Recent content by bike2brew

Four gallon Amber ale on Saturday. Still dialing in my SVBS. Pre-boil gravity came in low despite steady mash temp @152. Pre-boil volume @ 6.5 gallon. Finished with 4 gallon @ 1.053, rather than predicted 5 gallon @ 1.059. I'm thinking tweaks needed to more grain and less water, increasing...

Sounds good. Otherwise I say brew what you will drink. I have had my Amber que'd up for a couple weeks so it a no brain'r

Scaling up my Hops Kitchen Amber to 5 gallon AG recipe in the SVBS this weekend. Looking for the consitsency of the automated temp control in the mash and boil. I am hopeful this will result in minor improvements to my 2.5 gallon BIAB-stovetop efforts w/ respect to production numbers and...

You can't close the doors when the walls cave in

Yes, I too float my tilt in water/star San to make sure it's on and reading @ zero before it's in the wort and I start the logging. This has worked well enough without having to do a calibration.

Yes, and others have said previously there is nothing aboslute with instrumentation. Everything is relative to what we estblish as the baseline. I can use a hydrometer, but it takes 10ml or so each reading, and my eyes have difficulty reading between the lines, the refractometer is relative...

The only time I have had issue with my Tilt is when I tried to calibrate them so I use each of them pre-calibrated without issue. My refractomer generally reads higher than the Tilt but I use the Tilt to establish my baseline OG.

2.5 gallon iPA, BIAB, 2 row, Pilsen, Vienna, Citra and mosaic. Missed a few numbers by a little, but hit my boil off volume. OG @ 1.056 without correction. I am learning not to fret the production details and focus on the end result. Does it meet the style and does it taste good. I am hoping...

Has anyone adapted the Spike Brewing steam condenser lid to their SVBS? Apparently it will fit directly.

I switched from carb drops to table sugar several brews back and have had good success. I am currently using 3/4 tsp per 12 oz. Overall level of carbonation seems to suit my taste but nice thing about this system is that I can experiment by bottle rather than a whole batch and make minor...

Here's my system. Cooler with 20lbs of ice recirculating with small immersion pump.

I have heard that. My tilt seems to work ok in the stainless so no issues there. Likewise I have not advanced to pressure fermentation or harvesting yeast so my system fits pretty well. I have a couple 3.5 gallon brew buckets also (result of the upgrade evolution) that I use for 2.5 gallon BIAB...

The Ss Brewtech bre bucket w/ temp control and chilling coil comes in @ $399.91. To me it's not that terribly pricey considering the quality improvements I've experienced in my brewing paying attention to fermentation temperature. I started out with a BrewDemon, plastic conical that was quite...

Bottled my Hungry Brown Dog Am Brown Ale. I believe this is the final dialed in recipe, finished @ 1.015 w/ 4.99% abv. Has the color and flavor I have been looking for since starting this effort. The recipe is posted on Brewer's Friend @ Hungry Brown Dog if anyone is interested.

I have two conical 7.5 gal brewbuckets (SS Brewtech) with the idea that I might want to have a couple 5 gallon batches in production either @ the same time or a week apart. That's still aspirational as I work through process to get 5 gallon receipes fully developed. As Bobby_M says, 5 gallons...