Recent content by ColoradoChuck

I made a 1L 1.040 starter; the source yeast wasn't too old, and it seemed to ferment well. Life intercedes, and that flask comes to sit covered with foil in my refrigerator. - How long do I have before it is no longer good to use? Is saving it to a media bottle for a longer storage period a...

Ditto on smelly soap! Good tip on the q-tips. I'm pretty liberal with the Star San. I have a 5-gal bucket for the immersion chiller, another for swishing the fermenter or rinsing spoons, and sometimes one more for just-in-cases. The spray bottle is always in use. For me, an ounce (per...

Sorry, @Broken Crow, what I should have said is I that for my tube of CIP-Film (solid grease in a tube), I uncap it, then spray the open end of it with Star San before I put a dab on my finger. (I spray my finger too!) I'm not using "spray lube". Bad typing on my part! For that matter, I...

Some musings I had questions about: 1. When applying keg lube to "sanitary" surfaces, is there a best practice for not contaminating things? The CIP Film tube I uses isn't necessarily sanitary but I spray it when I uncap it. and I spray my finger before putting a sample on it. Is there...

(for no other reason than reassurance...)

Ditto for me on time/pressure, Marc. Skimping on processing parameters seems dubious at best. What I like best is I can measure in a stock pot and tune the SG exactly, then ladle into jars. No guessing or approximations (for some reason I can never seem to hit the SG exactly just doing...

Couple of canned wort questions. I am assuming employing proper pressure canning techniques, using non-chlorinated water, the whole proper operation list... 1. Is there a downside, other than using more jars, to canning a 1.035 SG solution of DME for direct pitching vs the more common 1.080 SG...

@Bobby_M, can you elaborate on the spigot? It is short like a garden hose bib. An NPT fitting I tried threaded only a turn or so, so I won't be forcing NPT on it. Your BSP-BLQD adapter threads smoothly, but the spigot only reaches into about the middle of the female BSPP. (I didn't want to...

@Indian_villager, how has this rig worked out for you? Have you had any problems with the heating element affecting the insulation? I see there is insulation fill-in where the drain tube exits at the side of the tun, and hence close to the element. Has the insulation been...

Interesting note, Whiskey. I'm thinking I will allow the entire bag to dry completely before hooking the apparatus up. Ethanol would probably better evaporate, even in a resting bag. Timing the setup with the bag's drying might prove difficult, though. There's always risk of the open...

The bag was dumped--trust me! Tubing, check valve, bladder valve as well. Everclear comes in 95% and 75% strengths; I have the 95%. Optimal ethanol dilution for sanitization is about 70%. (There are a number of references out there that talk about the reasons for this, mainly regarding...

Recently got an infection of the CCG bladder (Serratia marcescens ?). I used Star San to do a pre-sanitize, but I did not dry the bladder out completely, hence a moist environment in the bag. I'm planning on running this again, but I would appreciate comments on using a 70% ethanol solution...

Second. He is ethical, honest, runs a well-stocked shop, and is more generous with his time and talent than most of us could ever be.

Bobby, is your time/temp based on Pasteurization protocol? (I see there are several time vs. temp procedures to choose from.) I've been looking for "how to sanitize recirc tubing post-boil" guildlines/best practices, to no avail. I believe I read (from you?) that pumps don't like boiling fluid...

What I had in mind was a formal (as in formula) derivation of values seen in charts such as this one found on this page. When I see tables like this: I start thinking about an equation to fit pitch rate to gravity, but if it's all based on experimentation and best-practices (thanks...