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The Wilkos crates that collapse/reassemble, are they tall enough to stack ontop of each other when they have bottles in, or do the bottles protrude over the top?

Let us know how you get on, would like to have this functionality myself but I may as well let you work the kinks out first! :D

Interesting, is that a pump as in, takes the water out and back in? I think I will stick to stirring for now but definitely something to consider for mkII.

Jas, what is the part of your HLT above and to the left of your tap? Some type of temperature monitoring? If so can you let me know what is involved?

Did you definitely measure the temperature at the level that the tap is (rather than much higher up, closer to the surface)? I did the same thing on my first brew this weekend (and being so green, probably shouldn't be offering advice), measured the temp as far as my small thermometer would...

I've actually got one of these (bought it for meat) and used it on my first brew on Saturday. It was good but I was hoping for something a bit more waterproof and/or flexible to leave in place on/in a fermenter.

Anyone got any recommendations on these? I am looking one that is reasonably priced to use as part of the brew day (thinking of sitting the probe in the HLT) and to temperature check the fermenter (either sterilised inside or taped under insulation on the outside). Cheers.

I think we are OK, I came down this morning and there is now a foamy layer that wasn't there yesterday. I actually bought some iodine and tested a sample after an hour of mashing, it turned red so I carried on. I decided before I started that this brew would just be get my feet wet and...

Thanks Fil. I will aim for a higher mash temperature next time. So what do we think about whether my current batch is fermentating or not?

Brew 1 is in the fermenter. Relatively few hiccups, everything went pretty smoothly but definitely improvements to be made and lessons learned. I really enjoyed it though and I am already planning what to brew next. One of the major lessons learned was that the temperature at the surface...

That's fine with me, just looking for something to drink while I brew the next batch! Yeah I've seen both the aforementioned fermentation temperature control methods. The fridge will have to wait for the next house when we have a garage but I think the trug/fishtank heater might be the way...

My thoughts exactly. I am trying to stick the mentality of just giving it a go and adjusting from there but I also want something drinkable at the end of the first batch and the more I read the more there is to worry about! :) Not sure what I am going to do about fermenting temperature. I live...

Fair enough. Another question. Should I be doing anything with the water from my tap before I use it? Water profile is here if it helps.

Did you include the dead space in your scale? I guess it doesn't matter much for the HLT as you would be working from the top down and probably not emptying it completely but for the boiler I thought it might make sense to exclude whatever stays in the boiler after opening the tap from the...

Boiler and "mostly finished" wort chiller, hosepipe and connectors to fit tonight. Internals of the boiler, I put the elements and tap all on one side to allow the wort chiller to fit on the other side without resting on top of any of them (it doesn't, honest, it's just the angle of the...

Will do, I can't wait. I will post up some pictures once it is all assembled.

I had another play with things last night, bought some replacement screws and washers and doubled up the washers to give the screws a chances of gripping more, as you said the new bucket is definitely thinner plastic than the kettle the element came from. After refitting the 2 elements it was...

Thanks for the post Fil, some great info in there.

So, a bit of an update on progress. I have been to the homebrew shop and ended up buying a ready made Igloo mash tun, I was originally planning to buy just the Igloo cooler but got talked into the finished product by my girlfriend as a time/effort saving tactic, as I had spent the morning trying...

The main thing I found with them is that the screws that hold the element to the electronics are terrible quality! The first two came off so easily I didn't realise this at first and then I stripped the third one without any effort at all. Now I need to find a replacement screw, or ideally 12...