Jim's Beer Kit

A quick update after some testing yesterday. First up, the false bottom failed miserably. Within a short time of been submerged in water and heated up it went rusty.... So discussed it with my wife, and I am throwing in the towel on building my own, and probably going for one of these https://powell...

I switched from a rolling boil to a volcanic one, and faster wort cooling.

In a mash tun maybe, but this is a biab single pot system, with recirculation. A spatter guard alone would just bend under the pressure in this usage scenario, putting it right on top of the 2.4k heating element, hence the steel false bottom under it.

Finished the false bottom. The gasket isn't going anywhere now, and it's a VERY tight fit (the handle actually cuts into me if I try to remove it using it, have to slot something through it to pull with).

A few more pics. First up, the boiler with the recirc system in place, you can see how I've used pipe lag to reduce heat loss a little:- BoilerPlusRecirc1.jpg I've also put my (temporary) whirlpooling widget back together. It's not perfect as the bed of the outlet is only 45 degrees, 90 degrees woul...

More work done. I've fitted a second tap to the boiler for the pump exclusively (the original tap will be used to transfer, with the pickup tube), with no restriction on the inlet for it interfering with flow into the pump (I'm confident that the false bottom will keep enough particles out of the pu...

I bought 2 of their yeasts to try out, the West Coast and the Belgian Saison. Not used them yet though, will post when I have.

Thanks for the help, the Brupaks heap of crap will now be HLT when my shiny new kettle (with element) arrives from Brew Builder! I ended up building my own with parts from BrewBuilder myself (I'd bought the stockpot from there a while ago, so just had to get the tools, fittings etc), personally I f...

An easy way to narrow your choice down:- Do you brew outside/well ventilated shed? Yes: Gas is an option, just remember to factor in the cost of gas, bottle deposit etc. No: Electric it is. I went electric as I brew indoors, plus not having transport makes getting gas an annoyance. Not to mention ho...

Typically (for me), the final build of my control panel is anything but simple... :lol: I really wanted to be able to flip a switch to remove the power control from the circuit at will. I ended up been able to do this for both boil and mash... All thanks to 2 x 3 position 6 pole rocker switches. Pos...

Not yet, it's still sat in the fridge waiting for me to use it. It is one I want to try though, probably won't be true to style though, more likely I'll brew something light and fruity (pilsen malt, torrefied wheat, US/New World hops) as that's what we enjoy drinking.

@guypettigrew that is hat I said before. I don't WANT to have to use finings but this yeast is forcing me to. Which negates the cost saving against so4 etc My approach to brewing is that the only finings you should need to use are kettle finings in the boil. Gravity and time should do the rest, and...

After quite a few annoying rewires, trying to get it to work WITHOUT the boil switch flashing when the SSR got sent a signal from the PID (didn't matter if I put the switch on the in of the SSR, or the out of the SSR, it flashed horribly), I ended up compromising on a single circuit build like so:- ...

Really getting somewhere with the panel build now. Power controller and probe arrived from China today, so was able to nearly finish the build. Still need to wire up the switches (hence no power to the power controller... It's powered either from the out of the SSR which will be connected to switch ...

Give it about 3 months in the bottle to condition maybe? Belle Saison does ferment very dry, however given some conditioning time you don't notice so much.