Rainy Day Brews

It is no secret that a stir plate can boost your yeast count when doing a starter, however, one thing that didn't know off the hop was how easy and inexpensive it would be to make one at home. I will outline how I put together my stir plate, there are many other ways but hopefully, this will give you an idea of exactly how easy it is if you are not currently using one. Materials: Rare Earth Magnet  (rip apart an old hard drive) Fan Speed Controller 12V Power Supply  (dig around in your old electronics bin, you probably have one) Case Fan(80mm)  (use one from an old computer) Stir Bar Wooden Cigar Box (cigar shops usually give these away or sell for $1) Machine screws (qty 4) and nuts(qty 12) -  (any size that can be pushed through the mounting holes on your fan) Steps:  Glue rare earth magnets on either side of the middle of the computer fan. Ensure you are glueing to the side of the fan that is free spinning. The exposed magnet faces should attract one another (ma

I think many people will agree, that life has been a crazy hot mess these last few years. A global pandemic, supply chain issues, murder hornets, Suez Canal getting corked by the Ever Given, Bitcoin exploding, and countless other oddities that make me feel bad for school children studying history 50 years from now, trying to figure out what in the actual <insert choice word> happened in 2020/2021. It's been a minute since my last post but I am going to make regular posts a priority. However, as I write these musings for my own enjoyment and documentation purposes, my readership is undoubtedly limited to my mother.  I have recently moved house and decided to dedicate a room in my basement for "home brewery space". I have also procured a permanent 15-gallon EHERMS brew setup from Spike Brewing and Electric Brew Supply which will live in that space. I will go into the finer points of the system in a later post. I would be remiss if I did not state clearly and categoric