Recent content by BugHunter

These vessels have all sold. Thank you to everyone that expressed interest.

The price of these vessels has been adjusted down to 75% of retail.

Zip code is 54601, in La Crosse, WI. I'm willing to travel anywhere within a 200 mile (day trip, basically) radius to meet if you can't come to me.

**Price has been adjusted** These items are for "local" pickup/delivery. Zip code is 54601, in La Crosse, WI. I'm willing to travel anywhere within a 200 mile (day trip, basically) radius to meet if you can't come to me. I'm downsizing my brewing setup to focus more on microbiology research...

I'm downsizing my brewing setup to focus more on microbiology research and am looking to sell my barely used 15 gallon tri-clamp system from Stout Kettles. The system was only used a handful of times before I got a job as a professional brewer and stopped having time to brew at home. There's no...

These items have been Sold If anyone is in the market for an inline stainless chugger pump or two I have two like-new units posted to ebay. These pumps have only been used a handful of times and were disassembled, cleaned, inspected, and reassembled before being put into storage. All seals and...

Standard antibiotics can be used, provided you can legally acquire them, to inhibit bacterial contamination without otherwise inhibiting the desired yeast. With proper aseptic transfer techniques they're not necessary, but if you have the resources to use them there's no reason you couldn't.

Yes, and yes. You're likely thermal shocking your yeast and killing enough off to delay your fermentation. Do you, by chance, notice any slight savory or meaty flavor in your beer if you age them a couple months? You always want to try and have your slurry or starter at the same temperature...

That has nothing to do with transfer contamination, which is the issue of impact when discussing multiple retransfers to capture 100% of available yeast as was recommended.

Your containers may be sanitary, but is your breath or the air you're surrounded by? Is there any dust in the air to get into those vessels or that liquid stream? Are you positive that there are no mold spores anywhere nearby? All it takes is one errant spec of dust, spore, or breath droplet to...

It's worth noting that the American Society of Brewing Chemists (ASBC), the standards body for pretty much all brewing-related testing, states that all pH measurements must be done at room temperature (RT), and all pH values given in any paper submitted to them must be RT values unless otherwise...

Unless you're doing this aseptically that's as sure fire a way to get an infected starter as I can imagine. The little bit of yeast that remains in the pack isn't worth trying to get if doing so causes an infected batch.

The sparge arm, as it's set up, could potentially clog since there's no exit path other than the drilled sparging holes. Given the easy of swapping out tri-clamp fittings during the recirculation and sparging processes I find it's easier to swap between the sparge arm and a 90* elbow/tubing...

The manufacturer claims that there is a a high enough sterol level in the cells they produce and dry to make additional aeration/oxygenation during the first use batch unnecessary. I'm sure they have data to support this view but, as a microbiologist, I find that claim suspect. Those sterols...

Overpitching can lead to a depressed ester production rate. If you're brewing a clean beer that's not a bad thing, but if you're brewing something like a Belgian that relies on yeast esters as a core flavor component it can definitely be picked out. The beer would, very likely, end up tasting...