Dear Rain
man,
Why does my airlock not bubble?
Gassy, Castle
Hill.
Well Gassy,
there are a huge number of reasons why your air lock is not bubbling. I will not
explain the logical ones like “there is no liquid in the airlock” or “the lid is
not actually on the fermenter” and go straight to the main reason. The main
culprit affects carboys and only happens when the lid is over tightened. The
action of over tightening the lid causes the plastic to buckle slightly,
compromising the seal. The easy solution to this is not to tighten the lid so
tightly. Other reasons could include: old yeast sachet-not usually a problem
unless you “stock pile” homebrew kits; old carboy o-rings and old airlock
grommets.
Dear Rain man,
Do you stock Torren range hoods and do you know where Penrith Gas Centre
is?
B Baggins, Underhill,
The Shire.
Bilbo, I told you last time, the number on your range hood is an old
phone number and Penrith gas centre left this address at least 12 months ago.
Try the Yellow Pages. Ta.
Hi Rain man,
I was on the internet the other evening and I came across a recipe for a
Strawberry flavoured beer. I think that they are having me on. I thought that it
was against the law… Can I put things other than malt, yeast, water and hops in
beer?
C Hahn,
Camperdown.
That’s a good
question. At this point the only law that you will be breaking it the
reinheitsgebot, the ancient German Purity law. The short answer is yes, you can
put other things in beer so long as they are safe to eat and have been sanitised
or sterilised. While this rules out putting such things as raw chicken [this has
been done in the past] and engine oil to give the beer more body, it leaves a
huge number of things that you can use. You may want to start with something
simple like a can of strawberries into a pale ale and then progress on to
something like an oatmeal stout before getting really adventurous. Hell you
probably wont even be the first in the world to do it, but you just might be the
first one on your block. You will, of course, be breaking
the German purity law, but what are they gonna do about it? Just don’t mention
the war.
