Kegging/etc info! Kegs 1) Used kegs are fine. Worst case scenario you'll have to replace a post or something. Usually the o-rings might need some replacing. 2) Never buy new kegs. 3) Ever. Temperature control mewse: that's a valid option, although I strongly recommend considering the ever-popular-with-homebrewers ranco 111000. You can get it on ebay from Patriot Supply for $45 with free shipping and it's a GREAT device. Yes, you can set it up as you were planning (that's effectively what I did the first time around with my kegerator, except replace the arduino with a PID controller with all sorts of fancy features) but frankly, the hassle of doing that was too much in the end and eventually, in a fit of it not quite working the way I wanted, I ordered the ranco and have never looked back, at all. In short, no, you shouldn't buy a $100 controller, but you SHOULD buy a $45 controller and save yourself a world of headache. That device right there is by far the most popular kegerator controller among home brewers. JawKnee: I don't have an actual guide for you, but I recommend pricing out a few kits from the major suppliers (it sounds like you've done that already to some degree) and go from there. Pick a system that has the right number of kegs for you, you can always expand later. Unless you KNOW you're going to expand, then maybe start out just a little big. Either way. I don't know where all you've looked, but kegconnection.com is a really good supplier and they've routinely done good by both me and others I know. Regulators Some things to look for: if you want a system with more than two or three kegs, consider getting a dual regulator. That will effectively allow you to have two "zones" of pressure, for different beers and carbonation levels. NOTE: you do NOT need a "dual-gauge" regulator, that's something else. A dual-gauge regulator is, in my opinion, absolutely a waste of money over a single-gauge regulator. One of the gauges will show you the pressure you have the system set to. That's critical, and absolutely necessary. The other gauge, however, will show you the pressure in the tank. You might think that's handy, as you would expect it to give you an idea of how much CO2 you have left, but that's not how it works. As long as there is still liquid CO2 in the tank, that second gauge will read at a constant 800PSI (or so) and NOT CHANGE AT ALL until absolutely every last drop of CO2 has been drained to the point where there's only gas left. Then, suddenly, the pressure will plummet, and you'll realize just a few pours later that you're out of gas. It bears mentioning that sometimes, due to kit pricing and the like, getting a dual-gauge regulator will be cheaper or as cheap as a single-gauge. Since there's certainly no harm in getting a dual-gauge in that case, you might as well. Some people will argue that even that little bit of warning is good, and I won't necessarily disagree with that, but the situations in which it's actually helpful are pretty limited. Here are a couple common situations: Situation 1: you drink a beer or two every night, and reliably check your tank pressure with each beer. You see the pressure is finally dropping, and know that if you want to continue your habit, you will have to get your tank filled within the next day or two. Great, the gauge helped! Alternately, you could just wait until it's empty and fill it up in the next day or two the same, just drink some bottled beer in the interim. You'll probably live. Situation 2: you're going to have a party! You look at the gauge beforehand, it looks great. Halfway through the night, the needle starts to drop. Uh oh! Can't fill the tank now and people are thirsty! Tough poo poo, you're out of gas. The only reliable way to know how much gas you have is to weigh the bottle. If you're really worried about not having beer for a day or two, just keep two bottles on hand and when one empties, swap it out. Now you've got a month or whatever to fill your empty. CO2 Bottles Also on the topic of CO2 bottles and in line with the keg advice up above: don't buy new CO2 bottles unless you know you can easily get it filled. Many places (such as homebrew shops) ONLY swap bottles, they won't fill them. You'll be sad the first time you take your shiny new CO2 bottle in and they want to swap it out for a lovely old busted-rear end affair. Additionally, if you own the bottle itself, you'll have to deal with having the hydrostatic testing done periodically, which while easy enough to arrange, also steals your bottle for a couple weeks and adds an extra cost. A swap, on the other hand, will have all that done by the company providing the bottles. Faucets/hardware Stainless steel if you can afford it. Forward seals are the best, again if you can afford it. The difference between a forward-seal and a regular faucet is that with a regular faucet, the moving parts are all on the open side of the faucet, with the beer being trapped behind them. If you don't have very frequent usage (like at an actual bar) the little bit of beer on the open side dries up and can seize your faucet. Case in point: I made some fancy faucet handles for a friend and he had regular faucets. One of them seized up on him, and he got a bit aggressive trying to open it and shattered the handle (the black palm one on the right.) Forward seal faucets, on the other hand, have the seal on the far side, with the beer and the moving parts in the same space. This largely eliminates the seizing problem by keeping the beer around the moving parts from drying up, as it's not exposed to the air. For a home bar where you'll be pouring far less frequently, this can be a big factor in General Bar Enjoyment. If you're just getting started with kegging and want to keep your investment as minimal as possible, there's absolutely nothing wrong with getting a few plastic picnic faucets. These faucets just go on the end of the beer line and function similarly to a typical water cooler faucet. When I first started kegging, I had three kegs in a standup freezer that I didn't own and thus couldn't modify. For that, the picnic faucets were super. I just left them dangling inside the freezer and getting a beer just meant opening the door for a few seconds while you pour, and then closing it up again. Not ideal if people are constantly pouring beer, but as a jumping off point, it was fine. Those faucets cost all of $5 a piece last I checked, and ALL the other hardware is still 100% appropriate if you decide to do metal faucets with a tower or shanks or what have you. Which brings me to... Fittings There are two ways to attach your keg fittings to your hose. One style has the beer/gas disconnects with hose barbs as part of the disconnect itself. You slip the hose onto the barb, put a hose clamp on, and that's it. That's great, but what if you want to give your disconnect a nice deep clean, or want to swap a beer line onto a gas line (useful for transferring beer between kegs) or something like that? In that case, getting disconnects that have screw-on barbs is incredibly handy. They look and function identically, except instead of having the hose barb integrated into the disconnect, the disconnect just has a male threaded coupler where the barb usually goes, and then you get a barb with a matching female threaded coupler. That barb gets permanently installed in the hose, and if you want to take out/swap/replace your disconnects, you just unscrew them from the hose and there you go. I went with the fixed-barb style at first, and after a couple rounds of cleaning disconnects, swapped them all out for the other style and wished I'd done it that way in the first place. Here's a disconnect with the barb built in: Here's a disconnect with the threaded coupler for a barb (this is the kind you want): And here's the threaded coupler with a barb installed (same type as directly above, i.e. what you want): Okay, so that all turned into a bunch of and I'm sure there's stuff I meant to mention but didn't, but, uhh, and I'm spent. Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 18:48 on May 30, 2013 |
|
# ? May 30, 2013 18:38 |
|
|
# ? Jun 3, 2024 23:01 |
|
Nice writeup.
|
# ? May 30, 2013 18:42 |
Well, it's certainly not all-inclusive, I was just aiming to hit the things I'd learned myself through trial and error, that I wish I'd known beforehand, because it might have saved me some headache through the process. Things like I still refuse to give up my shiny-rear end CO2 bottle, which makes filling it a hassle, I have multiple disconnects that I'll never use because I replaced them with the ones I should have gotten first, I need to replace the shanks in my bar with stainless ones because I've probably gotten enough chrome in my diet by now, things like that...at least I bought the right faucets right off the bat.
|
|
# ? May 30, 2013 18:46 |
|
ChickenArise posted:I'm still pretty impressed with the unskunkable hop extract. It's not good, but it's neat. You can actually buy Tetra hop (which is what that is). I don't know anyone that has tried it, though. I don't know how harsh its bittering qualities would actually be since Miller uses it in such minute quantities.
|
# ? May 30, 2013 18:46 |
|
Thanks a bunch! My local brewshop sells used kegs for 60 bucks, though it doesn't list what size they are so I'll have to give them a call. It also appears that they fill CO2 for you (20lbs for 30 bucks) so I may not have to switch up a tank at all.
|
# ? May 30, 2013 19:06 |
JawKnee posted:Thanks a bunch! My local brewshop sells used kegs for 60 bucks, though it doesn't list what size they are so I'll have to give them a call. quote:It also appears that they fill CO2 for you (20lbs for 30 bucks) so I may not have to switch up a tank at all. Getting a nice big 20lb tank is the bee's knees, especially if you have a larger bar (I have eight taps and REALLY need to upgrade mine to a 20lb.) Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 19:20 on May 30, 2013 |
|
# ? May 30, 2013 19:11 |
My own question: how heat-sensitive are wyeast smack packs? I just got about 60 pounds of brewing ingredients in, and there are several wyeast packs in there. It's been pretty warm lately, and it all came via UPS ground, but was only like 36 hours in transit. I'm brewing this weekend, hoping to do all six batches. Should I refrigerate them immediately, or will that shock them? I could put them in a gallon of room-temp water and then put that in the fridge to slow the transition. What's the best plan to keep my yeasties happy and healthy? I already gave them the password to the wifi so at least they shouldn't be bored.
|
|
# ? May 30, 2013 19:14 |
|
You don't have to take a long time to make a lager. If you do a bigass starter (I do a gallon) it'll ferment out in 2-3 weeks tops. I usually ferment for 2 weeks, do a diacetyl rest for 2-3 days then lager for one to three weeks.
|
# ? May 30, 2013 19:14 |
|
JawKnee posted:Thanks a bunch! My local brewshop sells used kegs for 60 bucks, though it doesn't list what size they are so I'll have to give them a call. It also appears that they fill CO2 for you (20lbs for 30 bucks) so I may not have to switch up a tank at all. Check your local beer distributors for refills. Mine will do it for $8 so long the expiration date on the cannister hasn't passed in which case I found a gas supplier who does exchanges cheaper than my LHBS.
|
# ? May 30, 2013 19:19 |
|
Bad Munki posted:Also, holy poo poo, are kegs really that expensive these days? [...] Glad I got in big when I did! I am so glad I already have a lifetime supply of kegs. What are the dimensions of a 20# bottle, roughly? I could move my gas outside the serving fridge and then I might be able to squeeze in a sixth keg and a fourth faucet. Bad Munki posted:My own question: how heat-sensitive are wyeast smack packs? It's almost certainly fine, especially if the packs are nice and fresh. I would just put them in the fridge until it was time to use them. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 19:25 on May 30, 2013 |
# ? May 30, 2013 19:23 |
Uhhh...roughly twice the size of a ten pound bottle? I don't know, but I think they are roughly a scaled up version, as in they don't just make them wider or taller. That was one thing I did to my kegerator that I'm really pleased with: I ported a hole through the compressor hump for the air and used some brass fittings to put a hose barb on either side, and then on the outside ran a short length of hose (about 2') and put a quick disconnect there, which then goes to another foot or so of hose and onto the regulator. Then, if I'm going somewhere, I can just grab my spare manifold (which has a matching disconnect on it), a couple kegs, and the same regulator/bottle. Or if I just need to take my regulator off the bar for some reason. What I mean, is, it's nice to not have hardware permanently attached to the bar unless absolutely necessary.
|
|
# ? May 30, 2013 19:28 |
|
EnsignVix posted:Check your local beer distributors for refills. Mine will do it for $8 so long the expiration date on the cannister hasn't passed in which case I found a gas supplier who does exchanges cheaper than my LHBS. Will do, a quick check on craigslist has a 20lb tank + regulator for $160, which I may just jump on. e: also a quick dimensions search on a 20lb tank puts it at 23" long by 8" diameter
|
# ? May 30, 2013 19:31 |
|
Bad Munki posted:That's gotta be 5-gallon. Also, holy poo poo, are kegs really that expensive these days? I knew they'd gone up some, but looking around, even banged up kegs are like $40? Youch. Glad I got in big when I did! Yup, I have four and all of them were roughly $50.
|
# ? May 30, 2013 19:44 |
|
Just picked up the ingredients to start a vanilla burbon porter. I still need the burbon and oak, but that is a couple weeks away but i still need to start it. What is everyones favorite bottling container? I thought i would like these ezcaps, but the actual caps are proving to be a nicer long term storage (a few weeks). I *really* love capped 750ml bottles, but i have not been able to source any (unless i go and buy beer and drink it). Im just looking for a few solutions to store some beer for a party, and the rest be personal.
|
# ? May 30, 2013 19:52 |
Angry Grimace posted:Yup, I have four and all of them were roughly $50. Wow, when I bought in they were <$30 a piece. They're like bitcoins, and I'm a captain of industry!
|
|
# ? May 30, 2013 19:52 |
So I hadn't had a chance to actually open my shipment today, but I did so just now. All the smack packs look fine so far, except one, which is pretty swolen, not sure if I should worry about that. It's far too swolen to break the nutrient pack inside, that's for sure. Heck, who knows, maybe the nutrient pack was already broken and that's why it swelled up.
|
|
# ? May 30, 2013 20:06 |
|
That could be the case, But I would just pitch them with the rest of the Smackers (Smuckers (yeah the jelly company) brand yeast packs (this is my Idea Smuckers, and if you steal it I'll sue you for the value of my student loans)) and you'll probably be fine. I do notice your exceptional photography skills to not go without showing us your 10 or so kegs.
|
# ? May 30, 2013 20:19 |
|
Bad Munki posted:Swollen packages. I remember seeing something on WYeast's FAQ about that. http://www.wyeastlab.com/faqs.cfm?website=1#r40 25. What are the causes of swollen packages? Can you sell them? Swollen packages are almost always the cause of a small amount of sugar or CO2 being left in solution at the time of packaging. Upon shipment, CO2 can be released from solution or the yeast can consume the sugar and create a small amount of CO2. Cell autolysis, or cell death can also be a cause of swelling packaged. However, this is only in rare cases where the yeast is exposed to high temperature for an extended amount of time. If a package is swollen and has not been mishandled, it can be sold with confidence. Where did you bulk order that from?
|
# ? May 30, 2013 20:24 |
Marshmallow Blue posted:I do notice your exceptional photography skills to not go without showing us your 10 or so kegs. ...and I never pass up an opportunity to show off my biohazard-labelled kegs. More than one person has absolutely refused to touch my beer because of that, until I explained that I added the labels myself as "branding." :P EnsignVix posted:I remember seeing something on WYeast's FAQ about that. Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 20:27 on May 30, 2013 |
|
# ? May 30, 2013 20:24 |
|
Bad Munki posted:It's topical. sup PA buddy. My first ever smack pack came from NB, and I only gave it about 20 min total time after smacking before i ended up pitching it, and i got plenty of activity. it wasnt 90+ when i got it, but it was hot in those parts of the country it traveled from. The ice pack was long since exhausted.
|
# ? May 30, 2013 20:34 |
|
Bad Munki posted:More than one person has absolutely refused to touch my beer because of that, until I explained that I added the labels myself as "branding." :P Should have just told them you converted the Doctors office needle dump/ bio hazard bins into kegs to save cost. And that you may or may not get Hepatitis if you drink the beer, and hand them a waiver form.
|
# ? May 30, 2013 20:34 |
|
I really need to get my barrier hose on some new barbs, but I'm too scared of the allegedly Herculean effort to get them on the barbs. Anyone have some tips? I'm gonna pick up some new disconnects (I'm going to change all of mine from integrated barbs to flare-fittings with screw-on barbs).
|
# ? May 30, 2013 20:37 |
Roundboy posted:sup PA buddy. Yeah, I've never had problems with the packs before, that's not in itself what I'm worried about. Just that this one pack is basically fully swollen as if it had been activated (or died), and it's been hot out. I dunno, I guess we'll see. When I cut it open, if it started dying off, will I get a whiff of rotted meat or anything typical of infections? Marshmallow Blue posted:Should have just told them you converted the Doctors office needle dump/ bio hazard bins into kegs to save cost. And that you may or may not get Hepatitis if you drink the beer, and hand them a waiver form. I think I may just add the waiver for fun, have a bin of them next to the bar.
|
|
# ? May 30, 2013 20:38 |
|
How hard is this to set-up? I'm looking for a chest freezer for temp control wen fermenting I just have no electrical know how.
|
# ? May 30, 2013 23:03 |
|
Bad Munki posted:mewse: that's a valid option, although I strongly recommend considering the ever-popular-with-homebrewers ranco 111000. You can get it on ebay from Patriot Supply for $45 with free shipping and it's a GREAT device. Yes, you can set it up as you were planning (that's effectively what I did the first time around with my kegerator, except replace the arduino with a PID controller with all sorts of fancy features) but frankly, the hassle of doing that was too much in the end and eventually, in a fit of it not quite working the way I wanted, I ordered the ranco and have never looked back, at all. In short, no, you shouldn't buy a $100 controller, but you SHOULD buy a $45 controller and save yourself a world of headache. That device right there is by far the most popular kegerator controller among home brewers. Ugh, I'm in canada The only temperature controllers I know online for me, aside from the hong kong ones, are the johnson analog or digital
|
# ? May 30, 2013 23:12 |
I think I've just hit the jackpot. A guy I've known at my local pub for years is getting rid of all his brew gear since he needs to make room and he hasn't brewed for a year because he has kids now. He's going to email all the stuff he has. We were talking but he has stuff like PH Meter thats hardly been touched, malt mill, stainless steel pumps, 10UK gallon HLT, mashtun, boiler on set up etc! Will have the list of everything in the next couple of days!
|
|
# ? May 31, 2013 00:06 |
Midorka posted:How hard is this to set-up? I'm looking for a chest freezer for temp control wen fermenting I just have no electrical know how. It is as easy as wiping your rear end. Maybe even easier. You have to have the following skills: 1) Ability to operate a pair of wire cutters/strippers on an extension cord 2) Ability to twist on a wire nut or two (not technically necessary, you can accomplish this through Skill (3) below) 3) Ability to operate a screw driver to pin a wire to a screw terminal 4) Ability to look at included directions and tell the difference between a white wire and a black one and a green one It's insaaaanely easy. The instructions included have nice big drawings, are very clear, and extremely easy to follow. If you get stuck in any way, ask here. If we can't explain it to your satisfaction, I will literally videocon with you and show you on my own ranco exactly where to put what wire. I really can't stress enough how easy it is to hook that thing up. And the nice thing is, when you're done, the fridge/freezer itself will have been modified in absolutely no way whatsoever: you're really just installing the ranco in the middle of an extension cord, and it either turns on or turns off power to the freezer as needed. You need no prior electrical knowledge, you don't have to solder, etc. mewse posted:Ugh, I'm in canada Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 00:11 on May 31, 2013 |
|
# ? May 31, 2013 00:08 |
|
When people are talking about yeast starters, particularly a certain volume (like on this page a 1 gallon starter is mentioned for a lager), are we talking about the volume of yeast after it's been cold crashed and decanted or the total volume including the wort sitting on top? I can't imagine dumping an entire gallon of yeast into a beer!
|
# ? May 31, 2013 00:48 |
|
I always assumed it was the amount of starter wort you use to put the yeast into. Decant off the liquid after 2 days and pitch the yeast slurry only. Hasn't messed up any of my beers yet...
|
# ? May 31, 2013 01:17 |
|
U.S. Barryl posted:I always assumed it was the amount of starter wort you use to put the yeast into. Decant off the liquid after 2 days and pitch the yeast slurry only. Hasn't messed up any of my beers yet... It's this one. A gallon of pure yeast slurry would be insane.
|
# ? May 31, 2013 01:22 |
|
drat. Went to my LHBS to ask about their used kegs and they don't have any right now.
|
# ? May 31, 2013 01:59 |
|
Used kegs are drying up. Mind you its been about a decade since cubes deposed them as the soda syrup delivery vessel of choice.
|
# ? May 31, 2013 02:04 |
|
Bad Munki posted:It's insaaaanely easy. I looked at some online directions, guides, videos, etc., and yep, even I could do it without burning the house down.
|
# ? May 31, 2013 02:32 |
|
Mr. Wiggles posted:I'm interested in doing a lager because I must make a confession: 90% pilsner malt. I use it cause I always have it around in bulk but you can also use the cheapest, shittiest american 2-row barley malt you can find. 10% flaked corn single infusion mash @ 149F 60 min boil, bitter to 10BUs with hallertau or saaz, whichever I have around, or a blend, just keep it between 8-12 and you will be fine. For the yeast I've used the budweiser strain and it was good, won everything I entered it in, but I don't bother building up a strain just for this beer anymore and it's fine with whatever lager yeast you happen to have a repitch of around. If you don't have a repitch and don't want to do stupid huge starters and all that the dry W34/-70 is actually really good. Just throw two pack in the very well aerated wort and hold steady at 50. I just did this recipe again last week with some of that raw agave syrup that is so dark it tastes like dirt and the WLP Mexican Lager strain, can't wait to strap a keg of that to the back of the lawn tractor. fullroundaction posted:It's interesting that they totally dominate American (macro) brewing then. From all the books I've read that include a chapter on beer "history" it certainly isn't the tastes of the people that decide which beers are popular/get made. It's what's cheaper / taxed less / easier to make (at least regionally) and eventually the breweries decide for the people what the people want. In America they couldn't really brew these style lagers with their native 6-row barley because it was too protein rich and dense. For this reason they cut it with rice or corn, neither of which were cheaper. Barley is animal feed, rice and corn are people food and have a much higher price tag. This is likely why most of the grain was turned into whiskey, and otherwise most americans drank cider. An interesting side note: The American macro brewers who originally started using adjucts to cut the amount of protein in the gloopy native 6-row, have long since bred all the negative characteristics out of it. They eventually just gave up on it altogether and now use 2-row due to it yielding more fermentables by weight. The interesting part is that the 6-row was actually beneficial to the high adjunct beers due to the increased enzymes for conversion and additional husk material for lautering. They are able to use all 2-row now (exception: budweiser original) because they don’t actually use real rice/corn anymore, Bud uses rice syrup in the boil, Miller uses brewers corn syrup in the boil and Coors uses highly processed corn starch in the mash. Buds beechwood that they "age" on is steam sanitized for so long that there is no actual wood flavors left in it, it's just more surface area for yeast to settle on during fermentation to speed things along. They also ferment under a pressure cap, which is another way to shorten fermentation times.
|
# ? May 31, 2013 02:45 |
|
Are there really different 110/220V versions of the STC1000. I searched ebay for 110V versions and all the item descriptions have instructions for 220V
|
# ? May 31, 2013 04:19 |
|
Do you mean the Ranco ETC111000? That can be set up to run on either 120 or 240V.
|
# ? May 31, 2013 05:37 |
|
mewse posted:Are there really different 110/220V versions of the STC1000. I searched ebay for 110V versions and all the item descriptions have instructions for 220V Yes there are two different models. They're now on Amazon with Prime shipping so that's clearly the way to go.
|
# ? May 31, 2013 05:44 |
|
tonedef131 posted:It's really not that bad, you have a fridge and what sounds like some experience making quality beers, so this will be easy for you. You will need a temp controller for your fridge, but it's a small investment for being able to brew any style you want any time of the year. Fancy decoction wort production is all well and good for authentic German lagers, but American lager wort production is as easy as it comes. Here is a recipe I've made a shitload of times, it's dirt cheap and crispy when it's hot out. This is kind of what I was expecting I would do. This is beer that will be "just beer".
|
# ? May 31, 2013 06:50 |
|
If you live in the EU and enjoy paying less for your giant stainless steel pots catering-service-fr@bergland24.de They're some German catering stainless steel supply company that has a french office which sells bigass pots to catering companies. They have an ebay shop that I don't have a link to right now, but basically if you email them asking for their pot sizes and a price, they actually will give you prices much cheaper than their ebay listings. They seem to do 30L, 50L, 70L and some other pots inbetween. I bought a 50L pot with lid, shipped from france to England for about £40. Its cheap and its good quality stuff too. After buying my mash bag and mash paddle, I now have my entire BIAB equipment setup for less than £60. Who said ? Edit: Here's some prices someone else posted on a forum last year. It might have gone up ever so slightly by now but I can't see it being a big difference: 50 L stockpot - 10220 - 36,90 EUR 70 L stockpot - 10224 - 40,50 EUR 100 L stockpot 10221 - 47,90 EUR 70 l thermos - 10233 - 94,90 EUR Ahdinko fucked around with this message at 13:14 on May 31, 2013 |
# ? May 31, 2013 12:01 |
|
|
# ? Jun 3, 2024 23:01 |
|
tonedef131 posted:If you don't have a repitch and don't want to do stupid huge starters and all that the dry W34/-70 is actually really good. My personal and professional experiences with W34/70 have been crappy. It's really stubborn about not fully attenuating and still benefits from a diacetyl rest. It's still an acceptable option, just far from ideal.
|
# ? May 31, 2013 12:47 |