Recent content by harpo

Well there's the rub now isn't it. In my preparations for going pro, I attempted to simulate the same procedures as if I was at the scale as I intend to start. However, a 7bbl conical won't fit in my garage, nor is that a productive and cost effective way to end up gathering the information I...

I'm not sure which fridge style you are looking at, but a garage full of upright refrigerators would leave little room for anything else. I regularly would have 4-6 sankes in various stages of fermentation/secondary/chilling. Prior to this idea I used one 7cuft chest freezer to chill the beer to...

Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the jacket? For my purpose, I wanted one centralized cooler/freezer with a 10 gallon batch of glycol at 27 degrees. From the cooler I would pump the glycol to multiple fermenters in one area. Therefore, instead of trying to build a homemade cooler to house...

Man, you guys are relentless!! I purged the keg with argon to minimize any affect the welding had on the interior, and then we used a stainless wire wheel to brush the interior bright and clean and then used a surf-ox machine to eliminate any contamination. I have yet to try it with...

So I searched for tanks similar to these and realized that the jacket is not all 360° around the tank. It is separated, having the inlet on one side at the bottom and the outlet on the top of the other side. I am currently putting at divider plate between the inlet and outlet on the...

Just following the original's configuration. Granted, I don't know exactly what else might be beneath its dimpled jacket, I am going to try this. I may also jacket my MLT and run hot water from the HLT during the mash. Will it work? I'm just bored enough to find out.

I thought the same thing about warm temperatures. Texas is an anomaly, because of the higher temps than where I am. The fermenting wort will only be just above the jacket, as I indicated earlier. As fermentation goes on, the jacket will cool the upper ~5 gallons, which in turn will coll the...

I got this idea after looking at some wine tanks. They only had a center section jacketed with glycol. I have heard they can keep the contents at fermentation temps relatively easily, as well as crash cool. I basically started with two sections of 20GA 304 stainless steel 25.250" long and 7"...

Just finished welding the jacket on. Inlet port is lower, and has a pointed flow of around the keg. Outlet is full open. Now time to hook up glycol in a chest freezer with a pump and solenoid. We'll see how it goes. 10 gallons is just over the top of the jacket. Should be able to maintain...

My advice--Don't worry about it. Once primary fermentation is over, just put them in. I just add mine to the secondary fermenter, wait 3-4 days, then transfer it to a corny keg. If you're going to bottle, just use a plastic fermenter with a spigot on the bottom to hold the beer/hops in secondary...

10 gallon batch with a blow off tube into 1/2 qt of star San solution. During transfer tube fell back into bucket, sucking star San into keg fermenter. Pitch batch or RDWHAHB?

Well said, my beer brewing friend! Well said! I spend an afternoon in the "field" sipping on a beer now and then taking in the sights of pure magic happening in front of my nose. Guess I let another post in another thread let me get worried. 2 five gallon buckets would be awesome!

My bines are approx 30' tall. Last year (year 1) two of the cascades came down to about 5' off the ground, the other cascades only a little less. The chinooks last year only had a few hops. This year the cones are going like mad up at the tops of almost all 5 bines, but only a few have started...

So what affects a darker beer differently than a lighter beer? I seem to recall that the spreadsheets aren't as accurate with regards to predicting the mash pH for darker beers. Is that really all there is?

I am doing a black IPA this weekend. I was interested in getting some feedback on my proposed additions to my water. Initial pH (with no additions) is around 4.9, SRM is 36. 5 gallon batch. Alkalinity without additions is 25, RA is 16. With the Baking Soda additions to try and raise the pH the...