Recent content by micraftbeer

One thing I find interesting on the BrewZilla is how people's experiences vary so greatly. There's a whole section in this thread about people getting stuck mashes, clogging the pump, and needing a brew bag. Then there's a whole group of us that haven't had that problem. We've tried comparing...

I echo the experience of those holes not being a mess maker for sparge. I batch sparge pouring one gallon pitchers of hot water at a time.

I've got two thoughts that don't seem to be touched on here. Both are things that I didn't consciously do for consumption reduction purposes, but looking back, they did just that. 1. It's OK to pour beer out. In my younger days this would be sacrilege. But if I make a beer and it doesn't...

As with most things in life, "it depends" is always the safest answer. The first "it depends" is what you're after with your brewing. If you're focused on repeatability, or figuring out what to change for your next recipe, then freshness matters. As @day_trippr teased, there's actually...

American Pale Ale

I love my Tilts, but I never believe the value they give me. So let me be the first amongst many to say the Tilt is more about understanding fermentation progress and when fermentation ends- rather than reading an exact gravity.

I'll chime in with my NEIPA experiences. Continuing with the theme here, I think if your hops are all in the "fruity" family, swapping one for another probably isn't going to be significant. For me, that's perfectly fine, because that's the flavor I'm going for. Instead, I've worked on my...

Here's a collection of my experience and practice: 1. EPDM on the lid o-ring. Best for keeping oxygen out and biggest surface area for oxygen ingress. However, I did have one keg that somehow had a slight bend on the lid and needed one of those oversized o-rings, which was silicone. I...

Based on @Gary25 experience, combined with mine, it seems maybe there's an interaction based on dry hopping in Rye beers. My super-hazy Rye IPA had 6 oz of dry hops in a 5.5 gallon batch, and a "non-hazy" Wyeast 1056 yeast. Gary reported no haze with no dry hops. Maybe that's the connection.

I'm planning to go back and gather my run data in a more logical fashion. I did a bunch of experiments just with a batch of grain and tweaking controller settings. It always takes me awhile to figure out how to find it, but I love that RAPT keeps a record of every brew session. And since I...

@rtstrider I have the same setup as you. Here are the temperature anomalies I've come across and how I've dealt with them. 1. I heat the strike water without BT sensor. I'll turn on the pump to recirc water to make sure the whole volume is at strike water temp before mashing in. I run it...

I agree with above observations based on 1223 and cat picture, the grain husks are too intact. I would add to this that I see the bulk of your grist is Golden Promise malt. I don't brew a lot with that, but I do know those grains are extra difficult to crack. I think the kernel size must be...

I always do the "set it and forget it" method as well. One week will cut it if I'm super anxious for the beer and can convince myself it's not that bad. In reality, it's not good enough and I need 2 weeks. I'd say you've got another week to go.

Yes. The first pass rollers do not adjust, they're always at 0.050". The second set of rollers are the ones you can adjust. I tried different settings looking at grain crush and mash efficiency and I ended up with 0.033". And don't have any stuck mash issues with that.

Taking in everyone's legitimate firsthand experience, here's how it seems to sum up: 1. If you use your floating dip tube to dispense from a keg, you can probably get away without a filter on your inlet as long as you let any floaties settle a bit before you start dispensing. 1a. You probably...