Topic: Home Brew Thread

[khendar]

Bottled my second brew last night. Coopers Australian Pale Ale.

My father knows a guy who is getting rid of his kegging equipment. Seems that he has three kegs, all the tubing and regulators etc, everything minus the CO2 cylinder, selling for $75 

That is all I do is keg. It is the only way to go. Cuts your bottling time down to an hour

I have two dramas here. The first is the CO2 cylinder, which will be an initial outlay of about $200 for a 2.6KG bottle. The second is cooling; I don't really have a spare fridge suitable for chilling/gassing/dispensing a keg, an no real room to put one if I did.

There are a lot of beer and mead styles that are suitable for serving at room temperature or "cellar temperature." Purists will rail about what I'm about to suggest, but British "real ale" recopies may be just what the doctor ordered in that regard.

You don't necessarily need to cool the entire keg. I've long been tempted to work out a means of turning a dorm fridge into a serviceable "Jockey box" for on-demand cooling.

You can also experiment with making your own soda and serving it into ice filled glasses. A quick warning though, birch and root beer will leave an indelible fragrance to the tubing they go through. The replaceable "O" rings on the kegs may also end up "root beer only" but the steel kegs can be cleaned out.

You don't need to get a new CO2 tank. A used one that's still certified will be just fine. Some places, like "Modern Brewer" in Cambridge, MA will just exchange your empty tank for a full one for a fee and toss the empty tank into their rotation. This means getting a new tank is an immediate waste of money, as the full tank you get back will be "used" anyway.

I don't have a keg setup, but have done a lot of research as I want one.

Massachusetts is a little bit far for me to go. I'm looking for something more in the Adelaide, South Australia region

Second hand CO2 cylinders are hard to come by here. I've already checked out ebay, gumtree and the Trading Post. The ones that do occasionally pop up are often rental ones that have been stolen and resold.  The local homebrew forums are full of posts about how hard it is to get used ones, and warnings about dodgy deals. Getting one shipped from interstate isn't really feasible.

A new, certified and refillable 2.6kg bottle is around $200, and cost around $29 to fill.

I have to confirm with my father what size the kegs are. He initially said 9L which I wasn't sure about and figured they were probably 19L But I've since found out that 9L kegs do exist and it may actually be what he has. I think it's still a good deal but I'd like to be sure.

[pandamonium]

*frothing at mouth* stupid easy siphon is a fraction of an inch too big to fit in my stupid Carboy. Siphoning is hard. But beer is bottled and now sits in a dark place (not my soul). I'm definitely getting a bigger fermenting doohickey. Because we needs the auto-siphon.

[Caffiene]

I need to read things more carefully.

I had a moment where I was wondering what the hell you wanted a Big Fermenting Donkey for, and when had this thread taken such a weird turn...

[pandamonium]

from hence forward, I shall refer to my primary fermenting unit as The Big Fermenting Donkey.

[Halleyscomet/Wakefield]

from hence forward, I shall refer to my primary fermenting unit as The Big Fermenting Donkey.

If you get a bucket as your primary fermenter it can be your Gaping Big Fermenting Donkey

[Caffiene]

Its all good so long as it doesnt taste like Ass.

[pandamonium]

Its all good so long as it doesnt taste like Ass.

we'll see.

I am considering a 5 gallon, if only so I can make more than 7 bottles at a time. also, how much sediment is normal? I seemed to have a lot.

[seamas]

Anyone here use Better bottles for fermenting? (www.better-bottle.com)
A fairly experienced brewer I just met suggested them.
They have a lot of pluses--easy for racking and bottling and cleaning.
On the minus side they will require a bit more storage (currently I can nest my glass carboy, fermenting bucket, bottling bucket and brewpot).

I am considering a 5 gallon, if only so I can make more than 7 bottles at a time. also, how much sediment is normal? I seemed to have a lot.

I wasn't sure if you were serious, you are brewing in 1 gallon batches?

I would think 5 gallons would possibly yield less sediment to beer ratio--but more importantly, the amount of time brewing and cleaning for 1 gallon batches would probably be close to the same for 5 gallon batches.
So your time per beer would be much less.


I bottled a milk stout Monday night.
I'll pop one open tomorrow just so see how it's coming along.

[Halleyscomet/Wakefield]

Anyone here use Better bottles for fermenting? (www.better-bottle.com)

I love my Better Bottles.

A few warnings I was given and have heeded:

Don't use bottle brushes to clean them. They'll scrape up the plastic. A soak with PBW has always worked for me.

Make sure the temperature of anything you put into one is under 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Anything hotter can warp or melt the plastic.

If you're going to store something for more than a year, you might want to rack to glass. There's still limited oxygen permeability in the plastic, but for anything under a year or two you're not going to notice it.

A Brew Hauler is still a good idea for the larger Better Bottles.

The dimple in the bottom of the bottle can flex when picking up the bottle, meaning liquid in the air lock can get sucked into the fermenter when moving it. I use Star San in my airlocks so the pH change when it enters the beer renders it harmless anyway. This is more of an "FYI" than a warning.

[pandamonium]

I wasn't sure if you were serious, you are brewing in 1 gallon batches?

For my very first batch? Yes. Worst case scenario, I've only sacrileged a gallon instead of five. Also, I got the kit for cheap.

I use Star San in my airlocks so the pH change when it enters the beer renders it harmless anyway. This is more of an "FYI" than a warning.

This answers another question of mine. I think I accidentally got a few drops of sanitizer in my carboy while siphoning, but I remembered someone (several someones) mentioning that StarSan was the best because you didn't have to completely rinse.

[Halleyscomet/Wakefield]

I wasn't sure if you were serious, you are brewing in 1 gallon batches?

For my very first batch? Yes. Worst case scenario, I've only sacrileged a gallon instead of five. Also, I got the kit for cheap.

I use Star San in my airlocks so the pH change when it enters the beer renders it harmless anyway. This is more of an "FYI" than a warning.

This answers another question of mine. I think I accidentally got a few drops of sanitizer in my carboy while siphoning, but I remembered someone (several someones) mentioning that StarSan was the best because you didn't have to completely rinse.

StarSan needs no rinsing. The foam left behind breaks down into phosphates the yeast can eat once it hits the beer. I love using it, especially when racking. Once I sanatize the carboy the ample foam acts like an airlock of sorts keeping airborn contaminants out of the beer. IT does the same in individual bottles when bottling.

On the topic of small batches, today's home.woot.com is a "Mr Beer" kit, a 2.5 gallon fermenter. I've never used one myself but It's a half a standard ingredient kit. Most homebrew recipes are for 5 gallon volumes. It's a decent starter kit and there are even online forums dedicated to using Mr Beer. You can use their ingredient kits, formulate your own recipe or use some of the "Brew in a can" kits that expect you to add a few pounds of sugar or malt extract to their hopped extract cans.

[pandamonium]

so... one of my bottles broke over night. :/ it kind of smells bad, too. this gives me a sad.

[xenu]

so... one of my bottles broke over night. :/ it kind of smells bad, too. this gives me a sad.

That's not a good sign. Hope you don't have a contamination problem.

[pandamonium]

so... one of my bottles broke over night. :/ it kind of smells bad, too. this gives me a sad.

That's not a good sign. Hope you don't have a contamination problem.

i wouldn't be surprised.

[pandamonium]

waking up to the sound of another bottle breaking is a terrible thing.

I doubt it'll save the batch, but I put everything back in the Carboy to let it ferment a tad more. as I opened each bottle, the "beer" foamed mightily. so, at the very least, I'll stop getting beer on my floor.

*sigh*