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Question! I noticed today that my hot tap water is exactly 155 degrees. This seems pretty darned perfect for cutting ~30min off my brew day in the heating to mash-in step. Here's the question: is there any reason I should not do this? I'm using tap water with minimal salts (recipe dependent)...

Hi, I'm in the process of setting up a basement homebrewery, and I want to do everything in one spot - store raw materials, brew, clean, serve, etc. I'm rocking a picobrew zymatic, and a used continental KC69 kegerator. I'd like to use the stainless top of the kegerator as a prep area for...

Hey all. I'm a Zymatic owner, and haven't brewed in three years. Looking to get back into it, but I need to seriously simplify & cut down on the human effort and time required. I'm going to outline my plans & see if anyone has good suggestions for me going forward. Priority 1 is TIME. I...

I'm picking up this guy for a song tomorrow and will be turning it into a kegerator. Now here's my question - in turning this into a kegerator I want to make DAMNED sure that I don't inadvertantly kill it by cutting electrical or plumbing. Does anyone have a mechanical diagram for a True...

I need to buy a second one of a part I have. Problem is I can't find my receipt or figure out where I got it from...or even what the exact part is. It's a compression adapter, stainless steel, with plastic ring (white hard plastic) instead of stainless compression ring. It fits onto my 3/8"...

So I've now had two old chest freezers both die on me after rusting out terribly over the course of 1-2 years (each). Is this inevitable? Do I need to find a kegerator that uses stainless steel on the inside?

Just wondering. Has anyone tried basically a glycol circuit but using simple tapwater flow through the system? I'm thinking copper tubing wrapped around fermentation kegs, a temperature sensor taped to each keg wall, and a valve that controls the flow of water in or out. Anyone done...

Hey all, so I've got a pretty standard 25' stainless immersion chiller. Looking to use it reverse-style with my zymatic. Right now the plan is to just put the chiller into a utility sink and fill the basin...but I think that strikes me as a bit wasteful. I was stumbling around the net and...

Just saw this in my inbox: PB Zymatic's on a "cyber monday" sale. $1599. $400 off the usual price. Get 'em while they're hot.

Hey guys, got a question. I'm planning on brewing a big Russian Imperial Stout with San Diego Super Yeast strain. Like a 10% stout. I only have an air pump & sintered stone, which will be vastly inadequate for such a big beer. I'm wondering if what I should do is run the air pump...

So I have a step starter to do. Do I do the first step, then cold crash and decant the yeast, then add more? Or do I just wait till high krausen and then pour in more?

Hey all, I'm trying for a beer that resembles my basic Belgian wit recipe (50/50 pale & wheat, coriander, orange peel) but is brightly red colored. I don't really want to change the flavor much - the point of this is to confuse the taste buds and not actually create something with a different...

Got a wild question for the experts: Is it possible / feasible / a good idea to put my kegerator upstairs and run the taps one floor down? Assume I'll use insulated trunk line with either glycol or forced cold air circulation. My motivation is: we're rearranging our livingroom and the...

Hey guys, so knock-off or no-name flow control taps are now a thing. At a mighty discount from the Perlick/Intertap units, I'm quite interested. Does anyone have experience using these? I'm curious about reliability.

Hi! I'm curious about repurposing the PRV valve threading in my ball lock kegs. Well what I really want to do is attach a variable pressure relief valve directly to them, kind of like the picobrew fast ferment adapter...but I'd like it to be variable and not just fixed 7psi. I've seen a...

I've seen brulosophy use radar graphs with respect to hop flavor and aroma (attached). Does anyone know where they're finding these radar graphs? If there was a central source for them for all hop varieties it would be hella interesting to use those to plan for flavor combinations.

I'm looking to speed up my process by using pressurized fermentation. Can someone look at my proposed method and tell me if it'll work? Here's what I'm envisioning: -ferment in keg 1. keg 1 gas output jumped to keg 2 gas post. keg 2 is filled with starsan and its liquid post is connected...

So here's the deal: for reasons unknown, I've been unable to ferment beer beyond a 1.025-ish final gravity lately. -tried stir starters, they're still crapping out early -tried using fresh liquid yeast, STILL struggling -oxygenating wort via an aquarium pump through a sanitary filter and a 0.5...

Question: -whirlpool hopping below the evaporation temperature of the volatile oils in hops theoretically just acts like steeping tea at a hot temperature. -dry hopping before fermentation's complete, theoretically, acts exactly the same, albeit at a lower temperature with less agitation but...

I'll be making a scotch ale in a few days. Part of the process involves taking some of the sweet wort and boiling it down until it's almost dry and turns to malt caramel, then returning that to the batch. ...I would really prefer not to do that. Caramelizing sugars is a pain in the ass, and...