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I should also mention that this is powering a 3500w 240v low density heating element.

When I try to use either of these controllers individually, at some point I cannot dial down the power all the way, only a little bit. The only way to get some sort of control is to use two controllers in series, and it takes a LOT of fiddling to get a stable result. I am running on a 240v 60hz circ...

I have been looking on Amazon, Wayfair, and other sources, but finding a 3500w commercial induction cooktop for less than $300CAD is challenging. I have noticed that I could get the equivalent from Alibaba or AliExpress for less than $100CAD. Seems a little too good to be true. Has anyone here had a...

River Rat wrote: ↑Fri Jul 23, 2021 7:01 pm Check out these folks. https://lexingtoncontainercompanysonlin ... merce.com/

An hella lot better prices than I have seen online here, sadly they don't ship to Canada.

I have a few 25l ~ 30l fermentors that I use, but looking at larger volumes to run some of the recipes in Tried and True. However, looking online, food grade barrels seem a bit pricey, and I can't seem to find any large ones under 50 gal (I don't mind the size, but thinking a 25 gal would be cheaper...

I think this is just a rebranded generic controller that is available from Chinese producers. I bought one from Amazon https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B094VMT7Q7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and have used it a couple of times with a 120v 1500w element. It seemed to work well...

Not to sure on the belt heater and bubble wrap combo sounds like an accident waiting to happen, I go to my local thrift/charity store and get old fleece style jackets with a zip front put them on my fermentor and zip them up, I use a heat pad not belt though. The other option is to get a few stryof...

I used the search function, but only got hits for the silver bubble wrap. Has anyone ever used the regular clear bubble wrap to help insulate your fermenters? I ended up with a surplus roll at the office, and right now I am only using it to simulate WWII sounds to my colleagues :). I would imagine t...

If one wanted to go through the process of filtering a spirit. The convention calls for filtering, but what stops one from dropping into your spirit, a bag of activated charcoal and leaving it there for a predetermined period? I bought a magnetic stirrer on Amazon for about 35CAD; I fill a one litr...

Demy wrote: ↑Tue Jul 13, 2021 1:50 pm 1) it is not necessary to mix

I'm assuming you mean stir.

Demy wrote: ↑Tue Jul 13, 2021 1:50 pm 2) correct the pH immediately before fermentation (use what you have) then add your shells ...

I thought that is what I did, was my starting pH too low?

…the only thing I have to do is stir it once a day… Why do you do that?? Did someone tell you to do that? It is a good way to cause an infection. ss It was in the Birdwatchers recipe (in Tried and True), so I assumed it was true for other sugar washes. All of my gear is cleaned and sanitised, my st...

Thanks the the excellent advice I received in my previous post, my third attempt at a tried and true (Wineos plain ol sugar wash) is a great success. I put on two 23l batches, in both I omitted the citric acid and put in a handful of mussel shells, and in one (because I wanted to test) I added a 1/2...

Uncle Jesse wrote: ↑Fri Jul 02, 2021 11:53 pm 2020_traffic.png

That spike in April is interesting, we were told to go home in March of 2020.

I see a lot of initialisms and acronyms used here, and I am not sure what a lot of them mean. I have looked in the HD Glossary, but not all are listed. What does AG stand for? for example. Is there another section of the forums besides HD Glossary that I should be looking for?

So, I predict it’ll stop work around 1.010, or so with the pH at 3.2 to 3.4. It’ll be slightly sweet, so you’ll run it anyway. That won’t be much of a problem except you will have left a little of the “alcohol potential” in your boiler after the strip. Checked it today and it is 1.008, a pH of 4, a...

This one is for the site Gods, who have access to this information. I had a quick look at the Welcome Centre, and saw what I thought was a lot of new users, but being new myself, wasn't sure if this was out of the ordinary or not. It would be interesting to see if the membership here has grown more ...

Update: It seems the addition of more DADY kicked up something, as my stalled ferment at 1.04 dropped to 1.022 in 24 hours, and the pH stayed roughly around 4 (after adding baking soda a couple of days ago). Here's hoping I can get it to <1 without further intervention. NZChris, How long have you've...

I would recommend testing your well water. I’m fortunate to live in and area with plenty of calcium and magnesium so I don’t add anything to my water but grain (but still add shells to a sugar wash). You don’t know what you got until you test…. Yea, I've come to the same conclusion. Fortunately, I ...

NZChris wrote: ↑Tue Jun 29, 2021 1:43 pm I use any whole sea shells, the thicker the better, weighing them, wet, before and after the ferment and recording the losses for future reference.

Well, mussel shells aren't very thick, but I do have a lot of them (collected by my wife for another project, now finished)

Gypsum is hydrated calcium sulfate used to correct mineral deficiencies in water which is to be used for brewing. It is used in de-mineralized or soft to medium hard water to increase permanent hardness. Used as directed, gypsum is effective in eliminating the variations in composition often encoun...

Hambone wrote: ↑Tue Jun 29, 2021 1:12 pm +1 ss

Prevention of a pH crash is way better than correcting one. I like crushed oyster shells in a paint strainer bag. Add it at the start of a sugar wash no matter the starting pH.

Would mussel shells work as well? Because I live next to the ocean, and these things are all over the place.

still_stirrin wrote: ↑Tue Jun 29, 2021 1:09 pm if you get activity within 12-24 hours, bacteria should not be an issue and you can omit the acidification.
ss

I will definitely do this on my next experiment.

Corn Cracker wrote: ↑Tue Jun 29, 2021 1:04 pm You say the temps were 30+, that seems a bit on the warm side, no?

When my Birdwatchers stalled, my temps were between 24 and 27, and it was mentioned that it was a little cool for DADY, so I made sure this one was higher.

I don't know what the hell I am doing wrong. My first attempt (Birdwatchers) stalled part way through, and adding more nutrients, and more DADY didn't fix it. Fleishmans came to the rescue in that case. Now, my Wineos has stalled. I followed the recipe exactly except for gypsum (didn't have any), an...

Thanks for the replies, I try to research as much as I can, but sometimes you have to ask questions. Great to know there is this valuable pool of knowledge here.

I was wondering if one could use only 4kg of sugar in a 25l wash instead of 6kg. Since it is only for cleaning, would that lower ABV result work just as well in a cleaning run? Also, would it matter if it is a pot still vs reflux?

Thanks all for the replies. I will try another batch of Birdwatcher's with bakers yeast, but omit the lemon, as it seemed to make my wash much more acidic than it should have been. I will have to test my well water to see if it is the culprit. Adding any kind of acid before pitching the yeast shoul...

Thanks all for the replies. I will try another batch of Birdwatcher's with bakers yeast, but omit the lemon, as it seemed to make my wash much more acidic than it should have been. I will have to test my well water to see if it is the culprit.

(the temps were between 24c and 27c throughout). Did you rehydrate the DADY prior to pitching ? That temp range is cool for DADY so it's no wonder that it lagged. The second time I did, not the first. I did try to keep a higher temp, I had two heats belts on my fermentor, but it does get cool here ...

Hambone wrote: ↑Fri May 28, 2021 7:14 pm They may withstand it, but likely under protest..,

That’s what I was afraid of.

I am not sure why my wash is so acidic, the only change I made to the Birdwatchers recipe was DADY instead of bakers (everything scaled down to a third).