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Congrats. Sounds like maybe your state gov is a little more enlightened today then they were just a few years back when even homebrewing was failing to get passed. I couldn't believe the arguments against homebrewing. I'm sure there were some creative arguments against growlers as well...

Sounds like you might want to go with bottled water until you can get some answers on what's up with the tap water. No sense potentially wasting a brew batch with bad water.

None of the kettles came with the top return port. I could have used their MT kettles with the top right return, but I'm a creature of habit. My last two stands both had top left returns and I've laid out my system left to right with plumbing that utilizes the return at the top left. If I...

Just make sure you're not doing a simmering boil. You want a good active rolling boil to help with hot break and to minimize DMS.

Did you check for ingredient updates? Here's a summary of updates for 2016: Hop Update 2016 (48 items) Yeast Update 2016 (178 items) Misc Update 2016 (48 items) Avangard Malts (5 items) Bairds Malts (15 items) Muntons Malts (17 items) Rahr Malts (7 items) You can always manually...

Upgrade from V1 to V2 back in 2011 was only $17. I'm sure that if V3 becomes a paid upgrade, it will be discounted like it has before. Being that it was 5 years ago that I had to do the upgrade to V2, I'd have no issue paying $20'ish dollars to get to V3. This is a tool I use for every batch...

After a quick google search on boiler size, I'm now really thinking that these machines can't support a multi-hole steam tip due to the size of the boilers. Looks like the Gaggia only has just over .1 liter capacity and the Silvia has .3 liter. At that size, you might run the boiler dry very...

A single hole steam tip is better? :rolleyes: You better tell that to La Marzocco, Faema, La Spaziale, etc. because every professional machine has a 3 or 4 hole steam tip. Single hole tips are usually only on the smaller consumer machines. It may be that the smaller machines are not able to...

I use a 4 hole like the one below. It is great for creating good microfoam. It might not be an option for the Gaggia or Rancilio units.

Yeah, that's what I started thinking. I knew they had changed those over the years. A good 3 or 4 hole tip on the wand is SO MUCH better. You've probably already seen this, but here's a nice blog post I found talking about both the Silvia V2 and V3 wand conversions...

You need to be careful with that, I think those are only rated up to 200 MPH. ;) Seriously though, you might want to start trying to steam without the attachment. I always thought those tips injected too much air into the milk and make too large of bubbles. If you learn steaming without the...

Yes, duty cycle is an output percentage. On gas, my boil off rate is the same as yours - about 3 gallons per hour. Nothing wrong with a good vigorous boil. You can turn the duty cycle down a bit if needed, but I would only do that if the boil was crazy vigorous. As long as you account for...

While I agree there is no right answer, you use what works for you. However, I find it hard to believe that fly sparging adds an hour to the process. Like sandyeggoxj, I fly sparge 1/2 bbl batches in about 45 minutes. I can't imagine that doing the initial run-off, fill, mix, then run-off...

Good questions! I don't have a handy pic of the inside, but each kettle has a TC flange on the inside. I don't like the tangential inputs as they create temperature stratification when recirculating during heating or chilling. I use a TC barbed elbow on the inside with a short section of...

I checked by going back through this thread to the date of when I posted my build thread and it isn't here. I really do need to get some better pictures that don't have so much glare. ;)

I guess I never added my new rig to this thread. I'm still doing some small tweaks in different areas, but it will stay mostly the way it is now. There's a full build thread with additional pics in my sig.

Thanks! I got a kick out of a Facebook post I saw a couple of weeks ago from The Homebrewing Society when they asked people "What's in your kegerator?" and they showed a picture of mine! They should have used one of the newer pics that showed the digital tap list.

I'll agree with this 100%. I've also owned a Gaggia Classic and proper extraction is a balancing act between tamp and grind. Get your tamp consistent in the 15-20# range and you can then just adjust the grind to get where you need to be. I'd say that most machines with a vibe pump are...

Just run an experiment with some boiling water and you'll answer the question!

Not really that complicated - it just looks that way. Take a look at the Visio diagram for liquid flows and it's actually pretty straight forward. I do no have a complete parts list, but all the major items are covered in the first post or two.