Recent content by thekraken

I think I'm going to try this next time I harvest yest. Though, since I'm able with my machine I'll skip any attempt to vacuum the bags and just squeeze the air out and heat seal them.

I'll be interested to hear your results. Sounds like your sealer works different than mine. My seal and vacuum functions can work independently. I'm not sure i understand how you can vacuum much at all and not suck out all the liquid, much less 50%.

My efficiency shot up when I stopped using tap water and staring building my water from RO. Crush and re-circulation made little difference. If you want to try that it's very easy to start with the water primer.

Very nice! Might as well do fire up the burners for your test run too. You can get used to the dial, figure out how fast you can heat up, and most importantly get an estimate on your boil off rate.

I knew it! Op is trying to sell something. $5 for the guide.

I didn't see any efficiency difference with RIMS. As a matter of fact I never had much of an efficiency increase with double crush either now that I think about it. Mine came when i started building from RO water, but that's just me.

What PID are you using? Does your PID have an internal relay? If so is it rated for the amps that your wanted to hook it up to? If so then you can do that. I'm guessing it doesn't. The idea is that the PID is just a mini specialized computer that sends out a low voltage/ low amp DC signal for...

Will the flow of co2 carry away any of the hop's aromatic goodness? Do you plan to remove the dry hops at a later date? If so you would be exposing the beer in the SK to oxygen when you remove the hops without the protection of still active yeast to scrub out the o2 introduced from opening the keg.

Looks awesome! As soon as I saw it I said to myself "This has to be in California"... sure enough! I would love to build something like that but everything in that shed would melt around June here in Tx.

Where from?

An airlock on the other side would be good. I still wouldn't use a glass carboy to ferment under pressure. Flushing the serving keg with fermentation co2 sounds like a great idea to me. Here is a popular thread discussing the method here...

I know we're getting off topic here but I'm curious to know what your wort filtration system is, @mabrungard.

Murhpy's law. An actively monitored transfer over a 15 minutes is one thing, an unattended fermentation over the course of a few weeks is another. Just my $0.02.

Don't do it! The carboys aren't designed to hold pressure, the kegs are. Beyond just breaking a carboy broken glass can send you to the hospital.

A little off topic but I'm curios what this is for? Do you mix up these high concentration solutions and then use that to dose your brewing water instead of adding the salts directly to the mash? If so is this common practice?