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There ya go. He's following my rule of thumb too. He was a good student <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->

Am I right in thinking rauchmalz is a masher not a steeper?

Yep, that's a masher. It's considered a base malt, and can (in theory) be used for 100% of the mash.

Unless you can find some CaraRauch. Mmmm, CaraRauch...

Learned an invaluable lesson last night, DO NOT MOVE A PLASTIC CARBOY WITH THE AIRLOCK STILL IN PLACE!!! <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->

Because there's movement in the plastic it can suck the water out of the airlock into the carboy, which it did, when I was moving it about. It wasn't an awful lot but the water did contain a few drops of Milton so I'm a little worried that it might affect the overall brew. I suppose I'll just have to wait and see.

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Yeah, I tend to leave the airlock out until I've moved the fermenter to it's resting place. Similarly after fermenting, although sometimes you get enough gas pressure inside that when you lift it it doesn't displace as much (I carried 25 litres up from the cellar last night without removing the airlock and nothing got sucked in).

I wouldn't worry too much about a few drops of Milton. Many people use diluted Milton or bleach/vinegar as a no-rinse sanitiser, so in low doses it's unlikely to have any effect.

&amp;quot;Adeptus&amp;quot;:1b0apwd5 wrote:

Yeah, I tend to leave the airlock out until I've moved the fermenter to it's resting place. [/quote:1b0apwd5]
I've always initially left the (glass) fermenter in the kitchen for the first couple of days until the initial surge is over and then it's moved upstairs to the box room until it's ready for bottling. I just got a bit of a shock last night when I lifted it and I heard a GLUB, GLUB, GLUB, and looked at the airlock and there was hardly any water left in it! <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->

&amp;quot;Adeptus&amp;quot;:1b0apwd5 wrote: I wouldn't worry too much about a few drops of Milton. Many people use diluted Milton or bleach/vinegar as a no-rinse sanitiser, so in low doses it's unlikely to have any effect.[/quote:1b0apwd5]
Yeah I've started to use that now myself so I'm not [i:1b0apwd5]that[/i:1b0apwd5] worried. I just find it funny that which each brew I think I've ironed out all the problems from the previous brew day, but somehow something else always seems to happen!