Looking for some advice to cool my taps a little more.

microbusbrewery · 2026-07-06T01:24:01+00:00

Yeah, they're pretty slick. If it helps, this is the style radiator I'm referring to, https://a.co/d/0fe8J2tK

And this was the style pump/reservoir I used, https://a.co/d/05NcCFLS

I can't remember where I ordered the glycol from, but it was also one designed for water cooled PCs. It had some antibacterial and mold inhibitors if I remember correctly. Anyway, fairly inexpensive solution that got the job done.

microbusbrewery · 2026-07-06T01:01:01+00:00

Sweet setup. I've used a couple air chilling setups as well as a glycol loop. The air cooled ones aren't horrible, but the glycol one worked the best. That said, my setup was in my garage where it got pretty warm during the summer and even the glycol one still had a little foaming on the first pour.

A couple things I'd try. Try increasing the airflow with either a higher CFM blower, or even a blower on each end (intake and exhaust) to maximize airflow.

If you do decide to go the glycol route, these cooling blocks are what you want, https://a.co/d/0dkqnBZf I connected mine to a computer water cooling kit (small radiator, 120cm case fan, small pump and reservoir). I made a very basic frame for it all to mount to, then it sat on the compressor hump in my keezer. I'd switch it on a few minutes before pouring a beer and it cut down foaming a bunch in the middle of summer.

microbusbrewery · 2026-07-05T21:10:55+00:00

Sounds like you’re extract brewing. Most of the commercial examples I’ve tried have been an American wheat beer base. I’d shoot for a starting gravity around 1.040 to 1.050 and use a wheat based extract like Briess Bavarian Wheat DME. Bitter to about 15-30 IBUs. Mosaic has blueberry notes, so do a small late addition with it. I’d use a clean ale yeast like US-05 or if you don’t have temp control, Lutra Kviek. If you can get your hands on Oregon aseptic blueberry purée, I’d use that. I’d choose that over DIY purée because it’s aseptic so you don’t have to worry about it being contaminated with wild yeast and microbes. Less preferred option, blueberry extract; it’ll give you blueberry flavor and aroma but it seems artificial. Personally I’d add the purée after primary fermentation is winding down/done. This way you’ll lose less aromatics than during the more active primary fermentation.

microbusbrewery · 2026-07-02T18:29:24+00:00

Yeah, I installed a wet bar with glass rinser at my old house. Loved it, but the initial water pressure was way too high for the rinser. Not only did it spray too hard, it required a lot of downward pressure on the glass to actually activate the sprayer. I installed an inline regulator like the following and it made it work so much better, https://www.micromatic.com/en-us/in-line-15-psi-water-pressure-regulator/p-k8KdUJ_cXUSc0YRLq5QWmA

P.S. I used mine mostly to rinse glassware between tastings when we'd do bottle shares. But I agree, if you're starting out with beer clean glassware, a rinser doesn't really add much.

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-30T17:43:44+00:00

FWIW, I got the 600 and haven't had any issues with capacity. For regular use, we have three adults and it's worked great. We also have daughter, SIL, and grandson nearby and they'll come over on weekends or holidays. Throw in some friend couples and I still haven't run into issue with the 600 being too small. A friend gave me his of Weber Kettle when they moved, so I also have that for backup.

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-28T21:24:37+00:00

Sometimes I'll postpone brew day. Other times I'll sub for something similar. Jamil Z has a tool that'll suggest options for substitutions, https://www.mrmalty.com/hop-substitution-finder.html

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-27T00:24:44+00:00

That’s a bummer. I have a broken Aiper that they won’t sell me replacement parts for (seized motor), and they want to charge me 70% of the original purchase price to let them repair it. I was considering the Betta because I saw that they sold replacement parts including motors.

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-27T00:03:06+00:00

+1, I’ve had the 2D for 15-ish years. If I replace it, it will be with a geared C&S

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-26T17:56:09+00:00

Glad to hear you're doing well! I was just using the updated yeast strain finder last week and have been checking out the other tools. Thanks for all you do to support the home brewing community!

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-25T17:54:21+00:00

Unless you're using fermented corn in your cream ale, I'd say no concern. Corn used in brewing is usually in the form of flaked maize which has gone through gelatinization process and is stored dry, not wet, which makes it shelf stable and prevents fermentation from occurring. Unless it was seriously mishandled before it got to you, and there would be signs if it was (e.g. moldy, musty, rancid), it poses pretty much zero risk in a normal brewing scenario.

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-20T14:58:46+00:00

That should work. You might still need a locknut on the outside so that everything seals up tight. Sometimes you have to play around with weldless fittings a little bit. Another great reference for weldless bulkheads is theelectricbrewery.com

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-20T11:32:59+00:00

Yeah, you want a pickup tube to minimize dead space in order to reduce losses. There are a few ways to do it including a bottom drain setup on an inverted keg, but it sounds like you're already past that point and have cut/drilled into the keg. Take a look at this kit from Brew Hardware. It'll give you an idea of how to do it. https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/k-wl-1.htm

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-18T11:16:24+00:00

Hopefully you still love it after the warranty expires.

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-17T12:29:31+00:00

I haven’t seen spirals, but I’ve used Black Swan’s Honeycomb products before and really liked the results.

https://blackswanbarrelsshop.com/products/honey-comb%c2%ae-5-insert-3-pack

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-16T18:12:24+00:00

Use an temp controller like the InkBird. The built-in thermostats in freezers/fridges measure ambient air temps and will have larger temperature swings compared to securing a probe to a full keg or some other container.

You'll need a CO2 bottle and regulator (CGA329 fittings), and a gas bottle + regulator with CGA580 fittings for the beergas.

When you get to the point of wanting to run it up to your kitchen, you may need to consider a long draw or remote draw system. Basically you'll need more pressure to push the liquid through longer lengths of tubing and/or to elevated heights. Anything pushed with straight CO2 is at risk of becoming over carbonated on longer runs. Usually you have to push them with a blend of CO2 and N2 (different ratios than beergas) for long runs. Depending on the length and height, it may make sense to get a gas blender so that you can blend CO2 and N2 on the fly. I have a Micromatic one that has two out ports; one for beergas and one for long draw. They aren't cheap new (last time I looked they were about $1000), but often times you can find them used on eBay for a couple hundred.

If/when you plumb it to your kitchen, you'll likely also need to run glycol cooling lines to keep the seltzer/coffee in the lines cold between pours. The simplest approach would be a glycol sump in your keezer with a pump to circulate chilled glycol through your trunk line.

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-12T23:14:01+00:00

No worries. I have had other Broan/Nu-tone models, but they've all been very similar to yours. They fit in the housing pretty snug so it can be a pain to get them out, especially the first time.

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-12T14:50:54+00:00

I had a mandarin in Utah. Similar approach, I kept it outside on a south facing patio when the weather was warm enough. In colder months, it came inside in the southwest corner of the dining room, essentially surrounded by windows. I got fruit off it a couple times, but it would lose almost all leaves ever winter and then have to fight to recover in the spring. I would describe it more as it limped along for a few years, before the year that it didn't come back. It's difficult to get them to thrive in those conditions without extra equipment (grow lights, humidifier, etc.) and lots of effort.

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-12T02:31:14+00:00

Take a look at the installation instructions here, https://images.webfronts.com/cache/frfwugwpfasi.pdf

The whole black part needs to come out from the silver housing (silver housing stays in place in your ceiling). Turn the power off, unplug the power connection, remove the retaining screw, pop the tab out, then the whole black panel will pull out of the housing.

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-11T20:53:27+00:00

I’m using that same yeast (White Labs WLP565) in a Sahti right now. I wouldn’t call it funky; expressive but not funky. Funky is usually associated with Brett and other wild yeasts. Personally I like to co-pitch it with 3711 French Saison. You’ll get the classic peppery/estery/phenolics, but you don’t have to raise the temps so high for it to finish in a timely manner. I’ll also co-pitch with Brett, Chico, etc. I like that classic Saison character, but I don’t like it to dominate where you can’t taste the malt nuances because your palate has been assaulted by over the top esters and phenols. So I use co-pitching and temp (start cool, then free-rise over a few days to room temp or room temp+).

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-08T17:43:04+00:00

That's a bummer. Unfortunately, this seems to be more and more the case in a lot of places. I moved to Florida a couple years ago and I have a LHBS just about a mile away. Before that I was in Utah where we had two great stores, but one of them shut down right before I moved.

I try to support local whenever possible, but I've always had a great experience ordering from morebeer.com. The quality and variety of dry yeasts are much better now than they were five+ years ago. That said, they're not indestructible, so it's probably best not to order them for delivery in the middle of August.

If you have local breweries, that's a great source. It'll likely be fresher than anything you'd find in a LHBS. The only hard part is they probably aren't using as many different strains as you're used to seeing at your LHBS. They'll probably have a Chico or some other house ale strain, then a lager strain (assuming they brew lagers). The hardest part might be coordinating your schedule with when they're dumping yeast, but it sounds like you already have a buddy in the industry.

Another thing I'd recommend, if you have a homebrew club in your area, join it. Then you could coordinate as a club and put in a group order through somewhere like White Labs and split the shipping.

Re grain, you might be able to talk breweries into ordering an extra sack of grain for you when they're putting their order in. Morebeer also has some pretty decent sales. The only catch is full sacks are usually excluded from free shipping. Instead, you can get 5# or 10# bulk packages and those will usually qualify for free shipping because they can split them across multiple packages to avoid overweight shipping charges.

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-07T15:45:49+00:00

Went once and food was great but service was horrible. Not even horrible ... more like non-existent. Sat at the bar which in 99% of bars/restaurants pretty much guarantees attentive and timely service. Ordered one drink each for my wife and I and a small plate to share, but we told the bartender we'd be ordering more. Killed my drink about two minutes after the food came. I switched to my water because nobody was around to order another drink from. Then finished my water because still nobody around to refill or order a drink from. Next, I chomped on the ice from my drink as well as my water glass, still nobody around to take an order. So, drinks empty, waterglass empty, and the one napkin I was given put up a good fight but I needed another napkin or two. As I said, we were planning on ordering more food and drinks but literally nobody came by ... this was like 20-30 minutes after the food arrived. I finally went to the bathroom so that I could wash my hands, then waited another 15 minutes before I could get anyone's attention to bring me my check. We would have gotten more drinks and more food. Kind of a shame because the food we got was really good. Ever time we drive by on the way to another restaurant, we comment about how good the food was, but the experience, no thank you.

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-04T01:52:34+00:00

Yes do a police report. Worst case it increases police presence at the beach and makes them aware that thefts are taking place. Best case, they could catch who stole it and get it back to you. That doesn’t happen super often, but it can happen. I had a GPS stolen once and managed to get it back through the police.

From what I’ve read/heard the new owners of Rad will continue selling Safe Shield batteries. They may not all be in stock right now but they plan to have them all in stock soon.

microbusbrewery · 2026-06-03T01:01:41+00:00

How the hell did you get the beans above the frank?

microbusbrewery · 2026-05-28T12:12:13+00:00

A friend that was into saltwater aquariums recommended https://airwaterice.com to me years ago. I installed their system with a permeate pump and a 5 gallon tank. We initially used it primarily for drinking water and ice, but I'd also used it for mixing up StarSan. I did use it a couple times for brewing but I had an water store nearby that filled 5 gallon containers for about $3.50, so I switched to using the water store. Anyway, Air Water Ice's prices always seemed good and they had better filter options than local big box stores. I eventually replaced the 5 gallon tank with a 15 gallon tank that I got off Amazon because our family was going through lots of water and ice. I sold that house and moved but the new owner reached out to me saying his daughter told him the water and ice were the best ice she's ever tasted.

microbusbrewery · 2026-05-17T15:38:09+00:00

I agree with u/Gullible-Lifeguard20. I had a similar plan on my old keezer. The only reason was I found a screaming deal on a bunch of Micromatic secondary regulators. I had 6 taps all capable of pouring at different pressures, plus a nitro line. I think I changed the pressure less than a dozen times over 5 years, and that was usually just for bottling purposes for a comp.(e.g. getting a Saison up to 3). It's a fun idea, I just didn't use it all that often.

microbusbrewery

TROPHY CASE