u/ddutton9512 — reddlx

Could Really Use Help Finding Fridge For Fermentation Chamber

I've finally found a corner of my house I could possibly use for a fermentation chamber but I have pretty limited space. I really need something that could hold a Fermzilla 30L but also fits into a space 22X30X60. The insignia 5cuft from Best Buy seems like it would work but I noticed it has a compressor hump and I haven't found any dimensions that seem to account for that. Anyone have experience with this model or maybe something else that might work?

I genuinely thought I would snatch something of Craigslist or FB Marketplace but finding something large enough on the inside is tough, at least in my area there's not a lot to choose from lately. I don't mind going new here but trying to not drop another $500 on a fridge and inkbird just to make this work.

Edit: Curious if anyone has any experience with this one. Looks like it will work but the information on interior dimensions seems to be mixed
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Vissani-5-0-cu-ft-Manual-Defrost-Chest-Freezer-with-LED-Light-in-White-Garage-Ready-HMCF5W5/325590180

u/ddutton9512 — 1 day ago

▲ 18 r/Homebrewing

Marzen Vent

This is my second year brewing a Marzen for Oktoberfest and it's my third failure. Last year I brewed a batch and it came out with all kinds of weird off flavors so I tossed it. I rebrewed it and got a severely under-attenuated mess. I lagered it and tried to drink it anyway but eventually threw out maybe 80% of it.

So this year I decided to play it safe and copied the Apartment Brewer's warm fermented Fest. The only thing I changed was using Diamond Lager since WLP860 doesn't seem to exist anymore in dry unless you want the massive pack.

Everything was going great, hit an O.G. of 1.060, cooled it down to 65, pitched the yeast, took about 18 hours of lag and then it was off fermenting really well. Velocity was going really well and dropped down to 1.025 within about 18 hours. Then yesterday morning it just stopped. It had slowed down a little bit all the sudden all the readings were the same. I gave it a really good swirl to rouse the yeast and even brought the temp up a degree but it wouldn't budge. It stopped so abruptly I thought maybe the Pill hydrometer was messed up so I pulled a sample and confirmed it at 1.024. Tasted the sample and it was cloying sweet as you would expect. Shame too because you can tell that if it were drier it would be delicious.

I think I'm going to throw a pack of ale yeast in there just to see what happens. Probably tossing it anyway so might as well experiment. I'm undecided on whether or not I'll try to rebrew but probably not, kinda over making this style right now. Anyway, thanks for letting me vent.

Edit: Alright, gonna stop fucking around, find me some more yeast, pitch it, and hope for the best. Seems like I severely underpitched even at the warmer fermentation temps. While I've brewed several lagers this is the first time I've tried warm fermentation and underestimated how much yeast I would need. Thanks again everyone.

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u/ddutton9512 — 13 days ago

▲ 9 r/Homebrewing

Anvil Foundry Bag + Tube Solution

Posting this here in case its helpful for anyone else.

Got my first electric all in one a while back, an Anvil 10.5G foundry. Did a few brews and found low efficiency issues using the malt pipe (why oh why couldn't they just have made a mesh basket?!). Well from all my previous BIAB experience I went back to that but it's just not that easy to use a bag with this thing. The straps soak up wort which will drop down the sides or, if you use the bag in the pipe, it's super easy to have to slip down into the pipe and make things even worse. So on this brew I simply attached the bag to the side stand things on the pipe with some butcher's twine and it worked perfectly. The bag stayed in place, it was isolated inside the system so the wort didn't escape, made stirring the mash easy, and made it so when I lifted the pipe I wasn't fighting the bag slipping around.

Combined with a super fine grind I got an efficiency of 74 which is the highest I've ever gotten but more importantly it made my brew day easier. I'm going to bend some wire hooks for the future so I'm not dealing with twine.

Here's a pic to show how I did it.
https://imgur.com/a/9TC5gxZ

u/ddutton9512 — 2 months ago

▲ 1 r/Homebrewing

Question about Mash Thickness with BIAB

So I know a lot of folks do BIAB because full volume mashes are more convenient and they don't have to deal with sparging. But after some attenuation issues when I switched to 5 gallon batches I received a lot of advice about using a more traditional grist/water ratio of 1.25-2 and since then my attenuation has been much better and as expected.

But then I read about how mash ratios can affect efficiency and how thinner mashes make sense at higher temps, thicker at lower, etc. Then I looked at my Czech Lager recipe which only uses 8lbs of grain and is mashed at 147. So by that logic that's only 10 quarts of mash water which seems oddly low and barely enough to cover the grain in the malt pipe.

So what's the real story here? How are other BIAB brewers getting away with full volume mashes without it causing issues? Are folks adjusting their ratios for their intended mash temps?

I feel like I'm either over thinking this or missing something obvious.

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u/ddutton9512 — 3 months ago