Recent content by tc53

I am using a Super Sucker transfer pump and stainless racking cane to move wort from kettle to fermenter. The Super Sucker works well, but gets stopped up almost instantly at the first bit of trub coming through the hoses, and once the racking cane gets near the trub and hop residue (usually...

I just finished my first batch with a new system, new because I no longer had the spacious shop where I used to brew (we moved into a mobile home). Mash, sparge, and boil were the same, but not being able to use my wort chiller (too much water use, no place to drain), I instead applied a film...

Hi. I have been looking for a product, The 20 L Hot Cube, several Aussie home brewer friends recommended, but I can't seem to find that product available in the US. Is the HDPE cube on Amazon rated to take hot liquids? I couldn't find anything about that in the Amazon description.

I'm all in. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Thanks, BeerSnobby, for the suggestions. I took a look at the FLOTit 2.0, and it looks pretty good. While the photos all seem to show it being used in a keg, I'm guessing it would work well in the FermZilla also. Are you using it in a FermZilla?

Thanks. Yes, I have used the filter for about 5-6 batches now, and I've experimented with all three of the points where you can attach the float. I've had occasional issues with all three. I've read that some people have slipped a sanitized 7/16" SS nut onto the tube where it attaches to the...

Has anybody else using the Fermzilla and doing closed transfers had trouble with the floating dip tup not staying submerged in the beer? In attempting a closed transfer just now, the dip tube has repeatedly stopped drawing beer and started drawing gas (presumably CO2). After transferring about...

I am still using the 7 gallon (or thereabouts) FermZilla with the valve and collection jar at the bottom. It's my second FermZilla, a warranty replacement after the complex bottom valve threading system on the first became hopelessly stuck, too loose to use and unable to be tightened. I figure...

I'm pretty new to kegging my beer, and I have not been filling the keg to the brim (probably more like an inch or so below the gas-in fitting) with my Star San solution because I thought doing so might interfere somehow with the gas-in connector (by having the solution cover it on the inside)...

Thanks for the suggestions. I did fill the keg with a StarSan solution, let it rest 5 minutes or so, then pushed it all out with CO2 and left keg under pressure before beginning closed transfer. I probably did not purge the head space enough after adding the dry hop addition. Also, thinking...

I am on my third batch of NEIPA since switching to kegging. I use a 7 gallon FermZilla, and I am very, very careful about oxygen exposure (having had a number of brown batches in the past). On this batch, I transferred only clear wort, pumping it from my kettle (after letting it settle out...

Have you sold your Madone? What size is (was) the frame?

Every description I've read of this process (which I've done a half dozen times) says that after I've added some (.5-1 gallon) sterilized water to the yeast/trub cake left after racking from primary, and given it a couple of minutes of swirling/shaking, I should see two layers develop, one a...

Thanks! I had a feeling that was the case. So it looks like I saved all of the watery portion and tossed some really good Vermont IPA yeast. Next time, I'll decant first and store the rest. I had such a minimal amount of trub in the large jar that I suppose I shouldn't worry too much about a...

I am relatively new to yeast harvesting. I've had some success, both with harvesting and pitching the yeast/beer/trub slurry left over after I've racked a batch to secondary, and with a full rinsing process added. Lately, though, I've been running into a problem with my rinsing process...