Recent content by Brewer Mike

Also, keep in mind that the Pill can take a while to equalize. The case can insulate it to a degree.

So, wouldn't the beer style have an effect on the refraction? i.e. a light lager vs a stout? My intuition says the color would effect the refraction.

I'm interested.

I was thinking exactly the same thing! Great job, Jacob!

Why doesn't the liquid outside the pipe get recirculated? There should be less resistance, not having to travel through the grain bed.

I've got friends in my brew club that use condensation lids to brew indoors. I'm not sure how effective they are for the smell, though. You might want to research that. I would only advise AIO, if you're seriously entertaining all grain brewing. Otherwise, it's a kind of expensive brew pot...

Hello! I've got a wild Grapes Merlot kit. I plan to bulk age it for 9 - 12 months. Instructions say to add Bentonite at the very beginning. Being a fining agent, do I even need it? Seems that it would naturally clarify during the bulk aging, or does it have other effects?

FYI - you can mix up a salt water solution for the high end of the advanced calibration. I forget the ratio I used, but it wasn't a whole lot of salt, which is really cheap anyway. I keep the house pretty cool at night - 60 in the winter. I had 2 pitchers, one with 1/2 gallon of distilled...

My take is, it's not combining the ingredients that makes it beer. It's the fermentation process. When you pitch the yeast, you're at 100% wort, 0% beer. As fermentation occurs, you progress to 100% beer, 0% wort (or near 100%/0%).

FWIW - I wasn't trying to be deceptive. I just compared the 312 to the price of the one Day Tripper linked to.

They also have the ITC-312 that's Bluetooth 5 for about $10 less. They claim 100m distance, but I'd bet that's under laboratory conditions.

Inkbird could make theirs much better with software improvements. It's such a PIA if you want to ramp up the temp, say, 1 degree every 12 hours to hit a Diacetyl rest at the end of fermentation. Or, ramp down slowly for a cold crash.

Join a homebrew club if there's on near you. You don't have to be intimidated being a beginner. We love helping newbies become successful. You can bring some of your beer and have experienced people evaluate it and tell you what's wrong and offer suggestions. My club has a bunch of people...

I've got the Cereal Killer. Looks the same. I get a little bit (Wouldn't fill a shot glass) when i fill the hopper. None after I start milling. Are you getting it continuously? Not really a "fix", but double milling would help.

Yakima. Bulk hops is one thing I don't buy from my LHBS. They're significantly more economical provided you buy enough that the shipping makes sense. And, there's a military (and I assume others) discount through GovX.