Recent content by mmccurdy

I'm getting ready to move cross country and not wanting to haul a bunch of brewing stuff with me. I've got it broken up across a couple of listings on CL, but I have a custom brew stand (including kettles, pumps, chiller, etc.) as well as a big lot of equipment and a temperature-controlled...

Bits for the burner mount and kettle rest ready for install: Everything welded up: Few issues today, mostly due to the questionable placement of the bolt holes on my burners (standard Bayou Classic elements removed from their respective stands). This one is actually pretty close...

So I guess I'll go ahead and use this as a build thread instead of starting a new one. Small updates to the design. Hanging the pumps to keep them as low as possible to avoid priming issues with the mash tun. Decided on a burner mounting design. I want the kettles to sit a little above the...

Yeah, the lower MLT is less about positioning the bottom of the vessel and more about keeping the tops all even -- at a height optimized for adding ingredients and stirring, etc. I have a false bottom for the cooler, and I didn't have a problem recirculating and then sparging with the pump...

Yeah I happen to have three pumps right now, since I bought two and then got a third with the same craigslist deal that I got the brutus steel. I haven't thought through all the plumbing yet, but if including the third pump saves me having to disconnect lines filled with near-boiling water or...

I only have one batch of all-grain under my belt, so I thought I'd throw this out there hoping to get some feedback from people who have a lot more experience with this stuff. Eventually I want to wind up with a semi-automated HERMS system. I'm not a big fan of keggles (aesthetically or...

I'm in...

It's been about a month since my first extract batch, and I've been itching to go all-grain. Fueled by the determination that my first beer is actually turning out pretty well, I decided to give it a shot today. In the meantime, I picked up ton of stuff on craigslist from a guy who had just...

I don't have firsthand experience, but they should be the same fittings as on the full size couplers, so if you're set up to do QD's with the regular coupler, the low profile should just swap in.

The first pic doesn't look so bad as long as there's not a hard kink in the line. There are also "low profile" sanke couplings available, e.g.: this one from Amazon (no affiliation) I don't think you'll ruin the keg by tipping it like in the second pic, but you'll leave probably ~1 gal in the...

According to their site: Bittering: Bravo Aroma: Chinook & Experimental Dry Hops: Chinook, Citra, and Experimental Obviously it seems like the "experimental" are proprietary, but who knows you may be able to get close with the other info.

x2... I'm all for Reinheitsgebot as much as the next guy, but more than that I'm after that super-crisp helles that's poured off the wooden keg in their gastropub in München. I'm definitely not above using wheat, etc. if the homebrew elite tell me it's the way to go. What's the verdict on...

It doesn't look like the impeller in that one is magnetically coupled to the drive, which is a distinguishing feature of the March-type pumps. This may or may not be an issue depending on your application. It probably wouldn't stand up well to being throttled back with a valve like many folks...

Had this on draught tonight... I don't have much rye experience either. This one was interesting, kind of a "raw" taste to it -- my wife said it tasted as close as she's had to the way a typical wort boil smells, and I kind of see where she's coming from. I liked the hop profile, but there is...

I picked one of these up based on some thread that I saw on here (maybe this one?) and I'm very happy with it so far. Nice and small but still plenty of power to heat up a decent sized chamber. It does have a temperature switch for over-temp protection. I've never had it kick in, but it...