Recent content by cschweda

My picobrew is arriving soon. I've had a eHERMS system for about five years and then gave up on it. As much as I loved to use it, it had significant limitations. First, it needed a 220V plug to hookup the heating element. I had this installed once -- but it cost quite a bit, and when we moved, I...

Wait -- so if I'm following this, I can transfer from the primary keg to a secondary keg after primary fermentation is, attach the spunding valve, and then carbonate to 10psi or so with secondary fermentation? And then I can serve right from the secondary keg? This sounds great. As I say, I've...

One other question I'm curious about: did you ferment in the keg as the picobrew videos show? I've always used Better Bottles. I realize the batches here are small -- around 2.5 gallons (which is actually great for me because it's an excuse to always brew more) -- but I was wondering if it...

Awesome. Thanks for the tip on the Scrubmaster 3000! I've got the pump in my Amazon cart (looks like it went up a bit -- $62 now). I'm going to pull the trigger on it when the Pico is on its way.

BTW -- regarding hop utiliziation. Even during my eHERMS days, I had issues with hops and hop utilization. I was using pellets, and occasionally used a hopback as well as dry hopping. Strangely enough, the only time I was happy with my hoppy beers was when I used Northern's hopshot concentrate...

Wow -- @Baja_Brewer -- your observations are fantastic, but it sounds like there's a lot of operator error (obviously unintentional) involved. Ditto for the CNET video -- especially as it relates to fermentation. What I'm hearing -- and reading -- are two big issues: - folks aren't sanitizing...

How does the beer from the picobrew actually taste? Has anyone finished a batch and tasted it? The video from CNET says the taste is not so great. I'll post my unboxing -- and my first brew -- in a separate thread once the machine comes -- but I admit, I'm worrying that this thing doesn't make...

I have a picobrew coming in 2 weeks or so. Does it come with any grain? Or should I pre-order graint/hops for 2.5 gallon recipe?