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I don’t bother with blowing out. After cleaning and rinse, tip it a few times to allow water to drain - takes a few cycles to get it all out. Air dry after that. Before using, I run my boiling wort through it to sanitize it and the lines and never had any off flavors or nastiness in it in the...

I have cloned it, though swapped out the Citra for Comet - a very nice change and gave me the chance to call it Zombie Comet lol I used 1968, but don’t really get a yeast note on it at all, so you could give S04 a shot. Alternately, I was in the same position on a different yeast, so found a...

I don’t flow while adding (though not a bad idea, so might just switch to it!), but I do something similar in purging the headspace afterward by filling and pulling the pressure relief on my spunding valve. Have long lived hops flavor and aroma following this process.

Enough for the starter for sure, but as already concluded not for a massive amount of wort to build cell count up. Oxygenation is not as critical as starter for proper pitch rates, but it all helps when working the harder stuff like getting a big beer to finish or getting a perfectly crisp lager.

PBW works very well in my experience too. I typically half fill with hot PBW and shake, then pump out into the next keg, which are cleaned like this every few batches, and never had the beer stone build up like you’ve seen. In between it’s a rinse out, wipe out, sani cycle only. Back when I did...

An alternate is to overbuild a starter and drop some of it into a mason jar before you pitch the rest into the wort of the day, which avoids the harvesting and cleaning hassle. There’s also a genetic predisposition to harvest the more well flocculating yeasts, but this takes some generations to...

Refracs are great - be aware that alcohol presence also affects index of refraction like sugar does, so they are accurate pre-fermentation (within a few points SG at least), but need to be corrected using your OG for any measurement after start of fermentation. Fortunately, there are...

As a quick tip for ICs, agitate the coils. While you have a high heat transfer coefficient inside the coil, the external heat transfer is driven by the buoyancy effect from the cooling wort. When I used one, I would lift it up and down slightly to rattle the coils. If you had the inclination to...

There’s a nice write up at clueless with a cooler (maxi 210) - Home Brew Forum

I think the warning too relates to scorching of the bag. There is another factor to consider though in that the ramp rates can be limiting. I have a 2V K-RIMS and if I simply rely on the coil to move the full volume temp up, it is far too slow. Doesn’t apply for your case, but I get around it...

Just to summarize some ideas from above. 1. RO water instead of spring / distilled 2. Buy (base) malt in bulk and store in gamma seal buckets 3. Buy hops by the pound and vacuum seal with a food saver 4. Use a counter flow or immersion chiller for cooling to avoid any need for ice. 5. Brew...

With the small volume of starter (especially if you decant), the risk of off flavors is nil, so I do starters room temperature both for ales and lagers. Also, a stir plate helps oxygenation of your starter as well as reduced lag time and highest cell counts per volume, so can get away with a...

It adds to your ice demand (and investment cost), but in addition to jockey box, I also use these bag coolers to keep the kegs cold - similar daily top up of ice. https://www.morebeer.com/products/coolbrew-corny-keg-cooler-5-gal.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIn-aSl4LE-AIV9TE4Ch0qGwUAEAQYASABEgJeHfD_BwE...

Cooling water temp is the primary factor, though with a whirlpool arm on the kettle, an additional advantage of recirc is building a cone to keep trub out of your fermenter. With ground water temps in the 70s-80s and half barrel batch sizes, recirc is a must for me, but I throttle water to...

Yes, but needed a bigger bucket than 5 gal - used a kiddie pool to get good visual access. I first confirmed the bad line with pressure observation, since initial bucket test showed nothing as the leak was so minute. Had to watch the damn thing for long time before the smallest bubble came up...

Have you checked the gas quick connect? This might be non-leaking when disconnected and leak when connected. When I had a similar issue, I fortunately had valved manifolds, so could go keg by keg with open regulator, but closed tank, isolated it to one keg and confirmed with bucket test on the...

Yeah, I was going to chime in that the constant mol assumption is a key point since absorption of CO2 should be considered. There’s a nice picture of capillary effect of different diameter tubes in For capillary action, why should the diameter of a tube be kept less than 3cm?

Good advice above on process, but with your initial issue, your 1.020 is best explained by measurement error, likely from not well mixed sparge water. This is supported also by your observed vigorous fermentation, which a 1.020 OG wort would assuredly not be. Didn’t catch method of measurement...

You may want to check your units conversion on the ideal gas, as you are mixing atm, gallons, and Kelvin, which is ok if you do ratios, but doesn’t fly for absolutes. I would calculate the pressure change based on temperature ratio at constant volume and mols. Going from 70 F to 35 F would drop...

Maybe, but it could also be sticking check valves in your splitter, since this would prevent the regulator from seeing the pressure drop. Though this doesn’t explain the pressure overshoot issue. That one might very well a number of things from temperature effects to over carb issues - hard to...