What are you doing with homebrew today?

west1m said:
I have a batch in the fermenter ready to keg. But I may have gotten ahead of myself when I brewed right away on top of the last brews yeast/ Trub. One keg is full and I didn't drink the other one empty yet. I have a small keg ,2.5 gallon job, I could transfer it into so I can use the large keg, or bottles. I think the keg would work better but I would have to park a small co2 bottle and reg in the fermentation fridge and use a picnic tap.
Too much beer? Is this a bad thing?
Click to expand...
I'll be right over!
Beer mugs
 
I sort of finally decided on doing a beer with bry97, and then Q2 on the trub.
I somehow think it is better that way around as the first one won't be dry hopped.
But I also want to do a weizen or wit.

I'll need my little fermentation fridge for this, so I postponed till tomorrow as I (maybe) can't run fridge and internet at night. And tonite is zoom night.
At least that's my excuse.

Does cooking with beer, while drinking beer, count as homebrewing?
 
Zambi said:
I sort of finally decided on doing a beer with bry97, and then Q2 on the trub.
I somehow think it is better that way around as the first one won't be dry hopped.
But I also want to do a weizen or wit.

I'll need my little fermentation fridge for this, so I postponed till tomorrow as I (maybe) can't run fridge and internet at night. And tonite is zoom night.
At least that's my excuse.

Does cooking with beer, while drinking beer, count as homebrewing?
Click to expand...
Ok you get some credit!
 
Started building the control box for my mashing upgrades. All but one contactor (for the heater) mounted. Fusing the Inkbird and relays separately from the pump and heater circuits. Put 1 control switch to shut off both the pump and heater, and wiring it so that the pump must be running for the heater to get power. I repurposed an old tester for GE PS-1 trip units for industrial breakers, which I had already repurposed for a field testing control module for medium voltage starters and electrically operated breakers. I never got the time to finish that before I had to retire, so couldn’t think of a better way to put it to use. I’ll have to plug a few holes (for stuff I didn’t need for the current purpose)

Should have it wired and ready for testing tomorrow.
IMG_3513.jpeg
 
RoadRoach said:
Started building the control box for my mashing upgrades. All but one contactor (for the heater) mounted. Fusing the Inkbird and relays separately from the pump and heater circuits. Put 1 control switch to shut off both the pump and heater, and wiring it so that the pump must be running for the heater to get power. I repurposed an old tester for GE PS-1 trip units for industrial breakers, which I had already repurposed for a field testing control module for medium voltage starters and electrically operated breakers. I never got the time to finish that before I had to retire, so couldn’t think of a better way to put it to use. I’ll have to plug a few holes (for stuff I didn’t need for the current purpose)

Should have it wired and ready for testing tomorrow.View attachment 29497
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looks good. use a couple of those holes for some status LEDs. easy to see from a distance what is on.
 
Minbari said:
looks good. use a couple of those holes for some status LEDs. easy to see from a distance what is on.
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Yup, that’s the plan. One for Pump On, another for Heat On, and another for main power on. There’s also a few small holes on the front that I can use to put a prop on to lean it forward for better visibility. The cooling output of the Inkbird might be a bit useless for the application but I’ll wire a pilot relay internally in case I have a brain storm or epiphany that isn’t slapping me in the face at the moment. I’m not likely to add any cooling to the mash system. The whole objective of this exercise is to have a way to sneak up on and control mash temperature. I tend to either scorch the mash or can’t keep it warm enough because my burner is way too big for lower temps. The RIMS covers that. Kinda on or off with very poor low flame control and even the lowest flame is too hot under the mash. I could probably achieve better than my usual results with an Igloo type mash tun, but I would still need something to control temperature on longer mash cycles or any kind of stepping temperature technique.Who knows, I may eventually move up to a HERMS system. Best way to control temperature is slowly with a lot of surface area. A RIMS gives me the ’slowly’ part.
 
Josh Hughes said:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87113215698?pwd=UFpqYUVkQStUak9BR3pIUHFwOUxYUT09
Click to expand...
Enjoyed seeing and chatting with you guys (and gals) yesterday. Almost forgot about the Zoom. I guess I didn’t give Zoom permission for the camera, but that probably prevented scaring any small children if any were watching as well as avoided being blamed for phone and computer damage. I’ll try to remember to check the zoom settings, but this is my advance warning and disclaimer for any electronic damages or any liability for therapy caused by display of my likeness. View at your own risk next meeting
 
RoadRoach said:
Yup, that’s the plan. One for Pump On, another for Heat On, and another for main power on. There’s also a few small holes on the front that I can use to put a prop on to lean it forward for better visibility. The cooling output of the Inkbird might be a bit useless for the application but I’ll wire a pilot relay internally in case I have a brain storm or epiphany that isn’t slapping me in the face at the moment. I’m not likely to add any cooling to the mash system. The whole objective of this exercise is to have a way to sneak up on and control mash temperature. I tend to either scorch the mash or can’t keep it warm enough because my burner is way too big for lower temps. The RIMS covers that. Kinda on or off with very poor low flame control and even the lowest flame is too hot under the mash. I could probably achieve better than my usual results with an Igloo type mash tun, but I would still need something to control temperature on longer mash cycles or any kind of stepping temperature technique.Who knows, I may eventually move up to a HERMS system. Best way to control temperature is slowly with a lot of surface area. A RIMS gives me the ’slowly’ part.
Click to expand...
One thing you might be able to use the cold output. Once the active heat temp is reached. You still need some heat to maintain temp due to heat loss. So the switch to "cold" simply lower heat wattage
 
west1m said:
I have a batch in the fermenter ready to keg. But I may have gotten ahead of myself when I brewed right away on top of the last brews yeast/ Trub. One keg is full and I didn't drink the other one empty yet. I have a small keg ,2.5 gallon job, I could transfer it into so I can use the large keg, or bottles. I think the keg would work better but I would have to park a small co2 bottle and reg in the fermentation fridge and use a picnic tap.
Too much beer? Is this a bad thing?
Click to expand...
It has a way of working itself out, problems like this.

I have a small group I can call for Choir Practice, most of them will show up, and solve my problem.
 
RoadRoach said:
Enjoyed seeing and chatting with you guys (and gals) yesterday. Almost forgot about the Zoom. I guess I didn’t give Zoom permission for the camera, but that probably prevented scaring any small children if any were watching as well as avoided being blamed for phone and computer damage. I’ll try to remember to check the zoom settings, but this is my advance warning and disclaimer for any electronic damages or any liability for therapy caused by display of my likeness. View at your own risk next meeting
Click to expand...
Well, there were no small children on the meeting Tim. So apparently the rest of us were enough to scare them off! ;)
 
Minbari said:
One thing you might be able to use the cold output. Once the active heat temp is reached. You still need some heat to maintain temp due to heat loss. So the switch to "cold" simply lower heat wattage
Click to expand...
The cooling output won’t come on until the temperature is greater than the setpoint plus the deadband. At that point I don’t think I want any heating at all. This particular Inkbird doesn’t have a way to set it for dual heating levels. The math and logic is pretty simple. If the temperature drops below the set point minus the differential, the heat output comes on and remains on until the temperature is at or above set point. If the temperature rises above the set point plus the differential, the cooling output comes on and remains on until the temperature is at or below set point. This logic makes the cooling output more or less an over temperature indicator. Good for letting me know I screwed up I guess, depending on how close I set the deadband, but little help at that point. I kinda wish it had separate upper and lower limits, and there are more expensive controllers that do, but can’t see it being useful in my operation.

I’m looking for about 5 degrees bandwidth for temperature. Should be obtainable using flow rate. Once the wort temperature reaches set point, it should stay off until the temperature reaches the set point minus the deadband. It worked well with my fermentation fridge controller. I watched it cycle on and off when the water reached set point.
 
RoadRoach said:
The cooling output won’t come on until the temperature is greater than the setpoint plus the deadband. At that point I don’t think I want any heating at all. This particular Inkbird doesn’t have a way to set it for dual heating levels. The math and logic is pretty simple. If the temperature drops below the set point minus the differential, the heat output comes on and remains on until the temperature is at or above set point. If the temperature rises above the set point plus the differential, the cooling output comes on and remains on until the temperature is at or below set point. This logic makes the cooling output more or less an over temperature indicator. Good for letting me know I screwed up I guess, depending on how close I set the deadband, but little help at that point. I kinda wish it had separate upper and lower limits, and there are more expensive controllers that do, but can’t see it being useful in my operation.

I’m looking for about 5 degrees bandwidth for temperature. Should be obtainable using flow rate. Once the wort temperature reaches set point, it should stay off until the temperature reaches the set point minus the deadband. It worked well with my fermentation fridge controller. I watched it cycle on and off when the water reached set point.
Click to expand...
you would think so. but once I reach setpoint, I need 20% heat just to maintain it.
 
Brew day today! It feels like forever since I brewed, but according to my brew log its only been 3 weeks lol
5th attempt (I think) of my house pale ale, mostly just moved some hops around and I'm going to use Chico instead of kveik. We're hoping to have a house warming party in about a month and I'm hoping this will be on tap
The 2023 Citra I have is not as citrusy as i was hoping, it's more melon/tropical. Still a good hop, but not what I'm looking for and I have 1.5 lbs to get through... :rolleyes:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1480931/house-pale-1-3
 
Minbari said:
you would think so. but once I reach setpoint, I need 20% heat just to maintain it.
Click to expand...
I’ll take it under advisement. I can definitely see that there will be significant heat loss from a spray type sparging/recirc diffuser system. I guess I’m confused about how the cooling output can be used if it doesn’t come on until maximum temperature (set point plus deadband).

I guess the question is what is most important during mashing stage. Which affects the enzymes most, maximum wort temperature, or maximum grain bed temperature? If the grain bed has more effect, then the temperature probe should definitely be in the mash, not on the RIMS tube. But that can lead to pretty significant heat bands, even with recirculating, as well as wort scorching in the tube. This is where it seems agitation becomes important to homogenize temperature, but at some point, agitation has to stop (after mash time is up?) to allow the grain bed to filter the wort. That would certainly avoid a stuck mash or dough ball. Sometimes I feel like I’m misunderstanding several things that make perfect sense, if that makes any sense.

Im hoping I learn more from all this, and preferably not that I wasted money on the RIMS. I have learned that I can’t keep using the dragon for mashing and expecting different fermentation results. It’s simply too big for the objective. I’m reasonably sure I can better avoid scorching the mash, which is the first step. Being able to better control step mashing will let me try more complex recipes.
 
RoadRoach said:
I’ll take it under advisement. I can definitely see that there will be significant heat loss from a spray type sparging/recirc diffuser system. I guess I’m confused about how the cooling output can be used if it doesn’t come on until maximum temperature (set point plus deadband).

I guess the question is what is most important during mashing stage. Which affects the enzymes most, maximum wort temperature, or maximum grain bed temperature? If the grain bed has more effect, then the temperature probe should definitely be in the mash, not on the RIMS tube. But that can lead to pretty significant heat bands, even with recirculating, as well as wort scorching in the tube. This is where it seems agitation becomes important to homogenize temperature, but at some point, agitation has to stop (after mash time is up?) to allow the grain bed to filter the wort. That would certainly avoid a stuck mash or dough ball. Sometimes I feel like I’m misunderstanding several things that make perfect sense, if that makes any sense.

Im hoping I learn more from all this, and preferably not that I wasted money on the RIMS. I have learned that I can’t keep using the dragon for mashing and expecting different fermentation results. It’s simply too big for the objective. I’m reasonably sure I can better avoid scorching the mash, which is the first step. Being able to better control step mashing will let me try more complex recipes.
Click to expand...
One thing you don't want to do is heat your mash tun with just a rims trying to raise the temp 50 to 100 degrees, or too much in other words, use something else to help or from the start, the rims is best for maintaining the temp mostly
 
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