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That pretty well describes my chilling rig. I use a little water transfer pump to recirculate the chilling water, first from a 5gal bucket of tap water. The resulting hot water gets saved for use as wash water during cleanup. Then I move the hoses to a cooler filled with 20lb of ice and 5gal of...

Don't rely on just a timer to gauge your boil duration. Near the end of the boil, say in the last 10 minutes or so, use a refractometer to check the gravity of the wort. That will tell you if you need to shorten or extend the boil to hit your gravity target. Thoroughly rinse (and dry) the...

I'm well aware of all of those reasons. But I was curious enough to try it for myself. Regarding break material, what I've found is that if I give the kettle a good strong circular stir right before I seal it up, the next morning the break material is in a nice dense cone in the bottom center...

I've done no chill for my last two brew sessions, and I'm liking it. I already have an efficient process (brew takes about 3:45), and I have a nice recirculating immersion chilling rig, but it's even even nicer when I don't even have to take it off the shelf.

You're overlooking the obvious. I was being courteous by referring to it as a myth, but if you're uncomfortable with that language I'll be glad to call it what it clearly is: ********.

A simple rope hoist is one of the best and easiest upgrades that can be made to a BIAB rig. To separate the grains from the mash, just tug the rope and tie it off, then watch gravity filter the wort through the bag. Leave it hanging over the kettle for the entire boil and it will fully drain...

That a pump will do, and in some rigs a pump is probably the best way to get there. However it's not the only way. I don't use a wort pump. In my single vessel BIAB rig I fill the kettle with a hose. After the mash, gravity drains the grains while the bag is hanging over the kettle (lifted with...

I use an inexpensive little water transfer pump to first recirculate from a 5gal bucket of tap water. The resulting hot water gets saved as wash water for cleanup. Then I move the hoses over to a cooler with a 20lb bag of ice and 5gal of water. The resulting water is used for rinsing during...

You nailed it. Heat transfer is dependent on surface area. I tried it both ways with my recirculating chilling rig, there is a big difference using many small pieces of ice.

I also fill through the liquid post in my closed transfers. The report I read about the guy with the floating tube problem also filled through the liquid post. That's why I went ahead and slipped on a SS nut to make sure the pickup is always fully submerged.

I use the ones from Williams Brewing, which look to be pretty much identical to the ones from MoreBeer. They work great. I have read a few reports of an unusual situation where the tip of the tube wasn't fully submersed, due to gas/air in the line which made the line float (don't remember what...

They both work, the only difference is in where the sediment ends up. I cold crash in the fermenter because I want as much sediment as possible to stay there, and not be transferred to my keg. Dealing with suck back during a fermenter cold crash is easy. Just rig up a mylar balloon. Keep the...

No one is pointing out the shortcomings of glass in isolation, glass is being compared to the other fermenter options. In the comparison, PET gives the advantages of a transparent fermenter without having the fragility and injury potential of glass that can be seen in this thread. There's a...

Agreed, it's not necessary to focus on scrubbing to clean a fermenter. My first step in cleaning is to use the nozzle on my garden hose rinse away the remnants of the beer, yeast cake, & krausen ring. Then I reach my arm inside and sponge wash the inside with some hot PBW solution, followed by...

I think some of the glass carboys in this thread were multi-generational.

If using a PET fermenter would diminish your enjoyment of brewing, then by all means don't use them. We are different in our perception on this. Having actually used PET fermenters for many years I've found that they increase my enjoyment of brewing. Glass is a non starter for me. Too fragile...

Significant improvement steps for me were: fermentation temp control milling my own grain (for better efficiency) kegging, with closed transfer to the keg

Do you have an aversion to PET fermenters? They've worked great for me for several years. No infections, super easy to clean, inexpensive, safe, and gravity powered closed transfers are a breeze using the spigot.

I like the jet engine analogy! I prefer a jet engine, it reduces the ramp time to heat mash water. With a quality adjustment valve on the gas, it's not a problem to throttle it down to produce a very gentle boil.

I have the older model with the trigger adjustment, but it's not that big of a deal without that adjustment. It doesn't take long at all to grind for a typical 5gal batch. What's important when selecting a drill is gear reduction that gives high torque at low speeds.