Questions tagged [equipment]
The various hardware items for producing beer or wine. Includes buckets, carboys, kegs, hoses, airlocks, etc.
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I boiled my PVC thermometer probe - health concerns?
I have a digital thermometer with a probe. The probe is stainless steel but the cable and probe housing are apparently made of PVC. In my last brew I just submerged the whole probe in the boiler ...
user2113
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Plastic or Glass
Plastic or Glass fermentors? (Lets keep stainless steel out of this debate for now)
Each has ups and downs.
What are the main differences for the following aspects:
Shapes and configurations
Heat ...
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Dispensing beers at two different pressures?
I'm working on getting a dual-tap kegerator. Is it worth it to pay the extra to dispense two beers at two different pressures? I can see dispensing a low-carbonation ESB and a high-carbonation ...
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Fermenter Heating Belt
Is it worth using? I was thinking of getting one to use on my first fermenter for a german weissbier so that the yeast flavour and aroma is more present in the final result. By how many degrees does ...
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What equipment do I need to starting making wine?
What equipment do I need to start making wine at home?
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Wine Quality Sensor
I am an engineer who's built a wine quality detector. My sensor can pick up a wide variety of chemicals at levels as low as parts per million (ppm).
With no background in wine production myself, I ...
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Propane v. Natural Gas
I just moved to a home where there is natural gas being piped into the garage for a garage heater. I was thinking of re-tooling my burners with jet/orifices that can handle the lower pressure of the ...
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Electric Kettle with thermostat
What's your opinion on them? Have you ever used one? I was thinking of buying one (specially designed for brewing, even has a tap on). How is it different from the more traditional methods? Is it ...
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Brass vs. Stainless Steel for fittings
I see both brass and stainless fittings for sale. Which is appropriate to use when?
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What are the exact dimensions/specs of the fittings on a standard stainless steel Hansen Coupler?
I have a standard stainless steel Hansen Coupler for Pin-Lock type Cornelius Kegs. I'm trying to find the exact specs on both the 1/4 MFL and the inside (female) threads, where it connects to the ...
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Did I Break My Airlock?
I don't really know what I did here. I cut off the bottom little cross guy on the stem of the airlock because it was getting clogged up during vigorous fermentations. Now the middle piece just kind of ...
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Why add a tee next to the pump?
I've seen it recommended in several places to add a tee in the pipe next to the pump used for transferring hot wort. What is the point of this / what benefits do you get? Does the tee go on the input ...
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Benefit to smaller bottles?
Im about to bottle my first 5 gal batch that i have made in a while, and am considering buying some 22oz bottles to try to reduce the amount of time i spend cleaning bottles, but am wondering if the ...
user1022
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Alternative to stir plate for yeast starter (and erlenmeyer flask)
Looking at creating my first yeast starter for a DIPA recipe with on O.G. target of 1.085.
For this O.G. Brewer's Friend is telling me I would need a 3L starter of an O.G. of 1.040 with a stir plate ...
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Can I use nylon stockings as a hop-bag in wort?
I was thinking of using some nylon stockings as a hop-bag for dry hopping in my fermentor. Are they safe to use or will they be degraded by the wort?
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Quick disconnects - cheap alternatives?
I'm looking to get some 1/2" NPT & barbed quick-disconnect fittings for my little brewery, making it easier to break down and clean, as well as give me some flexibility in what I'm sending where.
...
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Recirculating wort chiller
I am building an recirc arm for my chilling set up. Should my recirc have a gentle bend in it to 90degrees or would it be OK to just use a 90degree elbow of a piece of straight pipe under the wort ...
- 36.2k
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My beers are with a slight acid taste after the few first sips. What could be wrong?
So far I have brewed 5 times. First went perfect, though it was the first time I was using my kit and the grains were already ground. Second and third batches went wrong. My concern is with the last ...
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home malting equipment
I wonder if you guys use any home malting equipment. Or is there such equipment available for homebrewers? I'd like to use automated malting equipment up to 25kg-50kg/batch. If you know such equipment,...
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Cleaning stainless steel
I bought an used stainless steel really large pot (>90 liters) that was used for cooking, but had some kind of water stains inside.
On a (stupid) attempt to clean it, I had it sand blasted, which ...
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Bottle Sizes Smaller than 12 Ounces?
Has anyone ever seen 8oz bottles anywhere? I was asked if I could bottle a batch of homebrew in smaller bottles so it could be given out as gifts to more people. I can't seem to find anything ...
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Wort Chiller Cool Down Times?
What tools or tricks is everyone using to cool their wort down after the boil? How long does it take you to get down below 70 degrees? I am using an older copper wort chiller (hooks up to a garden ...
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Has your airlock ever shot out of your carboy?
I made a kettle sour and added guava in secondary. Everything was going well for a week. I went out of town for the weekend and noticed my carboy stopper and airlock about three feet away on the floor....
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Mash tun: slotted false bottom?
Would a slotted false bottom prevent uniform compaction better than a perforated false bottom?
See this model:
http://www.homebrewing.org/12-Stainless-Steel-Domed-False-Bottom_p_1058.html
I'm ...
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What are some good places to get a keg for a brew kettle?
I got my first keg from a beer store, whom I asked if they had any kegs I could buy outright. The keg they "sold" me was in really good condition, and only cost me $30. I'm looking to get a second ...
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Corny keg fermentors
I had been thinking about using a couple corny kegs as fermentors. Maybe even trimming up some dip tubes to be able to CO2 push finished beer out of the kegs to clean serving kegs.
Here are some of ...
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Carbonating Kegs In Quantity
Does anyone have any suggestions for how to build a rig to carbonate multiple corny kegs at one time?
I currently have a high pressure CO2 line in my beer fridge so that I can carbonate one that is ...
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Is there a standard siphoning hose size?
We have a hose that fits some of our equipment (bottle filler wand) but it is loose on both the racking cane and auto siphon. Is there a standardized size for this equipment or does it vary?
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Optimal counterflow wort chiller
I am planning to build a counterflow wort chiller using a hose outside of a copper tube. There are a great variety of lengths and types available commercially and I have read that many commercial ...
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Star San ate my spoon - can it still be used?
In a nutshell: moved, Star San bottle broke, got on a bunch of supplies including my stainless steel spoon. Now the spoon is rough where the sanitizer spilled and slightly discolored.
The spoon was ...
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What is a stir plate?
What is the function of a stir plate when making a yeast starter?
Does it drastically improve the starter process?
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Rust in a plastic fermenter?
I've got a 6 gallon plastic fermenter - one of those food-grade plastic buckets Midwest gives you in the starter kit. I guess after our last brew, my brother and I carelessly tossed the remains of our ...
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Propane tank usage in wintertime
Today is 14°F (-10°C) here in the northern suburbs of MA. In wintertime it can be tough to brew outside if you are a propane cooker brewer such as myself.
When the tank is going full bore it tends to ...
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Currently looking at spaces for a number of home brew kits. Looking for guidance in any way
I am currently trying to organize a space for a collective of 10 brewers to store their 2-5 gallon kits. I'm currently looking into studios, as the area that I am in does not have many options for ...
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Home method to measure sugar profile
Is there any sort of (financially attainable) test kit available to measure the sugar profile in wort and beer? In particular, I'd like to know the breakdown of glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose, ...
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Indoor-alternatives to kitchen stove
I am a kitchen-brewer doing 5 gls all-grain batches and am frustrated because the kitchen stove is lacking the last bit of power to yield a nice rolling boil. Are there any indoor-alternatives to the ...
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Kegging at basement temperature
I am a novice at kegging. I don't have room for a kegerator or chest freezer so I simply keg at basement temperature. My basement is currently 69 F and I've had 5 gallons of tripel on pressure for 3 ...
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Is the price of copper making plate chillers the better choice?
This copper-in-plastic counter-flow chiller seems to mitigate the effect that the high price of copper has on all-copper counter-flow chillers. I'm not sure the Chillzilla even has to have an all-...
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Wall sockets for Cornelius kegs line cleaning
I'm looking for a line cleaning socket for a Cornelius keg fitting.
I've worked in the pub trade (UK) for more years than I care to remember so know how bars are set up and I am familiar with line ...
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Is this beerstone or something else? White haze in my kettle.
I recently moved. As part of the move, I changed my brewing process and went back to using my old brew pot (instead of an electric turkey fryer) and started using filtered tap water instead of ...
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Use of a mash screen
I have recently had some problems with my false bottom and want to experiment with a mash screen. This might be a bit of a stupid question but I have never used one before:
Can you do the mashing with ...
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Pro Mash Tun design
I was wondering if anyone had a link to a graphic of what the typical profesional mash tun is like. Specifically I was wondering if the majority of professional scaled mash tuns draw from underneath ...
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Bag-in-box packaging
Is it suitable for beer "bottling" or would the pressure tear it apart? If it's suitable it could be really useful since it can contain a large quantity of liquid with low package weight.
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Batch Management - How do you manage your batches for container volume?
So what do you feel is the best way to manage batch sizes?
Personally make oversize batches and try to fit it in the largest carboy I have. For subsequent rackings, I will size the carboy down a size ...
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DIY 110 volt eBIAB sytem possible?
I've been doing some research into pre-built electric all-in-one brewing systems (Robobrew, Grainfather, etc) vs DIY electric systems. The prevailing sentiment is that a DIY 110v 1500 watt system is ...
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Brewer's Friend one gallon equipment profile
I'm a newbie one-gallon brewer (done 4 batches as for now). I tried several recipe sources and now I'm trying out the Brewer's Friend.
The thing is that most of the recipes are 5+ gallon batches so I'...
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Kettle lid with hole in it
I always boil with the lid off my kettles (2 pots).
But I've been thinking lately about the design of commercial kettles. It seems that to more closely match a commercial boil, I should put about a ...
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Is it possible for flavors from the malts to stick with a mash bag?
Is it possible for flavors to stick with a bag used for BIAB brewing, and for it to transfer them to my next brew? If so, what can I do to avoid it
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How do I set up a Sestos D1S temperature controller?
I am trying to set up an Sestos D1S temperature controller. Initially, just to see if it works at all, I am trying to use it to control the temperature of my kettle. I've wired it all up correctly so ...
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Conserve water used in immersion chilling?
After reading this question about the amount of water used in immersion chilling (and various other wort chilling), I realized just how much water was being used in a standard brew. This seems quite ...
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