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Bear in mind that spunding keeps most of the CO2 in solution (especially in cold beer), so while you do lose some CO2, you don’t lose a lot. In addition to above about effectiveness of gelatin at lower temperatures, this is another reason to cold crash before fining -> less CO2 lost from...

Thanks to this thread, finally got around to setting up O2 from tank to carb stone. Fortunately, can get welding O2 locally at a reasonable price so a CGA fitted O2 regulator with lpm dial gauge and we’re in business. I expect this will help my lagers that have a tendency to stall due to...

Lagering done, and step mash brought it dead on the money. I do spund, and suspect this is the last factor to getting fully to finishing gravity. Rather than avoid the spund, will give oxygenation a go up front to keep the yeast healthy and driving to the end. But in any case, it’s a final...

240V system is the way to go. Even with a 5g, 120V is limping and slow ramp rates. 240 V gives you speed if you want to do step mashing at some point and will generally speed up your brew day. To that end, a 10g system is a good sweet spot that it is small enough to enable small batches of 5g...

I expect the light on the front shows activation for cooling (or heating for the lower light on the left). Not sure if this is your issue, but the one time I had a pump issue, it was caused by slushing in the tank that got pulled into the pump and locked it up. With the light showing power to...

Ah, ok, that helps clarify. I believe the issue is not in your chilling side then (assuming you had temp control and same set point on your chest freezer), but is instead on your hot side. On bigger systems, temperature ramps up and down are likely slower than your smaller system. If you can...

What temperature can you achieve in your conical? Would an option be to cold crash in conical for a couple weeks, package and put those kegs into the chest freezer?

You may want to put in a fan anyhow, as the temperature stratifies without any movement of the air. The coldest sits at the bottom where the beer is drawn from anyhow, but it will flow through lines going to the top. This would explain why your air temps never drop to your measured liquid temps...

It’s most likely your heat load on the fermenter that is setting your minimum point. As alternate to dropping your glycol set point, you can push down to a 33% glycol mixture, which will push up the specific heat (and heat flux through the coils) by 10%. It will also drop the viscosity, which...

That ideal gas law is PV=nRT. For fixed volume of gas, if T drops, then P or V will drop. If the volume is fixed, then pressure drops. If the volume is not fixed, then volume will drop, aka suck back. I have to remember this when I pump warm wort into my conical and need to get it down to...

With a conical, no transfer is needed. You can simply dump your trub through the bottom port and bob’s your uncle. One of the selling features of a conical. It’s the transfer part that’s been deemed more trouble than value, but the lagering will definitely improve your beer with aging to smooth...

Realized I never updated my experience on this one. I’ve done a few iterations of it and my last one followed this recipe: 75% pilsner 25% flaked corn 20 IBU magnum at 60 min 1.6 IBU Saaz at 15 min 1 oz Saaz at flameout WY2278 Czech Pilsner at 1.75 million cells / ml / plato Water profile was...

I think it is a function of time. For short lagering (~weeks) secondary is most definitely debatable as to flavor effects of the the trub. For longer duration (~6 months), it would be advisable. would it be possible to do a side-by-side with half the batch moved off into secondary and the other...

Plan it like a 10 gallon batch and cut the mash amounts in half, otherwise like you say, you will be off on the boil amounts.

For this style, I really liked the Sweet Baby Jesus PB cup porter, so modeled my recipe after that one. I added 3.5%of the grain bill of Dextrine for body, along with 3.5% of carafa III for a roasted note, and 3.5% each of caramel (120L) and chocolate malt. The other addition you might consider...

I use them to run PBW when I’m cleaning the kettle, though only do this every few brews based on build up of beer stone. Whether or not I circulate cleaner, I always pull the heads and let them dry before reassembling. Like others, found that water doesn’t perfectly drain out and it’s super...

For regular pump use, hose clamps are not strictly necessary with the low pressures. However, I often use them for other purposes, like I have a bib for cooling water and used a short run of tubing to run some water. When I opened the valve, the tubing blew… then I added clamps. ;)

Recommend a jacketed conical, both for condensation and allowing your chiller to keep up in a hot garage. The SS and Spike conical have neoprene jackets and internal coils, but some have had issues with them keeping up in hot spaces both due to the low insulation and the small heat transfer area...

I have a motorized mill with a love joy coupling and had no issues with a three roller mill set to “normal” gap size. If you want to turn your crush into flour for improved efficiency on a BIAB, you may start to see slipping on the set screw / flat, but I haven’t pushed my mill that hard. I...

While O2 demand is highest in the replication phase, there are some papers that have investigated depressed yeast going back into aerobic respiration in the presence of O2 which breweries can use to accelerate a sluggish fermentation. With the pathways and conditions unclear for a yeast cell to...