Nah, it's solid. Overkill, for sure - but solid.
If I can't make beer that's better than what I can purchase, I just won't make beer ...
I hate to say it, but at the end of the day, there's much ado about moving liquid, which are sometimes boiling ...
All of it comes down to heating and cooling volumes of (what's essentially) water and moving it between containers ...
If you are comfortable w/ pumps, siphoning, and otherwise dealing w/ liquid transfers and compressed gases - it's pretty easy ...
I'm having to learn plumbing crap every step of the way, which makes it seem inelegant ... and I had a decision made ahead of time that I wanted to do this indoors ...
Over time, we'll see how that pans out, but it was important to me in the beginning, and it's still something I enjoy about the way I'm doing it ...
What's been a failure, is that I haven't been able to leave it unattended while brewing all that much - which I was hoping was going to be the result of the temp-controller and the choice to go electric over gas ...
And, there's wasted time from the difference in speed at which electric boils water compared to gas burning ...
I don't regret setting up for 2.5-3 gallons right now, though, because I can't even drink it as fast as I want to brew it ...
And yet, because of the time it takes, I am looking at ways to make multiple beers off one wort by pitching different yeasts, racking on pureed fruit or whatever, and/or dry hopping with different hops ...
If I can't make beer that's better than what I can purchase, I just won't make beer ...
tctenten said:
I hate to say it, but at the end of the day, there's much ado about moving liquid, which are sometimes boiling ...
All of it comes down to heating and cooling volumes of (what's essentially) water and moving it between containers ...
If you are comfortable w/ pumps, siphoning, and otherwise dealing w/ liquid transfers and compressed gases - it's pretty easy ...
I'm having to learn plumbing crap every step of the way, which makes it seem inelegant ... and I had a decision made ahead of time that I wanted to do this indoors ...
Over time, we'll see how that pans out, but it was important to me in the beginning, and it's still something I enjoy about the way I'm doing it ...
What's been a failure, is that I haven't been able to leave it unattended while brewing all that much - which I was hoping was going to be the result of the temp-controller and the choice to go electric over gas ...
And, there's wasted time from the difference in speed at which electric boils water compared to gas burning ...
I don't regret setting up for 2.5-3 gallons right now, though, because I can't even drink it as fast as I want to brew it ...
And yet, because of the time it takes, I am looking at ways to make multiple beers off one wort by pitching different yeasts, racking on pureed fruit or whatever, and/or dry hopping with different hops ...
