Recent content by happymonk

"They are probably whiskey barrels and not wine barrels as IIRC, wine barrels are used repeatedly while whiskey barrels are used only once so they are more commonly found at nurseries and such sold as planters and such. The barrels shown are open and exposed to all sorts of potential sources of...

I can't believe you friggin mirror polished keggles.... I am stunned. That brew stand is fantastic.. Take more pictures it will not stay that pretty, you are going to cry on your first boil over.. So you have these great fabricating skills your next job should be to buy a 15 gal stainless...

"In the old days even pils malt had lower diastatic power and required long mash times. Todays base malts are very well modified" Excellent post...Todays malts are highly modified, most of the conversion is done. Your job is mostly extraction. This is why I will never step mash. I do however...

"Flat Ass Tired is not a clone of Fat Tire" OK I must have missed that in the link somewhere. Maybe a better name would have been Imperial Tyre... IMHO a good place to start to knock off Fat Tire is an Alt recipe. Maris Otter and or Munich will beef up the malt flavors... There is not...

That recipe has a lot of IBUs for a Fat Tire recipe, from what I have read you should aim for around 17-23 IBUs... Back to the original topic, can you describe what you mean by fresh malt taste a little more. Just sweetness or roastyness? A bigger malt flavor profile can be the result of...

I assume by sparge you mean run off. Sparge goes on top, run off comes out the bottom of the mash. Not to be picky, just helping out. I too did the same change last year, works great. Just do not run off too fast. I had to put a reducer on my hose and a smaller valve because my run off was too...

Bazooka is a lot more coarse of a screen. SS braid is more flexible, so do not hit it with your paddle or spoon and you will be fine. One will never be superior to the other, they both work and both do a great job. If you had a lot of problems with one and the other works for you good for you...

Hmm original poster, are you using whole hops in your kettle? The rest, add a grant to run off from your mash tun, pump out of that, suction in the bottom of the mash tun is not good...

Food lube... aka edible oil...

As long as you rinse your pump out after usage(hot water) and run some sanitizer through before hand (pack it up the night before) you will not have any problems. Boiling wort causes pumps to cavatate, you can adjust the flow rate(slow it down). But generally breweries do not boil while pumping...

No contest, a sanitized stone and some o2 can not be beat... I can ferment out in 3 days with good o2 airation. I can hit 13% in 4 days with no problems with fresh yeast and o2. Less chance of infection is less chance... Sometimes i will purge my fermenter with co2 then after racking wort in...

Depends on what is more important to you. Hitting your efficiency or your volume. I personally go for gravity every time. So preboil sg is what I aim for. If my volume is off I know I need to check my mill or grain...

"Not looking for suggestions now, just venting some frustration." Great, glad I bothered reading this thread, will not make the mistake of reading another of yours.

Round, square, rectangle makes not much difference on this scale. The most important thing is insolation, or you will be making lots of decoction mashes. That and a good false bottom that draws from the entire bottom. I prefer stainless braided hose.

You should let you LHS know their grind is VERY VERY wrong. They should not tell customers that is ground grain. Just my opin...