7 years of fermenting in 2 plastic buckets that exploded quite often. Finally upgraded 2 batches ago. I agree that there a little heavy compared to the split batches, thats why I have a little plywood on casters to wheel the beast around.
Just get your arm nice and clean the night before, pull the dip tube out enought to get the ss scrubby on and you should be good.
I had a problem doing it that way up until the dip tube was un-clogged. Since your pulling it out, give it a clean before putting the scrubby on.
Don't worry about...
My conversion to 10 gallons. Needed a little more aroma hops for my liking but perhaps my hops were not fresh enough. Would probley try whole hops for the dry hopping next time otherwise pretty tasty.
Summer Ipa
Batch size 11 gallons
Boil size 14.1 gallons
Boil time 90 minutes
Grain...
Not too much beer in 5 gallons, about 40 pints. On average my consumption is about 3 weeks. Got a roommate(weekend drinker) and a girlfriend(light drinker) so adding that 5 gallon kegs last about 2weeks.
I have since learned when fermenting with fruit, the later the better. Aggressive primary fermentation usually destroys the delicate fruit aroma/flavor. The beverage definitely lacked fruit profile.
Bigger the brew pot the better, but if you have an 8 gal already no need to replace. Efficiency helps adjust recipes to be accurate, not necessarily gonna make bad beer not paying attention to it. Also helps cost on grain bill, but grain is cheap. Software for me is nice cause it has formulas...
If you get around to building that collar, you may want to get some faucet covers if your worried about stuff getting in there. I picked up a bunch at the homebrew store and besides keeping stuff out they keep the faucets from sticking.
Mine doesn't. If i go anywhere above 40 I've got a useless box. Interesting how mine works though, the coils are actually in the freezer. thermo in the fridge. The dial that controls the freezer temp opens or closes air flow to the fridge, cutting off the compressor when the fridge gets to temp...
google love controler.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/another-fermerator-144486/
just gotta figure out the existing wiring... or get a Ranco or Johnson plug and play.
what they said. I had a wee heavy that started at 1.110 and finished at 1.020. Aged it on oak for 4 months. Had concerns that it would not carbonate. Came out great. It probley took a little longer but its not like it hurts to wait on something like this (2 months compared to the 4 weeks).