Recent content by jmansfield

The Fermonitor is still alive after numerous struggles. We had to redesign with completely different electronics from a totally different supplier. We have been conducting a series of extensive tests and we have completed some early beta testing. We still have more work to do with our new...

Last weekend I was in St. Louis and i decided to check out a local HBS, St. Louis Beer and Wine Making. It was in a decent location and the store was very clean. I wanted to buy a Russian Imperial kit for my brother in law and the price was $60. UGH! I can understand some amount of mark-up by...

Let it warm up and gently "rock" the fermenter to get the yeast going a bit - don't shake it or anything crazy like that. Warming it up to 75 or 80 F would be good at this stage.

Chill it down below 35 F.

Liene's Lemon Shandy, Corona or any other beer that requires a lemon to be drinkable, Bud Lime... you can see the theme...

Some people measure and control the temperature directly with an immersion well, some stick a sensor to the surface of the carboy, some immerse the carboy in water and control the water temperature. I did some experiments and found that the surface of the carboy sitting in air can be as much as...

The ice probe chiller is about $100. I also considered freon-based coils and the best one I saw for the job was for the older 5 gallon water coolers like the ones used at the office. They have enough horsepower to chill down into the 40's but I couldn't find one cheap. Most of the newer water...

It is important to get fermentation started as soon as possible in order to protect the wort from wild yeast and bacteria. Once fermentation begins the wort begins to chemically change and it protects itself by creating CO2 and alcohol and with pH changes. I would not feel real good about a wort...

I use option #3 except I don't mess with ice bottles, instead i use an IceProbe aquarium chiller and a Johnson Temp Controller. Works great, I get excellent control down to ~55F. Here is the link to my original thread... https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/water-jacketed-fermentation-chamber-145194/

Sure looks alot like the height I have right now in my 6.5 gallon for a 5 gallon batch.

Another mistake I have seen is people making volume adjustment when wort is still very hot. For example, say you adjust your volume up to the 5 gallon mark in your kettle just before cooling the wort. You will notice that the volume shrinks to about 4.8 gallons after cooling the wort to 75 F...

Look, it is possible the original pitch is going to work out for you but I would be concerned to not see any activity after 8 hours (knowing I made the pitching mistake). Sounds like maybe the yeast pack from the second kit is different from the first? In both cases sounds like you are...

I usually have the opposite problem, low OG from kits. Most of the time it is dead on though. I wonder if your volume markings are correct? You sure you got 5 gallons?

Pitch more yeast immediately... What sort of yeast did you use? Did you make a starter?

Automated swamp cooler for fermentation temperature control - uses IceProbe thermoelectric chiller.