Its a long road to beer and I have just started the ride... as much as it will hurt I MUST ask for directions.

[Brewman]

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...

 

 

 

[Dougal]

Your fermenting chamber sounds great. Just be aware that it's not the ambient temperature of the cabinet, but the temperature of the fermenting beer that matters.

The first part of fermentation is exothermic- the yeast produces its own heat. This means that if you set your cabinet for 20C, the beer could potentially go as high as 25C in the first few days. If your thermostat has an external probe, tape it to the side of the fermenter, or otherwise just keep an eye on the temperature of the beer and you should be fine.

[Brewman]

Bugger.... I have taped the thermostat to the wall of the chamber and it's holding 20deg... Bugger as I am away for the night to check. Good point though.

[Dougal]

You could well be okay- it depends. The first 48 hours of fermentation are where esters are produced, so depending on your yeast strain and pitching rate, that's where flavour profile is mostly created. A neutral strain like Safale S-05 can tolerate a reasonable range of temperatures and still come out alright, but some others like the English strains create some pretty funky-ass compounds when they're too warm.

My third beer was an English IPA with S-04 made during the middle of summer. Ambient temp was 25C so it got up around 30-32C. The banana flavour was totally overpowering. 

[Brewman]

Well I got home and went to see how the brew was going.

Temp was at 19.8deg

 

I removed the fermenter and added stick on thermostat and it said 20-22C.

Taped sensor agaist the fermenter and insulated it with a thick cloth and it was at 22deg.

 

So my guess is thats ok.

 

 

[Grant R Baker]

Yep.. a couple of Pro brewers have pointed out that the yeast action in the beer add heat to the brew... and in some cases the have to cool their brews during active  fermentation.

[Brewman]

Makes sense.

 

Does anyone see any issuies placing 2 fermenters in to one insulated chamber?

And control the chamber with one probe taped to one of the fermenter?

[Dougal]

Should be fine. Works better if they're started about the same time, but otherwise I'd just tape the probe to the one that's actively fermenting.  

[Kelly Milligan]

An issue with having 2 fermenters in the same chamber is if you're trying to brew different styles simultaneously. E.g. if you wanted to do an ale and a lager at the same time. This can be pretty easily avoided though :)