Recent content by sparkeee277

So I brewed this last weekend with my new chugger and it was awesome. I didn't realize how much easier and enjoyable brewing would be using a pump. Thanks again everybody for sharing your knowledge!

Wow, you all had awesome responses, I really appreciate it. This is my first pump so the advice is well taken. Especially the priming and restricting the flow on the output side only. I'll post a picture of the rig when it's done, it will be a few months though..... Thanks again!

Does anybody have any experience with pumping wort from the mash tun to the boil kettle through the lower valve? I'm building a AG rig with a chiller and pump, and am wondering if I need to add a upper valve on the boil kettle. I'm worried that if I'm filling the boil kettle from the bottom up...

It's a commercial strainer that I picked up from a restaurant supply store. It had a handle on it, but I cut it off and used it for the bar that goes across the top of the filter.... It works great as the screen is double walled so nothing gets through except for liquid.....

I usually take a sanitized rubber band and close the top of the hop bag super tight with it, just in case you wanted to give it another shot sometime..... Nothing's ever escaped.....

So I wouldn't necessarily say "not true", but maybe true with your experience. I suppose if your ambient temperature was absolutely consistent after fermentation was completed, you could leave it on the cake longer than a month. I live in California where we have huge temp swings, and I don't...

Nice, it's like a hybrid BIAB and easier to clean....... Where did you get the mesh bottom material?

The idea is to keep the top inch or so of the strainer above the top of the liquid level during the boil, with the rest of if submerged. The hops get added into the strainer and are kept in there for the duration of the boil. The utilization should be pretty good with that much wort contact...

Jleiii, sounds like a cool system. I don't think I've ever seen a mash basket in action. Please post pictures when you can!

Thanks guys..... No more scraping the hops of my kettle screen when I transfer the wort!

I use the exact same set up.... All I have that you don't is a $20, 8 gallon aluminum pot from Walmart. I use it to heat my mash and sparge water, then run everything with gravity.

So from the research I've done and experience I have some rules of thumb: 1. I never leave beer on the original yeast cake more than 3 weeks. The yeast cake is done doing its work at that point, and some off flavors can start to develop after 3 weeks. (1 month might be OK) 2. I never leave the...

Just throwing this out there for anybody looking for cheap way to keep pellet hop matter out of the fermentation vessel. It's pretty easy to build, about $30 bucks for the materials. Nice thing about it is that you can adjust the height of the hop holder depending on the volume of wort in the...

The bubbles are mid line. I can see them crawling up towards the shank connection after a pour. I'm sure I have no leaks at the fittings. Day Tripper, I know. I read 4 psi on the More Beer site, then kept looking and found the 1 psi rule. I'm basing my calculations on that. Thanks for your...

Hey, what do you guys think about this? From another thread..... https://www.homebrewtalk.com/attachments/f84/10043d1235798024-beer-line-length-pressure-calculator-beer-line-length-pressure-calculator.zip