Kodiak Brewing: Beer, Wine, Cider, Vintage Audio Blog

EPOS m22 speakers!

Posted on November 5, 2024 by ray kodiak

A new addition to my equipment collection! These sold originally for $1,995 + tax + shipping, but I managed to find them locally for $400 used / they come with their metal grills, but I took them off for listening – they are great for protecting these while not used or when moving!

Extremely well build, solid cabinets that pass the knock test!

Speaker: M22
Type: Two-and-a-half-way, tower
Tweeter (size in inches, type): 1, gold anodized aluminum alloy dome
Midrange (size in inches, type): 6, polymer cone 5.25
Woofer (size in inches, type): 6, polymer cone
Nominal Impedance (ohms): 6

Recommended Amp
Power (watts): 50–200
Available Finishes: Light/Dark Cherry, Black
Dimensions (H x W x D, inches): 36 x 8 x 10
Weight (pounds): 37.4
Original Price: $1,995/pair

I paired them with a B&K 125.2 amp / sometimes I switch and listen using the B&K EX-442 amp (if you ever find this, grab it fast!) – anyways, both are excellent amps!

I do have the EPOS ELS Subwoofer installed, so it is paired with that as well… I was lucky enough to find that one day in the market-place for $150 / extremely well build sub-woofer specifically made for music!

These speakers shine with Jazz, and other instrumentals, Classical, and Voice!

I have to admit that I am already used to the EPOS sound since I own 6 other speakers in my collection and these don’t disappoint, very well made, high quality with excellent drivers!

You will not find anything like that made today within any price range!

So if you are lucky enough to find some used for a fair price, grab them!

Youtube video is here – https://youtu.be/bzQpZX1Yifw

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IPA fine tunned by AI

Posted on October 21, 2024 by ray kodiak

In the last Blog I did a video on how to use AI basically to learn anything you want about beer brewing, but you can also paste your ingredients and ask AI to take a look at them to analyze.

The analysis asks can be anything, from the right grain proportions to maybe unnecessary grains that don’t do anything or might impart on your recipe.

So that’s what I did, I first asked it to review the Grains, then the Hops and last the yeast.

It compared everything against each other to recommend any changes for the Style of the beer that I am after. Now, of course, I did fact-check the recommendations and everything it recommended sounded fine to me and it even explains why.

With that this weekend of 10.19.2024 I have brewed the the following IPA / this is for a 5-gallon batch.

Grains:

9lb 2-row
0.5 lb Carapils

Hops:

2 ounces of El Dorado (bittering at 60 minutes)
3 ounces of Mosaic (Whirlpool)
3 ounces of Cascade, also (Whirlpool) – so last 10-15 minutes

Yeast:

1056 American Ale Wyeast

pictures and final tasting thoughts will come later with an Update, thanks!

Posted in BEER Recipes, Uncategorized | Comments Off

using AI for Beer Recipe Exploration

Posted on October 11, 2024 by ray kodiak

So this is a Quick introduction in the llama3.1 or 3.2 models which you can easily download and install on any computer (Windows, Mac or Linux) and the interface is very easy to use.

Wanted to do something new and more interesting than just posting another Beer recipe, since those are a dime a dozen.

So whether you are someone who hasn’t learned yet about AI for your job-related tasks or maybe you are retired and don’t pay attention to any of it, you really should because it can make the hobby of your Beer brewing a lot more interesting and can make great improvements to your recipes and understanding of ingredients.

Since most people are visual Learners, here is the Link to the Video on YouTube – https://youtu.be/2vh3D8zg3hQ

Posted in BEER Home Brewing | Comments Off

English Brown Ale – brewed by a robot

Posted on June 21, 2024 by ray kodiak

So in case you haven’t seen in my recent posts, I have acquired a few picobrew machines / the original Zymantic and the Z1 and also a picostill (which I plan to use to make extracts with). Sadly the company is no more, but happily – you can score these machines for a fraction of their original price. I paid $200 for all, and this probably cost close to $4,500 for all that I have acquired in this deal.

I have setup the Raspberry Pi to act as a local server for these, so they no longer need to connect to the corporate web servers to make them run, $75 cost.

So now I store all my recipes online, as they sync and import into the machines using this new software tool, but regardless, you can use them using any equipment following the recipe.

Actually the yeast I used was: 1968 London ESB Wyeast

https://crafter.pilotbatchbrewing.com/recipe/print/1209

having these machines will save me quite a bit of time because you just put in your ingredients and press Brew, come back 5 hours later and you just cool (10 minutes at best ) and pitch yeast.

It also will give me smaller batches and more variety as I drink less beer these days, so ya!

Update – I used AI software (ollama model) to inspect the recipe, and it came out really good, I also wanted to dial is the perfect color of the beer:

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picobrew Zymantic leak fix

Posted on June 13, 2024 by ray kodiak

I have acquired some picobrew machines cheap / the original Zymantic, the Z series and even a new picostill. The Zymatic had [past tense 🙂 ] a leak, because the original seal that connects the internal bucket to the pump cracked over time, silicone don’t last forever.. This would create two issues:

a pretty substantial leak anytime the pump wasn’t working
slow pump return

I took some quick measurements and 3d designed a better than original fix, it was 3d printed in TPU.

I have linked to the part that is available to download and a youtube video so you can see it in action, thanks!

Thingiverse for the 3d part to print: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6661173

Posted in BEER Home Brewing | Comments Off

EPOS ES14 speakers and custom tweeter Baffle – an adventure in HiFi Audio

Posted on April 2, 2024 by ray kodiak

So up to now this Blog site has been dedicated only to Beer Brewing, but I am going to start expand it a little bit into my vintage Audio hobby as well, so with that, this will be the first post.

A few years ago I have purchased a pair of EPOS ES14 (with one original blown tweeter, I knew this) and one of the things you learn with vintage speakers, especially highly sought after in the category of Cult following, is that when a driver breaks, especially a custom designed driver that is no longer manufactured – these are considered almost 100% un-obtainium and really the only way to get more drivers is to either buy another pair of speakers, broken or not and you hope to salvage something out of this, the things you do to stay in the Cult!

So with that, I was left with either this option or…… learn 3D CAD and designed my own baffle and 3D print them – which is what I did. I ended up using some spare tweeters that I had on hand from a different project that I ended up doing nothing with, so I ended up using some Peerless 4ohm ( BC25TG15-04) 50 watt and I paired these with a 4.7uF capacitor (after playing with some other values) and it came out super good, better than original.

I first printed these in PLA, but later switched to PETG, because it seems to be stronger and also more UV resistant, incase speakers would be placed by a window and getting direct sunlight.

with that, after verifying everything and fine tuning and going through about 7-8 different test prints, I then decided to offer it for Sale on Ebay / so customers in either a same situation as me or maybe just when people wanted to try some new Tweeter combinations.

Some advantages over the original tweeters is that /// the original was mounted behind the tweeter baffle most likely by design, but lots of improvements have been achieves since the late 80s and with the new baffle we can completely avoid any Baffle Diffraction or Edge Treatment and the sound is no longer so centered on axis as before.

Now a lot of people say that this will change the speaker, and in- fact does change it but for the better, much better.. and you have an option to choose your own driver, and material type, as I prefer soft dome tweeters over metal dome, just my preference.

I have tested these to people in complete blind testing and people were left speachless and that was with a fairly inexpensive proof of concept driver.

In the future I am planning to upgrade with a Seas tweeter and maybe make another version of the 3D baffle to true fit whatever driver I am end up selecting.

With that – if you have interest in purchasing these from me you can find them on Ebay or if you like to buy them from me directly, please Contact me, thanks!

To Date I have helped and sold 5 pair / my hope is to raise some money to buy a better printer soon as well. The 3d design plans are “not” for Sale, thanks!

Ebay Auction: https://www.ebay.com/itm/125945208107

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Belgian/French Saison Winter 2023

Posted on December 12, 2023 by ray kodiak

This winter I’ve brewed a 10-gallon batch / more to come including the recipe I followed and how I mixed yeasts ( kind of unplanned ) but beer came out awesome…

Posted in BEER Recipes | Comments Off

Next Brew / a Gulden Draak clone

Posted on December 23, 2022 by ray kodiak

Next up / I attempt to brew my first Clone of the Gulden Draak beer.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Steuben Wine 2022

Posted on October 28, 2022 by ray kodiak

There is nothing quite like HomeGrown!

after fermentation was over – 2 months old, tastes great!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

The pour sample (picture below) of our wine from this year / when it was being transferred to secondary fermentation. It came out superb in color and taste! Of course it is still not even finished, but a good sign at this stage.

Link to Steuben grapes if you are not familiar with them – https://pennsylvaniawine.com/2018/02/15/pennsylvania-wine-school-steuben/

I choose this grape when I was first starting out for their resistance to disease and able to survive harsh winters. Last two year I let it go totally wild with no Management of any kind and the more I do that, the better the wine gets!