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That's a good point, the beer will drain out if the wand back up to the valve. When the valve is opened, the beer falls the distance of a bottle and a half before hitting the base of the bottle - that is causing the initial foam. I have cut the end of the wand at 45 degrees - I might alter that...

It's tee shaped, with a copper rod that reaches the base of the bottle. With 2 valves at the top for allowing co2 or beer into the bottle. I ripped off the design from someone, somewhere? I forget now.

Thanks very much. It sounds like I'm doing everything right - that's the confusing thing? I suspect the flow rate, how long does it take to fill a small bottle?

Howdy, Well, it's not a Blichman - it's one I made to copy the beer gun, but is a decent replica that I made in order to bottle a few lagers from a keg. It does work pretty well, and the bottles are well carbed - but it creates too much waste in doing so because of the initial foam the...

I've fixed it. The answer came to me last night, when comparing how I deal with the new keg against the old corny. After force carbing, the corny needs the gas line removing and the excess pressure releasing via the bleed valve on the lid before reconnecting the gas to the other line and...

You're quite right, 3 vols is too high. But you're quite wrong about this being the cause of undercarbonated beer. I've gradually rose the gas pressure to 25psi after starting at only 12psi. At 12psi the problem of undercarbonated beer isn't caused by the pressure being too high, is it? Many...

Yeah, good point. I'll try putting gas into the gas line, its worth a try. Maybe the product dip tube has a problem with the gas pressure inside it? These kegs would have been filled with carbonated beer when they were designed. Thanks

Hey, thanks for the input. The lines are 5/8 and are over 10ft to the font. I doubt the serving pressure is a factor in the lack of carbonation as I always start with zero pressure and gradually turn the gas up until it has just enough to pressure to flow properly. The foaming isn't a big...

Hi, I've been using a corny keg for a year or so and have managed some good, consistent results using the sort of chart that is often mentioned on here: http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php I've now got a bigger keg, with an A-type fitting - also known as a 'german slider' I'm...

I guess a water bath would be a pretty effective way of holding a given temp, but at quite a cost? I'd say that holding for about a week will give good results. For that length of time, a warm room is what I'd use - like the room where your boiler lives perhaps?

I've been messing around with the plate today, and the collection of stir bars I've got. I find the 2 inch bar gets thrown off the plate at most speeds, but the 1 inch seems to find it easier to stay on the magnet - even when the rpm is increased. However, these are currently tests with water...

Yeah, good point. The plate works ok with small volumes. For a 1-2L starter it is no trouble, but I'm stepping them up in 3 stages to make a really big starter. When I get to volumes of about 10L the bar just wont spin due to the density of the yeast in the starter. Either that or if I spin the...

Hi, My stir plate has become too much of a pita to be used much more. I'd like to switch to using constant aeration via a stainless airstone. I figure that I'll still have the agitation that is enjoyed when a starter is stirred with a stir bar - but also benefit from increased oxygenation...

It's not going to be used for 5-6 days. I'm stepping it up 3 times to get to the cell count needed for the lager I'm brewing, this is just the first stage. Seems like a difficult balance to judge? Do I get the yeast used to working at ferment temp - or go for out and out biomass increase?

Howdy, I'm about to make a big yeast starter from a vial of WLP838 lager yeast, and can't decide the best temp to run my stir plate at? I'm thinking that it should be cooler than the 72 to 75F that I propagate ale yeast at, but not as cold as the ferment temp. As I said it's for a big...

Good article, well done. Best regards, James

Thanks again. 20 plato is about 1083 in old money? At 26L thats a heck of a lot of DME! If my math is right its over 5.5kg - that's gonna cost :(

Hey thanks for that. The brewers friend calc spits out fairly similar numbers to the yeastcalc one, so I'm sure they're both right. That's a good idea about a 1/10th brew, I should do more yeast harvesting - I'm just too lazy. Will a 26L brew create enough (viable) biomass to get to the nearly...

Howdy, I want to use a white labs vial for a lager brew at about 250L/66Gal, and OG 1050. With my ale brews, I always use a stir plate, and make starters that start at 1L, then step to 5L and then 10L over the course of a week - and they ferment out fairly well. My concern is that the 11L...

I've had the same problem with wlp001, and at first thought it was no big problem - until some brews failed to reach the desired FG. I'm pretty sure that the over spill contains much of the yeast that is needed to attenuate fully, so if its on the floor FG wont be reached. I've only tried once...