I thought it was about time I signed up to this forum after a few weeks lurking in the shadows leeching from the wisdom of others.
I have a new hobby - All grain brewing. I am a man of many hobbies, I can't help it, hobbies are addictive. Anyway the piano playing and toylander construction (for my daughter) are on hold to make way for this fascinating hobby.
I've spent the last month or so absorbing information and making home brew. Here's where i'm at for anyone interested:
Mash tun made, bucket in a bucket method with the bottom chopped off one sat in the other, insulation jacket made from stuffing and windscreen protectors (The shiny things that some people use to keep the frost off)
Aquired a boiler, for my first batch I made do with a 15 Litre stock pot that I have and double boiled. Which was tedious. I now have a 30 Litre Burco tea urn.
Bought a bottle tree, racking cane and wort chiller. Drank enough Bulmers to have amassed a large headache and a collection of pint bottles. Bought a bench capper.
I did have a cheap plastic cantilever bottle capper. After decapitating half a dozen bottles with it I chopped it up and used it as a hammer on capper. Bought a bench capper for next time and never looked back.
On the subject of the boiler, I bought a 30 Litre Cygnet boiler new off of ebay for ��ã70 posted. When i got it I filled it with water and put it on to heat. After an hour it came to the boil with a massive bang and blew the trip. I called Burco and they actually sent an engineer out to fix it, they said they rarely have issue's with them but when they do they prefer to know what the issue was.
The boiler now works perfectly (It had a shorted wire on the boil light, made in china 'nuff said). It's big enough for 23L batches as long as you don't mind adding a couple of litres back in on long boils, and maintains a lovely rolling boil on the high setting without issue!
I'm very new to the hobby but already on batch #3, I started all grain with a lager and ended up using beer yeast. After much reading and purchasing more equipment i'm in the process of building a temperature controller for a spare fridge I recently aquired and have the ingredients sat ready to go, including some proper yeast (White labs 830).
I couldn't resist sampling some of the beer yeast batch early, and it's pretty good considering! The first batch was a boil in the bag kit. It was ok. Those days are gone.
All grain all the way now!
Currently have a Hobgoblin clone in the fermenter (Orfy's HG 2), the German Lager with Beer yeast conditioning, and planning lager #2 as soon as I get this temp controller finished.
I have a new hobby - All grain brewing. I am a man of many hobbies, I can't help it, hobbies are addictive. Anyway the piano playing and toylander construction (for my daughter) are on hold to make way for this fascinating hobby.
I've spent the last month or so absorbing information and making home brew. Here's where i'm at for anyone interested:
Mash tun made, bucket in a bucket method with the bottom chopped off one sat in the other, insulation jacket made from stuffing and windscreen protectors (The shiny things that some people use to keep the frost off)
Aquired a boiler, for my first batch I made do with a 15 Litre stock pot that I have and double boiled. Which was tedious. I now have a 30 Litre Burco tea urn.
Bought a bottle tree, racking cane and wort chiller. Drank enough Bulmers to have amassed a large headache and a collection of pint bottles. Bought a bench capper.
I did have a cheap plastic cantilever bottle capper. After decapitating half a dozen bottles with it I chopped it up and used it as a hammer on capper. Bought a bench capper for next time and never looked back.
On the subject of the boiler, I bought a 30 Litre Cygnet boiler new off of ebay for ��ã70 posted. When i got it I filled it with water and put it on to heat. After an hour it came to the boil with a massive bang and blew the trip. I called Burco and they actually sent an engineer out to fix it, they said they rarely have issue's with them but when they do they prefer to know what the issue was.
The boiler now works perfectly (It had a shorted wire on the boil light, made in china 'nuff said). It's big enough for 23L batches as long as you don't mind adding a couple of litres back in on long boils, and maintains a lovely rolling boil on the high setting without issue!
I'm very new to the hobby but already on batch #3, I started all grain with a lager and ended up using beer yeast. After much reading and purchasing more equipment i'm in the process of building a temperature controller for a spare fridge I recently aquired and have the ingredients sat ready to go, including some proper yeast (White labs 830).
I couldn't resist sampling some of the beer yeast batch early, and it's pretty good considering! The first batch was a boil in the bag kit. It was ok. Those days are gone.
All grain all the way now!
Currently have a Hobgoblin clone in the fermenter (Orfy's HG 2), the German Lager with Beer yeast conditioning, and planning lager #2 as soon as I get this temp controller finished.