All Blog Posts (228)

Hi,

I'd like to start brewing commercially at home and I’d like to know if somebody went through the process of getting the licences and permits to do so.

I’m based in Auckland (North Shore) and I have a 80 litres electric brewing system.

I did some research and so far it seems that I need to:

- comply and register under Food National Programme 3

- get a customs-controlled area (CCA) licence

Do I need an…

Hello fellow brewers,

Thought it a good idea to put it out to the wider brewing community, is there a production made off the shelf electric control panel [nz or aus made] available on the NZ market? I've done some searching and it doesn't look good, ie there is nothing out there. 

following this line of questioning, if one was available though what would be a fair price to pay for it?

My system is as follows:

3 vessel [HLT, Mash Tun [infusion mash -…

Hi, I am a hop fiend and have just made a couple of beer using hops in a muslim sock for dry hopping and the result was unimpressionable. Question is can I make an essence i.e. hops into cool water to extract the aroma and flavour (not bitterness) and add the essence to the keg? If so what temperature I can use cooled boiled water and of course test it in the beer first so I don't ruin the keg? Anyone done this? 

Hi Everyone. 

New to this site, Been a kit brewer for some years now. 

Question: Can you brew to the full 30litres in the plastic fermenters with making adjustments by adding hops and/or malt to keep taste.

Cheers

Hi

I'm looking to form a small dedicated group of Auckland Based All Grain Brewers whose primary purpose:

• is to share and develop develop our knowledge of brewing through shared practice.

I was part of such a group back in the UK many moons ago and not only was it fun but we ended up scooping most of the prizes in the county shows - so the knowledge sharing must have worked but more importantly - we had great beer to…

I am wondering if there is a legal annual limit for home brewed beer production in NZ. USA is often about 200 gallons per year. That's about 30 to 40 brews at 19 to 23 litres. Are we limitless or limited in NZ and where is the law to be found?

I'm fairly new to the hobby with about 7 extract kit brews and through the second lot of them I spent my spare time collecting parts for and building an eHERMS system out of 50l pots.

I finally finished and did preliminary tests on the eHERMS before xmas and this brew was just after xmas.

Today I cracked open one of the PET bottles of my first batch of all grain beer since it was firm although it had only been in the bottles about 2 days after putting it in the fridge…

Chris Harrison 

also known as me has agreed to the wife's request to sell the brewery after 22 years of loyal service.

Currently we are more involved in The Beach House wines side of the business. With lots of Trophies being gained for our Beach house Wines.

The brewery has achieved the primary goal which was pay for everything. Vineyards, 200 Tonne winery and kids private school education.

So now time is more important than money and its time to sell the brewery…

Hey there chaps, im in the throws of building a single teir 3 vessel + HEX brew rig, i have been reading through many of the electric builds on here and figured id bang up my own blog for when i inevitable have questions for some of you clever blokes.

Anyway, i have been collecting the vessels and a few other things for some time now, just slowly getting bits as i find them / can afford it. So this is how my plan i drew on sketchup to suss things out in my head, i have condensded it…

The trophies keep piling up for Epic Beer’s Armageddon IPA, which has claimed its fourth major crown in less than a year after it was named best in class at the New World Beer and Cider Awards.

And to seal Epic’s position as this country’s leading producer of hop-driven beers, Epic Pale Ale also brought home a trophy for the best pale ale, defending the title it won in…

Inspired by Tony Yates here are the parts I used:

• Large bucket from Mitre10 Mega ($8) - to house the pump and water
• 2 x lids ($2 ea) - One with cutouts for Kegs and one with cut outs for Fermenters
• 1 x Ozito 350w Pump from Bunnings ($80)
• Brass reducer / bushing 1" to 1/2" ($4) - screws on to the pump outlet
• 1/2" compression fitting - screws on to brass reducer and…

Inspired by Tony Yates here are the parts I used:

• Carb Cap Ball Lock
• Pond Pump from Bunnings ($50) - in the water feature section

The keg/Carboy/Fermenter cleaner build is here.

Here's a couple of pics for you. Works a treat.…

The first parts have been ordered.

Pumps

USA:

• 2 x March 815 SS-C 230V Pumps from the States. This distributor's shipping was showing half that of their listing on eBay. BUT... after ordering, they emailed to let me know their site doesn't calculate shipping correctly. Cost was US$180 per pump and US$113 for shipping two…

Having found the other blogs on this site incredibly useful, I thought I would pay-it-forward and record my own journey to "going electric".

Like others, I am basing my build heavily on The Electric Brewery. 

Background:

I started brewing 4 years ago and have been all grain BIAB for 3. Initially using a 35l SS pot, I upgraded to a Blichmann 20Gal 18 months ago. I keg and temperature…

What a great title for a post.

After switching to all electric my old clean up method of taking my keggle etc outside and blasting with the hose became awkward with the cables attached. I'm also after ways to reduce the amount of lifting involved so have been looking at cleaning the vessels in place. Boring topic but clean up still eats up a good chunk of my brew day.

My trub filter was fixed in place which made cleaning the kettle time consuming. It doesn't…