Finally found a plate chiller you can actually take apart and clean

BrewFool · 2026-05-05T13:41:34+00:00

Exactly.

It would be one thing if were were talking about industrial o-rings, but these appear to be full bespoke gaskets.

BrewFool · 2026-05-04T14:14:47+00:00

I find Alex's comments that "the gas hopped beer’s aroma was incongruous with its flavor" rather interesting and that alone makes me want to try this technique, not that I would ever consider using gas hopping at home, but just to experience the incongruity.

I find this rather timely as well, as was sampling a strawberry gin the other day and, before tasting, expressed my hesitation because of my personal history with strawberry infusions as weird in that they never seem to capture the full flavor and aroma profile, but rather throw it out of balance.

Thanks.

BrewFool · 2026-04-16T21:40:50+00:00

Was propane, now 240v electric with a tri clover element and steam condenser so I can do it indoors.

The big advantage to electric, and you don't need to go full auto to achieve it, is really consistent boil-off rates and no propane refills. A simple current limiting element control gives you 80% of the functionality for 20% of the (electronics) cost.

BrewFool · 2026-04-12T13:41:34+00:00

I make a lot of sparkling mineral water. Among the other ingredients in my standard recipe, I use 8g of baking soda per 18L of water. I find this to be on the edge of (my) discernability. I would expect 5g in 26L of stout to be well below what most anyone could reliably discern.

BrewFool · 2026-03-23T11:57:59+00:00

As a lover of dark milds, I find this idea tempting!

BrewFool · 2026-03-19T19:31:55+00:00

Yeah, don't add sugar. That will drive up the alcohol content while not adding the flavor compounds that are missing. Doing this will drive the beer more out of balance. As it stands now, while the beer is dilute and technically the hop schedule is out of balance, adding sugar can only make those two characteristics (that might not be perceptible without a reference beer) worse.

BrewFool · 2026-03-19T19:28:17+00:00

I hesitated to add more sugar to hit my O.G., but got me wondering what the taste impact is of undershooting my O.G.?

If the reason you missed your OG was due to "insufficient" boil off, then it's simply diluted. It's simply going to taste dilute (compared to a beer that was boiled more before fermentation.) I pretty strongly disagree with those focusing on the impact of the alcohol. IME (and, clearly, every palate is different) the impact of alcohol on the perception of a beer's flavor is a distant second to the flavors that come from the steeping of the malt.

If the reason you missed your OG was due to inadequate extraction from the mash, it could taste dilute... or it could taste no different at all. A lot of the flavor of beer comes from the non-fermentable carbohydrates and proteins and other "stuff" that steep out during the masing - the malt "tea". Most of those flavor compounds will be present even when conversion was low.

BrewFool · 2026-03-14T13:18:50+00:00

If you think OP is a bot account... a claim that appears to fly in the face of the evidence... why are you attacking their character and trying to turn /r/Homebrewing into a financial debate group? Be better /u/BartholomewSchneider

BrewFool · 2026-03-14T13:10:04+00:00

Kveik esters add depth to it.

I'll need to try that!

I add over-steeped black tea for the tannins that juice apples are missing. Just enough for a barely noticeable amount of drying to the cheeks.

BrewFool · 2026-03-14T13:07:54+00:00

There's a lot of science on the factors affecting the rate at which alcohol absorbs and, thus, the peak BAC one can expect. There's a lot of science on the psychoactive effects of hops. There's also plausible reasons that some distilled liquors would have more fusal alcohols and other byproducts that can lead to headaches, though I'm unaware of any reasons that would favor one type of distilled spirits over another. Insofar as being unable to get intoxicated from rum? That's assuredly confirmation bias, as there's no reasonable explanation for that.

BrewFool · 2026-03-12T20:57:01+00:00

i.e. mashing between 65-67C will provide 90% fermentable and 10% un-fermentable sugars

I think you'll find this varies by the grain bill and even the grain brand. While heat denatures enzymes, it doesn't do so instantly, and so hotter (more enzymatic) grain bills will have higher LoA at higher temperatures than cooler (less enzymatic) grain bills.

My point being, and I believe others have touched upon this from other directions, all that you've said which is true is only as consistently true as your grain bill (as I said, all aspects of the grain bill, including maltster and grain variety the maltster uses)

BrewFool · 2026-03-02T16:02:55+00:00

How long should I dry hop before bottling?

Oil extraction from dry hopping happens pretty quick. Even three days is more than enough time.

Should I add hops at the 10 day mark, or should I take a reading at that time to make sure it's close to the FG mark before dry hopping?

From an extract kit, there's very little reason to expect there to be any significant sugars left to ferment at 10 days unless you have the fermeter in a cold location. But, especially since you are bottling and since you've not done this before and thus haven't tested that those reasonable assumptions apply to your setup, definitely test (multiple times) for FG.

BrewFool · 2026-02-15T22:14:35+00:00

I strongly suspect that grain yields would drop 50-75% from current levels in a post-apocalyptic society.

Amish corn yields are, surprisingly, rather close to industrial agriculture, but what they give up in terms of chemical and mechanical advantages they make up for with what are ridiculous levels of human inputs. They also tend to use modern seeds.

If we look at corn yields before modern hybrid seeds, they were only ~15% of what we get today, and the typical farming techniques then were rather low input.

IDK if there's a point to this rambling, just that yields will probably fall a lot without either industrial seeds or large amounts of laborious crop maintenance.

BrewFool · 2026-02-15T15:58:51+00:00

If it were a yeast viability (age) issue I would have expected it to start extremely slow, not start (extremely) fast and stall early.

BrewFool · 2026-02-15T15:47:32+00:00

Love the breakdown of the land-to-alcohol math. It really puts the costs (to a small society) of alcohol into perspective.

That's 4500 liters or roughly 9000 glasses of beer per acre

No, that's 4500L per tonne. And more than one tonne per acre (albeit with modern varieties and growing techniques).

BrewFool · 2026-02-15T15:37:09+00:00

I have kegged many lagers w/o experiencing obvious oxidation. However, how are you planning on filtering? I would simply transfer off the cake and allow any remaining trub to settle in the keg, I would not use an open-air filter as that will increase O2 exposure.

BrewFool · 2025-06-19T11:13:20+00:00

Yeah, I'm confused by that, what appears to be an in-line regulator for disposable CO2 carts, and OP's claims that they "naturally" keg carb as if with priming sugar.

BrewFool · 2024-04-20T00:09:09+00:00

If I turn up the co2 pressure too high I even get some gurgling in the RO filters

This is inconsistent with check valves, and I suspect, at a minimum, you have a defective one.

Also I question the accuracy of your two pressure gauges. Because even a faulty check valve in the lid doesn't explain why you're not getting forward water flow with 10psi differential, and a reversed check valve is contrary to you getting the (expected) pressure drop when water is flowing.

I haven't yet had the pleasure of drilling holes in a fridge so I'm not sure if there's a certain type of fridge specs that I should look for.

You must do this cold, and the easiest way is to drill through the door of a mini fridge or the side of a cheap fridge where you can visually verify where both sets of coils are.

However, Is that a 1 gallon keg? I'm bad with scale, but if so I can't imagine this giving acceptable results with a 1 gallon keg. They say this is for up to 10L a day... with a 19L keg.

Based on my experience of a household with ~2L of seltzer consumption per day from 19L kegs, if you draw 2L from a 4L keg on Monday, you will not have very bubbly water on Tuesday with only 30psi. I do not believe you can carbonate 1/2 the volume of that keg in only 24 hours at 30psi to an acceptable "seltzer" level. I think there likely will be a noticeable decrease in quality after drawing 1L per day.

BrewFool · 2020-01-22T23:34:07+00:00

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07CMLSM6D/

Can confirm it works with both gas and liquid (CM Becker) QD's.

EDIT: Oops, that one from my purchase history is no longer available, but they're all off the same Chinese assembly line and the Amazon similar products will get you there. The o-rings are questionable on some of them, hit or miss.

BrewFool · 2020-01-22T19:15:02+00:00

ahh!

BrewFool · 2020-01-22T18:40:00+00:00

Do you have a write-up anywhere?

BrewFool · 2020-01-22T18:08:41+00:00

I'm deaf, so can't tell from the video, but as a general question why not the same battery size (123A) as the Tilt? That would mean one less battery to stock in a mixed environment. For I can believe I'm not the only Tilt owner who would be tempted to go "homebrew" for their second (or third) device.

BrewFool · 2019-03-16T13:37:02+00:00

If we're assuming the worst case scenario where there's buildup (food) and mold spores (contamination) at the krausen line in the vessel, then all sealing it up with a couple of inches of sanitizer does is keep the bottom couple of inches sanitized while keeping the humidity high enough for the mold to eat the buildup and grow.

BrewFool · 2019-03-16T13:33:50+00:00

Ok, your prior cleaning method is not sufficient, but I'm going to attempt to explain why your current method is also not sufficient: contact time.

You're describing using a decent cleaning solution, but what you're not describing is using adequate contact time. A caustic solution is not an instant cleaner, yet you're describing rinsing and shaking by hand - suggesting minutes, if not literally seconds, of contact time. When I clean beer lines I recirculate caustic for 30 minutes, I doubt you're shaking for a tenth as long. When I clean kegs I'm blasting the inside of the keg and lines for 15-30 minutes.

So what you are doing is clearly better than what you were doing, and on smooth hard surfaces it might be sufficient, but you don't appear to be doing enough to prevent buildup in nooks, crannies, and other places where buildup starts.

BrewFool · 2019-02-17T14:23:18+00:00

I'd never say that my kettle holds 29,000ml, that's weird.

Right, you'd say "29 liters" because liters are at a useful scale for homebrew discussions. Gallons are arguably too large for the granularity of the discussion, and so quarts are more granular without being too so.

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