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Thanks for the info on the dimensions and glad to hear it's working so well. I'm going to scour the central/north TX (I'm in Waco) area for a good deal on one. Your ferments look like they are going nicely in that photo!

NTXBrauer - drudging this post up from about a month ago, but was curious how the GDM-12 was working out. Also wondering what the interior dimension of that unit are?

Sheesh...must remember to look before posting...

Ground temp is pretty much always over pitch temp here too. I picked up a cheap sump pump from harbor freight, put ice water in my ice chest and pump that through my immersion coil. Would work the same with plate/counter flow chillers too. Not a new idea but it works pretty well.

Seems like having both tanks the same size is good. If you have a setup controlling temps in a freezer by taping the probe to your carboy etc, you may want to watch for temp differences between the two due to the different yeast strains?

All the breweries I've seen use large industrial sized plate chillers. I use an immersion chiller because I like the idea of dropping the entire boil volume below 140F as fast as possible to limit DMS concerns. Seems like CF/plate would leave larger volume above 140 for as long as it takes you...

Sorry, not my intent. Yeast is an area I'm learning more about too. If I'm starting out with a new batch of yeast, I'll use a starter wort of 1.040 SG and a volume (1L for example) to reach an estimated cell count that I usually get from mrmalty.com. I like taking this direction since it is a...

Also on your starter, it's good to keep track of times but make sure you're noting initial cell count estimates, starter wort volume and gravity so you can have some idea what final cell count estimate you are pitching into your wort. I imagine you are, just a note since you referenced it by...

Hey Ripley, hope your morning is going well. Each strain of yeast has its happy range where it produces it's best work. From my reading and experience, you want to hit that temp in your wort very quickly and hold it rock solid for the first phase at least, then you can ramp temps up to help...

Not uncommon for recipes to not mention priming sugars since carbonation can be done different ways, bottle conditioned or force carb. Some will specify how many volumes of CO2 at a given temperature to shoot for. You can bottle condition with different sugars, corn sugar etc is pretty common...

Greetings! I visited GC last year for the first time, +1 to brewing up caybrew alternatives. Is it difficult to find ingredients/equipment there?

Could you siphon from a length of 1/2" silicone tubing? I'd prime the siphon with a turkey baster or something to avoid serious burns and contamination.

Looks like that recipe you have is for a session beer. The OG was listed at 1.035 and finish at 1.012, which should only be in the ~3 ABV to start with. So you're not really crazy low at 2.4 ABV. Maybe just different than expected?

What temp did you ferment both at? Higher temps in general will generate more diacetyl. Also looks like the WLP041 is pretty slow to ferment completely, and likely then slow to clean up its byproducts. I found the article below which is pretty good. It indicates that diacetyl present in your...

Still going to need an enclosure for mechanical relays/SSRs and the like if you're wanting to control elements, pumps, etc. I have a BCS and like it for the most part. Not too hot on the plotting functionality and also wish you could declare variables for temps (maybe you can, but I don't know how).

Yeah, continually opening/stirring is asking for heat loss and HSA. Also with you on the RIMS/HERMS helping (that part is in work for me right now). Although, it still seems that the temp distribution with a recirculating system is going to depend on how you return the wort to the grain bed...

I have the same issue. I'm wondering if the best solution is to keep the mash stirred and heat evenly distributed, rather than accepting thermal pockets and trying to get an average? I'm in a cooler so continuous stirring without bleeding heat all over the place will take some effort.

I think you are probably on the right track. If you have nearly three inches of the probe in the wall of the cooler (colder temp than contents) or outside the cooler all together, the net reading is going to be pretty far off if the inside/outside temp differential is large. I have heard of...

Hope I'm putting this in the right section - first post... Slickdeals.net has a posting for a Kenmore 8.8 cu ft. chest freezer at Sears (http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_04616922000P?aff=Y&sid=I0084400010000100383). Original price ~$330 on sale for $199. If you search it out on...