Search results

POS. And all for the bargain price of $499.

Yep. It does the same thing on both. It only does it with the control lever pointing backwards and the caps definitely aren't fouling it. I'll have another play with the taps later and suss things out.

Yes. I did the whole disassemble and lube thing. It's more of a mechanical "snag". It occurs just after you take the control lever out of the fully closed position from the backwards orientation. Obviously, I'm talking about the lever facing backwards and not myself. Not tonight at least!

Now it turns out I do actually have a complaint. It may not be sensible, but I tried turning the lever into the backwards facing position on my taps, and it turns out they seem to snag a little on the return run. Does anybody else feel this in the flow control lever? Note: This is not a defect...

A valid point is that you should keep as much space as possible around each coil. An alternative is to circulate the water over the coils Dent is right about the lengths that will work. 3m should be plenty of compensation for any cock ups in design. Just my opinion.

Not really. I used to boil my 3L flask on the gas stove, but lately I've been without. In the meantime I've been heating the flask in my HX pot. You just lift it out now and then and give it a swirl, or leave it in for longer. It gets up above 90c pretty quickly. It's not perfectly sterile...

I guess that a proper boil is not actually needed in this case. It's just for nuking any nasties that might be in the water right? If you're using extract for a starter, I see no point in a rolling boil. High temps over time are what you want IMO.

Why don't you just use a pot with the flask? Place the flask in a pot with some water in it and apply heat. Set and forget to a certain extent. You can also throw in some salt to increase the boil temp as is done with pasta.

My new taps have emptied all my kegs. Every time I walked past them the beer would leak out and subsequently vanish. The problem is they work too well! Nice tip about the flow control levers. Mine were seriously tight when I received them. It surprises me that they don't lubricate the seals...

76% seems very low if we're talking about the same thing. Is the 76% the mash efficiency as calculated in BS2? The bloke who gave me a good rundown about mashing told me to taste the spent grains. Residual sweetness is good and astringency is bad as far as that chat went. It makes sense. My...

Hi Surly, If you're using a coil in a small pot I wouldn't stress too much about agitating the fluid around the coil. The convection currents in the water will do a fairly good job once it gets a bit of heat into it. Of course, there are obvious considerations to take into account, such as...

IME, don't even bother with a coil unless you have sufficient surface interaction on both sides of the coil. Inside and out. Building a single vessel recirculating brewery is not as expensive as a 3v.

QK has quite a few brews under his belt. If his perceived result from higher mash efficiencies is a less grainy flavour, I'm willing to take him on his word......and then the man himself posted. Have you tried adding more grain towards the end of the mash yet? I'm itching to crack open the bag...

Nice one QK! I wonder if that could be alleviated by adding a little fresh grist to the mash towards the end? Also, what sort of beers are you finding less grainy? Is it the lager variety? Edit: Could it be that the ramp times and mash schedules are favouring the beta amylase?

I've been reading up a little on the efficiency thing lately and would be interested to know your reasons QK? Why do you want lower mash/ pre boil efficiency? It's an interesting part of the whole HERMS homebrew movement that seems to lack a great deal of real data. I too have been deliberately...

At 16-17c it should run fine with a temperature controller. You just need to set up the controller and probe properly.

The flow is always restricted. You often have head pressure and there is always restriction due to the plumbing. Similar to beer line when you keg. I never realised most guys were creating a substantial vacuum at the outlet of the MT. It makes sense why, but sounds like a bit of a balancing...

That's pretty much what I do. The efficiency and clarity is great using this method. No stirring needed.

How much of a vacuum do you guys get? I always thought you were meant to balance the flow so it didn't compact the grain bed. Centrifuge pumps are also meant to push fluids, not pull. Too much of a vacuum and they start making that crackling sound due to cavitation. Back to the air pocket, I've...

If it's a centrifugal type pump any restriction will reduce the load on the motor. The speed of rotation increases and power consumption goes down until you get cavitation. Some restriction is a good thing. IME the sweet spot is usually between 60- 90% of rated flow. FB, I'm not sure what my...