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  Finished my tiny kegerator/ferment chamber. It'll fit 3 kegs if I put the gas outside, and easily fit a 7.9 speidel. Collar and the lid are both hinged, which is really nice when the collar is almost a foot tall.
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Apr 22, 2019 13:36
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I had hops for about 4 years, and while I might plant them again someday, it'd only be for fun and probably remain super casual about harvesting them. Dealing with 30lbs of hops was a lot of work. e: it's been 6 years since I made beer, so I picked the hottest day of the year so far and made a vienna/czech pale lager sort of thing yesterday.   Did an awful lot of sprinting around figuring out plumbing solutions that I gave myself, made a very long list of things to change for next time. Didn't hit my volumes, got close on my gravity and nailed the pH. I'm glad I just made something, because that's the only way I was ever going to get back into this. and I still had a shitload of fun, even with 105 heat index and a 6 hour brewday for 6g in the fermenter. Hypnolobster fucked around with this message at 12:40 on Jul 21, 2019 |
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Jul 20, 2019 11:45
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My favorite things to drink are lagers and milder styles, but hands down my favorite things to brew have always been porters and stouts. Something about it is extra satisfying. Fall is definitely porter-making time.
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Jul 23, 2019 01:42
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Toebone posted:Nope, aside from the risk of over-carbing. Also it's slow, like really slow. Fine if the beer needs to be conditioned anyways, but most of the time you could already have been drinking it for a week and a half.
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Jul 24, 2019 17:48
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You need a whole bunch more line, but also if you're shooting for high carbonation, you need a much higher serving pressure to keep it in solution. Burst it and then reduce to whatever psi the math says you need for the carb level you want. Serving pressure is a function of dissolved co2. Dropping below that will just drag co2 out of solution. e: also get it as cold as you dare. Hypnolobster fucked around with this message at 16:56 on Jul 29, 2019 |
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Jul 29, 2019 16:51
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I found a brand new $600 hot stir plate for $200, and then discovered I have poor self-control and bought it. I don't have any flasks at my apartment, so I'm stirring and heating water in a saucier to test.  I've never been more pumped to make a yeast starter.
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Aug 3, 2019 21:35
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Sold both my Speidel 7.9g fermenters and my pressure racking setup because I finally found a 10g corny keg. I was planning on switching over to a kegmenter, but it's really hard to find small chest freezers that will fit a 15.75" dia vessel. It's even an old Challenger, not one of the new, questionable Chinese ones that are ridiculously expensive and thin/pre-dented from the factory. 
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Aug 24, 2019 22:47
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You're probably compacting the grain bed from far too much flow. You should have a valve on the outlet of the pump to slow the flow down. RIMS needs a decent amount of flow but nothing crazy. You're getting good flow at first because you're pumping out the free volume from underneath the false bottom quickly and compacting the bed. Also, the important part of mash recalculation is that the false bottom isn't a filter, it only exists to help the grain bed lightly compact and clear up to act as a filter. You wouldn't want any recirc to try and clear it of grain either, that would be very bad.
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Sep 18, 2019 14:58
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robotsinmyhead posted:I think it's a fairly inexpensive pump. Good flow rate, but there's no adjustment on it that I've seen (and obviously no motor control elements). From the picture you posted of your new setup, it looks like you've got a ball valve on the outlet (unless thats the top of the RIMS tube I'm seeing there. Definitely don't need a valve on the rims generally though). Generally, the way to start a recirc is to prime the pump, dough in, and then start the pump with the outlet valve closed completely. Slowly crack it open until you get a decent flow back into the mash tun. For RIMS, I'm assuming you're using it to hit strike temperature first anyways, but obviously you want to turn off the element between dough-in and getting the flow set correctly.
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Sep 18, 2019 15:52
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Being able to pressurize fermenters is awesome, and stainless is also really nice. I love not having a racking cane anymore. I got rid of everything and picked up an old 10g corny keg and it's absolutely perfect for me.Hypnolobster posted:Sold both my Speidel 7.9g fermenters and my pressure racking setup because I finally found a 10g corny keg. I was planning on switching over to a kegmenter, but it's really hard to find small chest freezers that will fit a 15.75" dia vessel.
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Nov 15, 2019 15:53
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A lot of kits (like Northern Brewer) come with a no-rinse oxygen cleaner that does a moderately effective job of sanitizing. That's probably what's going on there. Still better to clean and then sanitize with something like star san, but it everything should be fine.
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Apr 2, 2020 11:55
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I've been fermenting in corny kegs (well, 6g batches in a big 10g corny keg) this go-around of getting back into brewing. Oxygenating by just bubbling pure O2 through the dip tube for a little bit. Mostly because I have zero desire to sanitize carb stones to the degree that would satisfy me. I'm definitely not getting a terribly significant amount of O2 in solution, but it's super easy and I have Very Very Large oxygen bottles anyways. I realized last time that I could probably actually put some head pressure on the beer and force-oxygenate it with a minute or three of sloshing the keg around. Could also put a psi or two on it and a spunding valve and let it oxygenate the wort during the lag period. I did a little searching and I haven't found anybody talking about doing this, but fermenting in kegs is already super uncommon, and it's not like anybody is going to be sloshing around something like Spike fermenters or conicals. e: side note, I've been doing some much needed work on my brew stand and holy gently caress I built the thing in 2011. Approaching 9 goddamn years ago. What the gently caress. Hypnolobster fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Jul 21, 2020 |
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Jul 21, 2020 01:36
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I've got a wand style, though I've had normal short ones in the past. My current method easy and doesn't require extra sanitizing, just spraying the end of a ball lock disconnect and then clicking it on. Nothing open to air, no opening the fermenter, etc. I'm just tired of cleaning and sanitizing long things and tubing. Most of my brewing is pretty well dialed in to avoid that completely. Same goes for open transfers on the cold side. Just lets me think less.
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Jul 21, 2020 11:31
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LaserWash posted:Have any leads on cheaper 10 gallon cornies? Everything I see is $200+. I got stupid lucky and found an original challenger 10g on Facebook. The new Chinese made 10g kegs seem fine, but they're a lot thinner and there are definitely reports of bad welds. I don't think I've seen them much under $200, if ever. Hypnolobster posted:Sold both my Speidel 7.9g fermenters and my pressure racking setup because I finally found a 10g corny keg. I was planning on switching over to a kegmenter, but it's really hard to find small chest freezers that will fit a 15.75" dia vessel. This would be my next move other than a 10g corny. Not a lot cheaper, but a lot nicer made than a Chinese corny. https://www.williamsbrewing.com/Home-Brewing-Equipment/Kegging-Equipment/Kegs/76-Gallon-Kegland-Kegmenter Hypnolobster fucked around with this message at 16:45 on Jul 21, 2020 |
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Jul 21, 2020 16:40
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Jhet posted:If you’re going to drop $200, why not just buy a SS conical? You can fit it with hoses and you can go from there to a keg under pressure without worrying about the sediment if you’ve already fined it. I do use kegs for secondary and dry hopping myself and I’d not want to use them for primary just due to being annoying to clean. I don't want to deal with the shape/size/economy of scale/etc of conicals either. They're hard to fit in a small chest freezer, weird to clean since they're extra tall (because they need legs and a valve on the bottom). They might have bigger openings on top, but they've got a massive deep cone at the bottom, multiple valves, fragile legs welded directly to the thin-wall vessel, etc. Kegs are heavy duty, industry-standard. Especially that kegmenter, you could throw it across the driveway and it'll still happily hold pressure after it lands and bounces a few times. Also it's totally worth building a keg washer/fermenter washer setup with an inexpensive spray ball and sump pump.
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Jul 21, 2020 22:48
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Side note that if anybody is looking for >5g corny kegs, there are also 6 and 6.5 gallon versions that have been made in the past (but not currently). Just another thing to keep an eye out for if they ever pop up for sale. Significantly rarer than 10g versions though. e: Also this is new (though still $200) https://www.morebeer.com/products/ball-lock-torpedo-keg-10-gal.html Different style than the Kegland kegmenter, possibly more or less convenient. Lots of cool things you can do with the triclamp on the top of the kegmenter, but that can get expensive. ee: $100 newer 10g soda keg on marketplace, which is a rare find https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/273748027195326 Hypnolobster fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Jul 22, 2020 |
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Jul 22, 2020 02:47
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There are lots of them that are essentially just mikes hard lemonade, but with better branding. The ones at craft breweries are fermented like beer and not distilled. I haven't made one, but I can say based on my pro brewer friends that have been troubleshooting them, that water profile and getting a good fermentation is the most important part. Flavoring is the easier part by far if you can get those worked out.
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Aug 11, 2020 03:10
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Giant whisk is the way to go. If you need something longer for a keggle or similar, it's also cheap to get giant stainless paddles from restaurant supply places. https://www.webstaurantstore.com/fourt-36-perforated-stainless-steel-paddle/483PSMP36.html https://www.webstaurantstore.com/fourt-48-perforated-stainless-steel-paddle/483PSMP48.html Billy Ray Blowjob posted:Any preferred wood for making a mash paddle?
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Aug 6, 2022 03:15
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 20:52 |
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It's been years and years since I brewed anything, and I've had this massive pile of brewing stuff I've built and collected over the last 15 years. I've been thinking about selling it (most, but not all) for a long while, but I pulled my brew stand out today to take pictures and felt viscerally ill and sad about the thought of parting with it    I've spent so many years brewing and thinking about this stuff and loving the process. I barely even drink beer anymore, but I love the activity so much. I don't know how to mesh my love for brewing with my weird lack of actually ever doing it. Me from 10 years ago would be horrified to know I turn out to be one of those jaded "yeah I haven't brewed in a few years" guys. 
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Mar 24, 2024 21:33
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