yes over 140 degreesIs the effluent hot?
yes over 140 degreesIs the effluent hot?
yes over 140 degrees
Don't remember seeing it asked before:
I don't really want to leave the condenser cantilevered off the thin Foundry lid. Was thinking of clamping the condenser along the wall and using barbed fittings with silicone tubing to go from the lid to the condenser. Think 1/2" tubing would be too small over <2' travel?
Haha. Wow, what a story!So I’ve been working on a lager fridge made from plywood, styrofoam and fiberglass. I felt it was necessary to make this since there was a line up for kegs and conical fermentors in my beer display fridge. So I built this thing in the garage, hauled it up to the 8th floor (by elevator) then went back down to the garage to get the paint I bought today to paint it. So I grab my paint, two plastic buckets that I used earlier to concrete in some cracks between the garage and an outside footing that allow rats to thrive under my garage. I’m traveling up the elevator and the plastic bag holding my paint breaks and the 2 L red paint can falls out of the bag and opens on contact with the elevator floor. Hmmm? I have a paint brush and a couple of buckets. I start to transfer the paint from the floor to an open bucket that has the open paint can in it. Things going through my head? Who will the first person to use the elevator think that I murdered? 2 ladies from the 4 th floor made some exclamatory remarks that I couldn’t translate to English but sounded like “What is that stupid foreign guy doin now?” The other blood curdling worry was how soon will my wife catch me? Wifey shows up and asks “where’s Marney?” (Daughter) By then I had most of the liquid paint in one of the buckets. One foot is clearly submerged in red paint and the other is outside the ring of the spreading pool but licking up splashes of paint from the paintbrush hitting the inside of the bucket. If I move I spread more paint. Wifey says get the F@&k out of the elevator so I can clean it. Fine! Fill your boots...after applying the free red paint to my lager fridge upstairs and cleaning up the spills and buckets. Here I am into my third Quarantine pale ale. Still married and planing on testing the condenser on Sunday. There’s a few technical things that I wanted to throw out there for advice but I think I’ll go for it on Sunday and see what happens.
I’ve gone back and forth on a condenser due to not having a drain and my wife’s request for odor control. I put a hood in during my basement remodel and it works great but the noise level during a brew day is kind of a drag so I’m rethinking my decision. I was interested in Spikes lid until I saw how much water it uses.
@Bobby_M any idea when you’ll be able to replenish stock on the slayer and bulkhead fittings?
Thanks Bobby. I figure since I have a couple laying around a tri-clover ferrule is cheap enough to try out in one of em. I brew outside, but can see the benefits of lower boil power and for the next house where I’ll be brewing in the garage. We don’t have great water temps in Dallas, but we have great water pressure, so I’d be willing to bet the higher water volume would cover it enough.Efficiency is driven by how much surface area of spray pattern can be maintained so larger diameter chambers are better up to a point. What point? It's hard to say. The increasing spray diameter is no longer beneficial if the temp of the spray gets so hot that it doesn't condense the steam.
In any case, make sure your spray pattern doesn't put water into the entry port or you'll be adding water to the boil.
Reducing boil-off volume forces a reduction in the pre-boil volume in order to get the same post-boil volume. Reducing the pre-boil volume for a fixed amount of grain causes a reduction in the lauter efficiency (assuming the lauter process stays the same.)Why do you need a lot of grain? It should take the same grain to reach the same final volume and gravity. You reduce your volume and increase the starting gravity since there will be less volume reduction and thus increase in gravity.
Yes you can mash with a bit less water, but that will reduce your lauter efficiency slightly (unless you change your process), and you will need to add a little more grain to make up for that, if you want to get the same OG. I went thru this two posts above.Why can't you mash/sparge with less water? Unless making gigantic beers, you can use the same amount of grain and scale your pre-boil volume down with higher PBSG.
I wasn't trying to exaggerate per se. It takes an extra pound of grain per brew and hit the same numbers (1.051 OG) at 8 Gallons. Not a big deal certainly except with really heavy stouts and such of which I don't brew much. I am getting used to the system and dialing it in. Just feels so weird to not lose any appreciable volume. More than anything, I am just trying to validate my numbers with other people on here. I want to know why, with a very similar setup I am getting different results. My power level is far higher than what many of you are using.... my cooling water is maxed out (high power nozzle, high pressure hose feed) but I am only gaining 3 gravity points in an over 60 minute boil.
Have you made sure that you don't have any cooling water getting back into the BK? This will reduce your apparent boil-off.I wasn't trying to exaggerate per se. It takes an extra pound of grain per brew and hit the same numbers (1.051 OG) at 8 Gallons. Not a big deal certainly except with really heavy stouts and such of which I don't brew much. I am getting used to the system and dialing it in. Just feels so weird to not lose any appreciable volume. More than anything, I am just trying to validate my numbers with other people on here. I want to know why, with a very similar setup I am getting different results. My power level is far higher than what many of you are using.... my cooling water is maxed out (high power nozzle, high pressure hose feed) but I am only gaining 3 gravity points in an over 60 minute boil.
Maybe we can help each other out. I picked up the widebody version and received it a few days ago, but have since decided that I'd instead like to up my kettle to a 20 gallon instead of the 15 I have now. If you are interested, I'll sell it to ya for what I paid ($148.99) + actual shipping. I have taken it out of the box, but that is it. You can PM me if you are interested. If selling isn't allowed within a thread, I'll make a post on the For Sale forum. I also have a 1.5TC bulkhead that I picked up for $20 on amazon that I'm not going to need if you wanted that too. Let me know!I’ve gone back and forth on a condenser due to not having a drain and my wife’s request for odor control. I put a hood in during my basement remodel and it works great but the noise level during a brew day is kind of a drag so I’m rethinking my decision. I was interested in Spikes lid until I saw how much water it uses.
@Bobby_M any idea when you’ll be able to replenish stock on the slayer and bulkhead fittings?
Its better to have it on the kettle. when you have to pull that lid off for hops or whathaveyou, that steam billowing out will burn the hell out of your arm if you don't open it facing away from you. easier if the lid is is light and balanced. easier to add ingredients and to place lid somewhere when doing so. these things weigh a few pounds with the clamps.My Steam Slayer showed up yesterday. After seeing how much it weights and just setting all the parts on the kettle lid I can see how it would start to get unwieldy. Now working up the courage to drill into my custom kettle. Luckily I have a genuine Greenlee punch set with the right size so it shouldn't be too difficult.
Its better to have it on the kettle. when you have to pull that lid off for hops or whathaveyou, that steam billowing out will burn the hell out of your arm if you don't open it facing away from you. easier if the lid is is light and balanced. easier to add ingredients and to place lid somewhere when doing so. these things weigh a few pounds with the clamps.
Would it be best to set the percentage as low as I can go? I know at 25% I hold a temp of 212 (boil), but have not gone any lower.The vacuum formed by the condenser makes the boil bubbles form into a big head of foam. It's kind of like putting a marshmallow in the microwave. You can back off a couple more % on the power input to reduce it.
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