Notes from the shop floor. The questions we get asked most, answered properly — with the numbers that matter and the ones that don't.
Sydney water is soft and lightly chloraminated. Remove the chloramine, then decide whether sulphate or chloride should lead — it changes how the hops land.
Yeast
One sachet is not enough at 1.070. Cell counts, whether a starter is worth the effort, and what underpitching tastes like three weeks later.
All grain
A single infusion at 66 °C, a sensible sparge and honest efficiency numbers for batch one. No decoctions, no step mashes, no spreadsheet.
Fermentation
A tub of water, a wet towel and a frozen bottle will hold ±1 °C through a Sydney summer. Where it stops working, and what to buy when it does.
Kegging
A chart is not a method. Set-and-forget at 12 psi, the burst-carbonation shortcut, and how to tell which one went wrong.
Hops
Timing, contact time and temperature. Why a late dry hop can restart fermentation in the keg, and how to stop it before it gasses your bottles.
Measurement
Temperature correction, meniscus, and the difference between a stuck ferment and a finished one. Two readings tell you more than ten guesses.
Sanitation
Percarbonate first, then no-rinse acid sanitiser. Contact times, what not to scrub, and the three spots infections almost always start.
Yeast
Wash, store and count from a previous batch. How many generations before flocculation and attenuation start to drift.
Extract
Most extract twang is process, not the can. Fresher extract, a real yeast, controlled temperature and a hop steep will get you most of the way to all-grain.
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