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I generally just leave it overnight in the fridge, as long as most of the yeast has set in the bottom of the starter you'll be right. Gently pour off most of the liquid leaving just enough to swirl the yeast cake back into suspension and pour it in! Only time I like to pour the whole starter in...

Get the TCT hole saws from Keg King or ebay, they work much better than a step bit and will last a lot longer, they are designed for stainless. I've drilled heaps of holes in stainless kegs with mine and still cuts like butter. They are surprisingly cheap too.

Any counter flow style chiller will use a lot of water - I think plate chiller should use less than an IC as plate chiller is quicker and more efficient. But that doesn't mean you have to waste it. I run most of mine back into the HLT and a couple of buckets then use it for clean up, watering...

At what temperature point does isomerization stop? I have the complete wort volume cooled to <20C within 5min. Basically half the wort volume would be cooled in under half that time - how quickly does an IC get the entire wort volume below isomerization temps?

Lots more fans than haters for the plate chillers I think. From what I've seen most of the haters are IC users hung up on the perceived cleaning difficulties - yet those that actually own plate chillers don't appear to have any problem.

I don't think your theory is correct - if you were trying to cool the beer down as it passes through the taps then a larger thermal mass will help, but you are wanting to get the taps to the same temp as the beer, so the less thermal mass in the taps the quicker it will get down to the beer temp...

+1 for the Coopers Ale. It's what I brew for my mates who aren't crafty - they can't get enough of it.

I ordered my plate chiller from Duda Diesel with threaded male ports on it, I have attached camlock disconnects on the wort side and normal garden hose style connectors on the water side - works a treat and saves mucking around with barbed fittings and hose clamps.

Well my voltage controller the same as linked to here finally blew up last night mid boil. It did last a couple of years, but I think the max rating(3800W@220V) for a 3600W element is on the edge and I'd have to advise not to go with it. Would probably be fine for 2400W element though?

Something is not right, mine DD plate chiller is gravity fed(not restricted) from the kettle and I can fill a fermenter with 20C wort in around 5min. My tap water flow is reasonably quick, I would easily send 2+ times as much water through the chiller than wort. Is the water coming out of the...

The best extract brews I did were with LDME + steeped grains and a full volume boil with hop additions. I'm not sure why but I believe the full volume boil made a big difference over previous batches that were similar partial boils.

Has anyone with the latest revision of the Keg King element had any issues? I was under the impression that the problems had been sorted. I know mine appears to be fine so far. I have 3600W in my kettle and its perfect for 28L batches that I do, gets 40L to a good rolling boil and reasonably...

Yep, I just throw them in - no bag.

I find, even with force carbing, it takes a week or so to get a good head and mouth feel. Force carbing may get CO2 bubbles into your beer quickly but it still seems to need a week or so to come good? Not sure the technical reason but that's what I find.

How do you get the f!#*n label glue off them?

+1 for small cable ties. I even found some stainless cable ties I was going to try but haven't gotten around to to it yet.

Was originally after one of these too - but the copper version. Was only available from the states at the time and was a little exxy to get over here! So settled for the plate chiller. Although maybe not as susceptible, I think you would still need to be mindful of getting hop crud build up in...

That /\ is way too much stuffing around! When chilling I collect some of the warm waste water in my HLT. Then after I've finished I throw some sodium perc in to the HLT and back flush the wort side of chiller for a few minutes - this also cleans up all my lines etc. I also use the warm sodium...

hmmm pig...

How I do it... I rack into a separate bottling vessel(old fermenter) that I have marked with 1 litre increments. I don't add the priming sugar until I know exactly how much I have in the container to bottle. I then decide what level of carbonation I want for that beer and use a carbonation...