Recent content by ThreeDogsNE

Any progress on the 2"? I understand that the ripple 5500W elements won't fit through a 1.5".

I cannot find anything that suggests that Listeria will survive alcoholic fermentation. Anyone?

As far as the E. Coli goes, alcoholic fermentation will kill them. "Results of this study indicate that E.coli 0157:H7 is capable of survival in fresh apple cider at 20°C, while alcoholic fermentation of fresh cider is an effective means of destroying this pathogen." Here is the reference...

Campden tablets are either sodium metabisulfite or potassium metabisulfite. Unfortunately, there is not any easy automatic answer for how much SMS or KMS to add. That depends on the pH. With adequate free sulfites prior to fermentation, you should not have to worry about spoilage bacteria...

We've had such a lovely winter here in Southwest Iowa (near Red Oak), that I now have a 7 foot snowblower mounted on the rear of my tractor. Moving to an acreage has been more....interesting(?) than I expected. I haven't found many other homebrewers down here. When I mention the hobby here...

Could I ask the same favor? I have had a BCS 462 sitting on my shelf for some time, without sufficient power to the garage to use it. I am finally fixing that situation. Now to find where I put the various parts. Thanks in advance.

If you are looking at punching your own holes in kettles and mounting your own fittings, these could serve you well. I've been using these for about 10 years now, and they have held up well. However, they won't do bottom drainage. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000X1LYFQ/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Perhaps you will find what you need in this archive, collected by someone else, and found near the end of this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/list-of-pj-electrical-diagrams.382286/. The archive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B3vePHEj1uiCTDNPRGZnTkUweUk

I hope you get a reply, but I wouldn't hold your breath. P-J hasn't been seen on this site since 7/23/2015. Prior to that he was posting that he had COPD and didn't expect to live much longer. His work is in part archived elsewhere.

That's a little bit compulsive, I fear. This is hot side, or at least can be. There are more fun ways to pass time than oversanitizing the chiller. The beauty of these is that you can effectively sanitize them by recirculating boiling wort through them for the final several minutes of your...

Ah, the "swamp cooler". I have used it in the past with beer fermentations in my basement. Left a few weeks, the bucket water and tee shirt got to be a moldy mess. I would not plan to use one for a long slow fermentation without planning some maintenance to avoid that.

Lose the yeast energizer! Yeast nutrients are great for helping a beer fermentation move right along, but that is generally not the goal with cider. Are you familiar with keeving? Those who make a keeved cider go to a fair bit of effort to deprive the yeast of nutrients in order to get a...

Arkansas Black? Have you looked at these folks? https://www.albemarleciderworks.com/orchard/apple-varieties/cider They are in Virginia, which is not zone 9, but much warmer than the usual cast of characters in Washington State or Maine.

If you go down this path, beware of the slippery slope into the world of sour beers! Also, a gentle reminder is in order that anything you use on a sour is at risk for being permanently contaminated with Brett. So, if you have an AutoSiphon, tubing, whatever, and use them on the sour, they are...

Thanks, Brewcat! I will give this a try soon.