Recent content by bsent

FWIW - over 2 years and 30 batches later I think this was the chloramine. Not just in my Mash and sparge water, but in my starters as well. I’ve gone back to carbon filtering Austin water, but I add a Campden tablet to all my brewing water (or around 1/8th of a tablet for a starter) and this...

I typically brew German lagers [emoji3]

Me neither. All of my tests were time to heat typical strike water volume between two known temps. I don’t really care how much fuel it takes ;-)

Also FWIW, when I built mine out I tested the air pressure where the duct meets the venturi and it's ~1.7" WC (vs. 7" WC where the gas feeds in). Like Jon, my duct pushes into an open venturi. If I could find a way to create a total blockage at the burner, air/gas would simply flow back out the...

Based on curiosity from the Experimental Brewing episode I made one of these too (about 1/3 Cool Ranch Doritos, 1/3 Pils and 1/3 2-Row with a little Cascade). Here are my observations: 1) Flavor-wise this is WAY more appealing/compatible with beer than I would have imagined (though still...

Yeah, sorry to have hijacked your thread. Some of that I was trying to rehash both to confirm my understanding and to help document it (since I had so much trouble finding any good info). I think you're definitely right on the easier to work with. I do have some concerns about thermal...

I was confused by a lot of those conversations at first, then I realized people were talking about two different things -- the orifice size (on the gas valve or input "sleeve") and the gas inlet size (on the burner itself). BG12 uses a 1/8" inlet size, whereas BG14 uses a 1/4" inlet. As for the...

Awesome. Just ordered two of these myself (one for HLT and one for BK). I had already ordered a variable voltage controller (switch selectable) before I saw this. We'll see how it does. How many amps does your 12v source output? Looks pretty. So did you just duct tape the blower output to...

I have the same issue using BG12's on NG and ran across this thread while researching. Based the results here and my own experiments/research, it does seem likely that many people running burners on NG could probably get more BTU's by pushing more air through the system. My hunch is that the...

If you want to put a fair amount of work into salvaging it, I think the best way to make it more palatable is to brew an equal sized beer that you intentionally dry out too much. Hop it per your normal recipe and you should have an over-attenuated beer that tastes thin and bitter to blend with...

For the last two batches I've been building up from distilled or RO water and also acidifying the mash and sparge water according to Brewer's Friend and Bru'nWater. I'm not sure which of these did the trick (or if it was a combination), but the consistent off flavor I was experiencing is no...

On that note, I racked the Maibock to a keg last night. FG came in at 1.012 (right on track) and the beer tastes OK so far. Still not convinced that I'm clear of the problem, but after carbonating for a week I'll give it a taste and see if I can pick up anything. Along the lines of gathering...

After reading for weeks on different possible sources, I've come to the conclusion that describing what you are tasting is difficult and imprecise. So, I'm beginning to wonder if I've correctly even described the symptoms. Check out this thread where the OP suspected everything from his hoses...

You're right - I was acidifying the sparge water based on calcuations from Brewer's Friend. I more recently discovered your spreadsheet so I'm working to compare the two. I haven't added acid to the mash, but based on some of the feedback it seems it would be warranted some some grainbills...

I've never used 5.2. I did some reading and had some of the same concerns, so immediately started trying to figure out my local water when switching to all grain. Also since I never could figure out what was in 5.2 I was concerned that even if I made it work I would never understand why or how...