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3 gal does sound like a pretty extreme evaporation rate - others on this forum have already covered the bases of things to try to reduce that. With the wisdom of mutual hindsight, I'd suggest making whatever burn rate/heat shield/etc procedure changes, doing say a 30min test boil with water...

I did finally take the plunge and get my kegerator freezer set up. I went with Ventmatic forward seal taps (no complaints at all). I do find that merely cleaning the lines between kegs isn't sufficient to prevent the taps from starting to get a little sticky by the 2nd keg, so now I'm also...

If you believe micromatic.com's site, you should clean your lines every 1-2 weeks. I have noticed no problems with cleaning them after every keg, and my kegs tend to stay on tap for around 2 months each. If the lines are new, they presumably are "clean", ie free of dirt, dust, buildup, etc...

Just brewed yesterday, which was the inaugural use of my wort chiller. I ended up filling the 18gal tub with tap water and a big bag of ice before I got started, to give the ice time to melt and cool the water. Once I got the wort temp down to around 110F I switched the input hose to my...

I thought of using my utility pump to pump ice water through my wort chiller, but the pump itself has no flow control or adjustable power, and I'm nervous about the idea of putting a valve between it and the chiller - would put back pressure on the pump and I'm not sure that's good for it (or...

I got my new 7.5 gal brew kettle and wort chiller last week, and tried them out on Sunday (just with water, to practice). Found as you would expect that Newton's law of cooling is still in effect, and what with tap water being somewhat warm during the summer, cooling slows down considerably as...

What is clear to me is that the top of the lid is quite warm compared to the sides when it has 3 gal of 150+ deg F water in it. The heat loss is palpable, palpable I say!:D As for the design of the lid, it has a small (maybe 1/8") hole at the edge of the bottom rim of the lid. I'm not sure...

I came to decide that I wanted to get out of the business of bottle management at the beginning of this year and got my kegging system set up. A bit expensive (and I still end up filling a few bottles for gifts and homebrew compeititions) but worth it. (Just as an aside - there are some...

BierMuncher, that's a good point about the grains. But, I'm still thinking that I'll want to do something to help insulate the lid. From what I know about mashing, I'm gaining nothing if I lose heat out the top, even if it's less of a factor when using grains (well, unless maybe the mash temp...

I just built a 5 gal mash tun using FlyGuy's instructions at https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=23008 I'm not yet ready to do my first mash, but I did do a test to see how well the cooler maintains temperature. With water in the 150-155F range, it seemed to lose maybe 2-4F in one...

Thanks for the instructions, this was what I needed to get over the hump and start the journey into all-grain (had thought a mashing kit would cost considerably more). To anyone who is putting together their own kit - following the same idea as skifast1, I purchased a quantity of silicone...

Whatever chest freezer you decide on, the critical dimension is the area of the floor of the freezer compartment (the part not occupied by the compressor shelf). I've found that most smaller freezers have a interior front-to-back distance that is slightly too short to fit 2 kegs front to back...

Like someone said, either using cardboard cutouts or careful measurement (I've gone to Sears/HD, borrowed a tape measure, and stood there measuring inside dimensions) is necessary to make sure you know exactly what will fit. I bought a used 7.2cu Fridgeadaire. Most of the smaller chest...

No, I didn't have a specific target beer in mind as of yet, I just have had this vague idea for some time that I wanted to try a corn lager, and the accumulation of corn sugar seemed like a means to an end. I might try the mini-mash step with a recipe using flaked maize instead, and...

Oh well.... if the end result is a diluted flavor beer, what's the point. I take it you use flaked Maize grain instead? Is there an extract version of this, or am I SOL until I go to all grain? I guess I may end up trading/giving away the sugar. My Mom likes hard cider and I got her into...

I'm wondering if anyone can share recipe formulation tips for using corn sugar as a significant part of a recipe (by that I mean to add at boiling time, not as bottling time food for the yeast to produce carbonation). My motivation is a) I do like some of the commercial beers that use corn as...

I would second that - I have a Fridgedaire 7.2cu and it holds 3 easily. The compressor shelf on mine goes all the way across one side, which restricts the useable space. It looks like your shelf is smaller, which can only help. You might even fit four! The thing to do is measure the interior...

Keep in mind though that you'll need an additional approx. 1-2 inches above the height of the keg for the fittings that snap over the posts. If your fridge shelves are adjustable, you probably would have to make a bit more room to be able to fit the keg in with the hoses connected through the...

I just bought a beergun and did my first run with it this evening. I had 2 beers on tap, and I filled some bottles of both kinds (in future I plan on not doing it this way, one batch at a time instead, but there's a homebrew competition coming up and I needed to catch up). By and large it...

I've done 2 batches of lagers that got bottled. Neither required extra yeast. I've been told that there is usually (barring mitigating factors) plenty of yeast in the beer even after fermentation is done. In fact the only time I ever had problems with bottle carbonating was with an ale that...