Recent content by Hex23

Usually not, but rarely you'll see a small Krausen during bottle conditioning. You might be able to see a small yeast buildup, though that could just be settling. Most often you won't notice anything at all.

I think most of the advice to set the PID higher than the desired mash temp is based on experience that the mash temp is actually like 2 to 4 F lower than the wort temperature (not to speed up equilibrium). I've generally experienced this too, but I also think that even with the recirculating...

I understand the temptation. But if the PID is tuned well it should be able to reach the set point in the fastest time possible without excessive overshoot. A PID's tuning is valid only for a given system, which includes burner output. You could possibly speed up time to reach equilibrium by...

Only thing I could offer on what the oat malt brings to the beer vs regular oats or malted barley is the marketing blurbs, which are probably way embellished anyway! "texture and warm, grainy flavor", "unmistakable texture and silkiness only oats will produce" ?!?!?

That's a really hard question to answer since we haven't exchanged beers. It's possible that others are closer than my attempt or vice versa. The only "data" point I have is are the triangle tests I performed, but there are way too few samples to conclude anything. Next time I brew it I'll...

And, there's little harm in doing 1 and 2 together.

After the yeast have finished the bulk of fermentation, putting on insulation won't do much. You'll have to actively heat. A really simple and cheap solution to heating is a brew belt.

Nah, your questions are good ones. I'm just not a fan of fixed timelines or secondaries. Just trying to provide some options. Last time I brewed this was several years ago, so I had forgotten about that. Options in order of increasing complication. It's always best to take these measures...

1.032 is pretty high. Based on your OG, that's only 63% attenuation, which is well below that yeast's capability, especially given the pure sugar content. It's not very common for an ale to keep dropping gravity points beyond a couple weeks (on its own), but certainly not impossible. When you...

Those percentages refer to the PWM duty cycle. Since these controllers aren't rheostats that control the output voltage, the way they scale back power is to turn the power on and off in a proportion. E.g. if the controller has a cycle of 10 seconds, a 50% power means it turns on for 5 seconds...

Good luck! It does sound like a fun experiment. Please let us know how it turns out.

I used a combination of 1 oz dried sweet orange peel from the LHBS (the kind broken into little bits) and about 1.5 oz of fresh orange zest. I'd say my temp profile for the 3463 was probably typical for a tripel. I pitched at 68F after a solid dose of O2 and let it free rise (limited it to...

BTW, there's a whole thread on here somewhere with helpful thoughts on smaller batches. I think it's titled something like "1 gallon brewers unite"

Some reasons I can think of for why to use smaller equipment: 1) easier to cleanup 2) better to minimize headspace But generally, no, it won't have a "huge" effect.

OP, I know the forum topic is AG and PM brewing, but we should confirm whether you're talking about an AG batch, before discussing the effects of efficiency.