Not the next full moon Screwtop - next March - you know my posts always go haywire around then
Been a little busy lately dealing with lousy auto-syphons, throwing Harry into the deep end of brewing, a new computer, working on ways to finance my brewing and (to a far lesser degree) my other expenses in Perth.
Sinkas we need your crusher soon. GL, go to Spotlight and bring the material around here. We can have a few beers and then maybe see if the two girls upstairs have a sewing machine
Do you want a long story of what not to do in brewing? Another one?
Here's how long it took me to work out these auto-syphons were dodgy. I should have worked this out much quicker but....
The cane part of my faithful old auto-syphon snapped so bought a new one and saw Roy at TWOC had the opposite broken half of what I had so bought that too at a huge discount.
First Brew: Dodgy. Sucking air heaps.
Second Brew: Dodgy. Sucking air heaps. This was a little while after the first brew so my mind had successfully erased all prior syphoning nightmares. Start to look for a reason. Probably need to force the hose over the cane more. Made a mental note to fix that before the next brew.
Third Brew: What you have to realise here is that the new syphons suck air in slowly and they suck it from the syphon tube not the hose join but I didn't know that until now. On this brew, I had re-fastened the hose with boiling water but I also stopped using my hop-sock and thought that this had something to do with my now having 5.5lts left in the kettle!
Fourth Brew: Did a side by side with Hughman666. Arrived there and we had a beer. Started to crush the grain and two hours later it was crushed. Then we started to brew. Norkell was there as well so we couldn't let him drink alone. Suffice to say, at the end of the brew... well, that's another story but it involved encouraging Harry, who I bribed to pick me up, using the syphon as a pump. Video footage would be amusing.
Fifth Brew: By this stage, I don't know what I was thinking. This brew was with Doogiechap and I thought I'd experiment with using my hopsock as a filter. Agh!!! Friggin' syphon didn't work on Doogie's brew or mine! Must be the hopsock...
Sixth Brew: Today I brewed with Harry. We used the hopsock. Syphon doesn't work. Drive to my place and get my old broken syphon and the second new one. Second new one doesn't work. Whack my old broken one in - no worries.
End Result - Clear wort and back to my old very respectable losses to trub.
Anyway, I must thank Brewcraft for this very long post and all my syphoning troubles.
Firstly, can anyone tell me why someone would change a beautiful product into a nightmare? Secondly, can anyone tell me why such a company would sell a product that doesnt actually work'?
Even if I just got two faulty syphons in a row, the inside diameter of these new syphons is simply too large for a good brewing syphon.
Spot ya,
Pat
P.S. Mika, everything about my new computer is tops and will withstand all tests except the keyboard. The keys seem to be closer together than on my last one so huge amounts of concentration are required for me to type accurately. This seems to be working out well for me in recent time/motion and drinking studies - lol!!!
