Recent content by Elfmaze

Quick disconnects might be nice, but if you're not moving at that much it doesn't matter. I used off-the-shelf Lowe's, I believe quarter inch threaded to barb fittings. Lowe's also sold foam pipe wrap that I used to cover the lines from the cooler back to the conical. That's been working for 6...

I agree so far with my brewing as well. I find myself just manually setting the temp and power to where I need it. Possibly after some time and getting all the parameters tuned out I will become more comfortable with the automation.

I too went with a custom DIY 50amp RIMS build. My system was built long before the idea of electric fired elements and I didn't want to change my brewing style to fit the prebuilt controllers. Now the only problem I am still working is I need a low flow sensor to detect stuck mashes... 4500...

This is true. I have a small chain host above my kegerator to lift half barrels in... guess lifting a whole keg up and over would be tough for most people

I was thinking more match the 25.5 of the 5 gallon. That would save 2 inches off the diameter. But I guess still thick at 13.2ish wide

I brew in 10 gallon batches and if for nothing else I want to reduce the number of lines in my kegerator to reduce the challenge of leak hunting... But there is also the complexity of washing two kegs per batch. I would love a 10 gallon Torpedo keg... but they are wide and squat. Not super...

the stand was an after thought. couldn't figure out how to hold it all steady for soldering with the angles, so built a "jig" then realizing how vulnerable it would be to crushing, I left it in the Jig... and finally just accepted it and painted the thing... but yes. Much better protected...

possibly, would help to have fins on the outer at that point... but I doubt it would change the efficiency that much. Now plumbing a ground water prechiller to take it the last 30* using the glycol to precool the incoming water could work...

Had the first test of the system. Worked as planned. Not the fastest chiller, but does its job. knocked it from 212* to 112* in about 20mins. went to 100* before kicking it over to the conical and glycol took it the rest of the way. I recaptured about 20 gallons of hot water that I then...

Yeah, So. I have never liked traditional plate chillers(besides the SABCO monster) because they have fairly small channels and are impossible to clean out. they are soldered together after all. Twisted Counter flow chillers have better flow, But again, impossible to verify clean without a...

First leak test done. should have left a bit more space for screwing on the hose as my fitting apparently doesn't spin :( But no significant leaks detected in a dynamic test... i wasn't able to try a static high pressure test... but a few drips on the brew stand dont really worry me

Ah it looks like part of my problem was flux... need more flux. didnt realize the whole area needs cleaned with flux

SO I've never had trouble sweating pipes before. but this one is not flowing... I used a pipe tool to clean up the edges and applied this flux to the joints. Using this solder, But its not flowing into the joint... just around. It probably took about an hour to put it all...

Test glass after a week or so in fridge, more yellow one was from my sample port

I had a stuck mash from hell in my brew magic clone system. didn't get any clarification in the mash recycle and a ton of junk made it to the conical. It seems to settle from a test.... But its been down three weeks now and hasn't even got to the sample port yet. A test glass does settle...