One of the biggest changes that I have made in my brewhouse recently is the addition of a reverse osmosis water system, like the Ukoke 6 Stage Reverse Osmosis Water Filter. I opted for a 6 stage Ukoke set up that can be found here. This allows me to create my own RO water on demand for brewing, as well as provide RO water or my ice maker and water filler in the fridge.
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The Gile House Brew Supply Pump is a great option for a pump available on Amazon. In comparison to other pumps, it is a cheaper option that gives some great features at the price point. The inline switch and stainless steel head are great upgrades for pumps at this price point.
The pump came in a no frills packaging. It is sturdy, and seemingly heavy weight. There are mounting brackets on it to help you integrate it into a brew house sculpture. I wish the balancing of the pump was a little better as it doesn’t easily stand on its own.
I purchased the optional connection kit from Amazon here. It includes hoses and connections that just make your life easier. It took a little time to wrap all the threads with the supplied teflon tape, then connect in all the fittings, but was worth the time. This is not something you need to do each time. There is enough tubing and connectors that you can do multiple size hoses as you need.
After prepping the pump with the connection kit, it was time to give it a test run. I hooked up the pump to my Mash & Boil and then was going to pump it to the keg. I sent it through a Bouncer MD filter to get some of the dregs of my fermentation out. After verifying the connections were all set, it was time. The pump primed via gravity. Don’t forget to prime the pump! Once it was primed, I turned on the inline switch and it was alive! The pump operated quickly and quietly. It moved my wort through the Bouncer quickly, and did exactly what I wanted it to do, moved my beer from point A to B.
Cleanup was rather easy with the quick connection kit. Everything disassembled quickly and i was able to drop the hoses into a PBW wash very easily. I then ran some through the pump head, and then some water as well. Future deep cleaning will be easy, as the pump head comes off with just a few screws.
For the next test, I ran the pump for almost an hour on a mash recirculation. I hooked up the Gile House Brew Supply Pump to my Mash & Boil. I then used a clamp to hold the tube at the other end in the correct placement. I then turned on the pump. I did have an air bubble, but once I figured it out it was smooth sailing.
The pump ran for almost a full hour with the mash getting sent from the bottom of my pot to the top. This is where silicon tubing is important. Regular tubing wouldn’t be able to handle the higher mash temps. The pump body was warm to the touch. It makes sense, since it ran for so long.
The recirculation was very uniform in the amount going through the pump. This is where the ball valve is very helpful….you can control how fast the wort recirculates. Too much and the pot would have overflowed at the top, so I was happy.
I plan to hook this up to to a Hop Rocket so I can circulate my wort through some nice whole leaf hops for some added depth to a future beer. I have confidence that it will work well. I can also use the Hop Rocket to randall in different things as well.
This Gile House Brew Supply Pump is really a great pump. It runs super quiet and moves a boatload of liquid at a speedy pace. I loved the optional transfer kit to help get things set up. Cleaning is super easy, with the head being able to be removed.
I wish the Gile House Brew Supply Pump was a little more balanced. I don’t have it hooked onto anything, so it can tip, although this doesn’t change it’s abilities. After an hour of running, it did get warm….but what do you expect?
I had a great time with the equipment review for the Gile House Brew Supply Pump and the optional transfer kit. Thank you to Gile House Brew Supply for providing the pump as a test unit. It will be part of many brews to come! This brewer gives it two thumbs up!
Remember when I did the review on the BrewSSSiphon? I loved it! Now There is a Spring Sale on it! Check it out!
So what are my thoughts with this BrewSSSiphon review? It is amazing to me that such a “trivial” piece of the home brewing setup can be upgraded so much. Hands down, I love the BrewSSSiphon. The attention to detail and quality of craftsmanship is awesome.
The sale is running now at their new website: WWW.BREWSENSIBLE.COM
Use the code SPRINGISGREEN for 20% off!
The Brewer’s Edge Mash & Boil review is something people should look for. When shopping for a new piece of equipment, it is always good to check out reviews. The Brewer’s Edge Mash & Boil seems to be a great deal. The versatility of the unit makes it a great choice for the 5 gallon and less brewer. I decided to pick up a unit to put it through its paces. Is this all in one unit as easy as they say it is? Let’s give the Mash & Boil review a shot!
I am so glad I had a chance to do a TriCoil 1.2 review! So I’m looking around the homebrewing market, and there are always things that seem to catch your eye and make you go hmmm. This triple immersion chiller from CuS.S Brewing did just that. I was curious about the claims I had read online, as well as the ones they had on their website and whether or not it actually chilled as fast as a did. I reached out to CuS.S Brewing and was provided with a TriCoil 1.2 triple immersion chiller to test out so I could put it through the paces. Jeremy McGranahan gave me the hook-up, I did not receive anything other than a unit to review.
So the looks, during the unboxing, I was immediately impressed with the precision that it was put together with. It definitely weighs a good amount, but when you think about the fact that there is three times the amount of coils, plus different adapters to hook it up, this totally makes sense.
So to test it out I decided that I should get a baseline with my single immersion chiller. It’s not a name brand, it’s your basic single immersion chiller which I’ve been very happy with across the years. I received it as a gift from my wife for a birthday or a Christmas present, and it has done the job. I am using it both inside and outside along the way. Here are the results of chilling a 5-gallon batch from that. It was 74F outside. The water temp was approximately 63F from the hose. I started the hose about 2 minutes after flameout. I created some vertical agitation for about 20 seconds every 2 minutes. After 5 minutes, thye wort was down to 143F. It was 110F at 8 minutes, and finally at 100F after 11 minutes.
Just when you think that your pieces of your homebrewery are satisfactory, and you have everything that you need, you find something new just like the BrewSSSiphon. I was intrigued by the stainless steel construction and the supposed heavy weight of the unit, so I reached out to the Brewsssential to see if I could do a review of their unit, and let you all know just how on point or not it was. I was very happy when I got the news that I was going to get to test the BrewSSSiphon . So to try the BrewSSSiphon out, I had two brew a batch of beer! That was going to be a difficult task… 😉 There is always a tasty treat when doing a test, like a BrewSSSiphon review!
For this, I used a rye double IPA that I was brewing. I figured I would try a different original recipe that allowed for me to have something different on tap. So I brewed it up and then gave the BrewSSSiphon a shot.
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This equipment review for the Bouncer Pro is a little different than my other reviews. The Bouncer Pro is the newest toy from the guys at Bouncer. I was lucky enough to have an avenue to test it out and see how it works. The Bouncer Pro is a much larger Bouncer product that is made for professional breweries, rather than the homebrewer. So I brought it to Rising Storm Brewing Company in Livonia NY to test it out.
Rising Storm Brewing Company is a relatively new brewery in the expanding Rochester NY(and surrounding areas) craft beer. They are located on a nice piece of property that houses their 30 barrel brewhouse and gives some great opportunities for outdoor events. Billn Blake and Jeff Reidl are the owners and brewmasters. They graciously allowed me in to have some fun with the new Bouncer Pro.
Time to get another piece of equipment, and time for the Cereal Killer Grain Mill review! This is a great piece of equipment that any all grain brewer should have in their arsenal. It took me a while to get one, as I often crushed my grain at the LHBS. Tired of paying a premium, and having access to some great uncrushed grain from Murmuration Malts, it showed me it was time to upgrade my equipment. If you are a video type person, fly over here to see it, and give me a follow!
The Growler Bro review, a tasty way to tweak your beers. So way back in July, I met up with the guys from Bouncer, and they told me about the new product coming out…. the GROWLER BRO. They gave me a prototype to play around with. Well, the real version is out now! I played around with a pack of three of the Growler Bro. If you want, you can see it in action with a video form here. So, initial thoughts on the Growler Bro. This is another awesome product that I didn’t know I needed. Tim and Doug do an amazing job at showing us things that we need in our homebrewing box of tricks.
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You want to get a hold of the Bouncer MD Hack Pack with Tenacious Badger Hops! This pack was so much fun to play around with! The guys at Bouncer Beer Filters have come up with a new use of the Bouncer MD, allowing you to randall in new flavors. To help showcase this, they hooked up with Tenacious Badger Hops. I have gone through and done a video review that you can find here. Here are my thoughts about this latest product!
Untappd Derby (2021)
Cue the bugle...On your mark… get set… go! The inaugural Untappd Derby is here. May the best style win! Follow the winner’s progress.
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