Look at the Spikes CF5 fermenter also. It’s a little bit more money but you can do more with it like pressurized closed system transfers, 2” trub port and a giant 4” TC port up top for dry hopping, etc. It is incredibly well made and you will never need another vessel upgrade.
I own a CF10 and...
Why waste time thinking about it – brew something and find out. Fresh, well brewed beer that YOU made YOURSELF tastes good no matter what. Start with extract and steep your specialty grain. That's the way many people start.
Here's a thought. This is what I did last week because all my outdoor hoses were frozen. I also happen to have a plate chiller hanging around. It worked pretty well. Hooked up a chugger pump to a plate chiller and dropped the chiller in a bucket of snow. I did not run any extra cooling through...
Home brewer for 10+ years. I've used buckets, carboys and currently own a SS BrewTech 1/2bbl with temp control and a Spikes 10gal conical with temp control. If you have unlimited funds and need to buy something right now, I really like the Spikes equipment. Brewtech is nice too. I have an older...
That setup is 1000% better than my first setup, lol. Congratulations on the first batch. It's a slippery slope from here but it looks like you're feeling that already.
IMO you don't need as much bittering hops as what you have in there. Especially because the grain bill is not particularly malty. If you're going for citrusy, target most of your your hops for 15min or less in the boil or do some in the whirlpool and the rest dry hop. Anything over 20min in boil...
Never panic. Many people who panic end up doing something that screws up the beer when there was nothing actually wrong in the first place.
1) One week is the least amount of time you want to leave the beer in the fermenter. Many will leave 2 weeks. For years I had a rule of thumb 1 week in...
save yourself the trouble of breaking your stove and either heat through electric element or propane burner. I have a glass top stove. It would take FOREVER to heat the water I need to do 10gal. Good luck.
I have a very large nylon bag that I bought on Aliexpress and soak the grounds in it for 16-48hrs at room temp. I use a 1:1 ratio (1lb of coffee for every 1 gal H20) and then dilute by 50%. I have found that using distilled water provides a much smoother flavor.
I have always used nitro. I...
Stout chiller looks great! I have a cheap stainless counterflow hooked up to my 1/2bbl setup and haven’t looked back either. Cools at about 8-10 degrees per minute. Agree counterflow is the way to go especially with hops in the line. Love that the stout whirlpools in. That’s a really nice feature.