Jim's Beer Kit

Hey, Seems everyone in the USA uses vinyl tubing 3/16 and has no issues with kegging. I am currently using 5/16 MDPE line (hard plastic) and only ever get a full pint of foam. Plus, the MDPE is hard to work with, and I'm told the reason for the foam is that the resistance on the plastic 5/16 is so l...

Well, I just purchased a Braumeister to celebrate my divorce, so I've booked to come over for this event from the Isle of Man. Am I okay to post my bottles over? Now I just have to get Grains, Hops, and Yeast because i'm so disorganized and I want to brew this week...probably should coin my entry "H...

I did a step up starter (500ml to 2ltr) and left the erlenmeyer loosely covered in the fridge, wondering if it is infected. Its from a smack pack...I kept a bit of the smack pack in a sample jar, and it looks as expected (spent wort, white yeast, offwhite trub)...but the starter I made has this dark...

My water is very soft and low in carbonate...I'm tring to use something like ezwater calculator to adjust the profile for a stout, basically to ramp up the Calcium and bicarb. The question I have, in general do I add the minerals to the total water (in HLT) or separately to sparge and mash? It makes...

Hey - my co2 regulator goes to 60psi (4 bar), which is entirely too much for my purposes. Any suggestions on a regulator with output pressure like 1.5-2bar? I'd like to be able to do more accurate co2 measurement and am struggling currently (each tick on regulator is 4psi, making measures like 5.6ps...

Hey, I brewed 2 AGs over 2 weekends, an EdWort Pale and a Sam Adam's Boston Lager clone (But using SF Cali Common Lager yeast - ferms at 14-18). The EdWorts has been plodding along at 18c for 18 days, using immersion heater. The Boston Lager has been about 15-16c for 10 days, in my new fermentation ...

Thanks again - am hoping to brew this Sunday - got myself a water purifier, a new mash tun, some fresh grains and yeast, but I need to be able to boil

Cheers Ady, I'm fairly sure that the indicator light and the mains are on one side, and the power switch and element are on the other. This would allow the indicator light to turn red when the element overheats, because the flow for the indicator wouldn't be interrupted by the cutout. That being sai...

while you are in there, if you could confirm which red wires go to which sides of the thermal cutout, you would be my hero. I currently have 4 red wires that used to be attached to the cutout - 1 from the mains, 2 from the power switch/light, and one very short one coming from the element...

Hey, I've been doing some more research on this. Can you confirm if the following is correct? - Wires should be 3-core stranded 15a 1.5mm - Plug for stc-1000 unit should be 13a. - use 15a connector blocks to connect wires (or will they be too small to fit the 1.5mm wires?) - use 60w Dimplex heater. ...

Thanks Dave, I'm a cowboy that couldn't resist mucking with electrics that I know nothing about. That's how I roll. Or, it could simply be that the thermal fuse blew in mine after 4 brews, and the constant ticking over of the thermal cutout would blow the main fuse in my house, so I was looking for ...

Hey, after removing the thermal fuse and cutout and having issues with overheating, i've decided to reinstall a cutout with higher temp rating. However, I'm not clear on what the original wiring looked like? As far as I can tell, I've soldered 4 red wires together, all of which I believe need to go ...

Hopefully this image works lol...

Update - bit the bullet and bought a new thermal cutout rated for 140, and some porcelain terminal blocks. Found yet another issue, the SS base that contains the element and wiring, came loose at the seam.. Wtf im just having some crap luck here. So ive bought some jb weld to sort that. Hoping my cu...

Ok - so I pulled off the bottom of the boiler to check the heat shrink wrap. It seemed okay, but I intend to replace with a ceramic connector block. I'm also going to get a higher rated switch and attach it to the element. BUUUT i've noticed another issue which is potentially more serious - the cera...