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The secret ingredient in all good home brew is a pinch of fur during the whirlpool!

I use a COFI basket in my system. On one of my first brews I accidentally left the heater on when the wort was drained. Thermistor was in air and the controller was telling the heat to go full blast, I didn't notice until the scorching smell was abundant. Wort was fine, but the heat element...

Just offering up some advice for readers dreading the thought of reading 57 pages of discussion: The original recipe in post #1 works great. I followed the directions, used the original ingredients, and got #5 double-cooked dark amber with no issues. I used the often recommended hint of...

Thank you all for the help. Wedding went off as smoothly as these things do and much fun was had. 80L of homebrew was the perfect amount, combined with commercial beer & other firewater, and nobody went home unintentionally sober! It took half way through the reception for most people to...

I had poor efficiency with my 15gal COFI system. Not stuck recirc, but looked close to stuck. I bumped my grain crush to 1.25mm (0.049"), as recommended by others here, and everything improved dramatically. Better efficiency (+8%), circulation looks good, and improved my mysterious high FG...

Maybe this is a tangent, but should I consider using gelatin fining? Heard it works great on chilled beer, but never tried it. Prior to transfer, post transfer, or instead of transferring?

Thanks, that's very helpful! Just a couple questions, do I transfer flat beer or carbonated beer? Flat to avoid foamy issues, I think... And I assume you chill for a couple weeks to settle the yeast, then transfer. Correct?

Looks like I've fired up a good conversation! :ban: The suggestions to keep the keg cold the whole trip are good, but not logistically feasible for this trip. I drive 4hrs, wait several hours to board a ferry, truck inaccessible for 12-14hrs on ferry, drive around for another 2-6hrs, and...

Thanks everyone for the advice. Regarding the sediment, I should have about 3 days for the sediment to resettle after traveling. I was already planning to transport the kegs standing up and snugly packed. But I may look into this transfer to a clean keg idea, if I have enough extra kegs to...

I'm new to kegging and making 4x cornies worth of APA for a wedding. I'm brewing in 2x batches, because I have a system that can only make 10gal at a time. Then the kegs will travel in my pickup to the wedding, a multi-day drive away. Therefore the beer will travel warm and be kegged a few...

Just some experiences from my 15gal COFI system brew on the last few brews. I had problems with low efficiency. Bumped my grain crush wider to 1.25mm and went up from 60% to 65-67% BH efficiency, as calculated by Beersmith. Better circulation is a winner here! Last brew I rinsed my grains...

So you are basically sparging, right? Although that sounds like extra work, it might also help my lower than hoped for efficiency. Do you aim for a certain sparge water temp? I've never sparged before, so I'm a little unfamiliar with the process...

I have a 15gal with COFI system and have been getting around 65% Total Efficiency (Beer Smith calcs) with 5-6gal brews of around 1.060 OG. I will need to brew 2x 10gal batches of 1.048 APA for a wedding in a few months. Seems some people are having no problem stuffing 22lbs of grain in the...

Just to make things a little more confusing, some BB COFI users have had better luck with coarse grain milling. My Beersmith Total Efficiency went from mid 50's% to high 60's% when I went from 0.035" to 0.049". Better circulation was obvious and presumably good for mash efficiency. Also, this...

Hmmm, good point. Maybe I've recorded something wrong in the heat of the brewing moment.... This will make deciphering things much harder. I'll have to brew again and be very careful with my records next time. Guess its another 5gal of beer in the name of science! [Thank you Science]

So I brewed again this weekend with exactly the same Brew Boss settings, mill gap, and Beersmith calculations/settings, but different recipes. I got slightly confusing results. Last week: APA (6kg total grain) 60min mash, 60min boil Est pre boil OG 1.048, actual 1.049 (close enough) Est...

That is a good link, distills down the basics well. I've tried a handful of different yeast calculators: Mr Malty, Beersmith, Home Brew Dad, etc. All give different numbers. I'm going to use the directions on Brulosophy and a 1.5L starter, as it seems a good average of all the references...

I'm new'ish to liquid yeast and the amount of conflicting info on the web about starters is driving me in circles. I'd like to check my yeast plan for this weekend's brew with y'all. I've got: Wyeast Activator 3787, Yeast Forge heated stir plate, 2L flask, light DME, yeast nutrients, O2...

Regarding my 65% efficiency, it is what Beersmith calls "Tot Efficiency". I believe this is the same as Brewhouse Efficiency. I'm taking SG readings post mash and post boil. The post boil was dead on and the post mash was low by 0.001. I can live with that! I would like to improve my...

I have a 15gal Brew Boss with COFI and have had troubles with low efficiency. However, when brewing last weekend I increased my mill gap to 1.25mm (0.049") per earlier posts and hit my target OG for the first time on this system. I WOO-HOO'd so loud the dog ran outside and my GF dropped her...