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I added a bag to my sparge setup, but I'm still looking to improve my setup and procedure. I just brewed another 5 gallon Weizen batch yesterday: the bag is in the way when stirring the mash during temperature step-ups, and so far it seems to increase the likelihood of spilling sugar water...

Are they touching just in a few spots, or pretty much solid all the way around? You could try a silicone spacer (whittled from a commercial spatula, or baking implement, or what have you).

Has anybody successfully harvested yeast from a commercial Weihenstephan Hefeweizen bottle? Or are the bottles sterilized, and harvesting yeast is not possible? I collected the yeast sediment from three bottles, and tried to revive it, but no luck. It simply wouldn't start. There would be a bit...

Sorry, by ground I didn't mean earth ground, just ground return (0V) for whatever voltage the power supply puts out. So, it is 12V, not 24V, it sounds like.

Is it really +12V and -12V, or +12V and ground?

Probably in US/imperial units, so degree F per square foot per BTU/hr. But it turns out one can't really compute the ambient heat gain with the data you have, because on your cooldown the interior of the fridge most likely spent some time above and some time below ambient, so your net loss/gain...

Here is my most recent experience with brewing wheat beer; if it's not useful, then maybe at least it can serve as a warning... ;-) Infection: My previous (last-but-one) Weizen got infected because I bought liquid yeast that was past expiration and apparently dead (I wanted a Weizen yeast, and...

I think the money you pay for a fridge is mostly to get a working door... I'd keep the door, and add insulation, but that is obviously just my personal opinion.

It is possible that this might be all due to insulation, that is maybe you have 200W cooling power, and 170W is lost to the environment. Do you know what R value your insulation has? Last time I tried to look stuff like this up, I got burned by the difference between metric and imperial/US...

Good point: if you buy (or pay a deposit for) a tank at the place you plan on getting your refills at, they might take care of the recertification (due every 5 years), including assuming the risk of the cylinder not passing. If having and keeping a shiny new aluminum tank is important to you...

I'm interested in this stuff, because I built a somewhat anemic solid state beer cooler, and I keep telling myself that I could always switch to a fridge or aquarium cooler or convert a window A/C unit, and get tons more cooling power. So, I'm very interested in real world cooling power numbers...

Well, if the inner surface of the door is at 65F, then that is your problem. The white iscoyanurate foam is about twice as good an insulator as the pink or blue or white polystyrene foam, so I would put two inches of that on the inside of the door. Preventing air leaks is of course also very...

So, I hooked up my new batch of cheap peltiers (also running at 3A, not 6A, at 12V, but I already expected that) sandwiched two in series between the 3-wide aluminum water blocks, and the cooling power was really not better than what I got with the old four-in-parallel setup. I also replaced the...

7 bucks for 20lbs is super cheap. I was going to say that a welding supply place might sell you a used steel cylinder for less than what you pay online, or at your local brew or beverage place. Refills might also be cheaper, but not as cheap as what Wayne1 posted. Also, I looked at my CO2...

300 type austenitic steels are not super resistant to chlorinated water. Especially not warm chlorinated water. I think you need whatever Rolex is using (904L) if you want to keep submerging your stuff in any kind of chloric or chlorous acid. It's easiest though to just stop doing that, and...

Sounds like you need a diagram for the grainfather. Is that available online, or does anybody here have that? According to this (no diagram, though) the grainfather fermenter expects power (and ground, obviously), and I assume it sends a control signal for a valve (or the pump) on the...

The 'separate assembly that handles the control side' also includes a pump? It sounds like your secondary loops are all driven by one pump, and solenoids turn the flow to the different consumers on. (There might also be a bypass loop, in case all consumer solenoids are closed? I don't quite get...

Unless you get extra smart with your plumbing, what Beer666 described is the second worst thing that could happen. (The worst thing being the beer getting sprayed towards the ceiling, not the the floor.) A good amount of respect towards gas cylinders is never wrong, but if you are feeling...

Is this a compressor or a solid state (peltier cooler) fridge? If it's a compressor, it might need some time unplugged until the refrigerant has collected again, after being shaken around during schlepping the fridge. If it's a solid state refrigerator, it might just be a bit weak (I once bought...

I have no idea how a grainfather is usually wired, but most liquid systems with a reservoir seem to use two (or more, if you have more than one fermenter or storage keg or whatever you are eventually cooling with the glycol) independent temperature control loops: temperature sensor and loop #1...