New equipment and/or upgrades discussion

[Phischy1]

ExactlY where is leaking from?

The keg post, the liquid quick disconnect, or from the tubing to QD connection?

Take apart the QD and make sure it's all functioning ok.

Do you have threaded flares or barbs on your qd?

It makes zero sense it would leak after you turn the pressure down to serving. Is your liquid QD attached when you are carbing?

And yes, purge the keg before turning pressure back down. You won't lose that much aroma.

 

[Vogt52]

Had some unexpected water damage in my bathroom to take care of. Delayed the keezer build. She's coming along nicely.

 

[Phischy1]

Filled my "glycol" tank. About 40 gallons of water. I need to add some bleach to sanitize it. Chilling it down as of last night for Sundays brewday.

 

[DWhite]

Seriously considering buying one of these. Grainfather-esque system without a chiller or pump for $300. Both of these could/can be added as needed. I will just use an immersion chiller. Any thoughts on this? I just think this will get me brewing more often. The heating time is a bit long to boil but I can always switch things around in the process to occupy the time and not sitting around waiting.

https://www.williamsbrewing.com/BREWERS-EDGE-MASH-BOIL--P4216.aspx

 

[WesM631]

Seriously considering buying one of these. Grainfather-esque system without a chiller or pump for $300. Both of these could/can be added as needed. I will just use an immersion chiller. Any thoughts on this? I just think this will get me brewing more often. The heating time is a bit long to boil but I can always switch things around in the process to occupy the time and not sitting around waiting.

https://www.williamsbrewing.com/BREWERS-EDGE-MASH-BOIL--P4216.aspx

It's pretty new so there isn't much info about it. The reviews on Williams Brewing crack me up.

It doesn't seem like a bad deal, but comparing it to a grainfather is not apples to apples. At a very basic level, it's a BIAB with a PID. (I don't see where you can even program a specific mash temp)

 

[Phischy1]

Leftover pvc pipe, idophor stained old silicone lines...not pretry buy functional.

 

[Phischy1]

Inside the cold room:

The ins and outs of the chiller reservoir.

I would have liked this to look a little cleaner but in the end it's all about function. The top line did get off kilter but too late to do anything about it.

Now to finish some wiring for the sump pumps so I can brew tomorrow into that conical posted above. I need to wire to the temp controller's.

Then mill some grain!!!!

 

[Phischy1]

All hooked up, tested heat and cooling. Need to finish that box, put some lower trim in and a little painting.

Now for the last big project is to get my RO tank complete. Drilled a 1 1/8th hole in it last night and dropping off tomorrow to have a 1.5" TC fitting welded on. Then an old pickup tube from a morebeer 1st Gen conical will go in with a silicone tube weighted at low end to pickup water from bottom of tank. Getting closer

 

[liquiddegenerate]

Nothing major but I got tired of my speidel leaking in the fermentation box so I bought some upgrades from Nor Cal brew solutions.

 

[WesM631]

Did this a couple weeks ago.

From this:


To this:

 

[Lutter]

Seriously considering buying one of these. Grainfather-esque system without a chiller or pump for $300. Both of these could/can be added as needed. I will just use an immersion chiller. Any thoughts on this? I just think this will get me brewing more often. The heating time is a bit long to boil but I can always switch things around in the process to occupy the time and not sitting around waiting.

https://www.williamsbrewing.com/BREWERS-EDGE-MASH-BOIL--P4216.aspx

Hmmm... lemme know if you (or anybody else) gets one.

This is exactly what I need to do all-grain in my apartment. And at that price, my wife would presumably not murder me.

 

[Vogt52]

The keezer is finally finished! Now to fill it with homebrew! No more bottling!!!

 

[Phischy1]

17 months to get both fully functuonal. Pale Ale on the left from last weekend and IPA on the right yesterday. Was up until 1:30am Sat morning getting the right one ready. The casters were a bit challenging, and it's a narrow base which makes it a bit tippy. May have more welding done to widen it.

Left is the new more beer stand and rightist he OG stand, which I already had cut down and fixed pior. And in looking at the photo I realize screwed up and the suampling port is on the rear. Not sure how I'm going to fix that.

****.

 

[Phischy1]

One of the 37 gallon "corny" kegs I was watching on ebay popped up as the seller asked me if I was still interested. The answer being no, as I bought one.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/162269778312

She's come down to $300 but shipping will nail you at $150. She's in FL somewhere and wants to sell hers. These things are uber rare. But so big and heavy they don't have a lot of practical applications. I'm using mine ad a RO tank.

Just an FYI.

 

[nanobrew1]

17 months to get both fully functuonal. Pale Ale on the left from last weekend and IPA on the right yesterday. Was up until 1:30am Sat morning getting the right one ready. The casters were a bit challenging, and it's a narrow base which makes it a bit tippy. May have more welding done to widen it.

Left is the new more beer stand and rightist he OG stand, which I already had cut down and fixed pior. And in looking at the photo I realize screwed up and the suampling port is on the rear. Not sure how I'm going to fix that.

****.

Instead of widening the stand would it be easier to lower the vessel?

 

[Phischy1]

Instead of widening the stand would it be easier to lower the vessel?

Probably, but I have the sightglass/yeast harvester and that's the lowest it can go to be functional. I think....actually I should remeasure now that they have casters. When I first modified that stand I didn't have wheels and that was as low as it would go. But...I'd have to have the leg horizontal supports re-welded on. So far it's not a pain to move. And I have a ramp to roll them in there. I use my body mass behind it to make sure it doesn't go flying.

 

[Lutter]

Hmmm... lemme know if you (or anybody else) gets one.

This is exactly what I need to do all-grain in my apartment. And at that price, my wife would presumably not murder me.

Ran this by the wife and she's into it. I really want an honest review though. Link me if seen. YouTube would be great.

Will add chiller and pump to move the wort though the grainbed.

 

[DWhite]

Ran this by the wife and she's into it. I really want an honest review though. Link me if seen. YouTube would be great.

Will add chiller and pump to move the wort though the grainbed.

Still considering it myself. I really think this may be what I need to make my apartment brewing more convenient.

 

[Lutter]

Still considering it myself. I really think this may be what I need to make my apartment brewing more convenient.

Right now it involves shuffling wort outside down a floor and brewing on a sidewalk... then lugging it back upstairs.

Neighbors looking at me weird as I wave.

 

[Phischy1]

Def have to be more creative with less space. Everytime I move I always have an eye on brewing operations. The house we bought was primarily the choice because of the garage extension. Although I wish it was bigger.

My setup is lagering a Baltic Porter, and I have a sight glass/yeast trap on it so I can repitch. That was a lot of expensive yeast being pitched and I want to reuse it a few times.

 

[axeman91821]

I think I'm going to bite the bullet and get a whole new kegging setup, replace everything except for the CO2 tanks. I'm in a situation where I keep bleeding CO2 and I can't figure out if multiple kegs are an issue at the same time or it's a problem somewhere else.

 

[Phischy1]

Fill a tub of water, then test your system by submerging everything (but the regulator and tank). It took me awhile of ripping everything out to discover I have a leaky keg main seal. So now I just turn the co2 off, and when I want to pour I'll turn on only that one keg until I get them Ann rotated out and checked.

 

[axeman91821]

Honestly, my kegs are probably at least 5 years old (and I bought them used) so they're somewhat beat to ****. I was going to get a new regulator anyway, so I'm just going to spring for a couple kegs while I'm at it.

 

[nanobrew1]

It could be your regulator. I had a very slight leak in my new regulator. It would take about 10 days to bleed out a 5lb CO2 tank. I hunted for a leak like crazy. I recommend spraying the regulator vigorously in every nook and cranny with Star San solution, or use something more professional grade like Snoop. Once I found the leak i contacted the company and they sent me a new one, but like I said it was new and less than 4mo old by the time I identified the leak.

 

[rcubed1]

It could be your regulator. I had a very slight leak in my new regulator. It would take about 10 days to bleed out a 5lb CO2 tank. I hunted for a leak like crazy. I recommend spraying the regulator vigorously in every nook and cranny with Star San solution, or use something more professional grade like Snoop. Once I found the leak i contacted the company and they sent me a new one, but like I said it was new and less than 4mo old by the time I identified the leak.

Soapy water works very well too.

 

[Phischy1]

Honestly, my kegs are probably at least 5 years old (and I bought them used) so they're somewhat beat to ****. I was going to get a new regulator anyway, so I'm just going to spring for a couple kegs while I'm at it.

I'd buy all new orings for your kegs, including the main seal. It's pretty easy to diagnose if a keg is leaking. Buy them cheap from McMaster Carr.

 

[SirDickButts]

Nothing major but I got tired of my speidel leaking in the fermentation box so I bought some upgrades from Nor Cal brew solutions.

Was the beer leaking from the plastic spigot it came with? Never had any leaks on mine, but I have the chrome spigots on both.

I bought the CO2 adapter (for keg transfers) from NorCal and it's kind of a pain to use.

 

[liquiddegenerate]

Was the beer leaking from the plastic spigot it came with? Never had any leaks on mine, but I have the chrome spigots on both.

I bought the CO2 adapter (for keg transfers) from NorCal and it's kind of a pain to use.

The plastic one it came with leaked after the first time I cleaned it.

 

[Phischy1]

Had a sump pump fail. For unknown reasons it's tripping the gfci. And there's not many amps being pulled, so it could be a multitude of factors and sat I'm going to start running it down.

It did cost me a very expensive batch of a lager ed Baltic porter. And the pump worked flawlessly on a cheap pale ale I ran through the system first to test. I'm pretty bummed out about this.

 

[Phischy1]

Last night I checked the other pump, works fine. So it's a wiring issue or just a bad pump. Will sort that out tomorrow.