homebrewandbeer.com

My guess is that that is either break material or clumped yeast. Some strains of yeast will do that; you should see what some of the saison yeasts do... they look much like that but the clumps float on the surface of the beer!

If beer gets too hot it can be ruined, but if the temperature is in the 20's and reasonably stable I think there'll be no problem.

Chocolate malt can be steeped. Conventionally, this means just soaking in hot water for 30 minutes or so, with most people using a grain bag to make it easier to remove the spent grain from the liquid. Here's John Palmer on it: http://www.howtobrew.com/section2/chapter13-2.html

Cool! Now I need a 100 litre fermenter.

Another technique to look at if you're all-grain brewing is first-wort hopping: https://helms-deep.net/~rwh/blog/beer/?p=107

Normally the starch is converted to sugar during a process called "mashing". This is adding water of a particular temperature (normally around 66 degrees C) to activate the two main diastatic enzymes that are generated during the germination (malting) process. This converts the starch into maltose ...

The PVC would be fine I think. The other option (and what I've done) is to use the stainless steel hose braid from a toilet water supply hose, like this guy:

http://cruisenews.net/brewing/infusion/page1.php

Possibly even easier than the PVC.

Yep, padding is the key. If anything, the stuff is likely to be crushed. So having a bit of padding between bottles spreads the impulse point over a larger area and gives you a much higher chance of the bottle surviving. I'd also recommend wrapping it in something waterproof to avoid your clothes ...

Having been inspired by this thread, I put a "real ale" brew into fermenter on the weekend:

1x Coopers Real Ale tin
1kg liquid light malt
200g Crystal (steeped in 3l of water slowly brought to about 70 degrees over 20mins)
25g Goldings pellets (15g at 20min boil, 10g at flameout)
Sounds great ...

Kegs are an ideal secondary. No light. No oxygen. I rarely do any other type of racking these days.

However, my wife is an Aussie, my kids are 50/50 Aussies, so there.
I'm also a 50/50. Been getting over there quite a bit lately and love the place (and their beers are about 10 billion times better than ours). Hope to live there for a few years at some point if my meagre allocation of years ...

I believe Ross filters all his beers. Might be worth giving him a ring considering you're thinking of buying his product.

I have heard that too Chris but I was after something basically automated. I understand the Marga still is manual but I am going to attach my variable speed drill to it once I make a "connector" where the handle goes.
I've done this myself. What you do is go buy a dynabolt and stick this in where ...

When my mates and I build our brewery, we're going to build it ourselves. We're all engineers of various types, so it should be pretty easy. Plan to use second hand milk vats if available. The civil engineer can build the supports. The chem eng guys can do the pipework and stuff. The Mechatronics ...

Acetobacter isn't nice, but it's not poisonous. Just makes the beer lose its flavour and sour (like vinegar, because it creates acetic acid) with age. But it's actually beneficial in some styles of (sour) beer!

Next time don't use the brewing sugar, go the Brew Enhancer 1 or Brew Enhancer 2.

The Holgate brewery really is worth a visit. One of the few breweries I've been to when I've loved every beer (and they have like 12 of them too). Also, the actual brewery is visible on two sides through huge plate glass windows, and they were doing a brew while I was there. :) Oh, and the beef pie ...

I've been there but was on the motorbike and I'm not off my restrictions so I had to settle for a mixed sixpack. Which consisted of three of their cider and three of the lager? pilsner? can't remember. Anyway, I'll have a try of 'em tonight.

Wow, I normally end up with an acetobacter infection if I leave mine in the fermenter too long (say longer than a couple of months). Which probably says something about the sanitary state of my fermenters, I guess.