What came in the mail for you today?

BrewSwag 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
20201124_175217.jpg
 
Zach at stainlessbrewing.com helped me out with a replacement 6" spider basket to fit my 20 gallon kettle as many years ago I had trimmed the original basket by a few inches to fit my original 10 gallon kettles, and I felt I was missing an advantage with the extra depth. They haven't been making spiders for many years but he happened to remember there was one of their early baskets stashed somewhere and he managed to dig it out and ship it for a very fair price.

After a hot PBW soak I fried it in an 5% citric acid bath to solidly passivate the mesh. While I was at it I stuck in my e-flask brush which had developed some significant rusting that ran into the bristles. Bath definitely gained some color in the offing, and I wish I'd taken a "before" pic because that's an impressive "after"...

acid_fryer.jpg


Ironically, I'm actually hoping to come up with a "free swimming pellet" solution based on The Electric Brewery's HopStopper V2 which would obviate the need for any basket, but the price for the fall-back/alternative insurance was cheap and I like the folks at stainlessbrewing...

Cheers!
 
Shank, duotight fittings and handle for the fourth and final tap on my keezer. The faucet and a few other bits and bobs are en route from another supplier. Only problem is these are technically a Christmas present from my Mom so I guess I should wait until after Christmas to install it!
 
z-bob said:
My first TILT hydrometer. (a red one) And a few packets of assorted wine yeast; I have plenty of beer yeast already.
Click to expand...
First impression of the TILT: what a piece of crap. It doesn't work. At all. I tried to take the end off to check the battery and I can't get it loose. Will probably have to use pliers which will chew up the plastic because there are no flats on the endcap, so I don't want to try that until I hear from customer service.

I've emailed baronbrew and Great Fermentations, but nobody responds to emails this late on a Friday, so I guess I won't be brewing this weekend after all.

I think I just threw $140 away.
 
Last edited:
z-bob said:
First impression of the TILT: what a piece of crap. It doesn't work. At all. I tried to take the end off to check the battery and I can't get it loose. Will probably have to use pliers which will chew up the plastic because there are no flats on the endcap, so I don't want to try that until I hear from customer service.

I've emailed baronbrew and Great Fermentations, but nobody responds to emails this late on a Friday, so I guess I won't be brewing this weekend after all.

I think I just threw $140 away.
Click to expand...
Rubber gloves, or rubber "jar opening grips" can get you more torque on the end caps to get them open. I saw a video a while back where Tilt actually recommends this.

Did you have the Tilt in a liquid when you tried it out, or was it just standing up on a counter/table? The Tilt turns off when straight up (IIRC, I have an old version that didn't have the shut off feature.)

Brew on :mug:
 
I did have it in a jar of water. I telephoned Great Fermentations (because nobody reads their emails late on the Friday afternoon) and Wes was quite helpful. While I was on the phone I had the Tilt in my hand, just happened to be at an angle, and I saw a green flash from nowhere in particular. So the indicator light wherever it does not stay on, probably to conserve battery. I put the Tilt back in the jar of water. I downloaded the Android app (Wes recommended that) and it was able to scan the tilt just fine.

The pi was setup and running except I had not told it my gmail address. When I gave it that, it started working too.

I am still concerned about how tight the endcap is, but I don't have to worry too much about that for another year or so.
 
Shout out to @Bobby_M. Don't want to set expectations going into the holiday/gifting season (as well as the coming "Peak Homebrewing" period), but I ordered these from brewhardware.com on Wednesday evening and they arrived today - even with Turkey Day in the middle. That's crazy!

All thumbs up! :D

Cheers!

valve_n_stuff.jpg
 
day_trippr said:
Shout out to @Bobby_M. Don't want to set expectations going into the holiday/gifting season (as well as the coming "Peak Homebrewing" period), but I ordered these from brewhardware.com on Wednesday evening and they arrived today - even with Turkey Day in the middle. That's crazy!

All thumbs up! :D

Cheers!

View attachment 708255
Click to expand...

Nice! Even I'm impressed.
 
day_trippr said:
Zach at stainlessbrewing.com helped me out with a replacement 6" spider basket to fit my 20 gallon kettle as many years ago I had trimmed the original basket by a few inches to fit my original 10 gallon kettles, and I felt I was missing an advantage with the extra depth. They haven't been making spiders for many years but he happened to remember there was one of their early baskets stashed somewhere and he managed to dig it out and ship it for a very fair price.

After a hot PBW soak I fried it in an 5% citric acid bath to solidly passivate the mesh. While I was at it I stuck in my e-flask brush which had developed some significant rusting that ran into the bristles. Bath definitely gained some color in the offing, and I wish I'd taken a "before" pic because that's an impressive "after"...

View attachment 707897

Ironically, I'm actually hoping to come up with a "free swimming pellet" solution based on The Electric Brewery's HopStopper V2 which would obviate the need for any basket, but the price for the fall-back/alternative insurance was cheap and I like the folks at stainlessbrewing...

Cheers!
Click to expand...
I have one I made at home that looks identical. My next basket will fit the ID of the kettle and half way down. I've found that I get better boil through when it is full size. Until I get off my, I'll keep using the one like that. I'm not sure if the extra movement would make any difference. Not like I've had any issue with hoppiness and extraction. I was only thinking of the whirlpool additions. I've thought of going naked, but the cleanup is too easy with it. Nice purchase from them. I've had good luck there too. I also thought of the HopStopper. I've read mixed reviews on it.
 
The ITC-1000F temp control box so far. I didn't push in the green on/off switch all the way as once it's in, it's in.

Used a regular computer power cord as I seem to have plenty of these power cords. XLR for the temp sensor allowing me to unplug the sensor when not in use. Also, easily tell which receptacle output is for hot and which is for cold by the panel lights. Even when off the panel light color is obvious.

Inkbird ITC-1000F temp control box.jpg
 
Last edited:
A couple of things directly from Grainfather.
 

Attachments

  • PXL_20201204_153307364.jpg
    PXL_20201204_153307364.jpg
    3.1 MB · Views: 8
  • PXL_20201204_153200617.jpg
    PXL_20201204_153200617.jpg
    3.2 MB · Views: 9
My two sons are in college and both are interested in brewing beer, cider and kombucha. That means I get the fun of ordering them brewing equipment for Christmas! When I buy it and it arrives, it is almost as exciting as buying my own equipment all over again. In some respects it is even better, because they will hopefully carry on the tradition and return the favor by giving me kegs of their beer/cider/kombucha when I can't lift the mash tun, brew kettle or kegs anymore.
 

Similar threads

H
Yeast starter not starting
Replies
16
Views
994
HB2112
H
P
What happened to IPA?
2
Replies
49
Views
3K
Clint Yeastwood
Clint Yeastwood
MrBJones
Question on Jamil's English IPA Recipe
Replies
4
Views
1K
Northern_Brewer
Northern_Brewer
G
First Custom Grain Bill- Thoughts?
Replies
11
Views
1K
BrewnWKopperKat
BrewnWKopperKat
Langerz
First Fermentation with a Tilt - Questions
Replies
20
Views
2K
AZ Maverick
AZ Maverick

Latest posts

Back
Top