9
The solution I use is to mark my spoon with permanent marker. I have marks for each half gallon. Works really well without messing with the kettle itself.
This obviously is kettle specific, so if you are using multiple kettles you can have markings of different color to differentiate the different markings per kettle.
9
Top tier - Sparge Water
Middle tier - Mash Tun
Bottom Tier - Boil Kettle
The main benefit to having the vessels stacked in this manner is that you can transfer water/wort without the use of a siphon or an electric pump, everything can be gravity fed from top to bottom. Three tiers also allow you to easily fly sparge much easier than other setups (...
8
You don't want to clean a copper chiller so it is shiny - if you remove the dull color (stable oxide), the metal is more likely to react and form the toxic blue-green oxide (verdigris).
http://byo.com/stories/projects-and-equipment/item/1144-metallurgy-for-homebrewers
Copper is relatively inert to both wort and beer. With regular use, it
will build up ...
8
It is a mechanical cap, as long as the mecanism and rubber is good, the bottle will be good. Changing the rubber seal is one way to expand the life of these bottles, however you should inspect the seals and if the rubber has not dried out, then it is still good.
Sometimes I will just flip the rubber seal around to make sure it is not always compressed in ...
7
Question 1 is hard to answer because its so dependent on the relative humidity and air flow of the room in question. I wouldn't assume an airlock with water would be safe for more than 4 weeks without checking on it or topping it off.
Vodka is sometimes recommended as an airlock liquid, but I think its is a bad idea for long-term storage. Being roughly a 50/...
7
Don't drill or use screws. Use magnets to hold drip trays etc.
Chest freezers have refrigerant coils in the walls.
Lids & doors are ok. Only risk hitting some electrical for the lights, but usually easy to trace and avoid.
Probe wires are usually fine just cutting the lid seal a little so they have a channel. Mine seal just fine without any ...
6
I think you are missing some information. First of all, often what works for commercial brewing doesn't necessarily apply to the homebrew scale; and trying to replicating may have little to no meaningfully positive effect on the beer.
Second, the reason pro kettles are covered is because they are being directly vented outside to prevent the brewery from ...
6
This is one of those things that you're going to have to decide for yourself because there is no simple consensus.
Environmental lead is bad. There's no question about that. Increasingly, there's research to suggest that even low levels of lead are harmful (NIH Study). It's not just full-blown poisoning that you want to watch out for, but more subtle ...
6
I'll try to present both sides of the story:
If the tree is fully cleaned, and your sanitizer is sufactant-based (such as StarSan) so that kills organisms on contact then maybe (and only maybe) you can get away without sanitizing. That's about as far as you can guess as to the consequences of not sanitizing the brew tree.
If it's not clean, then forget it....
6
Yes, get a second bucket. You'll need it for racking. If you plan to use the StarSan sanitizer (recommended) You might even consider a third bucket for holding the StarSan - in an airtight container, StarSan will last a lot longer, so you don't have to make up a fresh batch with each brew or each time you bottle.
6
My capper does this too. It's not been an issue for our beer. If it was leaking I'd think you might see some evidence around the top.
6
Fermentation temperature is often overlooked and it's really the key to making good beer. If you don't control the temp, everything else you do doesn't really matter. I prefer most beers to ferment in the 63-65F range. Whatever you do, don't let the beer get over 70F. That's beer temp, not room temp. Due to the heat created during fermentation, the beer ...
6
Toss them in the laundry with your whites.
No farbric softner.
Then air dry.
6
In practice a nylon bag can become discoloured but it rarely gets so contaminated as to actually affect the flavour of a brew. As long as the bag is cleaned of all debris and thoroughly rinsed it should keep well. It is advisable to soak the bag in water soon after the grain is emptied out. If the bag becomes stained or clogged then soaking in a solution of ...
6
This is a fairly straightforward calculation, actually.*
First, calculate the total energy needed to heat up your volume of liquid, using the following equation:
E = Cp * M * dT
where:
E = energy required, in kilojoules (kJ)
Cp = specific heat of liquid (kJ/kg/°C)
M = mass of liquid (kg)
dT = temperature change required (°C)
A few assumptions:
...
6
Son of a Fermentation Chiller
Look up "son of a fermentation chiller". This is a two-chamber box made out of styrofoam insulation. It has a temperature controller and a fan. You load one chamber up with bottles of frozen water, and the temperature controller determines when to pump cold air into the brew chamber.
I made mine in an afternoon*, and it has no ...
5
Oxygenating the Wort and use of Yeast (Micro)Nutrients
This made a noticeable difference to my beers, especially those over 1.070.
5
Dallas, Texas; San Diego, California; Jacksonville, Florida; Phoenix, Arizona; Denver, Colorado and Columbus, Ohio.
Here is their website on it: http://www.coorslight.com/innovations/homedraft.aspx
They are currently only in test markets. You can find out more info on their Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Coors-Light-Home-Draft/120696661275064
...
5
With 2 pumps, you don't need to worry about gravity feed to the fermenter. Also, for 10 gal. of finished beer I'd recommend something bigger than a 10 gal. pot. That's about all the help I can give you since I've brewed 452 batches using a cooler and wouldn't think of doing it any other way.
5
A very simple thing you might try, which doesn't require any further equipment at all, is "dry hopping". Depending on what you meant by your first beer not being "hoppy" enough, dry hopping might be the solution. Dry hopping will not add any bitterness, but it can add a great deal of wonderful hop aroma. If you currently rack from your primary fermenter ...
5
304 should be good enough for anything you are brewing, the wort will not affect it. 316 which is also know as (Marine grade stainless[1]) has 2% molybdenum which makes it more corrosion resistant, especially to chlorides, but for anything you are brewing 304 will be fine.
When cleaning, if you are using strong caustics then rinsing and re-passivating with ...
5
It should all be good. As long as the plastic items haven't dried out and cracked, they just need to be cleaned and sanitized. I quick trial run with just water will tell you if certain items are leaky or unusable.
5
I start by saving the hottest water in my sink, to be used for cleaning the immersion chiller and other items post-brew. Once I have enough there, I save the water in buckets to be used for watering plants inside and out. Once the wort temperature drops to 120-130 F I switch over to a closed system. I have a small picnic cooler with a submersible pump in it, ...
5
If it's a quality Grolsch bottle, it will serve you for years. If it's a generic swing-top bottle from LHBS, don't expect much. Get a large pack of replacement seals off eBay and replace a seal on a bottle once you suspect that it doesn't hold pressure.
My protocol for bottles is: 1. straight after use just rinse with tap water, then put into the dishwasher ...
5
It usually happens with strong fermentation when the krausen clogs the airlock, it is then ejected with the pressure.
If the fermentation was still active when you returned, the beer might not be contaminated due to gas escaping the container. What makes you think it is contaminated? Is there anything unusual floating on the surface?
You can always add ...
4
While these are nice lists I would like to point out that you do not need a 5 gallon bucket and carboy. I like to experiment with new recipes using a two gallon bucket and an old one gallon apple cider jug. Cheap, easy, and provides 8 bottles of beer in much less (brew day) time than a five gallon batch.
4
As a professional beer brewing equipment manufacturer,we would like to make a detailed clarification for the device "wort grant" here.
The wort grant is generally being installed between the lauter tun and brew kettle. Its position is generally lower than the wort level in the tank, so during lautering, the wort could flow into the wort grant automatically ...
4
I also wants to share my experience with this device (Lauter grant).
Actually I am chemical engineer and working in brewery designing company.
Advantages of Lauter grant:
It acts as buffer tank between lauter tun and wort kettle.
It gives positive suction to transfer pump (full flow)
Main advantage of later grant is: it avoid choking bed.
as it avoid ...
4
This is a super old thread but I had to deal with this recently and I was very happy with my results. Living in a walk-up second story apartment in Chicago, space being limited I purchased one of these Ikea BRIMNES wardrobes.
As a 5 gallon + 1 gallon extract brewer, this fit all of my equipment perfectly, gave my carboys a nice quiet place to sit during ...
4
I do this. I have a two inch chimney that I use to channel steam out of my kitchen. The lid also helps maintain a boil with less heat, which is convenient for me. I did tests early on with six row and very pale pilsner malts to see if I would get any DMS issues, but I didn't. One of these days I'll get around to figuring out how to measure it quantitatively, ...
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