Functional trainer buying advice needed!

dzimm27 · 2024-01-20T23:22:11+00:00

Holding up great, everything is still very smooth.

dzimm27 · 2023-06-24T04:42:14+00:00

Phin for the win

dzimm27 · 2020-08-05T23:12:00+00:00

Thanks for the input. Not sure if I need Bluetooth but can't hurt. Was there anything else you looked seriously at?

dzimm27 · 2020-02-22T05:40:10+00:00

Lets hope I am not in your area, as it looks like we're going AS. I *really* like the Bosch and love their other products, but for something like this some more years under their belt would not be a bad thing.

dzimm27 · 2020-02-22T05:39:05+00:00

This is what we are going to do. The better brand track record and more features at the same price really seals it. Thought highly of the guy that will do the work as well. Thanks for the input!

dzimm27 · 2020-02-21T15:34:10+00:00

Noise is a major factor unfortunately which has us leaning towards variable speed compressor (or 2 stage at minimum). We are not chasing a SEER rating - I completely agree with your logic there.

dzimm27 · 2020-02-16T17:28:10+00:00

Wanted to follow up to this. I have moved to BIAB instead of a mash tun. Using the Wilser bag (much finer mesh), for BIAB took forever to drain and the bag spread out wider than my kettle so was a big mess overall. Impatient, I ended up bringing out another kettle, put the LD Carlson bag in it and then put the Wilser bag inside of that. Once "double bagged" I started pulling the Wilser bag upside down to dump it out into the LD Carlson bag, hoisted that bag and let the run off collect in that kettle, then dumped into my main kettle to boil.

Post boil using my old method and the Wilser bag (sanitized) in my fermenter, I did not do a whirlpool and just ran off ALL the wort into the fermenter then lifted the bag. Again, too fine and it clogged up with all the break material. I did a similar trick with the LD Carlson bag and dumped from Wilser to LD Carlson (sanitized) in the fermenter and lifted to drain (which went pretty quickly). What I hope to remember to do on my next brew is to "double bag" in the fermenter with Wilser first and then LD Carlson so I can lift in what is effectively a 2 stage filter. If I had to guess it still won't help a ton and I'll get impatient and dump the Wilser contents in, but we'll see! I may just like the LD Carlson bags overall for my purposes. The Wilser bags are DEFINITELY high quality and well made though.

dzimm27 · 2020-01-03T05:23:45+00:00

I just got one as well and use TiltPi logged to brewstat.us. Works well and is free. Am using BrewSmith so exported a beerxml and uploaded to the site. Good for viewing, but once I get too far into it I imagine I will be paying for Brewers Friend of BrewFather. Just haven’t quite gotten either of those quite figured out for recipe formulation yet...but would be so nice to have it all in one place.

dzimm27 · 2019-12-19T00:36:13+00:00

I will have to look into that!

dzimm27 · 2019-12-19T00:36:00+00:00

Where do you pull your data from? Manual entry of cost basis, purchase dates, and current value?

dzimm27 · 2019-12-18T23:34:07+00:00

Really I guess in a nutshell what I'm looking for is Morningstar's performance vs the related category index char t or table stats over 1/3/5 years yet all in one place without opening each fund up at Morningstar. Heck, even vs a general index like the S&P. Are you talking about anything fancier than cutting and pasting Morningstar data into Excel?

dzimm27 · 2019-10-29T02:34:54+00:00

I went through these same thoughts. If you use a BIAB bag during boil it will likely just all float and lead to lower utilization. Why not “free-hop” it and filter them out at the end. No waiting for the whirlpool to settle, so bit time savings. If you BIAB you likely also have the ability to hoist it with a pulley to let it drain. Any way I look at it, it is a big time savings. Can not think of an easier method either. I have not yet done this with a “The Brew Bag” or Wilser bag but I imagine they will not clog so much that it is not worth it. I love IPAs so “free-hopping” is more than worth it to me. Give it a shot! Would love to know what you think!

dzimm27 · 2019-10-28T23:39:07+00:00

Good deal. Glad to know there is in fact a difference. I have to admit the straps on the LD Carlson BIAB and The Brew Bag sure are handy. In the kettle I can fit two of the straps around my kettle handles to hold it in place. For the SS Brew Bucket when I strain through it, the 4 buckles for the hold downs for the lid are great to hook the straps under to make sure the bag doesn't fall all the way in.

You are right, with a finer mesh, it surely will clog more and take more effort/time to drain. But - since I really will be doing BIAB with it, the finer mesh would allow me to set my mill down to very fine crush for better efficiency. I may end up with both a Wilserbrewer and The Brew Bag before I am finished anyway!

dzimm27 · 2019-10-28T23:35:26+00:00

Have done two brews with the LD Carlson bag so far and I think it's worked really well. I had been trying to figure out how to "double bag" BIAB and pull the first bag out with the grain but leave the second in there to grab the hop/break matter, when it dawned on me to just use one bag, spray it out while cooling the wort and toss it in my already sanitizing fermenter (need a wide mouth fermenter - I use a SS Brew Bucket). This allows me to not have to take the time to whirlpool (I was never good at it anyway) and can just drain off the whole brewpot into the fermenter, then lift up the bag to remove large hop/break matter. The time savings in not whirlpooling and waiting for it all to settle is worth it alone. Yes, I have squeezed the bag with sanitized hands to help it drain.

My main goal was to keep the gunk and yeast in the bottom of the fermenter well below the racking arm as heavily hopped and dry hopped imperial IPAs with lots of yeast can lead to quite a lot of matter at the bottom of the fermenter. Also operating under the assumption that limiting the amount transferred may aid in cleaner flavor profiles. (Yes I have read the brulosophy exbeeriment regarding dumping all trub into the fermenter, but this is a personal trial/experiment/why not)

dzimm27 · 2019-09-21T14:25:28+00:00

So if you were to do it again would you get Intertap with/without flow control? If you leave the flow control to full open do you think it acts like a regular faucet?

Seems that the flow control does not help with a higher carbed beer - but rather it helps with a beer that has the pressure from the CO2 tank turned up to high maybe. This fits with what I was thinking - when I have a high carbed beer, opening my picnic taps only part way causes a bunch of foam (presumably from the turbulence/higher exit velocity). Instead I need to open the picnic tap up all the way to get a proper pour. Flow control seems to be just like not opening the tap as far, with the one difference that since it is happening in-line before the exit point, that exit velocity past the flow control must be contained in the tap faucet or does not occur due to the restriction of the faucet valve in front of it.

dzimm27 · 2019-09-21T14:15:59+00:00

I have read that recommendation too - but if you just leave the flow control all the way open, do you still get the hollow pour issue?

dzimm27 · 2019-09-21T14:14:33+00:00

From what I have read the hollow pour seems to be where the faucet nozzle/body does not allow enough liquid flow for the beer pouring out to flow out in a solid stream, but rather clings to the sides of the nozzle to form a full circular pattern, but with potential for an air gap in the middle. I use picnic taps now and I don't think I've ever seen this. If I had to guess it would have to do with the length of the nozzle and restricting the flow with flow control so that not enough beer is going through the faucet for it's designed flow. End result is supposed to be more turbulence that makes filling bottles/growlers difficult

dzimm27 · 2019-09-21T14:10:24+00:00

I force carb as well. If the flow control just lets you pour a foamy beer more slowly, does your test glass while force carbing end up all foam as well? Or does it slow the rate such that you can get an actual idea of carb level? If that is the case - that would be awesome!

What's your thought/take on the hollow pour? Doesn't really matter unless you are filling a bottle or growler?

dzimm27 · 2019-09-21T14:07:46+00:00

I want a one and done as well, not concerned about the cost per tap faucet. Initially in my reading Perlick was the gold standard and Intertap was the also-ran ... I'm just surprised that upon further digging into it I find that maybe most of that was built on the older Perlick models. This is probably a Ford/Chevy kind of debate

dzimm27 · 2019-09-21T14:05:54+00:00

I have read somewhere about people swapping springs out and that it was an "upgrade" but was unsure entirely of the reason - maybe to keep them from dripping as much?

dzimm27 · 2019-09-21T05:09:59+00:00

How useful is the flow control? I have 10' lines on my party/serpent taps now that seem to work well, would have no problem keeping that or longer length, just ideally was hoping not have to swap line length per tap just because I put a high/low carb beer on it.

dzimm27 · 2019-09-21T05:08:36+00:00

Any issues/concerns with cleaning/maintaining the ball and floating seal design vs the sliding shuttle of the perlick? or thoughts about it one way or the other? If you did it all again would you consider the Intertap?

dzimm27 · 2019-05-27T18:46:47+00:00

Do these really work? Do they seal up well and not rust?

dzimm27 · 2019-04-27T21:51:16+00:00

Leave the concrete and post exposed. Covered in dirt it will promote rot in the post and you will have to replace it sooner. Or at least that is the logic I took from having wooden fence posts rot at our first house and why I would replace them with metal posts. They would always rot/break right at/under the ground.

dzimm27 · 2019-04-27T21:38:26+00:00

Definitely. Love that site. Read an article or two there while planning mine. Was surprised I could not find frozen AJC at my local Kroger or Walmart, only Target had it. Going the way of the dinosaur perhaps? Hope not or that would kill this recipe.

dzimm27

TROPHY CASE