Recent content by BlkWater_brewer

Well I'll be, so for 40 years I have been wiring everything wrong, would have thought some thing wouldn't have worked. Including my 3 controllers, 3 houses and number of commercial installs. Still I have never in my life come across 1 circuit that was only 2 wire 240. To think I would have found...

Call it a neutral or a ground, same thing. The BLK wire is hot, in 240v its BLK & Red (usually), the White is the neutral and the bare copper is the ground. Now here is where it gets fun - the bare wire and the White wire connect to the same source in the electrical panel. So unless you are an...

Pardon my snarky-ness but ??????! Not sure what I have been reading??? What 2 power sources? 240v is simply two 120v leads out of phase. There are not two power sources or any extra difficulty wiring a panel. Just take your 120v feed off of one leg of the main feed, after the switch, e-stop...

Key is keeping 1" of sparge water on top of the grain bed, never stir the grain (unless the grain to liquid ratio is massive) and I gravity feed into my vorlauf tank and only pump into the kettle as it fills. The only way a pump could affect it is if its pulling wort out too fast. I seldom if...

Sadly the opposite has just happened with shipping laws at least with wines. This was done by wine distributors to limit the mail order online sites. The change mostly focused on wines but with new focus on the rules beer will get caught up as well.This does not bode well for competitions now...

I wouldn't make any rash decisions after a week. I think that oak aging will mellow it out enough but don't age it in your barrel too long. A 5gal barrel will age it enough in a week to 10 days at the max.

So some craft breweries sold their businesses to AB-Inbev for $$$. We are supposed to be outraged that AB offered $$$ and the owners said yes. So by all means, direct anger at AB because some craft brewers said yes. You sure that AB has done something evil. I would say it should be the sellers...

With Prickly pear and certain other fruits, the key is low ibu's. They add a subtle character and are easily lost with with dominating hops. Like the man said a wheat based recipe or saison work best.

I have sometimes gotten headaches from sweet high ABV beers or occasionally barley wines. How long is it before the headache starts. I just PO'd an admin so I may be short for this site, but I doubt it is any contamination or that the orange peel has anything to do with it. Is it very sweet? You...

I actually do remember both of those now. I will also admit that I have been working getting a brewery off the ground and I have lost some of my homebrewing ways. Brite tank, chilling to 28-30 degrees and no problems. Out of the realm of most homebrewers in retrospect. Gotta get back to my roots...

I am at a loss here. We brew an award winning NEIPA and bottle it no different than any other of our beers without an issue. 80% of the hops are either whirlpooled or dry hopped. We just canned our first 20bbl batch a month ago and again had no issues. Even the few cases that are left taste just...

I would have to give a thumbs up to PAA (Peracetic Acid) which I have used since since working in a commercial brewery. Chlorine can be a big no no, not because of it's effect on stainless but because even a tiny residue can ruin certain beers. Wyeast 1318 in particular can develop very...

I think a 2" valve is over kill on a fermenter this size to start. I would suggest a tapered reducer down to say 1". I also found that I had fewer issues using a 45 degree elbow coming out of the bottom instead of a 90, used to get backups at the elbow. My 7bbl conical has a 2" port. I used to...

True Beer???? You mean a Gruit don't you. Very common these days, but true beer I don't think so.

not only do hops add bittering and aroma, more importantly they add the benefit of their antiseptic qualities.