Vacuum sealers are indispensable for storing hops. You can save money by getting in on bulk hop buys – See: Recent Hop Finds. Use your vacuum sealer to break these up and to preserve freshness. You can also store specialty grains in vacuum bags. Other uses include: storing base grains, partial dry yeast packs and storing and preserving other beer ingredients.
You can use Mason jars to store hops, grain, yeast slurry and more. Fermentation lids are also available to convert these to be easily used for yeast starters. And, of course, you can serve your beer and other drinks in a one of these. Mason jars generally economical, reusable, oxygen impermeable and you can easily see the contents.
A variety of manufacturers make Mason Jars. Ball, Knorr and more. There are two standard sizes regular and wide mouth. This is important when it comes to attachments and lids as these must be size compatible.
This review is by Homebrew Finds Contributor Brad Probert. Brad is an engineer, expert homebrewer and experienced reviewer. Grab a link to Brad’s website at the end of this review.
Floating dip tubes are a hot commodity in the homebrewing world lately. Many people are ditching their fixed steel tubes and replacing them with a length of silicone tubing attached to a stainless ball float. If you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know the point of the floating dip tube, it’s pretty simple. It floats on top of your beer so that as you draw out beer, you get clear beer from the top while everything else precipitates out and makes its way to the bottom
A version is also available that works as an upgrade to traditional ball float floating dip tubes
FLOTit 2.0 – Double Filter Inlet (DFI) with 500/300 micron mesh for floating dip tube with a ball float for always clear beer, less beer waste, and no clogging. Best upgrade for pressure fermenter – affiliate link, note that multiple variations of this product may be available, as such a different version may appear at this link
Related:
Vacuum sealers are indispensable for storing hops. You can save money by getting in on bulk hop buys – See: Recent Hop Finds. Use your vacuum sealer to break these up and to preserve freshness. You can also store specialty grains in vacuum bags. Other uses include: storing base grains, partial dry yeast packs and storing and preserving other beer ingredients.
A FoodSaver (or similar) is a standard home suction type vacuum sealer that relies on special bags. We generally call them… vacuum sealer bags. These bags are embossed or textured to create channels on the inside of the bag. Those channels allow a FoodSaver to draw out air and create a vacuum all while the machine is clamped down. When this process is done a heat strip seals the bag locking in the vacuum state.
A chamber style vacuum sealer does not rely on channeled bags. It evacuates the entire chamber and seals the bag. When this is done, prior to pressure equalization the bag does not look like it’s vacuum sealed at all. When pressure equalizes the bag immediately collapses and whammo, it’s sealed.
Generally speaking Mylar bags consist of three layers. Two Mylar layers that laminate a center aluminum foil layer. This combination provides strength, flexibility and durability along with an extremely low Oxygen Transmission Rate (OTR). These bags also block potentially damaging light. Combine this with vacuum sealing and you’ve got an outstanding way to store food & more.
For homebrewer’s… Vacuum sealed Mylar bags are an excellent way to store hops and other oxygen sensitive materials. As a testament to this, many hop distributors distribute hops in Mylar bags. Sometimes those are vacuum sealed and sometimes they are nitrogen flushed.
Re-using packaging can be a big money saver. You’ll see in my review below that I re-use hop bags. Those cost me $0 and are an excellent vehicle for storing hops
I have a post on some techniques that I developed to seal Mylar bags with traditional vacuum sealers. That’s one of the most popular posts on Homebrew Finds, I’m guessing that many people that find that post are not homebrewers, but are interested in this because of the prohibitive costs of Mylar capable machines.
A note to non-brewers: Based on the popularity of our Mylar sealing post, it’s entirely possible that you don’t homebrew. If that’s you, most of the trials in this review focus on sealing hops. If you don’t brew A: Why not? Connect with Us and start! or B: Picture… other things instead of hops 🙂
In the past, chamber vacuum sealers have been very expensive. When I published my post on sealing Mylar bags back in 2011, they cost thousands of dollars. They were generally intended for commercial use and had price tags to match.
I’m happy to say some much more economical options have become available. Here’s a hands on look at Avid Armor’s USV20 Chamber Vacuum Sealer.
The USV20 fresh out of the box
A look inside. It came with manuals, vacuum sealer bags, a quick start guide and a vac sealed toy avocado.
A look at the contents
Note that multiple variations of this product may be available, as such a different version may appear at these links
The containers we call Ball Lock and Pin Lock Kegs come from the soda industry. Also called Cornelius Kegs, Corny Kegs and Corney Kegs, they were originally intended to store and distribute soda pre-mix. The big soda companies decided on different style containers for their pre-mix. Pepsi landed on the Ball Lock style while Coke uses the Pin Lock style.
Homebrewers have since re-purposed these as homebrew beer kegs. It makes sense. These high quality stainless steel beverages that are meant for years of commercial food use. They’re also tough, can be had for cheap and are easy to move around.
What if someone said there was a pressure capable, heavy duty stainless steel fermenter that could be had for 50 bucks or so?
Great news…. kegs make great fermenters! Same high quality, stainless steel construction, toughness and easy portability, but this time used for fermentation.
One issue needs to be addressed to convert kegs into fermenters… handling CO2 produced by fermentation. Kegs are generally designed to be airtight. Fermentation requires that we allow excess CO2 to escape. I can think of three options…
A five gallon keg isn’t really suitable for a primary fermenter for a 5 gallon batch. You could use it as a secondary for a full 5 gallon batch, as a primary fermenter for smaller batches (maybe 3 to 4 gallons max) or you could split 5 gallon batches between two kegs.
There is a 6 gallon keg available that should allow you to ferment a 5 gallon batch.
10 and 15 gallon size ball locks have become readily available at relatively reasonable prices. A 10 gallon keg could easily accommodate a full 5 gallon batch (up to 7 or 8 gallons) while a 15 gallon keg should be able to easily handle a 10 gallon batch (up to 12 or 13 gallons).
This ball lock jumper features stainless steel construction and food grade silicone post o-rings. It allows you to connect two keg lines together via ball lock keg QDs. This is handy for at least a few uses, the most popular one probably being cleaning multiple kegerator lines at the same time.
Valuebrew is offering a pack of two jumpers and 25 replacement o-rings for $32.97. Coupon code JUMP discounts the combo by a whopping 32%.
Double Jumper Special! < note that you must use this link along with coupon code JUMP to get the deal, the standard product will not get you the discount
Valuebrew’s jumper is unique because of the custom color, food grade o-rings and because … it works with both liquid and ball lock jumpers.
In the package. As of this posting, this comes in singles with the option to add a second on for a reduced cost. Check the product page to see if that’s still available.A look at the jumper. It has a nice heft to it and feels generally well built
A look down the jumper. You’ll notice a stainless steel bar. This jumper doesn’t have traditional poppets. Instead these bars take their place enabling connected ball lock QDs to open when connected. This is actually a really good feature because it means the jumper is open to the air when unused and can be clean, dried and sanitized.
The other thing this design allows you to do is connect just one QD to open up a line to drain. Let’s say you wanted to clear the liquid from a kegerator line. Attach this to let air in, elevate the QD/jumper and open the faucet. No need to remove or disassemble the QD.
Place this on a gas QD and attach to another gas QD (gas QD to gas QD) to flush gas lines. Attach to a liquid QD (gas QD to liquid QD) to flush serving lines
Place this on a gas QD to open it up to assist with flushing compatible containers with CO2
Kegland’s Draft Line Cleaning Pump is a single hand operated pump that attaches to a tee. The tee takes a hand pump and ball lock carbonation cap which connects to a dip tube. This hardware has some alternate uses that this review will also explore.
In true Kegland style this setup is innovative, packed with some surprising features and well priced. Here’s a hands on look.
This is currently available via via William’s Brewing and MoreBeer – the offerings are slightly different. See the breakdown of different options and separate components toward the end of this review.
Bag o’ stuff
This is what you get with the basic pump. Tee, carbonation cap, pump and dip tube.
I installed this on a 2L bottle. You’ll notice the carbonation cap has changed colors. I used one I already had (Kegland brand, just a different color), because I already has a dip tube trimmed to size and installed from a recent update to My Simple Draft Line Flushing Build.I decided to try and clean two draft lines with this pump to really test it. Here’s the key piece of hardware to clean two ball lock lines at the same time. It’s a Ball Lock Jumper from Valuebrew. There are only a couple similar offerings out there, to my knowledge. This one is unique because it uses their custom color, food grade post o-rings AND… it works with both liquid and ball lock jumpers.
Here it is installed. This is connecting two 10′ EVABarrier tubing runs.
Complete test setup
The plumbing for my test is as follows
Ball Lock QD Installed on the pump assembly
It’s a little difficult to see but… it works. With some pumping, I got a slow steady stream of liquid. Keep in mind this is cleaning two 10′ lines at the same time.William’s Brewing has a package that gets you the pump + a large 2.5 liter growler and BLC. They also sell the standalone pump kit. I actually purchased everything separately because I wanted a full case of these growlers.
Add on a ball lock faucet and you’ve got a portable serving keg without paying for expensive CO2 cartridges. Before you email me/comment/etc… yes this will cause oxidation, I would not suggest this as a long term solution. Only for the occasion that you and your friends will be able to drink an entire growler in an evening. Oxidation won’t have enough time to become a factor. Use another solution for longer term applications.
Remove the tee, add a 2.5L PET Bottle and a Spunding Valve to convert this into a pressure capable mini fermenter. You could potentially do 2 liter batches. Not ideal, but a great way to play around with pressure fermentation at an unbeatable price. See: Fermenting Under Pressure for more on the topic.
Replace the pump with another carbonation cap, use a 2.5 liter bottle and… you have a 2.5 liter keg you can use in your kegerator!
This collection of economical hardware is extremely versatile. As far as a cleaning pump goes, it works well, but, I prefer my own draft line flushing build. That’s very similar but replaces pumping with a quick shot of CO2. That’s less work. Having said that, you get a lot of equipment and capability with this setup. If you’re looking to build my flushing assembly, I suggest buying the Kegland cleaning setup and another carbonation cap. That gives you a ton of flexibility. Line cleaner, mini fermenter, party pump and ball lock mini keg. Overall, this is another win for Kegland, innovative, packed with features and well priced.
via William’s Brewing
via MoreBeer
via Valuebrew
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Price, promotions and availability can change quickly. Check the product page for current price, description and availability.
Make sure the components you use are compatible and rated for your intended application. Contact manufacturer with questions about suitability or a specific application. Always read and follow manufacturer directions. tag:lnksfxd review:kldlcp tag:tpr
From my keg rebuild post. With just replaced lid o-ring. This is silicone.
Standard homebrew keg lids are compromised of these general components…
I like growlers. I just like them. I have a lot of different designs ranging from basic glass and PET growlers to featured-filled mini kegs, vacuum insulated models, ceramic growlers and more.
As a growler-enthusiast… I have to say I’ve been waiting this thing to be made. Kegland’s KL20893 is a growler sized ball lock keg.
Because it’s a ball lock keg, it works with most existing ball lock keg parts and accessories.
A look at the top. This has a nice easy to hold strap handle. As you can see it sports a standard size keg lid. To my knowledge this is the smallest available ball lock keg.
A closer look at the handle and lid. This lid (like most ball lock style lids) is equipped with a manual PRV. Generally speaking… Both Ball Lock and Pin Lock style lids are the same dimension and are interchangeable. You can use a Ball Lock Lid on a Pin Lock Keg and vice versa. A big difference are the PRV (pressure relief valve) functions between the two styles. Both have automatic safety PRV valves. That is, if the pressure gets too high, both will automatically vent for safety reasons. The difference is in manual PRV functionality. Ball Lock Keg lids have a pull ring that allows you to manually vent the keg as you’d like. You may want to do that for the purpose of removing the keg lid or to vent excess pressure in an attempt to get down to a lower pressure. See: my post comparing ball lock and pin lock kegs – Jump Section on Lids – All that to say… Manual PRV = good.
Kegland’s DuoTight Fittings are designed to work with EVABarrier Double Wall Tubing. They offer quick, reliable connections, easy implementation, a variety of fitting options and feature amazing versatility. They’re also, generally speaking, very well priced. DuoTights are push to connect fittings and require no tubing clamps.
DuoTights are… awesome. Check out my extensive Hands on Review
When DuoTights first came out, the solution for connecting kegs to EVABarrier was using an MFL QD + DuoTight Flare fitting. That works just fine and is still the only option available to pin lock keg users.
Ball Lock keg users now have a native DuoTight option. Here’s a hands on look!
Related: DuoTight Keg Faucet
Amazon
This review is by Homebrew Finds Contributor Brad Probert. Brad is an engineer, expert homebrewer and experienced reviewer. Grab a link to Brad’s website at the end of this review.
Brewing is a mix of art and science. When you get it just right, the results are incredibly rewarding. For us nerds out there, sometimes the science can be its own reward, even if it doesn’t lead to better beer. The homebrewing world has LoDo brewers that are interested in reducing oxygen pick up at every stage of the brewing process. And hoppy beer lovers devote a lot of effort trying to reduce oxygen pickup to stave off the evils of hop oxidation. So this is a point where the science can help you make the better beer you want. A Dissolved Oxygen (DO) meter is a tool you can use to experiment and learn more.
Milwaukee Instruments makes a wide variety of digital measuring instruments to measure all manner of things in liquids. Those of relevance to the brewing world include digital refractometers, pH meters, and dissolved oxygen meters. Their MW600 Dissolved Oxygen Meter is the subject of this review. This meter functions using the polarographic method. It passes a small current through the liquid it is submerged in, and the amount of Oxygen present affects the sensor reading as the current flows through it.
Contents of Kit
Description of Box Contents
Related: Hands on Review: Milwaukee MA871 Digital Refractometer
Kegland’s 2 Liter PET growlers offer increased capacity (84 ounces verses a more typical 64 ounces), they have a great pressure rating, use standard soda style caps and a generally very economical. Here’s a hands on look.
A look at the box. When I purchased mine from William’s Brewing they came in packs of 9. This is a pretty good size box, but still shipped for free because I live in the contiguous US and placed a large enough order.
Close-up of the box. Part number KL19859, Compatible with KL10788 – Carbonation Cap and KL14830 – PCO Tee Piece. Manufactured by Kegland.
Hard seltzers are easy drinking and easy to make. They’re typically light in flavor and body and easy to drink.
This review is by Homebrew Finds Contributor Brad Probert. Brad is an engineer, expert homebrewer and experienced reviewer. Grab a link to Brad’s website at the end of this review.
There are loads of homebrew related applications for a Spunding valve ranging from pressurized ferementation to naturally carbonating to fixing over carbonated beers and lots more. Check out our resource post on the subject. It’s arguably the go-to resource on the Internet on the subject
Spunding valves are probably one of the most boring pieces of homebrew kit. They perform a very simple function of mechanically regulating air/gas pressure. They can be used in various ways around the home brewery to do some cool stuff when it comes to fermentation, or when dealing with kegging. The SPUNDit does all the work of a regular spunding valve but does it in a swanky package.
SPUNDit In the Box
SPUNDit 2.0 Spunding Valve – via eBay
Full Content of Kit
There are two parts to any spunding valve- an adjustment knob connected to a mechanical valve, and a pressure gauge that measures the pressure it’s regulating. The SPUNDit is a diaphragm valve type of spunding, which has better operation than a poppet type. The diaphragm valve has a larger surface area for the regulation pressure to act upon and has better pressure regulation control because its opening & closing pressures have less hysteresis. The SPUNDit has a long travel spring and fine pitch thread on the adjustment knob, allowing you to make very minute changes in the regulation pressure.
This article is by Homebrew Finds Reader Kris G. Thank you Kris for your creativity and hard work!
Editors Note: This is an advanced project that requires additional tools, skill and materials. This post outlines the process that Kris took to modify his keg lid with a weldless tri-clamp bulkhead. Product specifications can change over time, double check to make sure that current specifications match your needs.
Carboys, conicals, buckets, kegs, etc. There is an ever-growing number of options for fermentation vessels. I recently moved away from carboys to experiment with pressurized fermentation. I didn’t feel like buying anything new, so why not repurpose a corny keg for fermentation? This past year I “right-sized” my batches down to 2.5-3 gallons making a corny the perfect size for fermenting. With a couple modifications (shortened dip tube, hop screen, etc), I had an old 5 gallon corny now as a dedicated fermenter. An added bonus was that it fit perfectly in my temp-controlled chest freezer.
Fermenting in a Keg Using TC Equipped Lid
Related: Fermenting Under Pressure
304 stainless steel Cornelius Keg Lid with 1.5″ Tri-clamp Ferrule,NEW Corny Beer Keg Lid 60PSI PRV Food Grade Dry Hopper – affiliate link, note that multiple variations of this product may be available, as such a different version may appear at this link
This article contains affiliate links. We may make a small percentage if you use our links to make a purchase. You won’t pay more and you’ll be supporting Homebrew Finds and more content like this. Thank you for your support!
I started seeing some other homebrew fermenters with tri-clamp connections on top. Blogs all around showed them used with blowoff tubes, thermowells, carbonation stones, CIP spray balls, etc. It seemed like a great universal connection with a ton of uses. Most importantly to me, I wanted the tri-clamp connection to build an oxygen-free dry hop dropper (that build is an article for another day).
TC Equipped Lid with Butterfly Valve – Also: Color Coded Keg O-Rings
Read on to see my trials and tribulations while adding a TC bulkhead to my corny lid.
Build note: This is a weldless build. If you’ve got the ability/skill/tools to weld stainless, go for it!
Safety Note: Ensure that you are using all tools properly and wearing all the proper PPE. You will be drilling/cutting metal which is both sharp and hot.
PLEASE BE CAREFUL WHEN FOLLOWING THESE INSTRUCTIONS.
HBF is not responsible for your irresponsibility. At time of this writing, I am fully up to date with my tetanus shot. That may or may not be related…
Editors Note: Note that multiple variations of these products may be available, as such a different version may appear at these links. Double check sizes and features.
Using RO (Reverse Osmosis) or DI (Deionized) water allows you to start with a clean slate of sorts and build your water profile from the ground up using water salts. That allows you to take control of an important aspect of your brewing, especially if you’re an all grain brewer and create exactly the water profile you’re looking for.
Water by John Palmer and Colin Kaminski, part of the Brewing Elements Series, is a great read to learn lots more about brewing water and water adjustments
A note to non-homebrewers: From the popularity of this review, I’m guessing a good number of you are not homebrewers. This review still applies to you. Just disregard any specific references to homebrewing or… hey, why don’t you start homebrewing? 🙂
The Waterdrop WD-G3-W is a three filter, seven stage tankless reverse osmosis filter. It is intended for under-counter installation and comes with a LED light indicating faucet. It’s rated for 400 gallons per day and is NSF 58 certified.
The box the Waterdrop system came in. The box is quite large.
A look at the contents
The AC Power Adapter. This unit requires power. I believe that’s related to the tankless aspect of this filter’s design. My assumption is that It has a pressure pump that drives water through the filtration system to deliver a reasonable on-demand performance. The advanced filter tracking features and built in TDS sensor also require power.
Required tubing and fittings
Note that multiple variations of these products may be available, as such a different version may appear via these links
Homebrew Finds features loads of how-to’s, tips, reviews, resources posts and more. We attempt to identify our top content through two lists of resources.
Together those two lists highlight some of the best homebrewing related information on the Internet.
Having said this, what we think is great, may not match exactly what homebrewers around the world think is great. So, this page, shows our top content based on traffic. The people of earth have voted and here are the homebrewing resources they’re most interested in!
This list is periodically updated to reflect our most popular content by traffic.
This review is by Homebrew Finds Contributor Brad Probert. Brad is an engineer, expert homebrewer and experienced reviewer. Grab a link to Brad’s website at the end of this review.
Complete Fermentor Box Contents
In the world of brewing, stainless steel reigns supreme. And in the world of fermentors, conicals top the “most desired” list of many homebrewers. So of course, combining these two things explains why stainless conicals are such a desired commodity in the homebrewing world. Blichmann was one of the first to offer homebrewers a stainless conical fermentor, back in 2004. But recently they introduced a more budget-friendly model, in their Anvil line, called the Crucible. The Crucible does not have the same feature set as Blichmann’s Fermenator, as the Anvil Crucible is not pressure capable. But it does take advantage of the true “conical fermentor” shape.
(Note: Some use the word “fermenter”, and some use “fermentor”. Although “fermenter” is the common use word, someone once explained that grammatically speaking, “fermentor” was more accurate. So now I can’t help myself. Sorry.)
This review is by Homebrew Finds Contributor Brad Probert. Brad is an engineer, expert homebrewer and experienced reviewer. Grab a link to Brad’s website at the end of this review.
Fermentors are like the cars of the brewing world. There is a wide range of prices, appearances, and features. And just like cars, the most basic model (plastic bucket with a lid) will get the job done. But the basic model has limitations, and you soon find yourself eyeballing the next step up the fermentor food chain to either get one that’s flashier (stainless) or one that has more features (pressure fermentation capable). Of course, the ultimate is one that’s both shiny and has more features (stainless pressure-capable conical).
Fermentor Before Any Assembly
BrewBuilt is a division of MoreBeer that creates homebrew gear. They make a variety of products, and recently launched a series of stainless pressure-capable conical fermentors they call the X1 Uni. The X1 comes with a lot of different accessories for added features, depending on what you want. You can buy the add-ons piecemeal, or they come bundled into different hardware kits. There is the base X1 Uni, the X1 Uni+ that bundles some add-ons and temperature capabilities, and the X1 Uni Pro that also includes a heat pad, Peltier cooler, and a temperature controller.
Cleaning Fermentor Before First Use
Pressurized fermentations are becoming increasingly popular, and for a good reason. Some of the benefits that you gain from fermenting beer under pressure are: Lower ester production, being able to ferment at higher temperatures without producing off-flavors, and having your beer carbonated by the end of fermentation. Pressure fermenters are also called uni-tanks because you can use them for both fermentation and carbonating. You can serve beer directly from uni-tanks, counter pressure fill bottles or easily transfer beer into kegs using pressure.
Fermenting lagers under pressure is a huge benefit of uni-tank. When yeast ferment under pressure, the production of fruity esters is greatly reduced. This can allow you to brew a lager at 70F an obtain traditional lager flavor. – via MoreBeer
Since off-gassing is reduced added hop flavor and aromas are also potential benefits of fermenting under pressure.
This article is by Homebrew Finds Contributor Brad Probert. Brad is an engineer, expert homebrewer and experienced reviewer. Grab a link to Brad’s website at the end of this review.
I’ll start first by defining “normal fermentation” as fermenting with an airlock or blow-off tube on your fermentor. In the chemical process of your yeast converting wort sugars to alcohol, CO2 gets naturally produced. In a normal fermentation, this CO2 pushes out of the liquid wort/beer into the headspace above your liquid level. As more and more CO2 gets produced, it starts to get crowded up there, so pressure builds up and then pushes a glug of air/CO2 through your airlock. As fermentation progresses, more CO2 is created, creates pressure in the headspace, and then vents through your blow-off tube or airlock.
Fermenting under pressure follows the chemical process, but instead of an airlock or blow-off tube, which has a very low pressure threshold before it relieves the pressure, you have a spunding valve attached. The spunding valve is typically set to open and release headspace pressure until a much higher level, and therefore keeps everything at a higher pressure in your fermentor (headspace and beer). This increased pressure on your yeast during fermentation changes how they behave. The two main important things that happens with yeast under pressure are: 1) It slows down fermentation rate, and 2) It suppresses production of esters and fusel alcohols.
There are multiple makers of spunding valves, with different looks and features/limitations. They can be grouped into two major types- 1) Spring & Poppet, and 2) Diaphragm. Both operate with the same basic principles. Pressure from your fermentor pushes up against the pressure regulating mechanism inside. In the Spring & Poppet, the “mechanism” is a small poppet like what you have inside the gas or liquid posts on your keg. The Diaphragm design uses a large flexible rubber/silicone disc as its “mechanism”. Resisting this pressure, on the other side of the mechanism is a spring. By turning an adjustment knob on the spunding, you can compress the spring more, which in turn pushes harder on the mechanism. Then it’s just a force balance between the pressure in your fermentor and the compression of the spring. Once the pressure overcomes the spring force, it creates a path for the compressed CO2 to escape and it bleeds off. This then regulates your pressure.
