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IMO these samples will always become infected with ambient bugs unless you're totally sterile in your handling of the tube and wort. The tube being infected will have no correlation to your carboy being infected.

From those two I'd go with the second. Less parts, easier to clean, and the middle pipe likely won't do much. However shouldn't the entire assembly be larger and closer to the edge? I don't have my copy of How to Brew in front of me but Palmer's ideal designs cover more of the bottom.

+3 on the 10 gallon model. Even with batches with a smaller grain bill filling only half the tun you won't see any appreciable heat loss. Because these coolers leave the mash with a smaller surface area you'll have less loss.

Works for emptying bottles when washing!

The probe being off by 30 is worrisome. In my experience probes only need to be adjusted by 5 or less degrees. But hey if it's accurate vs. a thermometer ride with it.

How big are your starters? You might not be increasing the cell count by that much so you get slow/stuck fermentations. 11g dry yeast packs have the proper cell count.

I'm good for the time being but would be interested in the future.

Just so that we're talking about the same thing, here's a shot of the back of my probe thermocouple and compression fitting: And the front:

I wasn't aware that those bolt-style thermocouples were supposed to be water tight. On my HLT I use a probe-style thermocouple mounted in a compression fitting.

I've calibrated my standard LHBS glass hydrometer by carefully tapping the appropriate end against a countertop thus moving the paper insert. Don't blame me if you break yours though!

Great find. Figure the coils in the primary fermentation vessel were cooling loop?

I use a little space heater with built-in thermostat to warm my chest freezer during the winter.

Yesterday I built a line cleaner from a hand-pumped garden sprayer, total cost was about $30 (I used a ball post). I built it in order to not use CO2 while cleaning lines, but after the fact I realized that the cost of the pumper would have gotten me two fills on my 20# tank :mad: CO2 is cheap!

Mine is likely from NB. It is tricky to get it past the bulkhead assembly, but it can be done with the bulkhead installed; you have to insert the screen sideways and then wrap it around the bulkhead. Sort of like getting a couch through a narrow doorway, really. The only time it lets grain...

I have the same cooler with a similar false bottom and like it. Cons: takes about 2 gallons of runoff to get clear wort. Pros: Sturdy, easy to clean, and almost never results in a stuck sparge. The few times I have had a stuck sparge were from 50%+ wheat beers when I didn't rake the top of...

I think that if you insulated their HLT it wouldn't be so bad. To me $200 seems high but there's always the plug-n-play aspect. Just keep in mind that you still need to install a heating element + wiring so this thing isn't totally turnkey. I figure that if you're already having to safely...

Both kits have the same gas setup: a dual-gauge regulator and a four-way manifold. Both will only allow for one pressure setting at your kegs.

A few degrees won't hurt, no.

Great thread idea! My beers were a hit, a sweet stout and an all-centennial late-hopped pale ale. 2L of each were quickly finished off with requests for more. Also gave away a bunch of freshly home-roasted coffee which smelled awesome, so it was a good christmas for gift-giving.

I did this for a while and experienced higher boiloff rates. I had two stockpots going on my then-apartment's gas stove and saw around 16%.