Today is my first day brewing with the latest iteration of my brewery. That includes a Chugger pump, my countercurrent heat exchanger for wort chilling, and my conical fermenter with upgraded cabinet controller software. Thank goodness the friends I invited had other plans. The day started stressful when I snapped a polypropylene female camlock fitting while tightening an adjacent threaded
The recipe for beer is pretty simple. One important step is boiling the wort, the sweet mixture that yeast will ferment into beer. Boiling sanitizes the beer so that yeast can work its magic, but not before the wort is cooled back down or the yeast meets the same quick, steamy end as its potential competitors. There are many ways to
The recent modifications to the cabinet warranted a small software upgrade. The power and heat transfer of the two modes are drastically different. The heating side, a SSR-throttled in-line water heater element, can increase the temperature of the fluid much faster than the thermoelectric chips I was using previously. The cooling side, a copper coil sitting inside the refrigerator, is much slower; in fact, it
It’s ready for a test drive. The conical fermenter is assembled and in place, ready to make some delicious beer with the convenience of a commercial brewery. The last part needed was a clean-in-place system. Since my fermenter is so challenging to get in and out of its mounted position in my cabinet, I need a way to clean and