All Blog Posts (228)

Here is a shameless plug for my recipe Jerry Collins Stout in the GF world cup recipe competition. If you think its any good please like it. Cheers
Mark

https://www.facebook.com/grainfather/photos/a.891021894297236.1073741840.638285086237586/891021980963894/?type=3&theater

Could anyone recommend where I would be able to get some handles or pint glasses with custom printing on them from?

Thinking of doing some up for mates who come to my 30th as a wee momento, and also because I don't have enough glassware for everyone.

So far I have found drinkware.co.nz to look the best but their minimum run seems to be 48 and I dont think I have that many friends.

Oh and it would have to be delivered by the end of the month because I just had the idea…

Made a big step towards my goal of going fully electric today. The HLT is now using two 10 amp feeds with two elements and it looks like I have enough power to give a decent boil.

The initial driver to add more power was the 95 minutes it took a single 2kw element to heat about 40 litres up to mash in temperature which is a big delay at the start of brew day. Normally I just heat about 20 litres for mash in which is closer to 40 minutes but I was trying out no sparge…

Winery / Brewery at Eumundi in the Noosa hinterland has all Government Licences & Approvals as a virtual brewpub -Tourist Attraction [ beer, wine, cider, grappa & food & music ]  but 76 yo owner needs fresh, energetic partners to reinvigorate the venue.

Long frontage to M1 highway, 2 k to the Eumundi craft markets & our wine stall, 20k to Noosa.

6.6Ha of  land, OK for cabins, OktoberFests, weddings but needs TLC

Contract Brewer died last year so prefer…

Hi beer lovers

I have got a 600 litre micro brewery for sale. go to Trademe nz and type in Brewery for details and photos

any serious queries don't hesitate to ask. Go on you've been talking about owning a brewery for years- nows your chance

cheers Jim

I've been putting together an electric brewery for about 6 months now. Yesterday she had her first run.

The name beer robot comes from my 5 year old daughter who associates the lights and flashing displays with robots. I think its a pretty good application of mechatronics which is what robotics is called these days from what I can tell.

She is made of…

Hey,

So after a wet run and autotune it was time. Time to brew and no more procrastinating.

I started contemplating this build nearly 2 years ago and starting collecting parts about a full year ago. It's been 19 months since I brewed at home.

Brew day on Sunday 7 December 2014 started really late, I had to pick up the kids from their grandparents and do some other stuff but in truth I was scared. Scared at how much more involved the process might be with 2 pumps…

At long last.

Today the sparky came round and rewired my house switchboard. He also added a 32A supply and caravan outlet for the brewery.

So tonight, after almost a full year of buying up parts, relentless researching, construction, wiring, etc etc etc I fired the Kauri Road Brewery 2.0 into life.

Tonight was just a hot water run, autotuning the HLT PID and running both pumps and all hoses at 80degC.

Only 2 leaks, one at the outlet elbow…

Mostly finished the first version of my new control panel. Ended up mostly following the design from http://theelectricbrewery.com/ , considered a bunch of different options but was hard to fault Kal's design. This build is just the base build to control my HLT with a 10a supply, leaving enough room to add in pumps later…

Epic IMP, has just been released in time for the coming summer holiday season.

Brewed as a session IPA, it is SMALL (4.7% alc/vol) and MISCHIEVOUS (generously dry hopped like an IPA. It has more dry hop than the Epic Armageddon IPA).

When poured the aroma hits you with sweet ripe summer stone fruit…

A quick update on the HLT build which is now mostly wrapped up and been through its first batch.

The lovely insulation is courtesy of a warehouse camp roll and a bunch of duct tape.

I was concerned about usability with the large gap between the tap, thermometer and sight glass and it has been a minor nuisance since the thermometer isn't easy to read from an angle. I played it safe with a fairly large gap to avoid cross over between the probes…

Evening all. Am mid brew with a 55L batch of 1.079SG Porter which is about to come up to the boil and I thought Id share the loves. The recipe is a bit of a bastard 11kg Pale, 1.4 Crystal 60, 1kg black, 1kg chocolate, 1kg Rye, .6kg Caraaroma, 0.4melanoidin, 0.3kg special B. Obviously aiming for a meal of a beer. Hopping with a small dose of Pac Jade to 20IBu and 200G of Tettnager at flame out and fermenting with 04.

Reason I came on though is a few boys from the forum have been over…

Hi all,
Would anyone be interested in two Perlick 630 stainless steel taps. Now surplus to requirements. I am in the process of putting together a serving fridge with three taps. I have decided to replace the 630's with the 650ss (flow control)
One is unused the other hooked up to try out.
Offers around $75 each?

Cheers Dave.

Hello all,

 I have started to get bolder with my home brewing, by entering the world of partial mashing.

 I found that I could prep everything in advance, but once I got to the hop schedule I was left worried about timing of the numerous additions I needed to make.

 After a few brews, and some googling I found that there is no timer I could find that was specifically built for a hop schedule.

 So, being a geek and a home brewer I decided to make one.…

Ok so after stalking this and other forums for the best part of 12 months or so, I though I would throw my hat in and share my experiences.

So my name is Dave.......and yes I am a home brewer.

I guess it all started about 35yrs ago with my Dad, being a beer lover, brewing his own. He used a kit that was put together by a local home brew shop, from memory consisting of DME, sugar and whole hops, on reflection quite advanced for its day.

I recall it being quite bitter and…

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11318985

Garage Project brewer Pete Gillespie (left) and co-founder Jos Ruffell create a beer foam with liquid…

Thought I would post some details on my electric keggle HLT conversion. Not finished yet but close. I've found reading over peoples other blogs/threads really useful, particularly those from NZ, so hopefully this is useful to someone thinking of doing the same.

Fittings from left to right: Element, sightglass & thermowell for sensor, tap (to be…

Etch O Sketch.

Did a little etching last night in my HLT, worked out pretty good.

Despite the blurry shit photo it's actually crisp and neat. Each line is an exact 1mm tall rectangle. 

The only thing is it's a pretty light etch, whether that's because of the nature of these cheap shitty pots, or whether my 9 volt battery was a bit…

Finally got my wiring done, sporadic nights over a couple of weeks but I got there in the end.

I would recommend to anyone doing this to set enough time aside to do it in one bang :)

There's enough to this system that just when you have your head around it you discover some other little piece of complexity that makes you think really hard about what you're doing.

My timer is different from Kal's one on theelectricbrewery.com so that took a fair amount of…