Recent content by hoppyscotty

I did a pretty good batch with Harlequin. Based it on a more traditional British IPA recipe (think it was a Timothy Taylor clone recipe) but switched out the hops with Harlequin.

Beer is a marketing business...and marketing works...just needs the backing and will to move and innovate and people will come flocking. These big brew companies are not going to stand by and see their route to market dry up. They're only a few clever TV adds away from people coming flocking...

You're right I'm sure, but I love me a bit of over engineering! The components are cheap enough and often come in packets of multiple items so may as well use them and provides a bit of redundancy. Noted on temp controlled fans. Was just going to fit to the master switch via a 12v supply so...

Thanks I appreciate that...think I was getting confused about what a bypass was and thought the manual mode was what people were suggesting but didn't necessarily make sense to me because I know that it still operates the SSR just manually operated and not using the PID algorithm...thought a...

Ah yes the controller does have a 'manual'mode where you set the output as a percentage, so could set to 100% upto close to the boil then either remain in manual mode and ramp back the power or switch to PID mode. But I didn't bother because I thought the SSR will be fully on until the temp...

Sorry,but for the benefit of the slow ones at the back (probably just me), the bypass just applies full power to the element directly until such time you approach your set temperature then it hands over control to the SSR? Makes perfect sense in principle of course, however in my case my SSR was...

Ah interesting. I'm running 5.5kw elements so drawing about 24a so rated everything for a minimum of 32a and most things 40a+, but who knows what it might be spiking upto if that is the case. The rotary switches you have linked to are the same type as mine but mine are rated to about 60a I...

think its rated for about 60a. Like something you'd see in Frankenstein's lab:laugh8:

Not knowingly. Just connected up pretty conventionally from what I can tell. Input side directly connected to the PID and the output connected to the live of the heating element. My only worry about the way I've connected things up is that since I have a switch to enable switching the power to...

Yep sounds about plausible to me too but I was concerned that it was the nutral terminal block that was the item that has overheated and melted causing the smoke and not the SSr which has bulged but no signs of burning. One hypothesis is the nutral terminal block was very close to the live so...

Yep, knew the Fotek ones were not great and on the list for replacement, but never seemed to get around to it. Being bumped up the priority list now though. The connections to the SSR are all crimped so no issues there in principle. But to be fair the FOTEK SSR's were inherited off the previous...

Yeah I've always been a bit concerned about SSR cooling even though they are on heat sinks and heat paste...I am planning a new controller incorporating my 'wish I'd done it this way' features, including an external heat sink or having the SSRs mounted on a heat sink in a separate enclosure with...

As a Tesla driver I can attest that Tesla is not tech company...if you ignore the facade of technology like the big iPad screed, which is a horrible way to interact with the car, the fundamental tech that lies underneath is not particularly innovative, and worse than that, doesn't actually work...

My 3 vessel brew system project has been working flawlessly for about 10 brews or so since mid last year. at the heart of the system is my DIY controller, which not being an electronics or electrical engineer I made as simple as possible with no fancy features and was feeling pretty smug about...

Think what the recipe is hinting at is the 3 day dry hop is intended to occur during active fermentation. The 7 day addition is when fermentation is over. Ignore the 'days'. Maybe aim for the first dry hop around halfway through fermentation. Ideally you'd dump the yeat/trub and dry hops once...