All Blog Posts (228)

I decided to go for 3kW elements, it seems that would be about the biggest I could go for without requiring new switches and fuses in my house. My circuit breaker is rated to 20A, and as a good rule of thumb I'm going to try and keep this below 15A. Basically, the bigger the element, the quicker I can heat the water to start the mash and get the boil rolling.

The Maths:

20A x 230V = 4600W (max)

15A x 230V = 3450W (my target)

Therefore: 3000W/230V…

And so it begins...

The grape harvest is coming up (or is already happening in some parts of the country) and my parents own a small vineyard in Gladstone in the Wairarapa and fortunately a neighbour they have befriended has a large supply of Pinot Noir grapes at the ready.

I have recently made the Weißbier,  I just need to get the Pinot Noir…

Brewtroller Build:- Plumbing Connections

Plumbing:

First off I must say I'm surprised by the total cost of plumbing this system, it's much more than I would have guessed - but it has to be done.

Side note: I work as a sound engineer now, but actually I did my trade as a plumber so the plumbing side of things is going to be a piece of cake for me - the electronics side is going to be a little more difficult - but…

I just got my false bottom back from the sheetmetal workshop so I thought I'd post a few pictures. I bought a sheet of perforated stainless steel sheet from: LockerNZ - http://www.lockernz.co.nz/pdf/catalogues/Perfmetals.pdf

I opted for the P106 which is 2.4mm holes at 3.6mm centres. It comes on a roll which I think was about a metre wide but they sold me just a half metre of that (for about $90), so…

this was brewed for the Rust in Peace anniversary tour last year... subsequently I got to meet the band and give them a bottle ! \m/

I also got Dave Mustaine to sign the picture...

Photo0416.jpg

this was brewed later on, Good Mourning/Black Friday Stout..

 …

Well I'm well into my Brewtroller Build so I'd thought I'd document the whole process.

Building an Automated Brewing System

Background

I have been brewing all grain in 20L batches for a couple of years now. I have been using a 32L pot which doubles as a HLT and a Boiling Kettle, recently I started using the Brew in a Bag (BIAB) method which has proven to…

It's over three months ago now, but I finally got around to posting something about my trip to Japan...

http://the-grandmaster.blogspot.com/2010/10/japan-biru-beer-tourist-is-much-like.html

As we travel around the country we plan to also visit some of the great craft beer bars this country now has. But what makes these bars great and successful is the awesome customers they have. Because these people love craft beer. Just like us.

So we invite you to come join us, after a busy and taxing day filming at breweries ;-) , to have a beer. We would love to meet some of the great fans of craft beer, to balance this TV series. Like meeting the people on the other side…

Today I was surprised to be reading the Sunday Star Times and find an article that had stemmed from a Twitpic http://twitpic.com/2znukp I had posted on Twitter a week before. What I thought was an innocent mistake and a bit of a laugh, has made the national weekend newspaper.

Really people, this is news?

So I have some thoughts about this.

1. if this makes the news, then we live in a really fantastic, easy…

I just want to put out there what has been on my mind lately. It's a little bit random, so please bear with me a moment if you will. Also - I'm sure in the past I've touched on it slightly... but I want to make explicit my…

Anyone have any ideas on how I can make an Eisbock? I have tried in the past and all I got was an iceblock (not icebock!) haha

Peace.

As Joking mentioned in a previous post, he made me a pilot brewery. I got this on Monday and yesterday I finally got around to playing around with it. I like to get straight to the point and instead of brewing a pale ale just to see how the system worked I went for gold, pushed the system to the max and made a big barley wine. This is also sort of a tribute to our first child who can arrive any day now, I plan on cellaring it for as long as possible,hopefully for 21…

I love it. I tend to have this recurring feeling the day after that I have just participated in some form of group hallucination fueled by a pharmacopeia of malt, hops and banter. And I’m just a wallflower; the dosage could well be…

After a great many hours in the workshop, countless welding flashes, a few trails... a few errors. After many a phone call from the Wife asking when I'll be home, and after more than my fair share of burns (from resting my arm on freshly welded steel) - Oh and I can't forget about all the singed eye brows, eye lashes, arm hair and head hair...

I have completed a trial batch on my best performing and ideal home brew system.

So…

Dunno what I was thinking on this one, but I ended up with about 15 Liters of 8%…