Hopeless Newbie

My main reason is i can't get my chiller in while it's in the kettle

Rodcx500z said:

My main reason is i can't get my chiller in while it's in the kettle

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I find this tricky as well. I have to lift my hop spider out, put he coil in then have the hop spider in the middle of the coil.

An Ankoù said:

I've inherited a hop spider which I haven't used yet. Why do people hate them? Is it just cleaning?

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Other than that I happen to like mine, stops things getting clogged up and helps eliminate unnecessary trub.

To clean I just let it sit in the sink to drain the liquid out, shake it from side to side (which forms a soft hop puck) then upend and tap it out. After that its just going over it lightly with a sponge to push any hop bits out of the mesh.

@An Ankoù most people don't use them because of the mixing of the hops, I just use more hops and also give them a stir while they're in the spider.

I got a hop spider with my brewzilla, not used it once.Even with 150g+ of pellets, not had hardly any hop matter transferred to the fv.
The whirlpool arm works very well.

Banbeer said:

@An Ankoù most people don't use them because of the mixing of the hops, I just use more hops and also give them a stir while they're in the spider.

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Just curious what you mean mixing of hops? As they will always mix wether in the hop spider or not.

Burtsbeets said:

Just curious what you mean mixing of hops? As they will always mix wether in the hop spider or not.

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They don't disperse into the wort as good.

Banbeer said:

They don't disperse into the wort as good.

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Ahh right, I have heard of the underutilisation of hops using this method. I tend do go 10% above to they to compensate.

An Ankoù said:

I've inherited a hop spider which I haven't used yet. Why do people hate them? Is it just cleaning?

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I think it's mainly the cleaning and also they are meant to compromise hop utilisation in the boil, as contrasted with just throwing them in. Ive never used a hop spider so I can't comment. Aldi produce bags all the way here

Thanks again for everyone that gave their input. AA - I ordered a book by Greg Hughes which arrived yesterday, it gives a great overview of the process as well as a load of recipes that I'll be trying out, thanks for that.

Eddie90 said:

Hi all,

I am brand new to homebrewing and I am just trying to decipher exactly what I'll need. It's starting to feel like the more I read, the less I understand. I had no idea that brewing was such a science/art until very recently. I know that there are a few of these posts, so forgive me for repeating it, but they all seem to have different outcomes.

I am thinking about buying a Brew Monk 30l all-in-one system, but it seems like there's a lot more to think about too. I just wondered if anybody would be able to shed a little bit of light on the situation? I think I will need everything listed below, but if I am missing things, or if I am buying unnecessary things, please let me know.

• A hop spider.
• A thermometer.
• A fermentation fridge. I will be doing this in my cellar which is obviously quite cold at this time of year. I'm guessing these are just small fridges that people alter so that they do both heat and cold so that temperature can be easily regulated, without having to do it for the whole room? I have found a guide online on how to do this.
• A plastic fermentation bucket.
• Cleaning equipment. I'm still not entirely sure on what needs to be disinfected, or when, but I'll do more digging into that when I dive in.
• Bottles.
• Siphon for bottling.

Any advice on my little shopping list would be massively appreciated.

Cheers,
Eddie

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Oh dear my friend.
Take it slow and give a bit of faith with plastic to rubber regards to barrels. Simpler, easily dispensed and your hobby need not be a chore. Believe it or not, most gas escapes are on your steel or brass valves. There's some good advise on u tube with using cable ties to secure your pressure release glands. Bottles are cumbersome and if your making lager, a must. If your making beer, then top tap king keg every time. I started a year ago and you will learn to do better. I promise!
Good luck.

D1recoyote said:

Oh dear my friend.
Take it slow and give a bit of faith with plastic to rubber regards to barrels. Simpler, easily dispensed and your hobby need not be a chore. Believe it or not, most gas escapes are on your steel or brass valves. There's some good advise on u tube with using cable ties to secure your pressure release glands. Bottles are cumbersome and if your making lager, a must. If your making beer, then top tap king keg every time. I started a year ago and you will learn to do better. I promise!

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I tend to post when I'm too drunk, too.

When I started, I had whatever came with a HBO starter kit, ie the FV, spoon, sanitiser etc, plus a digiboil boiler. To move to BIAB I had to order a bag. Everything else including stuff like hop spiders (use as a transfer filter rather than intended) wort chillers, kegs, got added over time. Start off with the bare minimum and add as you find necessary. If I bought everything I have now in one shot id have been a fortune!

A no-rinse sanitiser StarSan is probably the best known. It can be sprayed and has a very short contact time. The worst part about brewing is cleaning. Sanitisers you have to rinse off have long contact times (10 -15 minutes vs 30 seconds) and there's always the risk of contamination if your tap isn't clean. I've also found a pair of disposable gloves very useful when bottling as they can be sprayed with sanitiser.

If you buy an all-in-one brewing system, hold off on buying accessories and performing conversions or 'hacks'. I was pretty flush when I bought my Grainfather and was going to buy all manner of third party accessories for it. In the end, the cam lock conversion kit for the recirculation arm and false bottoms were out of stock and by the time they were available, I felt they were a waste of time.

The only things I did buy were an insulated jacket (which is a no-brainer for cold weather), stainless steel Jubilee clips to stop the rubber cap of the filter coming off and a drill powered whirlpool paddle which I thinknmay have made a difference and negated the use of a hop spider. But, I wish I'd bought a whirlpool conversion kit or seen if the Brew Monk Whirlpool Arm could be used.

What I found useful was writing out what my scientist daughter calls a protocol, basically a step-by-step plan of action for brew day, with enough detail so that you don't need to look at any other documents or rush off to google stuff.

This is not only helpful on brew day, but it also highlights where problems may arise. In my case, the bit where it said "heat 17 L of sparge water to 77C" prompted me to wonder how that was going to happen bearing in mind the brew kettle would be in use for the mash at that point. I bought a tea urn.

Good choice on the book and happy brewing!

Scrattajack said:

What I found useful was writing out what my scientist daughter calls a protocol, basically a step-by-step plan of action for brew day, with enough detail so that you don't need to look at any other documents or rush off to google stuff.

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Great advice. These are useful >

https://cdn2.brewersfriend.com/brewersfriend_checklist_allgrain.pdfhttps://cdn2.brewersfriend.com/brewersfriend_allgrainsheet.pdf