Recent content by PlinyTheMiddleAged

I make an attempt to mill into a CO2 purged mash tun. It’s far from perfect, but this is what I do. First, I BIAB full volume mash and I don’t underlet, so I have that working against me. Instead, I pre-boil my strike water to drive the DO towards zero. With my BIAB bag in place and my salts...

The Low Ox techniques really do work on IPAs. Brewing IPAs that were only decent for a week or two at best is what led me down the rabbit hole. Now, even given my less than ideal methods, those same beers last months with zero to minimal fade. PlinyTheMiddleAged

There’s a small tab that bridges the two receptacles in an outlet. The tab bridges the two hots together so that if one is connected to a hot wire, they are both connected. If you break that tab, the two receptacles can be powered independently.

OP, It’s hard to tell from the pics, but it looks like the connector is leaking from the top closure. It might be that the square-shouldered o-ring mentioned by mongoose33 is missing. Or it might be a simple as the closure not being screwed down tight enough. See the pic below: o-ring is the...

Agreed! If anyone has any luck getting less than a full spool, let me know as I’ve been looking for a while. What about getting an interested group together to divvy up a spool? PlinyTheMiddleAged

Since your conical can take 15 psi, I’d hit it with 15 psi before cold crashing. Then pressurize it again about half way down to your crash temperature. Better yet, set your regulator to 5 psi and keep CO2 hooked up until you reach your cold crash temperature.

Well, we know that a mole of gas at STP takes up 22.4 liters of volume. And we know that a mole of CO2 weighs 44 grams (one carbon with atomic weight of 12 and two oxygens with atomic weight of 16 each for a total of 44). So, 0.64 grams would take up the volume of 0.64/44*22.4=0.326 liters or...

Darth, That sure sounds like oxidation. As Smelly says, cardboard doesn’t describe mild oxidation effects. I’m a big fan of IPAs but I could never brew a good one that last more than 1-2 weeks in a keg. Hop flavor would quickly fade, malt flavor would start to sweeten, and the beer would start...

My experience is similar to augiedoggy's - I've drilled many holes in stainless steel hardware with my cheap HF step bit. Just have to use low RPMs (really low) and lube. If the lube starts to smoke, just back off and let things cool down for a second. If the stainless gets too hot, it'll harden...

Matchrocket, I've tried that profile as well - way too minerally to me too. It's strange because I like some IPAs that have very high sulfate levels (like Pliny the Elder). But that profile is just too much. I'm down to 100 ppm Ca and 75 ppm sulfate (plus 10 ppm Na and 150 ppm Cl). It makes a...

@brewtime and @hartlesj, Any updates on how the trubtrapper performs? I whirlpool after chilling to pitching temps and I can get a nice cone of hops to form but the hot/cold break is so light that it immediately spreads out from the cone. When I siphon into the fermenter, I can watch the break...

Google says that blueberries are about 10% sugar by weight (15 g of sugar in 148 g of berries). With 6 lbs going into (I assume) 6 gallons, that's like adding 0.1 lbs of sugar per gallon. A pound of sugar raises the gravity of a gallon of water to 1.046, so a tenth of a pound will raise it to...

Yes - that's exactly why I started being extremely careful when moving beer from fermenter to keg. It was a matter of a few days before beer went from tasty to definitely not tasty. The worst one was when I pulled a hop bag out of the keg and forgot to flush the headspace until the next morning...

Sounds like oxidation to me. I went through similar problems with my IPAs - short term, they were great but when they were carbed and ready to drink and share, they were bland; hops were gone; and they had a sweet taste. I went to extremes on eliminating exposure to oxygen when transferring...

Doug, Yes, "volumes" of gas are strange units to use, but I didn't make them up. It's what's in the charts that folks use to set carb levels at given temperatures and pressures. And just as you did in your example above where you set pressure and temperature to figure out the weight in a...