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gatomalo, All you have to do is count points of sugar - it sounds complicated, but it's actually pretty easy: Look at where you want to end up at - take your target gravity, subtract 1, multiply by 1000, and multiply by your target volume. This gives you the "amount of sugar" you want in the...

Artifishal, I can't see Teflon tape being an issue at all. It's used all over for plumbing. And I've seen others here using it in various places in their rigs. The only "issue" that I see with it is that you should probably retape it every time you use it so that you can easily sanitize it -...

I disassembled everything I could on my chronical (agreed - dumb name, nice conical). I gave all parts a nice long soak in a hot TSP solution to degrease. Afterwards, they got the soak in the strong Star San solution as part of the passivation step. They were kinda oily from the factory, but...

Do what Baja says - I use ball lock so I just pull the pressure relief valve occasionally to reduce the back pressure. You can use the gas side connector idea on either a ball lock or a pin lock to hold the poppet open. I wouldn't remove the lid though - if you went to the trouble of purging...

I agree. Go ahead and attach a jar filled with air prior to pitching yeast. Here's what the process looks like: Attach an empty jar and fill the conical with wort. I let the wort settle for about 12 hours or so. I ended up with a small amount of trub in the bottom of the jar. I remove the jar...

Artifishal, That did kind of cross my mind. However, in my go at this, the yeast were very active and definitely not confined to the jar. The wort in the jar turned cloudy and remained cloudy after I pitched yeast. After several days (I'll take better notes next time), the yeast dropped. I left...

paguy, Thanks - I was struggling with the brass colored bands as well. Like you, I was able to pull the lid off the jar after trying to tighten it down. When I switched to the silver band, I had no problems at all. Strange thing is that to my eye, there is no difference between the bands other...

paguy, Did you try a few different bands from the same brand or did one brand fit more securely than another. This seems to be a not uncommon issue. It'd be nice to have a clear solution. Thanks!

I definitely used quart sized Ball brand jars. The bands are silver colored - I don't know the brand but I don't think they're Ball. Maybe Kerr??? I think Ball bands are yellow gold colored. Oh, I'm using narrow mouth lids. Here's a post from WPStraussberg showing that he made his own gaskets...

I had the same issue. I did find a combination a bands and jars that worked though. I was able to get a very secure joining of the lid and the jar that would not pull free. I'll see if I can find a brand on the jars and bands that worked for me. The other choice would be to make thinner...

I guess I didn't explain myself very well. If you went the longer gas dip tube approach - here's how it would work (and the beer would indeed rise up the longer diptube faster). 1) Install the longer gas out diptube. 2) Fill your keg to the absolute brim with no rinse sanitizer and put the lid...

Philip, To fill your keg "blind", I can think of a simple method that is not extremely accurate - just fill your keg based on weight. That ought to get you in the ballpark but you probably won't be able to get the beer level right to the bottom of the gas dip tube. The other way to do it would...

maierhof, I agree - soldering fittings on that lid is a little tricky. Since the lids are thin, it's a delicate balance between getting the fitting hot enough to get the solder to flow without overheating the lid. But, it looks like you got the hard part of your project done! I pulled a dimple...

Rick Perry Pale Ale I like three things about it: 1) the hoppiness 2) the malt backbone 3) uh, wait. What was the third thing?

Yes. I see that the OP got his hands on a standard (I started the post and got interrupted several times prior to posting so I was late to the game). Anyway, that problem is solved. Thanks!

AJ, Could the OP mix up his own "known" sample? Perhaps use distilled water and canning salt (NaCl with no anti-caking agents or iodine)? The OP can create a solution that is comparable to what Wards reports and then check with the test kit. That way, they're not working down in the low...

Yes, you could use temp and pressure if the system is in equilibrium. But I was picturing the OP sitting with the chilled keg hooked up to CO2 set at (something like) 30 psi and shaking it until it was properly carbed. If the regulator was at 30 psi on a 40°F keg, you wouldn't be at equilibrium...

Is there any such thing as a flow meter that can measure the volume of CO2 going into the keg? If you knew you had 5 gallons of beer in your keg and your flow meters registered 12.5 gallons of CO2 flowing past the (theoretical) meter, then you'd know that your force carbing yielded a beer carbed...

Wntbtrbeer, You could try de-gassing a sample of each beer (pour each back and forth between glasses to make each sample flat) - check the fg of each. They ought to be very close to the same. If the dry hopped version has a lower fg, then it likely got infected along the way. Cheers!

I really like this idea, but I think that most of the hoppiness would remain in the canning jar. Since the hops could only get to the beer in the conical through the small opening between the jar and the conical, I'd guess that you wouldn't get the full benefit of the dry hops. That's a really...