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more falafel please
Feb 26, 2005

forums poster

I take an adjustable crescent wrench and crank it down until I can't really crank it down anymore. I've never lubed the plastic but but it can't hurt.

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Ethics_Gradient
May 5, 2015

Common misconception that; that fun is relaxing. If it is, you're not doing it right.
Picked up some fresh pressed apple juice direct from the orchard this morning; always a treat having some of the fresh juice before I brew with it (normally I don't care for apple juice).

Anyhow, I've got some Mangrove Jack's cider yeast for the ferment, and am going to try a dry hop with Amarillo after ~4 days or so. The guy at the brewing store was recommending only around 15-20g of dry hop for 20L so as to not overwhelm it (cider doesn't have much body compared to say, an ale), does that sound about right?

Jhet
Jun 3, 2013
I like to wait longer before dry hop when I do it in cider. I leave it until it’s dropped clear and then I’ll dry hop right before packaging. 1-2 oz is perfect, so 20g would be about right. I would wait for clarity because it was fresh pressed, so it would start cloudy and need pectinase to drop clear quickly.

tater_salad
Sep 15, 2007


going to the orchard this weekend to get 2 gallons of Cider. This is the first time I'm doing cider (my wife drinks cider a lot and so far thinks cider brewing is boring compared to beer brewing)
any general tips? Yeast thoughts (Champaign ?)
I want to basically spice it the same as I did with my chirstmas beer last year (Nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice) should I spice when I drop the yeast..

My understanding of brewing cider
dump cider in sanitzed container.. dump in yeast.. wait.
Bottle and back sweeten with something like stevia so it retains its sweetness and yeast can't eat it.

Do I need to worry about sanitization of spices etc?

tater_salad fucked around with this message at 13:43 on Sep 27, 2021

BaseballPCHiker
Jan 16, 2006

tater_salad posted:

My understanding of brewing cider
dump cider in sanitzed container.. dump in yeast.. wait.

Hey Im in the same boat! Got a gallon batch going, pitched Nottingham yeast for mine, and just took a sample. Was really dry but good!

My plan is to back sweeten a bit, and put some in a plastic bottle to test carbonation. Once the plastic bottle feels real tight, ill move the rest of the bottles to the refrigerator.

Death of Rats
Oct 2, 2005

SQUEAK

tater_salad posted:

going to the orchard this weekend to get 2 gallons of Cider. This is the first time I'm doing cider (my wife drinks cider a lot and so far thinks cider brewing is boring compared to beer brewing)
any general tips? Yeast thoughts (Champaign ?)
I want to basically spice it the same as I did with my chirstmas beer last year (Nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice) should I spice when I drop the yeast..

My understanding of brewing cider
dump cider in sanitzed container.. dump in yeast.. wait.
Bottle and back sweeten with something like stevia so it retains its sweetness and yeast can't eat it.

Do I need to worry about sanitization of spices etc?

I like to spice (or indeed, introduce any flavourings) about 3-5 days after pitching. Otherwise, I find the yeast activity can knock the flavour right out of the fruit/spices/whatever you're throwing in. If I'm spicing, I'll just throw whole spices into a metal tea strainer, chuck that into the bucket, and assume it'll be fine. However, if you're worried about sanitization (or using powdered spices), you can either mix them with a couple shots of your spirit of choice to sanitize and just throw that mixture in, or make a tincture of vodka and spices (left to age a couple of weeks) to add at bottling.

Eeyo
Aug 29, 2004

Tapped my philly sour/sorachi ace dry hop. I like this first pour well enough. Nice balanced sourness, not mouth-puckering but you can definitely taste the lactic tang. I definitely taste the dill from the sorachi, not as much the lemon. But it's just kind of a nice herbal note so I don't mind that much.

It's not particularly clear yet. The philly sour is supposed to be highly flocculant but it's definitely not done it for me. The saison I made last dropped very clear, the one before that was a haze bomb, all with just malt extract.

Super Rad
Feb 15, 2003
Sir Loin of Beef
Just had another brewday yesterday, and despite it feeling quite a bit better my efficiency was still around 60% which is below what I'm used to. I'm starting to think water chemistry is playing a role, but I will bullet point out things that may factor into my efficiency.

- Per the LHBS's suggestion I double milled the grain this time, I also subbed the Maris Otter for Briess Pale malt since the dude on the phone mentioned the smaller grain size of the MO makes it harder to mill
- I tossed the Mash & Boil manual to the side and went with the suggestions in Brewfather which resulted in a much thinner mash - overall I really liked the thickness that Brewfather suggested
- I decided to test the limits of the Mash & Boil and maxed out the mashpipe with 16# of grain. This, paired with the 1.5qt/# thickness brought the pipe to 95%, but it never overflowed. I've since read that filling up an all-in-one kettle to the brim can be bad for efficiency, so perhaps I lost some %s here
- My grainbill this time had a much higher concentration of dark malts (12# Pale, 2# Crystal 40, 8oz Flaked Barley, 8oz Roasted Barley, 8oz Special B, 4oz Chocolate, 4oz Black Patent). This specialty-heavy grist may have had an adverse effect on pH.
- Dough in overshot the temps a little bit again and I ended up at 154F which gradually reached the target of 149F. At least this time I sparged with 168F water as I intended.

So as the mash was nearing 60min I tasted the "first runnings" coming from the recirculation hose and, while sweet, it tasted nowhere near as sweet as a beer with an intended OG of 1.082 should. Rather than move to sparging I decided to hold the mash at 149F while I ran some experiments. I took a hydrometer sample and moved it into a freezer to cool down into more normal ranges. Meanwhile I retrieved and old pH meter I had. I was surprised to find it still worked even though I hadn't used it in probably 15 years. This naturally means it has not been calibrated in 15 years, but I was mostly looking to compare pHs not to get accurate individual readings. The readings also varied quite a bit within the same sample. Here's what I got

Tap Water - 6.5-6.8
Activated Carbon Filtered water - 6.9-7.1
RO Water - 7.0-7.5
Starsan Solution - 0.1-0.4 (I tend to put more starsan than necessary)

Here's where it got concerning:

RO Water + Brewing Salts - 5.6-6.0
First Runnings @~90F - 4.0-4.4

Without calibration It's impossible to be certain but all of the reference measurements I took seem to be within the realm of sanity, but both my brewing water and especially the mash water seem much lower than I would expect. I decided to add 2tsp of baking soda into the mash and let the pump recirculate for another 10 minutes. All in all the mash lasted ~100minutes with all the running around I did. Interestingly enough there was a noticeable reaction to adding the NaHCO3 to the mash - namely the mash got a bit thicker and gooier almost instantly and I had to turn down the pump in order to keep the mash pipe from overflowing. I took another tasting after 10 minutes and it did taste sweeter but that could just be what I wanted to taste.

The initial hydrometer sample I had taken read ~1.073, temperature corrected, and I figured that since that was at 4.5gal volume and I had yet to sparge that maybe I would get close to my target OG my the end of it. Sadly that was not the case, I ended up at 1.066 with ~5.5gal when I was intending 1.082 with ~5gal. Fortunately this time I had some DME on hand so I just dissolved 2# into .5gal and cooled it before adding to the fermentor.

The question remains though - why was my mash pH so bad? My RO filter is designed for aquariums, not for producing drinking water, and is supposed to bring TDS to zero or near zero, so in Brewfather I select distilled water as my base profile and let Brewfather suggest the profile based on the style I'm brewing (Imperial Stout in this case). These were the additions Brewfather suggested for 6 gallons of mash water:

1.8 g — Baking Soda (NaHCO3) — Mash
1.58 g — Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) — Mash
1.65 g — Canning Salt (NaCl) — Mash
1.5 g — Chalk (CaCO3) — Mash
3.45 g — Epsom Salt (MgSO4) — Mash
1.65 g — Gypsum (CaSO4) — Mash

Between the baking soda and chalk I would have assumed there's enough alkalinity to balance out the acidity from the dark malt, but something is amiss. It's perplexing since back in the day I never worried much, I just had a few pre-programmed profiles in Beersmith that I would add some 5.2 stabilizer to and efficiency was always around 75%, even higher sometimes. Any suggestions on how to get a better grip on my water would be highly appreciated!

For some good news though, this time I threw caution to the wind and cooled my wort with the glycol chiller I built directly, rather than using a volume of water as an intermediary between the wort and the glycol and it seemed to have gone really well. I cooled my wort in a single pass which only took a few minutes and by the end of it it was only ~4F above fermentation temps which the temperature controlled conical corrected soon after. Also, the batch of Irish Red from 2 weeks back is carbing right now and drat if it isn't tasty even without carbonation, planning to check on the carb levels tomorrow!

Super Rad fucked around with this message at 07:58 on Sep 28, 2021

gwrtheyrn
Oct 21, 2010

AYYYE DEEEEE DUBBALYOO DA-NYAAAAAH!
Uh..did you add baking soda or lye to your mash?

Super Rad
Feb 15, 2003
Sir Loin of Beef
LOL my bad, I was feeling a bit tired post-dinner when I wrote all that. Definitely added baking soda and not lye, fixed my post to reflect that.

E: Just realized I missed that Brewfather estimates your mash water pH and it expected mine to be around 5.4 which is close to what I measured (~5.6 in some sparge water that probably didn't have the exact proportions of the mash water anyways). So it looks like I may have hit the expected pH, but I'm not sure why Brewfather would suggest a mash water profile that results in such a low mash pH after dough in....

Super Rad fucked around with this message at 08:38 on Sep 28, 2021

calandryll
Apr 25, 2003

Ask me where I do my best drinking!



Pillbug

Eeyo posted:

Tapped my philly sour/sorachi ace dry hop. I like this first pour well enough. Nice balanced sourness, not mouth-puckering but you can definitely taste the lactic tang. I definitely taste the dill from the sorachi, not as much the lemon. But it's just kind of a nice herbal note so I don't mind that much.

It's not particularly clear yet. The philly sour is supposed to be highly flocculant but it's definitely not done it for me. The saison I made last dropped very clear, the one before that was a haze bomb, all with just malt extract.

How many packets did you use? I need to get off my rear end and brew my gose using that.

Eeyo
Aug 29, 2004

calandryll posted:

How many packets did you use? I need to get off my rear end and brew my gose using that.

1 packet in about 2.75 gallons of wort, sprinkled directly onto cooled non-oxygenated wort.

I think the acid production does vary depending on pitch rate, but interestingly not very much on the OG. I read this guy's blog yesterday and he did a bunch of tests to figure out how to best re-pitch it and tested the acid production as a function of pitch rate, OG, and adding glucose to the wort. http://suigenerisbrewing.com/index.php/2021/02/12/diving-deep-in-to-philly-sour/. I'm not sure how directly I can translate the CFU (colony forming unit, a measure of viability) for the dried yeast to cells per ml of repitch, but if I just do it naively 1 packet for 2.5 gallons is just about 1 million per ml.

The guy also compared philly sour to sourvisiae (a genetically modified brewer's yeast) and seemed to prefer the sourvisiae to the philly. Not sure if the latter is available in homebrew quantities yet. I'm not a very accomplished brewer yet, so I'm just counting it a success that it was drinkable.

Ethics_Gradient
May 5, 2015

Common misconception that; that fun is relaxing. If it is, you're not doing it right.
Ugh, so my reptile heating cord does not seem to be doing the job anymore - temps in my fermentation chamber have only been around 14C since it started. Will my cider yeast (Mangrove Jack's) eventually get there, or is this batch probably a writeoff?

tater_salad
Sep 15, 2007


That might be a bit low. Try a seed mat wrapped around with a controller?

When I started I got a Noname mat and controller from Amazon for like 25-30bux. Just keeps an eye on the controller to see what temps it works at to ensure it works for your desired renge. You can always repitch once you get one.

Jhet
Jun 3, 2013

Ethics_Gradient posted:

Ugh, so my reptile heating cord does not seem to be doing the job anymore - temps in my fermentation chamber have only been around 14C since it started. Will my cider yeast (Mangrove Jack's) eventually get there, or is this batch probably a writeoff?

Not a writeoff. Just see if you can give it a little help and warm it up a little. Ambient temp is probably fine unless it's colder than that outside the ferm chamber. Once it gets going it won't take long to rip through the simple sugars, but that temp is great for letting it drop clear and off gas any sulphur you end up having.

calandryll
Apr 25, 2003

Ask me where I do my best drinking!



Pillbug

Eeyo posted:

1 packet in about 2.75 gallons of wort, sprinkled directly onto cooled non-oxygenated wort.

I think the acid production does vary depending on pitch rate, but interestingly not very much on the OG. I read this guy's blog yesterday and he did a bunch of tests to figure out how to best re-pitch it and tested the acid production as a function of pitch rate, OG, and adding glucose to the wort. http://suigenerisbrewing.com/index.php/2021/02/12/diving-deep-in-to-philly-sour/. I'm not sure how directly I can translate the CFU (colony forming unit, a measure of viability) for the dried yeast to cells per ml of repitch, but if I just do it naively 1 packet for 2.5 gallons is just about 1 million per ml.

The guy also compared philly sour to sourvisiae (a genetically modified brewer's yeast) and seemed to prefer the sourvisiae to the philly. Not sure if the latter is available in homebrew quantities yet. I'm not a very accomplished brewer yet, so I'm just counting it a success that it was drinkable.

Good read. I'll have to snag another packet for my 5 gallons. It's interesting about the complaints about lack of acid production is linked to repitch rate. Guess I'll bring home the old microscope I have at work home.

LaserWash
Jun 28, 2006
I need some first time hazy/juicy ipa hopping help.

I’ve got 10 ounces of mosaic I need to relieve myself of and I’m doing so in the form of the above mentioned hazy ipa - using the verdant ipa strain. 5 gallon batch.

I want something to complement the mosaic while also clearing out the hop fridge. What if any of these hops should I pair with it.

Cascade - lol. Lots available 1+ pound
Centennial (only 2 ounces available - not urgent to get rid of)
Chinook -plenty
Nelson Sauvin (only 2 ounces available)

Single hop mosaic might be interesting but maybe boring. I dunno.

Jhet
Jun 3, 2013
I’d probably go with the Cascade. Centennial would also be good. Chinook not in a hazy (classic WCIPA though), and the Nelson is likely to get lost.

thotsky
Jun 7, 2005

hot to trot
Using much more than like, 9 oz of hops in 5 gallons is a complete waste.

Even a 5 oz dry hop, 2 oz whirlpool and a small addition of a bittering hop at the beginning of the boil is plenty effective if the hops are good and you keep oxygen away.

thotsky fucked around with this message at 08:38 on Oct 2, 2021

yamdankee
Jan 23, 2005

~anderoid fragmentation~
So the tree in our front yard grows crab apples every few years and we harvested them, cleaned, cut, juiced, boiled, and fermented about 9 gallons worth. Came out at 5.25%

It tastes good but it has a very tanniny(?) feel that almost welds your tongue to your palate sort of thing like when you eat a crab apple. I have 4 gallons carbonated on tap now. Is there anything I can do at this point? For either what’s already kegged or what’s still in a carboy? If there’s nothing I can do now, what can I do in the future?

Jo3sh
Oct 19, 2002

Like all girls I love unicorns!

yamdankee posted:

It tastes good but it has a very tanniny(?) feel that almost welds your tongue to your palate sort of thing like when you eat a crab apple. I have 4 gallons carbonated on tap now. Is there anything I can do at this point? For either what’s already kegged or what’s still in a carboy? If there’s nothing I can do now, what can I do in the future?

So your tree makes very tannic apples. That's actually a good thing. Now what you need is another tree that makes sweet apples, or just sweet apple juice for the blending. The very best cider is made from blends of apples, so that you can get a balanced result. Here in SoCal, all I can really get is sweet juice. It obviously ferments just fine, but is kind of one-dimensional. By layering in tannic apples, you can make a more interesting product.

So, I suggest you do not chuck out your tannic cider. Make another batch of cider from sweet juice, and then keg and carbonate it just like you did this batch. Then you can blend in the glass to find a proportion that work well for you. Then you can make cider from blended juice for the next next batch.

gwrtheyrn
Oct 21, 2010

AYYYE DEEEEE DUBBALYOO DA-NYAAAAAH!

yamdankee posted:

So the tree in our front yard grows crab apples every few years and we harvested them, cleaned, cut, juiced, boiled, and fermented about 9 gallons worth. Came out at 5.25%

Hm....maybe I should try doing this with the apples my neighbors tree drops in my yard. How do you go about juicing that many apples?

yamdankee
Jan 23, 2005

~anderoid fragmentation~

Jo3sh posted:

So your tree makes very tannic apples. That's actually a good thing. Now what you need is another tree that makes sweet apples, or just sweet apple juice for the blending. The very best cider is made from blends of apples, so that you can get a balanced result. Here in SoCal, all I can really get is sweet juice. It obviously ferments just fine, but is kind of one-dimensional. By layering in tannic apples, you can make a more interesting product.

So, I suggest you do not chuck out your tannic cider. Make another batch of cider from sweet juice, and then keg and carbonate it just like you did this batch. Then you can blend in the glass to find a proportion that work well for you. Then you can make cider from blended juice for the next next batch.

Great suggestions! You reminded me, I did add store bought regular sweet apple juice, about a gallon per carboy, but evidently that still is not nearly enough. I will take advantage of having two taps on my kegerator and mix in the glass as you said. The ratio in the glass is basically the ratio I should do in the carboy to ferment next time?

yamdankee
Jan 23, 2005

~anderoid fragmentation~

gwrtheyrn posted:

Hm....maybe I should try doing this with the apples my neighbors tree drops in my yard. How do you go about juicing that many apples?

The most efficient solution would probably be an actual press, but they are pretty expensive so we just bought a Ninja masticating juicer from Target. Cleaned up the apples, and set up shop on the deck. I would chop and she would juice. Used cheesecloth as we slowly added juice to the carboys. Here are some pics:







Jo3sh
Oct 19, 2002

Like all girls I love unicorns!

yamdankee posted:

The ratio in the glass is basically the ratio I should do in the carboy to ferment next time?

It's certainly going to be a great starting point. My guess is that you won't need a bunch of the tannic juice. I've never actually done this, but I would not be surprised if it's 1:4 tannic to sweet, or even 1:10.

Like lots of things in homebrewing, your second attempt, or your third, or your ninth, may not be the perfect one, but I think you'll have a lot of fun along the way.

Jhet
Jun 3, 2013

yamdankee posted:

Great suggestions! You reminded me, I did add store bought regular sweet apple juice, about a gallon per carboy, but evidently that still is not nearly enough. I will take advantage of having two taps on my kegerator and mix in the glass as you said. The ratio in the glass is basically the ratio I should do in the carboy to ferment next time?

That's all really awesome. Crab apples start astringent (tannic), which is why they don't get used for much. Unlike persimmons it doesn't really go away while you still want to be eating it. Tannins will age out a little, but likely not as much as you'd want. You can also try to precipitate them with heating to 85F and bentonite to help pull them out of suspension, but you'd want to do this before carbonating. Doing it now would be a mess and risk oxidation when blending is a pro move if you already have space for another batch of sweet stuff.

calandryll
Apr 25, 2003

Ask me where I do my best drinking!



Pillbug
There is a crabapple Christmas ale recipe in Mosher's Radical Brewing. I'm doing a beer exchange based on his Christmas ales and will be getting one in November/December. I'm curious how it'll taste.

Sir Lemming
Jan 27, 2009

It's a piece of JUNK!
Hey all, pear wine/cider guy back again. So a few weeks ago I started fermenting pears, sugar, & water. After initially using too much water and asking this thread for advice, I added table sugar to bring the gravity up to what I think will get me to 8-9% ABV. (1.060, 15 on the Brix). I transferred it to my secondary fermenter about 2 weeks ago (at that point it was about 1.063 / 15.75). It's been bubbling healthily ever since.

I guess my question at this point is, when do I bottle? Since my gravity is still pretty low for wine, I'm going for hard cider/perry (based on earlier feedback). I've never intentionally bottled something bubbly, though. I have two 750mL swingtops, but I'll need more, especially since those have been through the ringer a few times (for eggnog) and I'm not sure about the stoppers. Obviously, I'm concerned about bottle bombs, and I will try to mitigate any possible mess that could happen. But my main question now is how long to wait. Am I looking for a certain gravity reading? Certain amount of bubbling or lack thereof? Do I have to add sugar in the bottle?

(Last year my pear wine accidentally ended up sparkling even though I was just using corks in wine bottles. Didn't stay that way for long though. Obviously it couldn't have been that bubbly because I assume the corks wouldn't have held. A few of the weaker ones didn't. It was more like Riesling level.)

Sir Lemming fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Oct 5, 2021

Jhet
Jun 3, 2013
Really easy. Just finish like you would for a wine, but don’t add sulfites. Then add a small amount of new sugar to your bottles or bottling bucket and it’ll ferment the new sugar in the bottle. You’ll need to use a priming calculator for your volume and desired fizziness/pressure. Then leave it a couple more weeks and it’ll be fizzy.

Sir Lemming
Jan 27, 2009

It's a piece of JUNK!
Haha well that's complex compared to what I usually do (literally just wait until it looks like it stopped doing anything and then put it in bottles), but I'm sure that says more about me than anything else. So my takeaway is yes, I have to add sugar at bottling time, but I am not necessarily waiting for some specific moment to happen in my secondary fermenter.

(I think what I was assuming was that I would bottle it before it's totally done fermenting in the secondary, leaving just enough fermentation to happen in the bottle, but not enough for it to explode. So like I would have to know exactly what gravity to stop at. I think what I've learned here is that for some reason I get weird about the idea of adding sugar after the first step, and I should not.)

Jhet
Jun 3, 2013

Sir Lemming posted:

Haha well that's complex compared to what I usually do (literally just wait until it looks like it stopped doing anything and then put it in bottles), but I'm sure that says more about me than anything else. So my takeaway is yes, I have to add sugar at bottling time, but I am not necessarily waiting for some specific moment to happen in my secondary fermenter.

(I think what I was assuming was that I would bottle it before it's totally done fermenting in the secondary, leaving just enough fermentation to happen in the bottle, but not enough for it to explode. So like I would have to know exactly what gravity to stop at. I think what I've learned here is that for some reason I get weird about the idea of adding sugar after the first step, and I should not.)

Yeah, for wine it's abnormal, but perfectly normal in beer/cider. Just follow your normal wait until it's done and dropped clear and just add a little sugar in the bottling process. Much safer than trying to hit a specific gravity and then bottling then.

Here's a good priming calculator. http://kotmf.com/tools/prime.php I normally aim for about 2.8 volumes for a sparkling cider and that should be good for your bottles and sparkling wine. It won't be champagne levels, but if you're using flip tops you need beer level carbonation anyway. 2.8 volumes would be within the correct range for any of the flip tops or beer bottles you might use.

Super Rad
Feb 15, 2003
Sir Loin of Beef
Just in case this ends up being helpful for anyone, I managed to very nearly hit my target efficiency on my last brewday after two batches that ended up well under target. I got some pH meter calibration liquids as well as a cheap TDS. My RO water matches bottled distilled water at 0ppm (tap is over 200 lol), so I was able to rule out the RO filter. So with that out of the way it really only left mash pH as a potential explanation and it seems like Brewfather's water treatment calculations are causing me to have an overly acidic mash pH. This batch was almost all base malt and Brewfather suggested I add 4.2ml lactic acid to the mash to hit 5.4 pH. I started with 3ml and was going to add more if necessary but instead when I took my first (temperature corrected) pH reading it was already all the way at ~4.7-4.8, so I added ~3/4tsp of baking soda which got it up to ~5.2. Additionally, I stirred up the mash about twice as often as I was before, and I did a step mash with an initial rest at 140F, since on the mash & boil the thermostat will actually swing all the way from 135F to 145F to hold temp. I figured that perhaps when I was doing a single-step mash, holding at 149-150 was causing it to swing into ranges where beta amylase could be getting denatured.

So, with that all accounted for I actually went over my target OG by a couple points but I was also roughly a quarter of a gallon short possibly due to having to boil for longer to get 2lbs of my homemade candi sugar dissolved prior to the first hop addition.


Also, in equipment news I was getting rather annoyed with yeast dumping on my grainfather conical as there is no way to dump without drawing in fresh air (and additionally some starsan if you are dumb like me and forget to remove the airlock first), and I was also having an annoying time racking into a keg with only gravity to help, so I bit the bullet and ordered a second CO2 tank (which I wanted anyways as backup when the primary kicks), a regulator, some duotight fittings, a triclamp fitting, and a spunding valve to make my own version of a pressure transfer kit. So now rather than having an airlock on top I have a 1.5" triclamp into 1/4" flare adapter that screws into a duotight tee with the CO2 regulator on one end and the spunding valve on the other end of the tee. I set the regulator at 1psi (the conical can't handle enough pressure for pressure fermentation but it can handle 1-2psi for racking), and then set the spunding valve to be just barely above what the tank is putting out. This means excess pressure from fermentation will bleed out the spunding, but negative pressure from dumping/racking/coldcrashing will be replaced by CO2 from the tank. Seems to work really well so far, though to avoid waking up to an empty CO2 tank I'm simply leaving the main valve all the way closed unless I know I'm going to be doing a dump/etc

Eeyo
Aug 29, 2004

I'm glad you figured out your efficiency problems! I think I'm going to try and ask for some basic all-grain brewing stuff for christmas and try it out. Well, just like a grain bag for biab and some other small things.

For cleaning keg pieces, do people pop off the o-rings on the poppet valves, relief valve, or the clear plastic piece inside the disconnects? I've been cleaning by breaking down all the valves and such and putting them into a PBW-like bath, then rinsing. Previously I had popped off the tiny o-rings but it's kind of fiddly to get them off.

And final verdict on my philly sour beer: I liked it a lot in the end. It was really reminiscent of orange juice; a slight bitterness, moderate acidity, fruity tasting, and a not very dry finish.

Jo3sh
Oct 19, 2002

Like all girls I love unicorns!
A coworker is asking me about homebrewing - any good shops you can recommend in the Dallas, TX metro area? I see Homebrew Headquarters in Richardson in the results of a quick look online - are they good to newbies?

Johnny-on-the-Spot
Apr 17, 2015

That feeling when he opens
the door for you
I'm having a really bad time with extract brewing a pumkinator clone. First I burnt a hole in my mash bag, and now krausen is leaking out of my air lock.

Jhet
Jun 3, 2013

Johnny-on-the-Spot posted:

I'm having a really bad time with extract brewing a pumkinator clone. First I burnt a hole in my mash bag, and now krausen is leaking out of my air lock.

First problem is a bummer, but can you get something to lift it away from the element like an upside down folding steamer? This is the thing that made me go the traditional mash route with a false bottom. Second is easy to resolve by removing your airlock and using a blow off tube instead (and a very active krausen is a great thing anyway).


Eeyo posted:

For cleaning keg pieces, do people pop off the o-rings on the poppet valves, relief valve, or the clear plastic piece inside the disconnects? I've been cleaning by breaking down all the valves and such and putting them into a PBW-like bath, then rinsing. Previously I had popped off the tiny o-rings but it's kind of fiddly to get them off.

I don't normally pop off the o-rings when I clean kegs, but you can. I'd do it when they need replacing and just liberally lube them with keg lube. That keeps the liquid away from them and Just running a cleaning cycle through the keg has been good enough to keep them clean for me.

more falafel please
Feb 26, 2005

forums poster

Johnny-on-the-Spot posted:

I'm having a really bad time with extract brewing a pumkinator clone. First I burnt a hole in my mash bag, and now krausen is leaking out of my air lock.

Take off your airlock and install a blowoff tube of some sort. That krausen can dry and clog, and next thing you know you'll be cleaning beer off the ceiling.

tater_salad
Sep 15, 2007


more falafel please posted:

Take off your airlock and install a blowoff tube of some sort. That krausen can dry and clog, and next thing you know you'll be cleaning beer off the ceiling.

this, I've pretty much just subscribed to doing a blowoff tube. I make a gallon of sanitizer use for brewing day then just use whatever i havent' used for my blowoff tube. I did this after I was doing high gravity stuff and just stuck with it.

more falafel please
Feb 26, 2005

forums poster

tater_salad posted:

this, I've pretty much just subscribed to doing a blowoff tube. I make a gallon of sanitizer use for brewing day then just use whatever i havent' used for my blowoff tube. I did this after I was doing high gravity stuff and just stuck with it.

My fermentation fridge juuuust holds a 6gal plastic carboy, but not with an airlock. So I use a stopper with a 90 degree elbow barb and some 1/2" tubing running into a mason jar of sanitizer.

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LaserWash
Jun 28, 2006

Jo3sh posted:

A coworker is asking me about homebrewing - any good shops you can recommend in the Dallas, TX metro area? I see Homebrew Headquarters in Richardson in the results of a quick look online - are they good to newbies?

I looooooooooovvveee the mail order I get from Texas Brewing Inc. in Fort Worth. I’m in Houston and get my stuff next day. They were in the news this week because they have chosen to close their storefront for home brewers to concentrate on the commercial side of their business (95% of their current business is pro brewing). You can still mail order or pick up as a home brewer. They are doing an reduction in the supplies they offer for home brew supplies this last couple of weeks. Picked up a bunch of weyermann malts for $1.30/lb and 4x10lb bags of Malteurop Pilsner malt for $7 a bag (:wtf: :wtf:).

These are the guys behind the “Come and Brew It” Podcast too - currently on a long hiatus.


Other lhbs news: Did HomebrewSupply.com get bought by More Beer? Because… their website redirects there. Hmmmm… interesting move if true.

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