Recent content by dcbw

I’m in!

I’m in!

Hmm, odd. I’ve had the MoreBeer convoluted counterflow chiller for years (12ft of twisted copper tubing) and found that chilling a 15 or 20G batch uses near 50G of water from 190ish to 75F. While people I know with plate chillers can do roughly the same with a bit over half as much water. I’ve...

Plate chillers chill faster and use a lot less water. However, they can easily get clogged up with hop debris or trub if you don’t whirlpool or filter that out before chilling. They are also somewhat harder to clean, since you typically backflush them in addition to a regular cleaning cycle...

I’m in!

Ritebrew typically has good prices on vintners harvest purée, plus ultra cheap shipping if you’re anywhere near Wisconsin.

You need to know the diameter (or really the circumference) of the actual heating part too. The calculation is of course circumference X length, and since they are all fold back, multiply that by 2. That gives you surface area. Divide the surface area by the wattage, and you have the "watt...

Yeah, clearly Munich isn't MO. Just thinking a small amount of something else might be useful. They don't make too many kinds of DME unfortunately. Another option might be steeping a pound of Vienna along with your other steeping grains to get a bit of that biscuit/cracker that MO has a touch...

Go with pale DME and then maybe a pound of Munich DME to make up for the MO loss? Obviously it's not the same, but you'll be missing something by not using MO. Might as well make it up with a small amount something else.

What is the final gravity on most of your beers? What specific recipes seem to not have enough body? Are you sure your mash is actually 68C and that it's not a bad thermometer or mash hotspots you're measuring?

Whirlfloc does wonders. That's the first thing I'd suspect for the cloudiness part.

White mold is "ok". Black mold is not. That said I put "ok" in quotes because it's obviously infected and it may not turn out like you want. I would probably dump it. Something went wrong with your sanitation and you could have bacteria in there too. Which might mean bottle bombs.

30 something? Its the standard Monster Mill extended hopper. It's more of a problem once milled since the ferm buckets I use underneath fill up before the hopper empties. I've enclosed the bottom now to contain dust, and put a chute under the mill to make sure it all hits the bucket. The table...

You could file down the shaft a bit and put a small pulley on it, then a large pulley on the monster mill. A 1.5" and a 12" would give you 8:1 which is 215 rpm. Or a 1.5" and a 15" for 175 rpm. Not sure if the motor shaft is ok for a 1" pulley or not. Then just grab any suitable fan belt from...

Not really, seems like it's normal beer aging. The harshness may be carbonic acid which will dissipate with a bit or time. The soda like bubbles mean that you haven't waited enough for full carbonation. Stuff in solution in the beer provides nucleation sites for co2, and that stuff will...