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Drone posted:Did the email say how long the code is good for? Double checked but it doesn’t say so. BioTech posted:I have the old version and it definitely has volume indicators on the inside. They are stamped on the inside of the kettle, both in gallons and liters. Just had a look and that’s exactly what happened. It was my first brew with the kettle so it was a bit stressy figuring out everything. Didn’t even think about the grain basket... quote:Note the volume is 3L off because they count from the tap upwards. ignoring the area below. If you drain using the pump or don't mind tilting the nearly drained kettle you can get most of this out as well. I tilted the kettle but how would you adjust calculations if you’re not doing that? I’m still incredibly new to this hobby so I’ve just been going off prefab kits so far. quote:I meant the 90 Euro RVS one. It is a rebranded Bulldog Malt Mill. That looks like the exact one I have yeah. No time to screw it open but I’ll check next brewday. Pretty sure it’ll be plastic cogs as well. Not sure why you’d cheap out on that part as a manufacturer. Did you get new plastic ones or can you get stainless steel replacements?
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May 27, 2019 14:01
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Drone posted:How happy are you with it? I've been looking into it because of the sheer convenience (and because I live in an apartment and they seem great not only for faster cleaning, but for better use of limited space). I am very happy with it. I used to do partial BIAB and mix the wort with pre-boiled water in my fermentor to reach the desired volume. Going full volume was a bonus, but the real benefit is it takes care of a lot of steps that used to require a lot of attention and this allows you to relax or focus on other things Sparging is smooth, no squeezing hot bags, pump means you don't have to stir all the time, temperature is stable so no messing with a stove, etc. Basically there is no need to be involved every minute and I am free to wander off in between hop additions. There are a few things to take into account; * As mentioned the volume indicated on the inside of the kettle (if you have it), is 3L off because it doesn't include the area beneath the tap. * The bazooke filter that comes with it is terrible. The mesh gets clogged instantly and it easily comes off when you stir. Use a hop spider. * Make sure you cover the center column in your grain basket with the white cap when you put your grain in. Any solids going through there will end up on the heating element and burn, or get sucked into the pump. * You can use the pump during cooling to improve circulation, but wait till your wort is 60oC or cooler. * You can use the pump to transfer the wort and it will take the additional 3L * I stir my grains after 15, 30 and 45 minutes, efficiency goes up 10% by doing that. The pump will circulate the wort just fine, but it can create channels and stirring prevents that. This does mean you have to remove the top mesh three times, which is covered by hot wort, so I installed long RVS screws as handles that I can use to lift the mesh. * Lift out the grain basket, pour in your sparge water and just let it sit. It usually takes me 30 minutes to reach a boil, so plenty of time to leave the sparged grains dripping over the wort. * Get to your temp at 2500 Watt, but maintain mash temp at 1500 because it will overshoot by a few degrees anytime it raises the temperature. Boil can be maintained at 1800 with no issues. * Mash should be about 3.5L/Kg * 8Kg grain with 27L mash water is the absolute max I managed. This will bring the wort right to the level of the overflow pipe. You can lengthen the pipe if you want, but the kettle isn't gonna hold much more. Make sure you drop the grain bucket slowly so the grains can absorb water or it will overflow.
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May 27, 2019 14:05
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BioTech posted:* Mash should be about 3.5L/Kg I'm pretty new to all-grain so as long as the thing is big enough for me to do everything I need to do to produce a 19L total batch size from start to finish, I'll be happy.
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May 27, 2019 14:16
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LochNessMonster posted:I tilted the kettle but how would you adjust calculations if you’re not doing that? I’m still incredibly new to this hobby so I’ve just been going off prefab kits so far. Some people just put in kettle loss 3L If they have 20L wort lefter after boil, etc. they expect 17L wort in the fermentor. Since it is boiled, hopped, cooled and ready to go, I really see it as throwing out beer. It does contain more muck, since that drifts to the bottom during cooling. When I transfer to the fermentor via the pump I put the hopspider in the fermentor to take care of that. My calculations are; Desired Volume - Mash Water + Grain in Kg + Boil Off + 3 = Sparge Desired Volume is usually 25 Mash is usually 25 Grain in KG is for the water absorption, 1L per 1Kg is close enough. I usually use 6Kg. Boil off is 3L per hour, I hardly ever boil more than an hour. The +3 is a wild card. This is not kettle loss, but most likely inaccuracies in my boil off, grain absorption, hop absorption and other things I did not measure separately. Sparge usually ends up around 12L Last brew; 25 - 25 + 5.85 + 3 + 3 = 11.85 I sparged with 12 and ended up with 25.48L in the fermentor. LochNessMonster posted:Not sure why you’d cheap out on that part as a manufacturer. Did you get new plastic ones or can you get stainless steel replacements? No idea. Only thing I can guess is that if you run the drill too fast with metal cogs you have sparks flying around. Just keep the drill at 150-200rpm and the plastic cogs will be fine. I ran mine way too fast and it still took 2 years before the problems started.
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May 27, 2019 14:21
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^ This is good information for most of the eBIAB systems that are floating around out there, and the truth of it for any system is you have to learn the system as well as the process. LochNessMonster posted:Not sure why you’d cheap out on that part as a manufacturer. Did you get new plastic ones or can you get stainless steel replacements? Because it's cheaper and increases your margins. Most people won't have failures, so it's not worth the extra price in metal to them. ---- So my seed starting heating mat experiment went okay. It managed to keep the bulk of fermentation temps around 76 and then 72 once things slowed down. Ambient temp in my basement is 65ish, so that's a decent help. I overbuilt the 3726 Farmhouse (Blaugies) strain by a lot. I underpitched (no problem), gave away an underpitch, have two more batches of pitches I wasn't expecting, plus a little extra that I'm using in alcoholic ginger ale (5%, because). Strain is a beast, and it smells and tastes great. I guess I know what I'm drinking for at least the first half of the summer.
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May 27, 2019 14:52
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I did my first attempt at dry hopping today. I don't have fancy equipment so I just dumped the hops pellets/powder into the sanitized 2ndary fermentor and siphoned directly on top. I don't have the capability to cold crash when it comes time to bottle so could I rubber-band a cheese-cloth on the end of my siphon when I transfer to the bottling bucket to prevent suspended hop gunk from coming along for the ride? Also this is my 3rd brew and all have been recipe kits from Northern Brewer. Is there a good resource for starting to brew from scratch?
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May 28, 2019 00:12
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I dry hop like this and you could try, but you’ll likely end up with a clogged siphon. I get fine results by just not putting the siphon on the bottom of the bucket. Gelatin also helps, unless you have vegan drinkers, then it doesn’t. There are tons of recipes out there, but a good place to start is the AHA website. They have a ton of recipes from winning brews. There are a lot of books out there too. Howtobrew.com may also have recipes, but more likely good info on how to make recipes. I use style guidelines and brewing software to formulate recipes and do my calculations.
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May 28, 2019 01:03
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Jhet posted:I dry hop like this and you could try, but you’ll likely end up with a clogged siphon. I get fine results by just not putting the siphon on the bottom of the bucket. Gelatin also helps, unless you have vegan drinkers, then it doesn’t. Cool thanks for the the tips. I'll see how clear it looks when its time to bottle and make a gameday call. As for the rest, I didnt realize consumer-level brew software was a thing. I guess I mostly want some intro recipes that talk through the ingredient list and methods, the whys as well as the hows.
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May 28, 2019 01:16
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Salvor_Hardin posted:Cool thanks for the the tips. I'll see how clear it looks when its time to bottle and make a gameday call. Brewing Classic Styles and Designing Great Beers are both excellent starting resources for this sort of information that can help give you a basis for understanding the sorts of decisions you're considering. Also, just brew beers and see what happens. Recipe software is a great resource that helps with the formulation of the recipes and keeping good records of what you did ingredient wise that one time you made that one beer that was amazing.
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May 28, 2019 02:23
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I brewed my berliner test batch. 1.032 OG, no hops, chilled down to 100 transferred it, topped it up with another gallon of cool water and co-pitched Omega's Lacto and Hothead. That was maybe 3 hours ago? Already have a very active airlock 
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May 28, 2019 03:02
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Soooooo... old keezer (7 cu ft, held 5 kegs) bit the dust this month. Just slowly quit cooling and really got bad during the family trip to Slovenia and Austria 2 weeks ago. Came back with some rad beer, Ljubljana really appreciates what Americans are doing in craft beer, which I thought was cool. Sad to see the old girl put down tomorrow as Lowe’s delivers a 15 cubic ft chest freezer that should hold 10-12 kegs. Off work for the summer, so time to get brewing. One of the LHBS stores is doing a one off sale of Imperial Yeast, so I’m super stoked to make some German beers with L17 Harvest (Augustiner strain). Giving some thought to doing a 10 gallon batch split between the Augustiner and the Andechs (wlp 835) strains.
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May 28, 2019 08:36
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drat I want a cog-driven mill. My Monster Mill 3 is nothing but trouble. I've had it for years and I've probably successfully gotten 6 batches of grain through it. On anything but the most coarse setting, the undriven grinder just won't CATCH, so the drive grinder just spins and spins. I've tried it full, mid-full, empty (spin up then dump) and it never loving works right. It's really frustrating.
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May 28, 2019 14:56
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That's the three-roller one? I take it the malt gets through the first gap okay, but the third roller is the one that won't catch? What is the diameter of the rollers? I see the site describes them as 6" long, but doesn't state the diameter. FWIW, I have a 2-roller Cereal Killer, which gives the roller diameter as 1.25". It is not geared either. So far my only complaint is that it won't crush the pebbles that sometimes find their way into the hopper. I did have a feed issue on the last batch, but I do tend to keep it set up with the gap as tight as it will go. I just twisted one of the adjustment knobs while it was running, and it cleared right up.
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May 28, 2019 17:20
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Jo3sh posted:That's the three-roller one? I take it the malt gets through the first gap okay, but the third roller is the one that won't catch? What is the diameter of the rollers? I see the site describes them as 6" long, but doesn't state the diameter. Not sure on the diameter, but it's probably 1.25-1.5" Nope, won't get past the first gap. The driven roller moves fine, but the undriven one just sits there. I've torn it all down and lubricated things to make sure there isn't a bind. I've even taken to trying to kickstart the roller with a stainless steel welding rod. Once that undriven roller gets moving, the thing is a beast but up till then, it's useless. The line between it working and not working is completely random and arbitrary and once in a great while it'll work right. I'm gonna make sure to take a video next time I use it cause I'm at the point of trying to get Monster Mill involved to tell me wtf I'm doing wrong. I've gone through their instructions and it's not helping. Barely cracked grain isn't my intention and I don't really wanna run a batch of grain through this thing 8 times to get it where I want it. Seems to me that a covered gearbox on the side would be relatively easy to build into the system if you had the means to do it. I understand why it's not some kind of standard - virtually every small LHBS or Microbrewery I've been to uses this exact mill and they don't seem to have any problems with it. And no, I'm not running it backwards.
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May 28, 2019 18:00
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Ever tried conditioning your malt a bit? That can help the rollers grip it.
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May 28, 2019 18:07
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Glottis posted:Ever tried conditioning your malt a bit? That can help the rollers grip it. That's not a bad idea. "grip" seems to be the right term.
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May 28, 2019 19:23
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Huh. That's weird as hell. I can't think of a single reason why that would be happening.
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May 28, 2019 19:33
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Jo3sh posted:Huh. That's weird as hell. I can't think of a single reason why that would be happening. When it's running, you can hear the grain husk being scraped by the teeth on the rollers, it's makes this papery squealing sound like the grain is skipping over top of the teeth. Wetting a little of the grain before it goes in sounds like it might give it a bit of bite. Low speed, high speed, anything but the coarsest crush setting it does this.
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May 28, 2019 20:11
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I have a cereal killer hooked up to a cordless. Been using it 4+ years with zero problems. Don’t understand the need for more than that. 
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May 28, 2019 22:28
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my cereal killer has been problem free for years as well, hooked up to my cordless drill. I have been keeping an eye out for a cheap motor to attach to it though.
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May 29, 2019 13:28
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I have a dry blue gum honey mead that is currently fermenting with about 10 points of gravity left (1.010) to go. I checked the pH the other day and it is around 3.5. I was thinking of dropping the pH slightly in order to make a sharper taste. I have powdered forms of tartaric, citric and malic acid. I was thinking of making a blend out of them and using it to lower the pH down to 3.2-3.3. Is there a formula out there that I can plug my volume of mead into with the pH to find out how many drops of an acid or acid blend I can add to lower the pH?
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May 29, 2019 15:04
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So I'm looking at rigging together brewing setups for apartments and remembering the space limitations in place. Does anyone have experience with PicoBrew sets? I remember being impressed with the concept back in the day, they seem to have come down significantly in price and fixed some of the issues around using packs vs using your own recipes. Is it any good or is it so far removed from "the process" that its not worth doing? e; Looks like even with their improvements you're still stuck buying packs through them with your own recipes, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume they're 2x the price of getting your own grain anywhere else. Oh well. e2; Seems like I'm going to be stuck doing pretty limited 1 gallon batches as I thought or keep on waiting until I move again. Nephzinho fucked around with this message at 20:37 on May 29, 2019 |
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May 29, 2019 20:25
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Have you looked at the Robobrew system? It does 5 gallon batches on 110v x2, but it’s not going to be substantially larger and you use your own recipes. It’ll take up as much space as the picobrew it looks. Only a little more expensive, but you save it in not buying the picopack garbage.
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May 29, 2019 21:49
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Jhet posted:Have you looked at the Robobrew system? It does 5 gallon batches on 110v x2, but it’s not going to be substantially larger and you use your own recipes. It’ll take up as much space as the picobrew it looks. Only a little more expensive, but you save it in not buying the picopack garbage. Space is at a premium in NYC apartment. My old setup was multiple 7 gallon kettles, full all grain setup, 4 tap keggerator with room for lagering 1-2 extra kegs, spare kegs and fermentors for everything. Trying to find a way to scratch the itch but it might just not be meant to be right now.
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May 29, 2019 22:03
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Nephzinho posted:Space is at a premium in NYC apartment. My old setup was multiple 7 gallon kettles, full all grain setup, 4 tap keggerator with room for lagering 1-2 extra kegs, spare kegs and fermentors for everything. Trying to find a way to scratch the itch but it might just not be meant to be right now. Yeah, fair enough. You could look into brew on premise places, but I don't know if they even exist in NYC, then you could do a single keg. If I were pressed for space, I might just do partial mash/boil + extract in a 5 gallon bucket. The corner of my cabinets is often full of 1-2L random fermentation projects too. That might suit your space, but doesn't fully fulfill the beer aspect in the same way.
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May 29, 2019 22:38
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Nephzinho posted:Space is at a premium in NYC apartment. My old setup was multiple 7 gallon kettles, full all grain setup, 4 tap keggerator with room for lagering 1-2 extra kegs, spare kegs and fermentors for everything. Trying to find a way to scratch the itch but it might just not be meant to be right now. Move to Bushwick! https://denizenbushwick.com/amenities
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May 30, 2019 03:56
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PolishPandaBear posted:Move to Bushwick! Good god, I had no idea that area was getting built up like that. Last time I was over there there were entire blocks of boarded up poo poo, I guess they're this now.
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May 30, 2019 16:52
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Looking for some advice here. I started work on a yeast starter for a pilsner a few weeks back using Wyeast 2278, but my 8-month old cat knocked the Erlenmeyer flask off the stir plate while I was out of the house. So I delayed brew day a few weeks and brewed an extract recipe last Monday, and just pitched two packs of WLP830 instead. I'm now realizing that I severely underpitched. Activity has been extremely slow - OG was approximately 1.050, it was 1.046 three days ago and 1.040 today. So it's progressing and I guess maybe slightly accelerating (there's a visible krausen, but very little airlock activity and none of the classic sulfuric lager fermentation smell), but still looking really slow. Do I have options at this point? My fermentation chamber is set at 48F right now, which leads to a wort temperature inside the bucket of about 52F. This is right in the recommended range of WLP830. I pitched at I'm guessing 64F because I didn't have the patience to chill my top-off water (I brewed an extract recipe). So basically I did a lot of things wrong. I'm getting close to the point where I just get some US-05, bump the temperature up and see what bastardized beer I end up with. Hopefully the wort isn't starting to spoil by now. Thoughts?
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Jun 2, 2019 15:42
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illcendiary posted:I'm getting close to the point where I just get some US-05, bump the temperature up and see what bastardized beer I end up with. Hopefully the wort isn't starting to spoil by now. Thoughts? Spoiling the wort is the whole idea. I wouldn't worry too much.
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Jun 2, 2019 16:10
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illcendiary posted:I'm getting close to the point where I just get some US-05, bump the temperature up and see what bastardized beer I end up with. Hopefully the wort isn't starting to spoil by now. Thoughts? It's a lager yeast, so there might not be visible activity. Take a gravity reading and relax. Yeast multiply faster than you think, and you're probably just fine. I'd have to do the math, but it might not even be that much underpitched. You might have a couple stressed yeast flavors, but you might not after you lager it. Basically, the best advice any home brewer is ever given is to just chill out and let it do its thing. Then you can learn what (if anything) actually went wrong. People have been doing this for centuries with much less equipment, so you'll still make beer.
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Jun 2, 2019 17:08
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I think you're okay, too. Lagers are just slower than ales, of course, so the slow progress you are seeing is not completely out of the envelope. Part of that is just a function of the lower temperature you are using. I think you do have a slight underpitch for a lager, but I don't think the beer is destroyed or anything. I say let it keep going. As the gravity gets closer to your target, let it warm up into the 60s for a few days to finish and clean up diacetyl, then cold crash it for bulk lagering for several weeks before packaging.
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Jun 2, 2019 18:28
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Thanks everyone, I'll keep an eye on it. I've been brewing for a few years now, but this is my first time using a lager yeast. I'm so used to having ale yeasts with a starter and having most of the fermentation done in the first 2-3 days, this is a bit of new territory for me.
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Jun 2, 2019 23:17
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Unless this is like a 20 gallon batch, I can't see how you underpitched by putting in 2 packets.
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Jun 3, 2019 00:26
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Because of the lower temps usually used with lager yeasts, the received wisdom is that it takes something like 400 billion cells to ferment 5 gallons of lager. But that's also a number that is based on commercial brewing, where tank time costs money and the goal is to ship beer quickly. In homebrew settings, 200 billion is very likely just fine.
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Jun 3, 2019 03:09
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Jo3sh posted:Because of the lower temps usually used with lager yeasts, the received wisdom is that it takes something like 400 billion cells to ferment 5 gallons of lager. But that's also a number that is based on commercial brewing, where tank time costs money and the goal is to ship beer quickly. In homebrew settings, 200 billion is very likely just fine. Okay, that makes way more sense. I was reading stuff online that mentioned a one-gallon slurry for a five-gallon batch which sounded insane.
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Jun 3, 2019 03:23
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Yeast gives off more flavors when it's replicating, so the more you can shorten that phase, the less flavors it will give off. A higher pitch rate helps with that. You could do fine with less yeast, sure. The lager I'm getting ready to brew which is a copy of the NCH gold medal pilsner uses a 2M/ml/P pitch rate which is pretty drat high. 6 gallons of 1.050 lager needs almost 550B cells.
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Jun 4, 2019 21:36
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How long do home brew ingredients tend to keep for? My dad loved the home brewing kit I got him for Father’s Day last year, but he hasn’t really gotten a chance to use it yet. But he wants to use it sometime this summer, and I need to know if the ingredients that came with it are still good.
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Jun 5, 2019 05:16
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I. M. Gei posted:How long do home brew ingredients tend to keep for? My dad loved the home brewing kit I got him for Father’s Day last year, but he hasn’t really gotten a chance to use it yet. But he wants to use it sometime this summer, and I need to know if the ingredients that came with it are still good. My first brew also was a gifted kit that took me too long to get started with. It was several months after the best hefore date. As far as I’m aware the only ingredient that is impacted by it is the yeast. For me it took a few days before I got noticable airlock activity but it turned out perfectly fine. You can counter that by creating a starter (which I didn’t know then).
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Jun 5, 2019 05:28
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I. M. Gei posted:How long do home brew ingredients tend to keep for? My dad loved the home brewing kit I got him for Father’s Day last year, but he hasn’t really gotten a chance to use it yet. But he wants to use it sometime this summer, and I need to know if the ingredients that came with it are still good. Extract will be good if it's unopened still. The hops will have lost some of their alpha acids and aroma compounds to time (but will possibly be close enough unless it's an IPA), and the yeast will have lost a bit of (I think it's ballpark of 10% cell loss for dry yeast stored at room temp for a year), so unless it's a strong beer, that'll probably be fine. I say fine, because all ingredients loose freshness. On the other hand, I had some pilsner malt that I stored in good conditions for almost 2 years that I tasted next to a new sack and there wasn't much difference. There was a little, but not enough that it would make something undrinkable. Hops being used for their aroma and flavor loose the most for me from when they've been opened. If they've been stored in a freezer in original N2 purged packaging, then they loose very little. Room temp they do lose a lot more. If it's a Coopers kit or hopped extract, then just follow the instructions. It'll make beer.
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Jun 5, 2019 05:30
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If I remember right, the ingredients were for a Goose Island stout. Not sure if that impacts things.
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Jun 5, 2019 05:38
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