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Wish I could suggest a board but I'm building my own (IGBTs and all). Most boards on the market are quasi-resonant inverters (as far as I can tell... looks like the board brewman bought is a single IGBT quasi-resonant). I was thinking of building a half-bridge inverter but decided to go for...

Thank you for sharing all your work. I've been reading through this thread for inspiration. I have been wanting to build a 6 kW induction brew stand for a while. With the extra time I've had at home due to Covid-19, I've begun to make it a reality. One thing to note for your second build...

If you did a continuity check per the schematic and a visual inspection, I would just double check good ground continuity on all touchable parts like the kettles and chassis. I would give it a test. Just make sure your elements are under water before turning them on. Make sure all high voltage...

Can you be more specific. Maybe add a schematic and/or pictures? Visual inspection is usually the best if it’s large component stuff. Are you asking about a 240 Vac dual pole breaker installation in your panel or two 120 Vac circuits?

Sounds like you did everything right. You could cold crash it over night in the fridge, decant the beer, and check the gravity to see if it fermented. You can’t easily check for contamination without plating... there are some tests but nothing quick.

I like the idea of a solid state stir plate. You can probably use a stepper motor controller to get it to work. They are common and you can find them pretty cheap.

You'll be fine. The extra water will just lower the gravity of your starter. This is better than having a gravity over 1.040. Since you plan on decanting, you won't thin your wort out either. As far as stepping up, I wouldn't bother. You might be on the edge of not enough yeast but I think a lot...

I'd buy it. Make a starter though.

How will you know if it worked? I guess if a refractometer and hydrometer read the same, you could be somewhat certain it worked. No alcohol to skew the refractometer reading.

I built my rig but I have a little input. You can buy a 1 bbl 4 vessel system from stout tanks in Portland for $3100. I'm sure you could get a half bbl system for $2500 or less. That includes a conical. If I had the cash (and could convince the wife) I'd buy one...

I like the "made from beer" line at the end. That's awesome.

You don't have to pitch right away. You could still use the stir plate for both batches. You could even do a real wort starter with the second batch and pitch the whole starter without decanting. That's what I would do.

You don't even need the OG if you have a refractometer, hydrometer and beer smith. Degas a bottle, take a reading with both the refractometer and hydrometer and beer smith will give you the OG and ABV. It's pretty consistent with my measurements. The only thing you have to lose is carbonation...

43 Farads... or 7 femto Farads, either will work ;) Another option is to get a cheap microcontroller. You could get an MSP430 dev board for 20 bucks (usb programmer and one micro). Plus 3 extra micros for 10 bucks. You could fade a dozen LEDs with PWM at any frequency. Just a thought.

Instead of a trimmer cap, I'd just go with a trim pot. You can get everything in your circuit at radio shack or fry's electronics for pretty cheap. Just put a 10k resistor in series with your trim pot in place of R1. That will give you control of your frequency. You'll need to adjust R3 for...

My first year centennial smelled a little rubbery last year but that was after they had been in a plastic bag for a while. I just went outside to smell them... I'm not getting a rubber smell. Do the green ones smell good?

Is/was it next to a window or just on the counter? I've wanted to try this but I'm too afraid. Do you plan on plating/slanting the yeast to try to isolate healthy colonies?

I'm not speaking from experience but I imagine they don't pull the stem every time. They have keg washers that pump PBW in the "out" and out the "in". Then they rinse and sanitize the same way. They can do something like 20 an hour from what I've heard.

There should still be enough yeast to finish the job. You may get more banana esters. I'd wait a week and check the gravity (or after the krausen falls). I'd also double check that the fermenter is airtight.

That has happened to me several times. It'll be fine. I usually switch back to an airlock after it settles down a bit.