British Brewer

Recreating the perfect British Pint

28 March
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Tips and Tricks: Buying Hops

HopsSo as everyone knows by now I like to brew beer, lots of it, and I like to keep my costs down. I did a post on reusing yeast and here is another tip for reducing costs even further.  Buy your hops in bulk on eBay.  Yep, eBay.  You can get 1lb vacuum bags of your favorite hop pellets or cones for VERY cheap prices.  I recently acquired a 1lb bag of Target pellets for a $1. That is a substantial discount to either $2.50/oz or $21 for a lb at most homebrew stores.  Shipping is comparable to other online homebrew stores but make sure to check.

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03 March
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Tips and Tricks: Pots and Pans

When boiling a high OG ale make sure you have a kettle capable of holding double the capacity of the liquid in the boil. E.g. If you have 3 gallons of liquid make sure you are using a 6 gallon kettle. High OG means lots of malt and lots of malt leads to a large hot break (think thick creamy foam) in the kettle. When I brewed my 1123 OG Barleywine with over 14 lbs of DME I could barely keep it inside a 7.5 gallon kettle with only 3 gallons of liquid. Be warned.

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21 February
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Tips and Tricks: Carb Tabs

Coopers Carbonation TabsWhen using Coopers Carb tabs to carbonate your bottled conditioned ale do not open a bottle for at least 4 weeks. Coopers takes double the time of cane sugar or DME to carbonate an ale.

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