Recent content by bike2brew

My closet has American Amber, Brown Ale, Stout, and IPA. I am also still sitting on the remaining bottles from a 5 gallon Triple I brewed almost 2 years ago.

I routinely sample my beers directly from the conditioning closet where the temp hovers around 65.

yes, game changing! and always fresh.

I am also recently discovering the economy of building a custom grain bill where my ounces are combined with the pounds rather than hanging on to small quantity grains and wondering what to do with them.

Thanks. I have an order on backorder with you right now. So stick around at least until it is filled. Yes, I am glad to send businees your way for items my LHBS doesn't stock or maintain predictably.

Four gallon Amber ale on Saturday. Still dialing in my SVBS. Pre-boil gravity came in low despite steady mash temp @152. Pre-boil volume @ 6.5 gallon. Finished with 4 gallon @ 1.053, rather than predicted 5 gallon @ 1.059. I'm thinking tweaks needed to more grain and less water, increasing...

Sounds good. Otherwise I say brew what you will drink. I have had my Amber que'd up for a couple weeks so it a no brain'r

Scaling up my Hops Kitchen Amber to 5 gallon AG recipe in the SVBS this weekend. Looking for the consitsency of the automated temp control in the mash and boil. I am hopeful this will result in minor improvements to my 2.5 gallon BIAB-stovetop efforts w/ respect to production numbers and...

You can't close the doors when the walls cave in

Yes, I too float my tilt in water/star San to make sure it's on and reading @ zero before it's in the wort and I start the logging. This has worked well enough without having to do a calibration.

Yes, and others have said previously there is nothing aboslute with instrumentation. Everything is relative to what we estblish as the baseline. I can use a hydrometer, but it takes 10ml or so each reading, and my eyes have difficulty reading between the lines, the refractometer is relative...

The only time I have had issue with my Tilt is when I tried to calibrate them so I use each of them pre-calibrated without issue. My refractomer generally reads higher than the Tilt but I use the Tilt to establish my baseline OG.

2.5 gallon iPA, BIAB, 2 row, Pilsen, Vienna, Citra and mosaic. Missed a few numbers by a little, but hit my boil off volume. OG @ 1.056 without correction. I am learning not to fret the production details and focus on the end result. Does it meet the style and does it taste good. I am hoping...

Has anyone adapted the Spike Brewing steam condenser lid to their SVBS? Apparently it will fit directly.

I switched from carb drops to table sugar several brews back and have had good success. I am currently using 3/4 tsp per 12 oz. Overall level of carbonation seems to suit my taste but nice thing about this system is that I can experiment by bottle rather than a whole batch and make minor...