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I have a conundrum regarding how much suck back volume occurs when cold crashing. Background: I accidentally created a suck back situation when I soft crashed my CF10 fermenter and forgot that I hadn't used my spunding valve on this batch (more precisely I didn't close off the blow off valve...

I just kegged my first batch from my new Spike CF10 and I couldn't be happier with my choice to buy it. Here's why.... I make a lot of hoppy beers and like many have struggled with aroma and flavor destroying oxidation issues using buckets and carboys. I tried at least a half dozen different...

Nice looking pump, with higher flow rate than the Riptide. Wonder if that is enough flow to make the CIP ball really effective (I have heard the Riptide is marginal at best). It doesn't have the Riptide's linear flow control valve. What have peoples' experiences been controlling flow with just...

What temperature do you ferment using 3522 Ardennes? I have had mixed success with this yeast, but I think it was (mostly) due to poor temperature control. I just got a glycol chiller and am planning to try again soon.

Bobby, I don't think this is right. The partial pressure of 2.33 volumes at 68F is 25psi at equilibrium. But if you (somehow instantaneously, for a thought experiment) drop the temperature of the entire system to 38F, the partial pressure of 2.33 volumes of CO2 in the beer drops to 9.5psi while...

A “/“ is often used as shorthand for “and/or”. https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/slash.html

I have observed similar behavior when cold crashing my spunded beer. I think there are two things going on here on two different time scales. As @VikeMan says, the small amount of CO2 in the headspace won't significantly change the volumes of CO2 in the finished beer. However, the small surface...

The density of water depends upon temperature. If you have cold crashed your fermenter to 39F the correct water density is 8.344 pounds/gallon.

StarSan is effective so long as the pH remains below 3.5, how long it stays that low varies depending on your water chemistry. I have quite hard water and I find that StarSan still lasts weeks or months in an open HDPE bucket. I use RO water to dilute StarSan in my sprayer which I keep for...

The Crankenstein 3GT has three geared rollers. I drive mine with a Harbor Freight low-speed (mud) drill and it takes 2-3 minutes to mill 15# of grain (as I recall). Works great, but I’m sure it pulls more than 60 watts.

And if thermite doesn’t do the trick, you can always try some thermate!

+1 on the Harbor Freight. I use mine to drive a Crankenstein 3GT. It is mounted to the cabinet with bolts in place of the side and back handles. A thumb screw allows me to adjust how far the trigger is depressed and thus the speed and the switch provides a separate on/off control. It's not...

RiteBrew (ritebrew.com) has Briess 2-row for $37 per bag. Shipping to MN would be about $20 using SpeeDee (a mis-named regional shipper).

Instead of silicone tubing or stainless steel, you could spring for real transfer hoses. https://brewhose.com/products/vintner-reserve-hose.html Morebeer (and other sites) sell 5' hoses for north of $200, but about half of that seems to be the swaged TC connectors. I've seen this type of hose...

Here is my procedure for free rise with the InkBird ITC-308: Determine your target fermentation temperature Tf Chill wort to initial temperature Tw (63-65F for my well water) Set Inkbird target temperature parameter TT to Tf-1 Set Inkbird cooling back parameter to 1F Set Inkbird heating...

PBW essentially turns the oils on your skin into soap, through a process known as saponification. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saponification While they claim that PBW is skin safe, I mostly wear gloves when working it or other alkaline cleaners.

I misspoke. It was Food Grade PVC, not plain vinyl tubing. Kuri Tec Klearon 73 K010 Clear Food and Beverage Grade Phthalate Free PVC Tubing, to be exact. Not as O2 impervious as EVA Barrier tubing, hence my switch. Edit: Clarifying that Food Grade PVC is vinyl, but not random big box vinyl.

I clean mine about 1/month and when the keg kicks using a small fountain pump, hot tap water, and OneStep (a no-rinse cleaner similar to PBW but without the disodium metasilicate), recirculating for 15 minutes. I thought this would keep them pretty clean. However, I just changed over to EVA...

It is somewhat counterintuitive (To me at least), but according to Briess’s product detail pages many specialty malts last longer (e.g., slight flavor degradation after 18 months) than base malts (best by 6 months). Apparently the diastatic enzymes degrade faster than the flavors oxidize.

Any suggestions for a cost-effective alarm? A quick search suggests that ‘safety grade’ alarms/monitors are pretty expensive.