Recent content by arcaniment

I've never done strawberries, but I breweda raspberry wheat beerlast summer. I used 3.5 pounds of raspberry pured in a 5 gallon batch. Worked great. I just dumped it right into the secondary and racked ontop of it.

I use an old heating pad for mine. It works just fine. My garage recently has been in the 30-40 range, and I have had no issues keeping my fermenter at 68. If you got the digital Johnson Controls temperature controller, it can be a pain in the spring/fall. As stated before, it is not a...

I would not go smaller than 10 gallon. If (or WHEN) you move to all grain, you will need it. Every time I buy a new piece of equipment, I try to think of going bigger. For instance, when I built my mash tun, I bought a cooler that I could potentially use for 10 gallon batches.

Thanks a lot! I will definitely try that. It has some sort of blue ink printing on the outside of the copper, and I'm scared it will come off in the boil. I also read about using a mixture of vinegar and baking soda. I saw that on a distilling forum.

I just got a refractometer and love it. I was having a problem with boil off. I brewed an imperial stout and completely missed my OG. It was supposed to be 1.08X and I got 1.07X. When I transferred to the fermenter, I was sitting at 6.5 gallons instead of 5.5. With a refractometer, you can...

I may be wrong, but the change in gravity may have been the refractometer adjusting to the correct temperature. You are correct, ATC is temperature correction, and I believe you have to let the sample sit on the lens for a bit to correct.

I do the exact same thing. I heat all of my waters inside on the stove. Gas is a whole lot cheaper than propane!

I apologize if this is not in the right section, but does anyone have suggestions for cleaning copper before initial use? Specifically, there is blue ink markings on the copper. The coil has some sort of blue ink printing on it, and I would like to remove it prior to use. I'm also thinking...

O.G. 1.085. Mr. Malty recommended a 2L starter with 2 vials. I didn't have 2 vials, so I bumped up the starter to 3.5L. It's on the stir plate now, and everything looks normal. Thanks!

Thoughts?

I have a vial of White Labs yeas with a best by date of 7/5/13. According to Mr. Malty, I need a 2L starter with 2 vials. I only have 1, so I did a bigger starter. Do you think this will be okay?

Thanks Bobby! I have never tried soldered stainless, but I have installed weldless with no problems. I have sweated copper, and sterling silver, but not stainless.

I just aquired a sanke keg, and want to install a valve on the bottom. Does anyone have any opinion on solder versus weldless? I have used the weldless kit from bargain fittings in the past, and it works well. I was just wondering if there were any pros/cons anyone is aware of. Thanks in...

I took the dip tube out and put the post back on. Definitely too much play in the threads. Luckily, I didn't crank down on it last night. The threads look fine. I ended up using a torch to compress the poppet spring, and take some pressure off. Seals fine, and I can hook everything up with...

I'll check it out when I get home, but it threaded on easily.