Its a long road to beer and I have just started the ride... as much as it will hurt I MUST ask for directions.
Hello beer drinkers / brewers,
I am starting my brewing hobby .... its been 20yrs since i brewed beer and the stuff I made was swamp water designed to taste terrible, be cheap and get me and my mates pissed. It was NOT a hobby... it was a practical method for an apprentance to have beer who had no money. Once the pay packet was big enough the home brew idea was gone for ever.
Well ... I am again thinking that I would like to brew beer... BUT not swamp water... Yes I want to save money but the driving factor is I want to make nice beer, show the wife and friends that it can be done... no one believes me! The fact that I can save money is a bonus and I am allowed to spend all the savings for 2yrs....
So where do I start... I have printed about 2 x A4 reems (not joking) of info at work and have been reading for what seems like ages. The more i read the worse it got! Until after digesting what seems like lots of information that means nothing a small picure starts to form and I now have a plan.
Plan.....
1) Start brewing extract... then move when i have build a brew system too
2) All grain
So I will brew all extract and will saving $50 per week... and spend this on an all grain brewing system.
Equipment purchased so far...
50L stainless pot... TM $55 and its a beast.. solid aluminium base...
1 x 50L stainless Keg TM..$72
1 x 50L stainless keg... to bid on.
STC -1000 temp controller... for fermentation chamber -ebay $27USD
Currently bidding on bar fridge for fermentataion chamber..$30 with days to go.
Good thing is it cover 3 gas elements to get it boiling... bring on the big gas burners....and my garage. Hate the wife watching ... I like the man cave....
Brewing Goal....
Kegs and Keezer... must hold 3-4 kegs
Fermenting chamber - with cooling and heating for 3 fermentors
Largering chamber thing... old fridge.. again must hold 2 kegs.
All Grain brewing setup for the garage... man cave exsistance.. beer, music and bikes...!
First Up... Extract
So I need to gather the equipment for my first extract brew.... and NO I am not buying or using a kit.! I will source everything... now tell me... is it worth buying a kit?
Should I buy a plastic fermentor or go stright to Carboy? I am thinking that I will need 3 fermentors eventually... and to be honest I like the carboy's for the cleaning etc and the cool factor.. but seriously it seem to be what the long termers use..... BUT I can only find 23L jobs... that seems too small? Where the plastic options are 30L.
Thoughts please?
So i have a 50L tub for the boil... 4doz bottles ... and a long plastic spoon for my extract brew and am working on a fermenting chamber when I score a bar fridge.
Also I will be building a Counter Flow Wort Chiller...
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/counterflow-chiller-tutorial-51793/
This is the link for my build... but I plan on adding a copper wire to the outside of the inner copper pipe to create water turblance.. and increase the colling efficiencies of the cooler.
I am also a lazy man... if it can be done simplar then I will find away.. cleaning bottles is a sucky job. So I am thinking of a circulating cleaning system... until i get the kegs going.
a) Wash bottles... with ease and water power...
b) Sterilise bottles... simple
c) Dry bottles.. until use.
d) store upside down in create on news paper... any good?
e) Quick steriliser blast.. no rinse on day of bottling
I have a 240V tap soliniod left over from my marine fish tank... I will control the soliniod with a foot switch and use tap water to blast the inside of the bottles. Then i will circulate sterilising fluid with a pump through the same system. Then in to the dishwasher for rinse and dry. Store upside down in creat on news paper. All the while having the bottle upside down... and me doing FA... Obviously stuck crap will need a scrub but thats not an issuie as i have fresh bottles... once filled with Lion red.
On the day of bottling pull the bottle cleaning machine out and add fresh sterilising, no rinse stuff and blast each create before bottling... stored upside down again with fresh news paper... in the create.
Fill bottle and cap.
Any issuies with the news paper thing? or other things?
Will update as I start to gather bits and pieces and start to build things.... I need help and will appriciate comments as I have not actually brewed anything for 20yrs...
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Evan Davies on
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welcome to our world and it seems like you are well under way to the path of enlightenment, any questions pleae ask, and we will all try and help Evan
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Permalink Reply by Grant R Baker on
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Extract Brewing
Plastic Fermenter (30l and 60l on most homebrew sites, Example) for primary then glass carboy for secondary. These are the cheapest startup option. You can even use another plastic fermenter for secondary fermentation if you like.
Plastic is far easier to clean than the glass and primary fermentation is very messy.
Glass carboys come in sizes from 19l to 30l.. but are buggar heavy once full with beer.
but if you are going all grain eventually then you may want to look at Conical Fermenters (not cheap, yet) or SS Fermenters (and conical SS too). Even consider converting a 50l SS keg into a fermenter.
I'll stay out of your Counter-Flow chiller idea... I like my Immersion Chiller (copper coil)
On the other stuff.
a) I wash my bottle after I empty them.
b) Clean and sterilize bottles on bottling day. Dish washing rack or bottle rack to upend the sterilized bottles for 10mins before bottling.
c) There is no c.
I should have been bottling tonight... but work is work so I'll just drink a few.
Good luck.
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Permalink Reply by Brewman on
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thanks for the replys.
I hope I did not hold up the bottleing..!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wrD9V3ECN8
I have been watching this and am thinking this will be close to my first brew.
Oh and too add... I have been watching the build of the plastic Conical Fermenters and after spendinh 30min trying the beers from the WillaimWarn office i was very interested in this idea. Got to say I got to try about 5 differnt beers while there. Very cool place and welcoming people. So maybe i should wait until these become avalible....! Assuming they work this could be a great place to start!!!
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Permalink Reply by Dougal on
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You seem like you've done a lot of your homework Arron, so the only advice I'd give you is to get brewing! Obviously you're keen on building a bit of stuff, and that's part of the fun of home brewing, but there are some things you only learn from brewing frequently- cleaning and sanitizing effectively; how to manage fermentation; how different yeast strains behave; how different hops and malts taste and how to design a recipe. This is the stuff that will help you crank out beers that you like drinking, and beers that are of commercial quality or better.
It really doesn't matter how complicated your setup is. I've been using a chillybin mashtun, stainless pot and burner, and fermenting mainly in buckets for the last 2 1/2 years, and I'm only now planning something more complicated with 3 vessels and a pump etc. Kegs are fantastic for saving the chore of bottlewashing, but learning to clean stuff the hard way isn't bad for home brewers either ;-) (Poor cleaning and hygiene has more than a bit to do with some home brew tasting like swamp water too.)
So plan to get a brew down. Post your recipe beforehand in the Recipe Advice or Newbies thread and you'll get heaps of helpful info on how to improve it from experienced brewers.
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Permalink Reply by Kelly Milligan on
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Another soul on the road to obsession!
Grab a copy of this: http://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/Book/How-to-Brew-Everything-You-...
Or free online copy (only first edition though with some deprecated methods) http://howtobrew.com/
This book is probably the most direct, useful, and valuable resource to learning how to brew from kits through to your first all grain set up. Great notes on more advanced stuff like water chemistry and stuff too.
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Permalink Reply by Ralph on
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Nice! Looks like you have done as much research as i did before i started brewing.... there sure is a lot of info out there about it!! As Dougal mentioned, just jump on in. A lot of the reading I did make a heck of a lot more sense once i started brewing. I did a couple of extract brews (with steeped specialty malts and added hops) and then went pretty quickly to Brew In A Bag (BIAB) and to be honest both are good. I now use a mash tun and batch sparging... and may at some stage move to a flash recirculation mash system... but the beer you get out of BIAB is good enough to win the NZ home brew champion brewer award (as long as you get everything else right).
I think that building a temperature controlled brew cabinet is important, as understanding sanitation and using a good cleaning and sanitation method.
Go to it, it really is not very hard to produce some very tasty beers if you take some care, and by your level of reading/info I would say you will nail it!
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Also with your bottle washing system that you are proposing. A couple of things. Washing removes any dirt/deposits that can harbour bacteria/yeast. Sterilising solution kills any bugs. If you are going to rinse with a no rinse steriliser before bottling, then there is no point in rinsing with no rinse steriliser before leaving them to dry. Simply wash, leave upside down on newspaper and rinse with steriliser before use. If rinsing with a no rinse steriliser I would not put them upside down on something that can contaminate the top of the bottle like newspaper. Just tip the no rinse steriliser out and bottle the beer with the bottle upright. If you get something like a bread crate you can pop the bottles upside down to drain in the gaps between the plastic. This way the bottle tops are not in contact with anything that would contaminate them.
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Permalink Reply by Slingshot on
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Hey, is that stainless steel pot one of the chinese imports from trade me? I need a big pot and am wondering what the quality its like.
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I'm using a 51L one from Trademe. For the price, they're pretty outstanding. Don't have a very thick bottom but the stainless and handles are sturdy enough for your average use. Definitely worth picking one up for ~$30-60 (check those $1R auctions!) if it means you can move from partial to full boil!
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Thanks for the comments.
The pot is the dogs bollacks ..... From the USA.. It has a thick aluminum base and concave base that is perfectly flat when it gets hot.... Really? But true and the cost is about $300+ USD on the net and it's new and I scored it on trade me for $55!
Anyway enough showing off the pot...
Right I did what I said I would not do.... Purchased a kit...
Next up I have no fermenting chamber.... Made one out of cardboard with a fish temp controller and a heater pad. Can't post a picture but it holding 20deg C perfectly. I am planning to make it better and will then offer them to fellow brewers..... I happen to work for a cardboard manufacture which means I can make anything out of cardboard. Pictures will follow tomorrow when I can find the camera cable.
Next brew I am thinking boil in the bag.... Anyone got a good recipes ?
I hope to score a bar fridge to make a fermenting chamber that allows me to larger. Anyone know a good insulation beside polystyrene? I see other use some stuff with silver paper on it.
Still thinking about the bottle wash thing... What about a recirculating system .... Detergent first then sterilzing liquid. I guess I will need a bottle tree thing. What about pre washing and putting glad wrap over the bottle so it's not such a big job on bottling day?
Ralph... Thank for your comments... This is the advice that I need and appreciate so thanks.
So this week... Build second fermenting chamber that heats only but maintains 20c and purchase a second fermenter and do boil in the bag on Friday night.
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