Recent content by wuertele

I think I took my samples in March or April 2011.

That is a sweet looking construction. How did you make the burner supports / kettle supports?

Thanks, this is new information, it is very interesting and I'm going to give the cone a try. Do you know why 1 ml per liter is the cutoff for solids? Don't you have to chill the wort in order for all the solids to precipitate? What is the potential defect of letting more than 1ml per liter...

If you are talking about me, you are mistaken. I don't care whether you read my replies to your posts, but please don't misrepresent them. I will not sacrifice quality for time. But I will work very hard to optimize my time, even if it means spending more money to make my beer. Your...

I live in the Bear Gulch Water district (on the SF Peninsula), but the report I get from the supplier does not have enough information to tweak my water recipe. So this month I had my water tested by Ward Labs. Most of the San Francisco Peninsula from Menlo Park up to the City gets their...

Thanks, that clears it up for me a lot. It sounds like the problem is one of efficiency, not of defective wort. Is that right? My goal is to reduce the time it takes me to brew without hurting the quality of the beer. I have the hours between 9pm and midnight to myself: weekdays belong to...

I have a Blichmann Burner that I stored for a while and managed to lose the little orifice doohickey. My retailer doesn't carry replacements and says ordering from Blichmann will take weeks. I suspect that this is a standard part that I could pick up at the local Grainer, as long as I know the...

Not very often. If you don't answer my question, I certainly don't have a right to gripe about it. Of course, if you did answer my question it would be of great value to me, even if you were short. Saying that I should go to school to find the answer, or read every pro brewer book currently...

I'm still trying to verify your claim that slower flow is better flow and leads to better extract. I read your BYO Mr Wizard link, but that is about HSA. A faster lauter does not by itself imply HSA, it is only a consideration if you stir the mash. I also looked into turbidity. This paper...

That GW Kent link has a rotating nozzle for $69, that doesn't seem so bad. If smaller micros are OK with non-rotating balls, what are the advantages of rotating nozzles? My impression was that the rotating nozzle can direct a higher pressure flow against the vessel wall and still achieve the...

Thanks for the tip about the trombone, I'm going to look into that. If the top of the trombone is below the water level, wouldn't wort come spewing out of the vent? Do you have any credible references supporting the assertion that batch sparging causes oxidation of tannins and phenols any...

I don't think that is sufficient. I once asked John Blichmann whether I could reverse the direction of both fluids on the Therminator (I think it has 40 plates), and he said no, the flow patterns are designed to work in only one direction. The chilling efficiency goes way down when the...

You could get a proportional controller: https://www.alliedelec.com/search/productdetail.aspx?SKU=6823038 Then control it with a cheap potentiometer and a battery.

$12k. Do I win?

I'm just starting to learn about water and I'm struggling with alkalinity. Wikipedia says that most of the bases in solution come from bicarbonate and carbonate, due to environmental contact with carbonate rocks and atmospheric CO2. It also says that there are other bases including borate...