs thought hard about where blame might lay. All the so-called “hard...