I have been working in engineering for four decades and I do not subscribe to six sigma. I subscribe to the philosophy of hiring the best and doing what one has to do to keep talent on board because the difference in productivity is often more than ten-to-one. No process will ever replace talent when it comes to producing anything other than also-ran products.
Continuous improvement is bounded by the law of diminishing returns, especially in a company that focuses more on the management of engineering than actual engineering. No revolutionary product was ever created by a process. It was created by talented people with interpersonal chemistry.
Finally, I have seen guys sweat every detail of wort production and then pitch dry yeast. To me, that is a WTF situation. Brewers do not make beer. Brewers make wort. Yeast makes beer. To me, pitching dry yeast after all of that work is pure lunacy. However, that is just me.
In the end, RDWHAHB is about not taking oneself too seriously and not sweating things over which one does not have full control. Brewing at the amateur level should be fun.
electric brew in a basket no sparge. I am fond of the clawhammer systems. So simple, non proprietary, and cleaning involves pumping cleaner through the system. As far as cold side goes, I use a brew jacket with ss brewbucket and fixed a gas in valve to the top so I can move beer with co2 instead of gravity. I also spund most of my beers. its a simple system that isnt alot of work
After having gone electric 7 or 8 years ago, I can say that I’d never consider going back to gas. Far easier and it provides better control. It does mean that electronic control modules are needed for the mashing and boiling units, but they can be simple.
I understand your disdain with dry yeast, but I’ve found that some types can make pretty good brews. Some styles demand that I use a proper liquid strain, but many do not. I appreciate the simplicity of dry yeast brewing in most cases.
As a fellow engineer and manager of people, I really respect that statement. I think I need to post it above my desk. Thank you - some good wisdom there!
Here! Here! RDWHAHB in no way means that there is no improvement to be had. If that’s what someone thinks then they either didn’t read the book …or if they did they didn’t get it.
I remember seeing photos of your electric brewery. It is one of the nicer ones I have seen. I guess the best way to brew is to have a backup, regardless of heating source. I was primarily brewing with induction at the end of my last pass through the hobby. I was brewing 3-gallon batches with an 1800W 120V portable induction range until I learned that my double oven circuit was 30A when it should have been 40A. I had the electrician re-route the old 4-wire 30A circuit to my garage and had him replace the 240V 30A breaker with 240V 30A GFCI breaker when he installed the new 40A oven circuit. I fabricated a 14-30R plug to 6-20R receptacle and switched 5-15R receptacle in a waterproof metal receptacle box cord. I plugged a 3500W induction portable induction range into the 6-20R receptacle and my March pump into the 5-15R receptacle (the other half of the duplex was a switch that I used to turn the pump on and off). The 3500W portable induction range could bring 7 gallons of wort up to boiling from 150F in less than 20 minutes. I may go back to the method because it is quiet, very portable, and I can still use and immersion chiller. MoreBeer has an interesting set of curved heating elements that they call “SlingBlades.” That design eliminates not being able to use an immersion chiller argument when brewing with an immersed heating element, but it is single source.
It is not disdain for dry yeast. It is the going through extreme machinations with wort production and then pitching dry yeast, which, even with the advances in dry brewers yeast that we have seen in the last twenty years, is still a compromise made for convenience.
Look at the Blichmann Boil Coils. They are very low watt density circular coils. My immersion chiller fits inside the coil and the low watt density means that it doesn’t scorch my BIAB bag.