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Hey folks, I just finished putting together my full electric control panel last night, and it's perfect except for a (pretty big) snag. I've wired my BK control up using a Potentiometer and an AC control SSR; when I turned it on, it worked great, and it heated REALLY fast -- I got 5.5g from 50f...

I've got a crappy "china special" double product regulator from OntarioBeerKegs that's SO bad they no longer sell or support the thing -- it's inconsistent, the low pressure gauges wobble and go all over the place, carbonation is impossible to predict, etc. I ended up getting a good quality...

Hey folks, I'm currently ironing out the kinks of my RIMS, and my latest hitch is bubbles in the system. I've found that if I lay the tube horizontal, but prop up the "in" end (element) slightly, it eliminates bubbles until I start mashing out -- then, when the element kicks on in high gear, I...

I've finally got my RIMS kit set up, and it's working in theory; however, I'm seeing some wonky mismatches between the measured temp and the actual temp of the wort returning to the MLT (10-14 degrees f in some cases). My probe is 50mm, and is short enough that it doesn't QUITE reach the input...

Hey all, I'm hoping for a bit of advice troubleshooting my new RIMS controller. It's made up of a MyPin TA4 PID, 40amp Fotek SSR and an RTD. It's all wired up, and here's the behaviour: Probe reports accurate temperature to PID PID seems to accept new set points If power switches (Pump...

Hey folks, I'm putting together a RIMS on a shoestring budget, and I'm hoping to get some advice/feedback from everyone here. I'm going to itemize my questions for clarity: 1) Since I'm working on a REALLY strict budget, a true Auber PID's out of the question. I've been counting on using a...

Got what seemed like a good deal on a pin lock on Craiglist -- $15. Picked it up in a hurry, thinking the discolouration was gunk/old soda; after a series of very long soaks in Oxi, followed by PBW, it has become obvious that it is rust (or some other semi-permanent scarring.) I've put up a...

First I will lay out some assumptions. The BeerGun works well because: a) It has a long beer line b) Bottles are flushed with CO2 c) It's easy to clean d) Performance is improved by chilling bottles So I still haven't gotten a BeerGun of my own, but for the third time I've had a picnic tap fail...

I know a lot of folks say the Blichmann Beer Gun "isn't as easy as it looks," but in the Youtube videos I've looked up, and at the brewery last week watching them fill with one, it looks like a dead easy solution -- no foaming, even if the bottles and gun aren't kept perfectly chilled...

Hey all! I've got four kegs in my fridge at the moment, all connected with a manifold to the same regulator. Two of the kegs have been in there for about two months, and they're slightly overcarbed (for bottling); two more have been in there for two or three weeks, and they're significantly...

Hey all, Won a 10G Boilermaker recently for BOS in a comp, and I paid a bit extra to upgrade to 15G (to give myself some room for the future.) However, the $100 or so I paid to upgrade means there's no cash left for a new burner in the short term. At the moment I've got a little 32,000 5PSI...

Hey all, Earlier in the year I missed out on the Chugger deal and ended up buying a pump from GreatBrewEh. I'm starting to regret my purchase, and wondered if anyone else has some suggestions. 1) This thing is a pain to clean. Maybe this is all pumps (only one I've ever owned), but no...

Entered my first two competitions in June -- Toronto Beer Week and Montrealers MALT 2013 -- and today I found out I won a total of four medals (three golds and a bronze) and claimed Best of Show in Toronto! I'm just so excited I wanted to share! Off to brew more...

Hey all, looking to piece together an oxygenation kit, and spotted this regular on eBay dirt cheap from China: http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Air-2-Gauges-Cutting-Welding-Pressure-Oxygen-Regulator-/310648803102?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item48541c8f1e&_uhb=1#ht_1649wt_1399 Seems like a good price...

Hey all, Moved into our house, and am eager to get some hops in the ground! While I was originally planning to order rhizomes from Left Fields, but they were out of Cascade, so I ended up picking up Hallertau and Cascade from Richters. It seemed like the thing to do with rhizomes was to...

Hey all, Finally got my kegerator all set up -- it's a modest 4 tap conversion of an old GE fridge, and I'm really excited to get it into service. The problem I'm having is This Damned Schwarzbier (the beer that's determined to end me -- I've had more problems with this one stupid batch than...

Hey all, Just looking to hunt down the "perfect" diagram for a max 20a 120V RIMS setup (likely a 1500w element) with PID. I've sifted through lots of PJ's diagrams, but none seem to be just right. I've found one that looks to be 90% there, but it includes a contacter between the SSR and the...

This is an odd one, but here we go: About 6 weeks ago I brewed a Schwarzbier, and aerated it using my usual method: a 2" long chunk of 3/8" vinyl hose with a hole poked in it -- my ghetto venturi aerator. Somewhere during the transfer, disaster struck, and the vinyl hose ended up in the...

Sorry if this has been answered somewhere else, but I couldn't find a conclusive post anywhere. So far I've been using a (relatively ghetto) Coleman cooler with a stainless braid and batch sparging, and I've had good luck -- excellent conversion, not stuck sparges, etc. I'm looking to add a...

I've had schwarzbier fermenting since the 20th with 34/70 at 11c; however, sometime in the past four days, while I was out of town, the heat bulb in my fermentation chamber died and i came home this evening to a temperature of 4c (chamber is in my unheated wood room). I've now replaced the bulb...