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Yes, beer should have a lower pH than the mash: pH generally falls by a bit more than 1 pH unit during fermentation, the actual change is dependent on wort composition, yeast strain and fermentation conditions. That being said, 4.9 is very high for a finished beer, most beers will look soapy at...

You got there before me. We can only hope this pic is not representative.

Braided cable sleeving in a wet area????

A good rule of thumb is to treat the ice as though it was at -100 oC and apply the rule of mixtures. This accounts for the enthalpy of fusion (333 kJ/kg) being equivalent to a temperature change of 80 oC (333 kJ/ kg / 4.18 kJ / kg / oC) and allows 20 oC for temperature shift (ice is normally...

About 75%. Bulk density of whole malt is around 500 kg / m^3 so a 35 dm^3 container will hold around 17.5 kg.

Speaking only for myself, yes, when I worked for a very large brewery I would volunteer to do the ferment rounds over easter and christmas on the grounds that I don't celebrate either holy day. No, I didn't get paid for it, I was on salary.

Yes to not using a vessel with a concave base, no to worrying about the thermal mass. Contrary to popular supposition, the specific heat capacity of steel is quite low. It's a weird thing that the volumetric heat capacities of most solids fall in a very narrow range from ~ 2 - 4 J / cm^3 / oK...

That was H.L. Mencken. He also wrote, in 1920: On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. 96 years.

Sounds like a plan. Just make sure there is enough headspace for the krausen. That being said, one of the advantages of the sandbag stopper is that it's really easy to clean if you misjudge the required headspace. Fun fact: a winery at which I once worked bought a commercial wet street sweeper...

Just to be clear: 10% headspace is OK during ferment (as long as the ferment is not too vigorous) but it is a terrible idea for aging. Once the ferment is finished, make sure the barrel is full and that you keep it that way. The ullage that forms from evaporation is OK as long as the barrel is...

I think he meant what size barrel. BTW I don't use airlocks when barrel fermenting, I put a scoop of clean sand into a sandwich bag and pop it over the bunghole. You can tell when the ferment is finished by sticking your ear in the bunghole and listening. When the crackle subsides, replace the...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-15/wine-glasses-have-doubled-in-size-since-1990/9261038

The proposed mechanism for achieving a floor price is to harmonise the tax structures of wine and cider (currently ad valorem) to those of beer and spirits (currently excise on alcohol content). If it goes ahead as planned it will affect the price of table wine up to about $50 per bottle, and...

Floor price would be a bit over $400 for 20 litres. Treasury has been trying to get this up for at least 20 years, they'll get there in the end but it will probably take a while. Some of the major grape growing regions in SA are in marginal electorates.

A slightly different flavour profile. I find that the cleaner profile of the pilsner malt gives a combination of intensity and delicacy which is, to me, one of the reasons for doing this type of beer in the first place. For a higher strength Belgian (about 9% ABV) I now use 90% pilsner malt and...

Research suggests that is not the mechanism involved as raw alpha acids (before isomerisation) are even less soluble than iso alpha acids. Since the alpha acids are largely contained in the lupulin glands which are dominated by their wax / oil content, it follows that the majority of...

You can scale it up and the same algorithm applies, just use percentage volume. As you surmised, if you use 100% beer you lose so much volume you go off the chart. It's normal to lose some CO2 when you open a package, lab grade package samplers use a sealed spear system to prevent this.

Actually headspace seems to have very little effect, neither does the height of the blow off tube. There is no pressure term as the idea is to vent pressure every step. Temperature dependent accuracy can be calculated from the algorithm, an ordinary $40 thermometer is more than acceptable...

Never understood why anyone uses cacao nibs in beer. Fat carries most of the flavour in chocolate, no cacao / chocolate infused beer ever tastes remotely like chocolate anyway. Same argument applies to coffee beers; they always taste like **** coffee that even a Septic would struggle to drink.

I have definitely recorded mash pH outside my desired range and have been able to bring it back in range by changing mash salts. I'm confident my pH measurements are OK, I've been doing this a while.