Recent content by tele_powder

I use the plastic lid from an old fermenting bucket with a bunch of holes drilled in it. Works great. If you spare slow enough there is no need but every now and again my pump valve gets away from me...

I used a Dremel for mine and it took ages to cut all the slots but works great. Instead of SS braid I used a short piece of silicone tubing. Also Palmer would recommend not cutting slots in the two end pieces to avoid preferential flow. Less Dremeling is a nice plus!

I prepare an extra 1/2 gallon just to be safe and just quit sparging when I hit my pre boil volume. You can always pick up a 10 gallon igloo HLT and slowly dump it into the mash tun also. Another nice trick is to take an old plastic fermenter lid, drill a bunch of holes in it and place on top...

+1 I regular wait 3-4 days because I use a stir plate and therefore have to decant.

I bubble wrap my temp probe to the outside also and have noticed the same thing, air significantly hotter than beer. I use a fermometer on my car boys and beer stays where I want. Overly hot surrounding air just gets beer to the set point faster. Get a fermometer, just to double check

I just finished the d rest and cold crashed on a classic American pilsner and the sample I took to check for diacetyl and gravity was fairly clear but not crystal as I was hoping. No I am not interested in filtering. Any thoughts on how the addition of gelatin to the primary would influence...

I only use secondary for long aging, or if yeast harvesting a dry hop beer. Also unless you have the wrong volume it is almost impossible to miss the SG by very much. Although some variation is expected from different suppliers.

Obviously there is a higher chance of infection but also because there will not be any cold break beer will most likely be quite hazy

Put a ball valve on the output of your pump and recirc for 10 minutes at the end of mash. Or use your immersion chiller as a herms setup and recirc the entire mash time. Never had a stuck mash with the restriction at the pump output

I have been reading Gordon Strongs book and just realized I may have been making a mistake and was hoping for some clarification. He states your sparge water needs to be pH 5.5 very clearly. He also recommends using phosphoric to get there from RO. Will 5.2 do the same thing or does that...

I have done about 50 Ag batches with my igloo mash tun and just recently added a herms setup with the more beer plastic QD's. Not sure it really makes a difference as I was always recirculating with my pump for the last 10 mins anyways. Maybe helps bring to mashout temp but that doesn't matter...

And buy extra dremel tool cutting disks while your there. Your gonna need them

I used a male thread piece to go through the cooler secured on the inside with a plastic nut for attaching faucets to the sink basin and some rubber washers that I cut out if a sheet of rubber that I found next to sink nut at homie depot. I then bought a copper female 1/2 npt to female coupler...

It's a 5g barrel. I was thinking 3-6 months bulk aging range, then another couple months bottled after force carbonating and beer gun . No know Brett and wasn't planning on it.

A starter can only hurt if it introduces contamination. I use a 2000 ml flask and boil my starter in it to sanitize. Haven't had an issue yet