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It takes years for the chalk to become dissolved into the water table and water chemistry is much more complicated than it first appears.

I think I've heard that somewhere before.

Are they all wrong? I don't know what they do first hand what they do in the UK, but it's highly unlikely that the mash some how works magic on this salt. It's well known among brewers, both homebrewers and pro's that it has almost no effect on mash pH because it's not very soluble. I have tried...

Chalk or calcium carbonate has a water solubility of 0.013 g/L (25 °C). You can get about 13mg to dissolve per liter, pretty much useless in the mash. You can get it to dissolve over time in the presence of carbonic acid, in other words in carbonated water. Any calculator that show it into...

I watch my pH throughout the brewing process. I can tell you that if your mash pH is good, it will generally rise during the sparge, even with RO/distilled water. Typically if I acidify the sparge water with a small dose of 85% phosphoric acid, the result is a stable pH during the sparge. I...

I have you noticed any performance or flavor/aroma differences from the yeast that is frozen and the same yeast that hasn't been frozen?

A single packet of 34/70 @ 68F will work fine. I like to hydrate the yeast prior to pitch, but you don't have to. If your going to pitch it at 48-50 you're going to need a lot of yeast. Then I would suggest a 3 liter starter with one pack of 34/70 or 2-3 packets of dry yeast with no starter. I...

I have switch to this method. Allowing the starter to finish completely has no advantages and may actually harm the yeast by using up it's glycine reserves. Pitching at high krausen is the best way, but when making a 4 liter starter for a Greman Pils, I don't want the beer from the starter to...

I know, but it's still discouraging. Assuming 2 ounces (56.8ml) of Starsan are left in the keg and expecting typical oxygen levels of tap water at 4ppm: 56.8ml x .000004 = .0002272ml of oxygen. .0002272/19000ml = 11.9578947 ppb added to the keg. Hopefully my math is correct. If it is, then it...

30ppm is a massive amount of oxygen. I know even beverage grade has impurities in it, but not all of it is oxygen. Most of the impurity comes from water. The goal is to keg with less than 50ppb. The amount of water left behind contributes to 10-15ppb. If this can be reduced or even eliminated it...

I like this idea. It's a really simple solution to purging kegs. I usually fill a keg with a Starsan solution and and then purge the keg with co2. The problem lies in the left over Starsan in the keg has dissolved o2 in it. It's not much oxygen, but the closer I can get to zero the better. I...

It won't hurt the yeast any, not sure how it will effect the clove/banana flavors. I think quick changes in temperature might not be good, but not so much pressure.

Not really. You have the effect of hydrostatic pressure from the depth of the fermenter which traps co2. The yeast will change it's metabolic pathway as the amount of dissolved co2 is increased. The conical shape may increase the churning/circulation during fermentation and aid in capturing...

I have used it at @64 or so. As it fermented it reach 68-69F. I kept it under pressure the whole time to keep esters down. I was really surprised how clean it was and it lacked the sulfur that comes with lower temperatures. I also fermented a pale ale with S189 at 65F, no pressure and it turned...

Thank you! This a simple solution to the ball pickups spitting co2. I'll give it a try next batch. I brew mostly lagers and lagering times can vary a lot depending on yeast strains, the health of the fermentation, style and gravity. I'm no slacker when it comes to these beers, at the risk of...

Well, maybe. I have the blowtie and I made a spunding valve with the same PRV that spundit uses. Both work well, but the blowtie wanders during fermentation and has a little courser adjustment, you have to keep an eye on it. The blowtie is nice because if the fermenter pukes, it comes apart...

Good point. The SSR's are not a very good place to be stingy. I like to size them at least double the required current. A 5500 watt (240Vac-23 amp) element should be driven by a 50 amp SSR. The voltage is less concerning as long as it 280Vac or higher. The heat sink should be sized so the...

If it does fix it, the next thing to figure is why did it fail. When the SSR's are sized correctly for both voltage and current, they are extremely reliable.

Schematics would help a lot, but if you don't have any you may need to create one by tracing wires and drawing one up. The SSR's are easy enough to test. If you pull the lead for the firing input of the SSR (sometimes called the coil) and leave the output (240vAC) connected you would remove the...

Typically not. The current on the LED's is about 15-20mA. The leaking current is barely enough to bias the LED let alone illuminate it to point of being visible, but it may be enough to see it when there not a lot of light in the room. An incandescent bulb would certainly solve this issue.