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Jhet posted:I was thinking about that, and growlers seem to be a not terrible solution to the beer to parties problem. I've been running into the problem of not having enough bottles for all the beer though, and I'm sick of trying to peel those metallic labels off all the bottles. I'm in Europe, growlers aren't really a thing here. Good news is our bottles have paper labels, they come right off after a 10 minute soak. I can probably get some large fliptops, but that still means a whole keg setup to fill them and keeping that cooled for regular drinking will require more space than I have. When I move to a new place, have room there and can convince the missus my hobbies need even more space I might consider it, but those are a lot of ifs and then there's still the costs. Then again, when I started I figured I'd do two brews a year max, but last year I did 20x5 gallon and 20x2 gallon, so who knows....
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May 30, 2017 16:10
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When I was bottling, I got frustrated with it pretty quickly, and I found that I was putting off packaging beer because bottling was such a pain in the arse. I went to kegging, and then found that had its own frustrations caused by my own unpreparedness. I went back to bottling, but it was still a pain. A few (maybe ten) years ago, I came back to kegging, but did it right this time, and now I wouldn't do anything else. I can package fifteen gallons of beer in about an hour, and additional tools like a fountain-type cleaner have made maintenance trouble-free. If I were bottling today with what I know now, I would adjust my process and equipment to simplify things and make it less of a pain.
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May 30, 2017 16:14
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Oops yea the boiling advice was directed towards the cheese cloth. I'm usually lazy and just dunk my hop bags into my star san bucket and leave it draped over the edge of the bucket to dry out.
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May 30, 2017 16:24
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Jo3sh posted:When I was bottling, I got frustrated with it pretty quickly, and I found that I was putting off packaging beer because bottling was such a pain in the arse. I went to kegging, and then found that had its own frustrations caused by my own unpreparedness. I went back to bottling, but it was still a pain. A few (maybe ten) years ago, I came back to kegging, but did it right this time, and now I wouldn't do anything else. I can package fifteen gallons of beer in about an hour, and additional tools like a fountain-type cleaner have made maintenance trouble-free. I'm really trying to do kegging right, and it's a little annoying that there are so many little things that you either need to know or figure out. And then they all cost money. There are decent articles out there about doing it, and lots of information about cleaning and troubleshooting too. Finding the right balance of tubing/pressure is going to take a little trial and error too. The worst part about buying kegs is that most of the used seem to only be 10-20$ cheaper than for what you can find new kegs. I think it'll be fine, and bottling isn't even an issue except for the part where I absolutely never have enough bottles. The only time I had enough bottles was when I bought dessert wine bottles for the liquid gold apple wine. I expect the same issue to come up where I never have enough kegs, but that just means I need to a) buy more kegs and b) have people over to drink my beer and tell them to bring a growler with to fill.
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May 30, 2017 16:51
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Jhet posted:The worst part about buying kegs is that most of the used seem to only be 10-20$ cheaper than for what you can find new kegs. Yeah, I do have the advantage that I got most of my kegs before the prices really started going up. I still have a couple lying around that need some substantial rework, but since I have a good stable of working kegs, I'm not too bothered by it right now.
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May 30, 2017 17:29
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rockcity posted:Out of curiosity, has anyone tried The Last Straw bottle filler? I thought that one looked pretty interesting too. We use the Last Straw and it makes bottling much less of a pain in the rear end. I'm still, however, trying to convince my Father-In-Law about the beauty that is bulk/force carbonation and counter-pressure filling. His current workflow is put the priming sugar in the keg, then immediately bottle and wait two weeks. 
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May 30, 2017 19:59
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lazerwolf posted:I bottle over an open dishwasher door. Any and all spills are contained there and I just close it up when I'm done.
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May 30, 2017 21:48
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Nth Doctor posted:We use the Last Straw and it makes bottling much less of a pain in the rear end. That's actually not a terrible way the bottle condition. I may have to consider that.
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May 31, 2017 00:01
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When I learned to brew, it was with kegging, and all that work involved with bottling just makes me glad I was spoiled starting out.
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May 31, 2017 03:19
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Errant Gin Monks posted:I made my keezer because gently caress bottling.
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May 31, 2017 07:38
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I have a two Perlick tap kegerator (with hardware for both home brew and commercial kegs), two home brew legs, and two C02 bottles I don't need anymore and am looking to sell. I'm in southwestern CT (Fairfield county). If this interests anyone here please shoot me a PM or email matt dot Vallee at gmail. Figured you guys were the best place to start!
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May 31, 2017 11:04
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Bottle sucks, but I like having stuff on hand that can sit indefinitely. On the other hand, I'm dealing with yet another keg with a nefarious leak that I can't find and will be filling another CO2 tank tonight.
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May 31, 2017 12:53
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Errant Gin Monks posted:That's actually not a terrible way the bottle condition. I may have to consider that. That's really just like using a keg as a bottling bucket and then wasting CO2 instead of just letting gravity do the work at that point though. Unrelated. Is anyone here using an electric brew in a bag setup? I'm starting to consider looking into getting an all in one brew in a bag type of system now that there are some smaller companies starting to make them including controllers and grain baskets for a pretty decent price. Reviews on things like the Unibrau seem pretty positive for the most part and the price point seems somewhat reasonable. I'm getting kind of tired of lugging all of my gear up and down an attic ladder and having to move my car and motorcycle just to do so. I also like that their system runs two 120V elements vs. one 240V since my only 240V outlet is my dryer.
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May 31, 2017 16:46
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rockcity posted:Unrelated. Is anyone here using an electric brew in a bag setup? I'm very interested in this as well; I thought I read once that it was hard-to-impossible to heat enough water with 120V service but that may have been specifically inductance heating or something.
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May 31, 2017 17:31
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rockcity posted:That's really just like using a keg as a bottling bucket and then wasting CO2 instead of just letting gravity do the work at that point though. Yeah I don't have a bottling bucket. I have a bunch of kegs though.
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May 31, 2017 18:04
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the yeti posted:I'm very interested in this as well; I thought I read once that it was hard-to-impossible to heat enough water with 120V service but that may have been specifically inductance heating or something. I saw a review of it that said they could get a boil going with it even not using the second element, but that the second element sped things up quite a bit. Supposedly you need to use two different GFCI outlets though. Not really a problem though as I have one in my garage and one on my front porch that are on different breakers. I'd use my dryer outlet need be, but I'd have to run a long 240V cable from my laundry room out into my garage. It's doable, but I'd like to be able to keep the door to my garage closed. I'd actually love to be able to just use it in my laundry room, but there is no ventilation in there for moisture to leave. Edit: After some more reading on the Unibrau, the second element is not controlled by the controller, so you only use it for heating your spare water and getting to a boil. To maintain temps, you unplug that one and the unit can hold steady at temp/boil. rockcity fucked around with this message at 18:51 on May 31, 2017 |
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May 31, 2017 18:30
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rockcity posted:That's really just like using a keg as a bottling bucket and then wasting CO2 instead of just letting gravity do the work at that point though. I have a Unibrau system so ask me anything you want to know about it. I'm doing the 2 120V element setup. They came with 1500W elements but I bumped one to 2000W. My last brew took probably 40 minutes or so running both open to get mash. Another 20 minutes to get to boil with both on.
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May 31, 2017 22:17
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I was messing about in my "projects" file for brewing and started pricing out a kegging setup. Nope, not happening anytime soon. $60 regulator $40 for a 4-way splitter $300 x4 kegs ($75 secondhand seems normal) $189 CO2 cylinder (5lbs new, have never seen one secondhand) $100 chest freezer (+ or - $50, plus figuring a way to get it home) $80 shanks $120 taps ??? lines, misc nickle-and-dime stuff, etc. I could start with one or two kegs, but at the rate I drink beer (slowly) I'd wind up bottling again pretty soon, which kind of defeats the purpose. I don't realy mind bottling TBH; I like being able to keep track of how much I've drank easily (and not overindulge), they're portable, etc. I ordered a lazy susan fixture from Hong Kong last week that I'm planning to integrate into a bottling station. Basically lazy susan + bottle tree on the far left so it's easier to grab one sitting down, bottling bucket on a raised platform in the middle/in front of me, and bench capper just to my right. Maybe I'll keg someday, but I'm not in a rush. Probably my next major purchase will be a grain mill. rockcity posted:That's really just like using a keg as a bottling bucket and then wasting CO2 instead of just letting gravity do the work at that point though. I have a recirculating eBIAB setup, it works well. Element is 2200 watt (I think), powered by 240 proud Australian volts  It ramps up to mash/boil temps in a reasonable timeframe, never actually timed it. 2200W would be a ~20 amp draw at 120V, so maybe not. I bought a 5500W element on Amazon before doing the numbers, pretty sure my current place doesn't have a 30A circuit (no dryer, oven is only 2200W), so it's just kinda sitting there. I was going to build one myself, but this setup popped up on Gumtree when I was looking for the parts, so I figured I might as well save myself the time and tool purchase. Mine is made from a Bayou classic type steamer, which included a perforated SS basket. The PO put a ball valve on the bottom (in addition to the aforementioned element), and through the lid added a T-junction, with one end being the inlet from the pump, and the other being for the temp probe. Pump was originally one of the AU$20 plastic jobbies that Keg King used to sell, he said he'd recently replaced it when I bought it, and the replacement only lasted 4-5 brews before burning out. I upgraded to a bigger one ($80? KK sells it) which was worked like a champ. The controller, a Keg King unit, has been playing up as of my last brew. The hot connection seems to be dead, probably owing to a number of falls from my crappy improvised brew area (I'm working on this). I cracked it open last night and added a brace to keep the elecontronics part from dangling (inexplicably, the whole thing was cantelievered with two flimsy plastic brackers before, which seem to have come loose), which I'm hoping fixes it. If not, I've got a soldering station in the post and will have a go at sorting out the wiring. Worst case I'm out AU$70 for another unit. Thought about an Arduino controlled PID pr something, but it seems like a pain in the butt and more effort than is necessary for what I'm doing. edit: the PO used to park it on a propane burner to help bring it up to temp quicker. You might try the same with a stovetop if you're stuck brewing indoors, although I'm finding there's no really good way to do this unless you've got a pretty powerful range hood. More for a laugh than anything, I did my last brew in the shower, since it has the only fan/vent in the apartment. Despite the kettle being right under the intake it still steamed everything up like crazy, 4/10 don't recommend. Ethics_Gradient fucked around with this message at 13:40 on Jun 1, 2017 |
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Jun 1, 2017 02:46
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calandryll posted:I have a Unibrau system so ask me anything you want to know about it. I'm doing the 2 120V element setup. They came with 1500W elements but I bumped one to 2000W. My last brew took probably 40 minutes or so running both open to get mash. Another 20 minutes to get to boil with both on. I think they upped the elements to 1600W now, not that that's all that much more power. That's still not that bad, it's probably 20-30 min to get my strike water to temp with my propane burner and that would be with less water. The difference in time would be more than made up for with runoff/sparge time savings. I'm guessing you also have the older controller then? I read a review on their site of someone who had the old controller die on them, but it sounds like Brau Supply sent them the newer one to replace it. Right now they are waiting on a new shipment on units and have a bunch of factory seconds they are clearing out that have some kettle marking and weld imperfections, but they're offering over $100 off of it which brings it down to $700 for the 12 gallon unit, which in my opinion is a pretty solid value for what you get. How high of an OG have you done in it successfully and what kind of efficiency are you getting out of it?
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Jun 1, 2017 13:24
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Ethics_Gradient posted:I was messing about in my "projects" file for brewing and started pricing out a kegging setup. Nope, not happening anytime soon. Grain mills are awesome, and I did that a while ago. Your brews should be better for it and you can really work on dialing in the efficiency for your system instead of relying on someone's mill at a shop to work right for your process. I'm going to be honest in that I'm not buying shanks or taps yet. I'm just buying a picnic tap and using my already existing beer freezer for this. Your prices aren't even really higher with the exchange rate in my favor. Even just buying kegs, regulator, splitter, and cylinder is a bit daunting to put together, but that's because of all the miscellany that I'm not sure about yet. Anyone have opinions on plastic versus stainless QDs for the lines? Plastic seem very common, but stainless steel seems like I'd never need to replace them.
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Jun 1, 2017 15:26
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Minus kegs, my keezer was in the $600 range. My friend got a Craigslist fridge and picnic taps for $80 all-in and it does the same thing.
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Jun 1, 2017 15:30
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robotsinmyhead posted:Minus kegs, my keezer was in the $600 range. My friend got a Craigslist fridge and picnic taps for $80 all-in and it does the same thing. Yeah, all together with just picnic taps it's going to be a little over $400 + whatever the CO2 tank is going to cost me. Should be under $600 total for a 4-keg set up. People in the homebrew club here get rid of old faucets from time to time for fairly cheap, so I may just watch for that for now. It's not too terrible, and my kettles + burner and the welding/modification was more at least. This will save me a lot of time and let me drink more of my beer without worry.
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Jun 1, 2017 19:36
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rockcity posted:I think they upped the elements to 1600W now, not that that's all that much more power. That's still not that bad, it's probably 20-30 min to get my strike water to temp with my propane burner and that would be with less water. The difference in time would be more than made up for with runoff/sparge time savings. I'm guessing you also have the older controller then? I read a review on their site of someone who had the old controller die on them, but it sounds like Brau Supply sent them the newer one to replace it. Right now they are waiting on a new shipment on units and have a bunch of factory seconds they are clearing out that have some kettle marking and weld imperfections, but they're offering over $100 off of it which brings it down to $700 for the 12 gallon unit, which in my opinion is a pretty solid value for what you get. I have one of the brand new systems, new controller setup, etc, as I bought in early February. I've only brewed twice with it now. The highest brew was 1.06ish or so, so not very high. But I wasn't even close to half the basket. You could probably fill it to about 11.5 gallons before any issues. My most recent brew was about 3 points or so lower than the expected OG but I had just futzed with my mill. My first one I had milled much finer and hit my numbers right on. My wife loves it because it's much quieter and I love it because I can walk away without worrying too much.  Apparently I didn't get the controller in the shot but gives you an idea. I need to add a winch setup to get the basket out easier.
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Jun 1, 2017 21:05
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How retarded of an idea would it be to ferment Wyeast 3724 (the dupont strain) at around 90F for the whole time? Well, it would be in my garage and I have no idea what actual temperature it is in there, but I live in Florida and it's June, so it's pretty much on the upper end of the suggested temperatures that Wyeast has on their website.
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Jun 2, 2017 00:42
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It would be great, maybe even recommended for that strain since it's known to stall. I do saisons in a boiler room which is easily over 100f and they come out good.
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Jun 2, 2017 00:45
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internet celebrity posted:It would be great, maybe even recommended for that strain since it's known to stall. I do saisons in a boiler room which is easily over 100f and they come out good. Yeah that's entirely why I thought of this, and awesome I'm so doing this.
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Jun 2, 2017 00:46
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Here's a little story about some kegs: I had a beer ready to keg and decided to refit it with some new o-rings/seals. During the process, the liquid-side poppet came out of the post. It's one of the poppets that has the little feet to hold it in place instead of the weird cone-shaped spring. I put it back in and didn't realize that it was shoved all the way up, compressing the spring and not allowing the post to open when attached to the liquid pin lock. Cue 3 corrections later where I think the dip tube is clogged - removing the tube from the post to clear it, cutting it on the 2nd try thinking it was clogged. Turns out, it was the post, so I swap it with another keg and voila - it works. Beer all over my floor, multiple infection incidents, venting the keg, etc. What a loving pain in the rear end.
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Jun 2, 2017 01:23
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Spanish Manlove posted:How retarded of an idea would it be to ferment Wyeast 3724 (the dupont strain) at around 90F for the whole time? Well, it would be in my garage and I have no idea what actual temperature it is in there, but I live in Florida and it's June, so it's pretty much on the upper end of the suggested temperatures that Wyeast has on their website. It is a great idea. Personally I would recommend to chill the beer to 65 or so, and pitch yeast, leaving beer in the super hot room. But I doubt 3724 will flinch either way.
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Jun 2, 2017 02:57
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Currently got a 3724 batch running at 95. Looks like it hit the "stuck" fermentation issue when I took a hydrometer reading after a week so I've been riding it out and plan on taking another reading this Monday (three weeks after pitch).
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Jun 2, 2017 03:45
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Supposedly just using foil over the carboy neck instead of an airlock is helpful because the theory is that that strain is sensitive to back pressure. Homebrew icon Drew Beecham, who is obsessed with saisons, swears by this method for the Dupont strain.
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Jun 2, 2017 04:51
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I fermented a 3724 Saison at 90F and it was fantastic.
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Jun 2, 2017 05:27
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Jhet posted:Grain mills are awesome, and I did that a while ago. Your brews should be better for it and you can really work on dialing in the efficiency for your system instead of relying on someone's mill at a shop to work right for your process. I thoroughly recommend stainless disconnects with threaded push in connectors. I had the plastic ones for a couple of years, and after a while they developed a leak that was hard to diagnose and a massive pain. Plus, they're much smaller, can route your lines at 90° to the keg and a bit easier to clean. Speaking of keg systems, I actually got most of mine for a bargain, a guy was selling his bar fridge setup on eBay which I got for $50AUD including tap, regulator, disconnects and gas line. Keep an eye out for bargains and reconsider bar fridges if they're tall enough I guess. Also, if the big outlay is holding you back, Sodastream plastic picnic taps will tide you over longer than you think. All bottlers are converted when they realise filling a keg takes half an hour at most.
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Jun 2, 2017 05:34
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Spanish Manlove posted:How retarded of an idea would it be to ferment Wyeast 3724 (the dupont strain) at around 90F for the whole time? Well, it would be in my garage and I have no idea what actual temperature it is in there, but I live in Florida and it's June, so it's pretty much on the upper end of the suggested temperatures that Wyeast has on their website. I did this four weeks ago and it worked perfectly. Went straight to 1.006 without stalling or issues.
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Jun 2, 2017 07:28
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rockcity posted:Supposedly just using foil over the carboy neck instead of an airlock is helpful because the theory is that that strain is sensitive to back pressure. Homebrew icon Drew Beecham, who is obsessed with saisons, swears by this method for the Dupont strain. I've noticed that this does help. It also seems to increase banana / fruity esters. There has been a bunch of research done with weisen yeast around this which is pretty interesting. If you ferment in a bucket, you just leave the lid loosely across the top for the first few days. I just leave my blow off tube hooked up but not submerged til fermentation slows after a day or two. Commercial brewers also use large low open fermenter to reduce the pressure from the beer. Once krausen drops you want to seal it up. If all goes well it should drop very quickly a few days in and be nearly done fermenting. Unless you have a fruit fly problem there is very little risk of contamination because the krausen seals off the beer and there is so much off gassing of CO2. 3724 also seems to get more cooperative on successive re-pitches, but it is always sorta fussy. If you mashed too high, didn't have the healthiest yeast or not enough O2, it will let you know... On the plus side, there are very few saisons that don't go well with brett and bacteria, so if you get stuck at a really high gravity you can always solve the problem that way.
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Jun 2, 2017 13:12
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Ha, I make that post and of course a pair of 19L kegs pop up on Gumtree for $30/each last night, and another ad for a full CO2 tank. Saw the keg ad at 8 this morning, sold already, and the CO2 tank is on the other side of the state. edit2: nm, looks to be a never-returned lease that no shop would touch. Ethics_Gradient fucked around with this message at 03:05 on Jun 4, 2017 |
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Jun 4, 2017 00:00
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Goto a fire extinguisher company for CO2 tanks. This might be a UK thing only, but i called a small local fire extinguisher company and asked if they had some old co2 extinguishers they would sell me. The bottles only last a certain amount of years and then have to be retested or destroyed. For the small/medium sizes its generally cheaper to destroy them and buy new ones so thats what they do. I went to their premises, gave the guy a £20 and left with 10 medium size, full CO2 fire extinguishers out of their "to be destroyed" pile. My reg from my proper CO2 bottle fits on them no problem. Its cheaper than paying to have my co2 bottle refilled and plus i actually leave one in the house incase some poo poo sets on fire Ahdinko fucked around with this message at 13:29 on Jun 4, 2017 |
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Jun 4, 2017 13:23
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After spending a wee bit more time in secondary fermientation than planned (life got real) I'm ready to put my beer into a keg for the first time. It's simply a red ale that will be kept at room temperature until I bottle from keg as I'm not yet set to do draft but didn't want to deal with the crud on the bottom of the bottles. Any ideas? Or, better yet, how can I find out for myself to use in the future?
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Jun 5, 2017 00:44
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Erev posted:After spending a wee bit more time in secondary fermientation than planned (life got real) I'm ready to put my beer into a keg for the first time. It's simply a red ale that will be kept at room temperature until I bottle from keg as I'm not yet set to do draft but didn't want to deal with the crud on the bottom of the bottles. Any ideas? Or, better yet, how can I find out for myself to use in the future? Counter pressure bottle it really cold with cold wet bottles.
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Jun 5, 2017 01:31
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What equipment do you have currently? You have a keg, but no way of dispensing from it? Do you have CO2 and a regulator?
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Jun 5, 2017 03:21
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Erev posted:After spending a wee bit more time in secondary fermientation than planned (life got real) I'm ready to put my beer into a keg for the first time. It's simply a red ale that will be kept at room temperature until I bottle from keg as I'm not yet set to do draft but didn't want to deal with the crud on the bottom of the bottles. Any ideas? Or, better yet, how can I find out for myself to use in the future? if you've got a co2 tank you could always purchase a beer gun or if you don't want to spend much money you could make your own
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Jun 5, 2017 03:49
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