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Yeah my bad I was thinking of fermenting in the barrel not aging in there.
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Mar 6, 2021 03:59
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Paul MaudDib posted:What do people think about the Brewzilla style systems (or other similar units)? Tight temperature control seems desirable and while they're not inexpensive, they're not that expensive compared to a higher end kettle, insulated mash tun, burner, etc. It’s a 9.25 gallon capacity, not a 9.25 gallon batch. It’s intended for 5-6 gallon batches. I have a 110V Grainfather. It will boil, but takes a long time. I supplement with a Hot Rod Heat Stick and it heats and boils much faster.
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Mar 6, 2021 04:14
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anyone got a good starter shopping list? I've got the following big items identified for an extract brew:
for a full grain brew:
smaller stuff:
any other major omissions? kinda thinking I may order the burner and at least one brew bucket from anvil and grab a propane tank from menard's (30 pound?). It's not ideal but I could clean a keg, use it as a holding tank, then put the beer back into the brew bucket to clarify? That gets me in the game ASAP with at least a basic extract brewing setup. A basic glass carboy would be cheaper I guess but splurging another 70 bucks for the bucket (especially if it's going to be more convenient) isn't too bad if I'm going to be happy with it long term as a basic 7-gallon steel fermenter. Then long term one of those brewzillas would be nice. brewzilla vs grainfather again - does the grainfather have some major advantage that I'm not seeing besides the bluetooth and app? like yes I guess it would be nice to push a button and have it automatically switch between recipes but typing it in is probably fine once you get used to it? The other stuff, like the immersion chiller vs the counterflow chiller, seems like this that or the other. Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Mar 6, 2021 |
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Mar 6, 2021 20:08
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piss boner posted:Started a batch of apfelwein on Saturday, added 8 pounds blackberry puree, the puree had a brownish color to it but it didn't smell or taste off. Relax? Dump it? I could post a more recent picture and you wouldn't be able to see a noticeable difference. Dumping it this week. Jhet posted:If you're going to all that effort with the champagne bottles, you should try 6 volumes next time if you haven't already. It's super fizzy and makes a really awesome texture for cider. Bonus is that you're already using champagne yeast which will have no issue doing exactly this level of carbonation. Champagne bottles can do higher than 6 vol too, so it will still work with your risk aversion. 6 volumes has been incredible, texture is indeed awesome, thanks for the suggestion!
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Mar 7, 2021 01:02
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Paul MaudDib posted:Lists and things. Just a couple things to think about. Extra buckets are good to have. There’s nothing wrong with starting with the generic brew buckets. Avoid secondary transfers unless absolutely necessary for fruiting or long term aging. The beer will drop and clear while sitting on the yeast with no issues. Adding more oxygen exposure isn’t worth it. Use Irish moss or whirlfloc in the boil to encourage it clearing. Gelatin also works before you transfer, but makes any vegan friends sad when they won’t drink your beer. Just chilling it in the keg will clear it, the first pour may be cloudy, but fine after that. Second burner is nice, but not entirely necessary. Only get a 30# propane tank if you have somewhere convenient to get it filled. Also make sure you have some oxyclean free or PBW or whatever oxygen based cleaner. Regular dish soap will help ruin your head retention and will leave fragrances.
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Mar 7, 2021 01:40
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For all-grain I recommend either going BIAB or batch sparge. I did batch sparge for years and stand by it, I consistently had 80-85% brewhouse efficiency and it saved a bunch of time. It also doesn't require a hot liquor tank -- you can just use the kettle to heat your strike and sparge water as long as you have a bucket or something else to hold your first runnings. My false bottom was just a "bazooka tube" screen thing threaded into a ball valve in my cylindrical water cooler mash tun. A lot of people use the toilet supply hose with the hose part ripped out, I'm sure that works too. I've never done traditional BIAB, but that's how I would probably recommend people start with AG. Assuming 5-gallon batches, get a 10-12 gallon kettle and a nice bag (https://www.brewinabag.com/ makes great bags to fit different vessel sizes) and just do full volume mashes. It's probably worth learning a little bit about water chemistry when you start doing all-grain, especially for full-volume mashes, since you'll probably want to acidify your mash to reach an appropriate mash pH.
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Mar 7, 2021 02:23
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Brewed our first batch yesterday!    Picked up a Dunkeweisen extract kit from the local homebrew store and had a great time just sitting around the fire, drinking and stirring the pot. Was a really good learning experience... as you can see in the pictures we had a boilover with the first hops addition, so I cut off the heat and hosed down the burner and kettle. I thought the fermcap would help a bit more, but I just know to be more careful when hopping next time and probably just cut the heat altogether. I also know to watch the heat more carefully and probably just cut it upfront while steeping the grains... I left the heat on low and the temperature crept up past 170, so we might have some extra tannins leached out into the brew. Immediately killed the gas, but took awhile for the temperature to come back down. The kettle was workable, but it was only four gallons. Very much looking forward to the larger kettle coming in the mail. Unfortunately the contents of my hydrometer had completely solidified while sitting unused in the basement for many years, so it’ll be guesswork on the abv. I’ll just have to swing by the homebrew store and pick up a new one. The diy wort chiller also worked pretty well, no leaks and worked pretty fast! Just need to get some thinner gauge wire to braid it into a more solid structure... 14 gauge was too thick to get a nice tight weave. This was a good test batch and we definitely learned a few things to do better next time... I’m very interested to see how the final brew comes out! Jhet posted:Avoid secondary transfers unless absolutely necessary for fruiting or long term aging. The beer will drop and clear while sitting on the yeast with no issues. Adding more oxygen exposure isn’t worth it. The Brewers Best kit we used recommends transfer to a secondary fermentation vessel... should we just skip that and leave it in the first stage carboy since this is a pretty basic beer?
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Mar 7, 2021 15:25
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Do you mean the stuff in the bottom of the glass tube had solidified? It's supposed to be solid - a hydrometer is just a weight that floats at specific levels in liquids of different densities. The good news for an extract kit is: you're adding a specific amount of sugar (the extract) and ending up with a specific volume (the finished volume), so if you ended up with the same volume that the kit calls for, it'll be the same gravity the kit specifies
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Mar 7, 2021 17:08
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OSU_Matthew posted:The Brewers Best kit we used recommends transfer to a secondary fermentation vessel... should we just skip that and leave it in the first stage carboy since this is a pretty basic beer? Yes. Secondary transfers are a spill over from the olden times and from brewery ops. In large volumes the beer will pick up off flavors from the autolysis of the yeast, but this doesn’t happen in small batch homebrewing. So the current advice is to not do them unless you can be sure of little or no exposure to the air. Extra oxygen exposure is a good way to mute hop flavors and cause oxidation that could otherwise be avoided. Still possible when bottling if you just slosh it around, but the yeast will be active again for conditioning and will scrub up a decent amount of oxygen. So transfer as gently as possible with a siphon, and bottle as gently as possible with tubing and it will be just fine.
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Mar 7, 2021 17:24
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more falafel please posted:Do you mean the stuff in the bottom of the glass tube had solidified? It's supposed to be solid - a hydrometer is just a weight that floats at specific levels in liquids of different densities. Ohhhhh.... well I feel pretty dumb. Should’ve looked up how to use it instead of just assuming! I guess in my mind I was thinking it was supposed to be something like a Galileo thermometer, but what you said makes a heck of a lot more sense. Learning curve and all that  To be honest I was scratching my head as to how a glass vial could leak... I just thought the contents had separated and coagulated or something  Jhet posted:Yes. Secondary transfers are a spill over from the olden times and from brewery ops. In large volumes the beer will pick up off flavors from the autolysis of the yeast, but this doesn’t happen in small batch homebrewing. Much appreciated! This is really helpful... I’m trying to learn more about the fermentation half of the process now, so this is extremely helpful and timely! For more advanced brewing, is this where a conical fermentation vessel would come into play? That the solids settle and then you can just drain them off from the bottom? If I wanted to do a secondary fermentation, would I just add the ingredients in at the start of a single vessel fermentation? Specifically the next batch I want to do is a whiskey barrel stout kit, and it calls for the shredded barrel chips to age in the brew. I’m also thinking way on down the line I’d like to try stuff like kriek lambic beers where cherries are added to the second fermentation. Are these ingredients supposed to have a clean batch to ferment in, or is it just the same to let them settle in with the rest of the solids?
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Mar 8, 2021 03:36
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The cone part is where everything will collect in a conical. I’d expect there’s a transfer port above the cone on most of them to help with a clean transfer. It’ll just settle into the bottom of a bucket in a wide mostly flat layer. With oak chips you could just pop them into a muslin bag and hang them off the side of the bucket. With cherries, you’d want to transfer to a secondary fermentation. Mixed ferm, fruited, and lambic/kriek “ish” versions of beer is where secondary fermenters are most useful.
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Mar 8, 2021 04:32
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I feel really weird I've never posted in this thread, I'm an over the top homebrewer in an apartment with a 10 gallon system in my storage room I try to use whenever I can and two mini fridges on my balcony for fermenting and a keezer Work kicked my rear end over the last few months though and I've had no time to play. Combined with a friend who really wanted to go pro and I've been contract brewing with him for the last two years as a side gig against my better judgement. I won a few pro-awards on the national Canadian scale, but the business venture went nowhere and it drained me for a while. I stagnated as all I've ever wanted to do was nerd out on process, but, the industry is ever geared towards more and more gimmicks and being a contract brewer there's nothing you can change about the setup you're in. Finally that's all over. Finally starting to come back to it after not brewing at all for months. Got myself a 2 gallon cooler and converted it into a mash-tun with a bazooka tube and two 4 liter mini-kegs. Combined with my 3 gallon keg in a mini fridge with a thermowell I'm going to start brewing some incredibly nerdy dial-in pilsners. I might even cautiously connect my rims tube up to that for some hilarious step-mashing. This is the most hilarious overkill small batch setup and I'm loving it so far.
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Mar 8, 2021 06:43
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Let's talk pumps. I've got two. One is your homebrew run of the mill chugger pump workhorse. I feel this thing is overkill, there's almost never a time I actually want the ball valve more than a tiny bit open except when I'm recirculating my chilling wort back into my brew kettle. It's also loud as hell. The other is a complete opposite, one of those brown solar pumps off of amazon, I typically use it for HLT water work. Hell, even it might still be too fast at pumping water? I typically have even it dialed back. However, now that I'm trying to run a small mash tun setup, I'm thinking a small pump would be nice. The brown solar pump is probably going to get clogged sooner or later though. And it's probably not great to throw boiling wort at in combo with a chiller. I saw the topsflow td5 and was intrigued. Small form factor, potentially adjustable (or a PWM version available). Stainless steel housing, and tiny/light build. However, looks like its got its impeller magnet exposed right in there with the rest of the wort in the steel casing which is maybe not so great for foodsafe reasons? Has anyone had a run-in with any of these?
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Mar 8, 2021 06:51
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How spergy are you planning on going? Because there was a low oxygen thing (LODO?) that gained some popularity a couple years ago. I never went over that way, but it would be an interesting thing to try if you want to get crazy about pilsners. I’m not going to lie, now that I have super soft water again I’ve been tempted to do a few Bohemian/Czech Pilsners too. I just need some temp control and free time now to make it work.
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Mar 8, 2021 06:55
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LODO's definitely peaked my interests a few times in the past, and I've attempted previously and, at most, just ended up with super sulphated brews. God knows the online community for that is always toxic as gently caress though. My homebrew cold side has been locked down for years though, that's a no brainer, I ferment in kegs and do closed transfers exclusively and it's the lack of being able to do that on the small scale that previously put me off of it. I've been over-engineering this 2 gallon mash tun with that in mind the thing's air tight, CO2 purging the 'tun with grains and all. LODO will be on the list. Sadly do not have dissolved o2 meter though, I think you can somewhat confirm accuracy with the sulphate test strips to see consumption, I'll have to find some on amazon. I'm actually more curious at the idea of attempting to brew a batch with a sauergut reactor for lacto to throw into both the mash and the end of boil, that seemed to be one of the more interesting ideas brought up from lodo discussions WilWheaton fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Mar 8, 2021 |
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Mar 8, 2021 07:08
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I wouldn't bother with sauergut myself. The ppm of anything you add is going to be very low and probably below the flavor threshold for anything the lacto would throw. It's also likely to overacidify itself and stall as it's essentially just a lacto starter. Unless you're starting with a high pH water source and would be using enough 80% lactic acid or so much acidulated malt that it's going to hit those thresholds, then sure, but that's pretty hard to do. I also have enough cultures to babysit, but at least they can sit out at cellar temp. LODO community is very off-putting, and I stopped reading about it a while back myself. They just seem so very stuck on the idea of what's good and bad, but are also seemed very particular about some historical methods for the sake of them. I've fallen on the side of doing things because they work (with my system), but not ignoring scientific advancements in equipment and ingredients either. Maybe it's better now? I don't do much where it would be a useful method and it would probably just stress out the yeasts I use instead. I don't know the answer to your pump problem, aside from avoiding pumps with anything open on the inside. The pump doesn't look open on the inside of the flow from the pictures, and it's marked as foodsafe on their website, so you should be fine with it. I just figure that every pump will end up trying to clog when you need it to work the most.
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Mar 8, 2021 07:53
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I had a turd of a brewday trying new things. My BIAB basket utilizes like 2 gallons of water before I can reach my grain, so I was trying to do minimal water and I killed my efficiency, at least I had my bag of emergency DME. Then I miscalculated my boil off rate and ended up with lots more beer than I think I should have (like 1 gallon more). Basically I still made beer and it'll be good just not what I wanted it to be.. it'll end up lighter for sure I did end up buying a lovely $26 amazon pump today and will try and do some recirculation as well next brew since I have so much water that's not even in the grain, and this'll let me sparge a little easier by doing a recirc especially since I'll be usign a lto more water than I need (going to just assume doing full volume mashes)
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Mar 8, 2021 17:51
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My first attempt at brewing my own beer has been a resounding success! Despite me fussing over the little things and perceived mistakes I have successfully brewed a belgian golden ale. It bottle conditioned properly, tasted great and looked great too. I would say that my beer tastes like a typical example of a belgian ale the closest analogue I could find would be like a Leffe Blonde but without any special flavors. It tastes like what I figure is a very typical example of this beer style. Definitely felt awesome even after one bottle. My next project will be to make an imperial stout which requires me to use the weird bag that comes with the kit to steep some malts. I figure I'll steep at the stove where I can control temperature better and don't need a boil and then transfer to the burner outside. Can anyone explain why all the beer nerds on Beer Advocate seem to prioritize imperial stouts as the ultimate beers? It seems if you aren't drinking Westvleteren, then you're having some variant of your local craft brewer's imperial stout as the best rated beer.
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Mar 9, 2021 00:28
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Because pastry stouts are the “in” thing again/still? I don’t really know. There are good stouts out there, but between that and hazy IPAs I’ve stopped following trends.
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Mar 9, 2021 00:36
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Jhet posted:Second burner is nice, but not entirely necessary. Only get a 30# propane tank if you have somewhere convenient to get it filled. Why, because you can't do the cylinder swap services at gas stations/etc? Those are actually a bad idea because cylinders have a specific hydro-testing date, so you are trading your brand new cylinder for someone else's cylinder that is probably abused and much closer to needing to be tested/replaced. It's not hard to find local places that fill cylinders, I know of at least two in a ten minute drive and I haven't even bothered to look hard.
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Mar 9, 2021 00:49
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Kraftwerk posted:My first attempt at brewing my own beer has been a resounding success! Despite me fussing over the little things and perceived mistakes I have successfully brewed a belgian golden ale. It bottle conditioned properly, tasted great and looked great too. I think it's part of an urge when you're new to a hobby to go deep in and seek out the Most thing. When west coast IPA was the big thing, nerds on BA weren't satisfied unless it was over 100 IBU. Now it's pastry stouts, milkshake IPAs, etc -- they're expensive, they're usually limited releases, and they're extreme amounts of flavor, and if you're new to a hobby you might think those are good things  I like hazy IPAs a lot, but once you start adding lactose and unfermented strawberry puree I'm out. Congrats on your first batch being a success! Now that you've got the equipment and an understanding of the process you can just keep making more beer!
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Mar 9, 2021 00:52
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more falafel please posted:I think it's part of an urge when you're new to a hobby to go deep in and seek out the Most thing. When west coast IPA was the big thing, nerds on BA weren't satisfied unless it was over 100 IBU. Now it's pastry stouts, milkshake IPAs, etc -- they're expensive, they're usually limited releases, and they're extreme amounts of flavor, and if you're new to a hobby you might think those are good things part of the reason I'm looking at getting into homebrewing is because I can't get ESB/english ale styles locally, like at all. I finally found a bottleshop that had a single 6-pack of Old Speckled Hen... and beermenu says there's a shop 40 miles away that has Fuller's. IPAs have been the "in" thing for like 5 years now and I'm just so tired of juicy / hazy / mosaic / citra IPAs. Oddside has a good Citra Pale Ale (so, not really an IPA) but everything else I've tried in the style is just over the top and gross.
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Mar 9, 2021 00:59
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Well that makes sense. I can't say I like IPAs that much. The only one I've been able to stomach has been Alexander Keith's IPA and I don't even think that counts! Before COVID I used to go to a lot of the newest beer oriented restaurants and bars and they would always promote IPAs. My local liquor stores would have guys offering me stuff like Red Racer. Every time I drink that stuff it tastes like a weird cross between pine cones, grapefruit and just raw bitterness.. If it wasn't IPAs it was sour beers that made me feel like I was drinking pure lime juice extract. I find I much prefer stuff like Hofbrau Original, Kostritzer and vienna lager type stuff and a lot of the high ABV polish beers like Warka and Tatra. In my college days my obsession was with Hoegaarden and other Belgians like Chimay. I recently found myself enjoying wheat beers like Weihenstepaner as well.. It seems there's this ongoing trend where my taste in beer runs some kind of gauntlet all over Bavaria, Austria and the Swiss Alps only to boomerang up to Belgium for a spell before coming back. I'm sure I'll disappoint the thread greatly, but I also happen to really like the red Yuengling beer but can't buy it in Canada. Some day I hope to attempt the White House Honey Ale recipe that was publicized back in the Obama administration. Has anyone tried making it? Kraftwerk fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Mar 9, 2021 |
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Mar 9, 2021 01:06
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Paul MaudDib posted:Why, because you can't do the cylinder swap services at gas stations/etc? Basically, yeah. If you just pick up one of those 15# from the gas station then you don’t even need to worry about the testing dates. The supplier gets to do that. I’d you have a place to fill it that’s convenient, then buying your own 30# is going to be better. It’s been more inconvenient for me to go and get propane filled in the past, so the swap was the way to go. Now I have one that’s not far away though, so I may switch myself. CO2 suppliers can be annoying about swapping too. It’s not hard for them to just hook it up either.
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Mar 9, 2021 02:46
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Paul MaudDib posted:part of the reason I'm looking at getting into homebrewing is because I can't get ESB/english ale styles locally, like at all. I finally found a bottleshop that had a single 6-pack of Old Speckled Hen... and beermenu says there's a shop 40 miles away that has Fuller's. Yeah, I feel this. The big bottle shop has some, but they're always old. There's a bar downtown that has Fuller's London Pride on tap and I would go there every two weeks or so after work just to drink it. I have a vague dream of having a small kegerator just for nitro (or better yet, hand pump with a cask breather) kept at cellar temps. There's never a time when I don't want a pint of dark mild in front of me.
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Mar 9, 2021 02:54
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Kraftwerk posted:Well that makes sense. Haha I'm coming at this from exactly the other direction. I love ipas, that got me into beer, but the more I brew and learn about it, the more I reach for anything that isn't an ipa at the store. And being frustrated that it's lager, ipa, seltzers, and just a couple of any other style, so I'm mostly trying to make my own non-ipas.
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Mar 9, 2021 03:18
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more falafel please posted:Yeah, I feel this. The big bottle shop has some, but they're always old. There's a bar downtown that has Fuller's London Pride on tap and I would go there every two weeks or so after work just to drink it. I have a vague dream of having a small kegerator just for nitro (or better yet, hand pump with a cask breather) kept at cellar temps. There's never a time when I don't want a pint of dark mild in front of me. I have easy access to Boddington's and London Pride where I live... Sometimes I can get Bass too. I love all those styles and I had some memorable moments drinking milds in the UK. That style has seen a decline globally. I think INBEV has a vested interest in suppressing that stuff.. A lot of the major brewers who make these things are owned by Coors etc.
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Mar 9, 2021 03:27
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Kraftwerk posted:The only one I've been able to stomach has been Alexander Keith's IPA and I don't even think that counts! That statement would make my Canadian hockey teammate extremely happy. I keep telling him I want to make a Labatt 50 clone. If you like many of the southern Germany and Austrian beer styles. I'd try making a kolsch. Another under served style that I would love to see more commercially available ones.
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Mar 9, 2021 03:39
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more falafel please posted:Yeah, I feel this. The big bottle shop has some, but they're always old. There's a bar downtown that has Fuller's London Pride on tap and I would go there every two weeks or so after work just to drink it. I have a vague dream of having a small kegerator just for nitro (or better yet, hand pump with a cask breather) kept at cellar temps. There's never a time when I don't want a pint of dark mild in front of me. Kraftwerk posted:I have easy access to Boddington's and London Pride where I live... Sometimes I can get Bass too. I love all those styles and I had some memorable moments drinking milds in the UK. That style has seen a decline globally. I think INBEV has a vested interest in suppressing that stuff.. A lot of the major brewers who make these things are owned by Coors etc. yeah it's just a super nice easy-drinking style, isn't it? I can get Boddington's around here but I didn't super enjoy it. I guess with how desperate I've gotten I should give it another shot. London's Pride is great, really enjoyed that. Other than that I have been drinking a lot of Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier, really good stuff apart from a tendency to fizz over if you take a pull from the bottle. Not presumptious enough to think I can really replicate that. As far as not liking tart beers - Bell's does a great fruit tart beer, the Flamingo Fruit Fight is pretty good. I think the lime/passion fruit works well with the tartness (but it's another I don't really have a desire to replicate). I like brown ales, Bell's Brown is great. And that one would be pretty easy. Bell's also does a great Czech pilsner, Lager Of The Lakes. It sounds like I would have to get water quality under control (our water here is really, really hard) probably with an RO system or even look around and see if I can get it from a store anywhere (all the in-store machines have been closed for the last year). And also for a lager you need a chiller, right? But apart from the technical requirements it doesn't sound expensive. Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 04:45 on Mar 9, 2021 |
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Mar 9, 2021 04:28
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One thing about an electric brewer is I could reasonably use that in the basement, without having to haul a full unit down the stairs. Although I don't have a 220V circuit downstairs yet... but that's not too hard. I checked out the Spike Flex+ and while it looks nice enough, it's only available in 7 gallon. If they had a version that was 14 gallon for like $500 or $600 I'd probably snag that. I guess $400 isn't a bad price for a unitank system though even if it's only 7 gallons. Thinking I'll go with the Anvil brew bucket and a burner for now, $129 with no tax/free shipping is pretty nice, that's not an unreasonable upgrade from carboys. At that kind of price I won't feel too bad if I end up getting something nicer and end up having to flip it or just end up not using it. So with a unitank like the Flex+, I could go straight from primary into the keg (if I let it settle sufficiently) while still at pressure, so it never gets exposed to oxygen? How much does that help the shelf life of the beer?
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Mar 9, 2021 05:04
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It won’t really help with shelf life, but will keep your beer from oxidation concerns. I do something similar for IPAs, where I start in a bucket and then transfer to a keg at 20-30% expected attenuation left for dry hopping in a closed system. Keeps the hops away from oxygen and lets me carb with the end of fermentation. Closed transfer to a serving keg and it’s usually good to go after another day in the cooler. That fermenter would let you do something similar. You’re not filtering though, so the beer will still change a little over time. Hops flavor/aroma will still go muted after time too, but being able to carb during fermentation is nice, and having one less variable for spoilage is really great.
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Mar 9, 2021 05:16
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with a "clean in place", how caustic is the solution? is that something I can put down a normal sump without messing up the pump, is it going to eat PVC piping, is it going to mess up a septic field, etc? or is this really something that I should be collecting in a bucket and dumping out someplace it's not going to hurt anything?
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Mar 9, 2021 06:04
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more falafel please posted:Yeah, I feel this. The big bottle shop has some, but they're always old. There's a bar downtown that has Fuller's London Pride on tap and I would go there every two weeks or so after work just to drink it. I have a vague dream of having a small kegerator just for nitro (or better yet, hand pump with a cask breather) kept at cellar temps. There's never a time when I don't want a pint of dark mild in front of me. Same. I got in to brewing because I couldn't get Belhaven's where I lived, so I had to make my own.
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Mar 9, 2021 06:05
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Paul MaudDib posted:One thing about an electric brewer is I could reasonably use that in the basement, without having to haul a full unit down the stairs. Although I don't have a 220V circuit downstairs yet... but that's not too hard. The only concern about basement brewing is condensation from the boil. My father and uncle are working on my basement setup over the next few days. I've seen a lot of people use high end kitchen hoods to remove the moisture but I'm wondering about using a shower fan. Can pull about 110 CFM and pretty quiet. Worst case is I get it installed and doesn't work out I can always put in a larger system.
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Mar 9, 2021 10:48
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calandryll posted:The only concern about basement brewing is condensation from the boil. My father and uncle are working on my basement setup over the next few days. I've seen a lot of people use high end kitchen hoods to remove the moisture but I'm wondering about using a shower fan. Can pull about 110 CFM and pretty quiet. Worst case is I get it installed and doesn't work out I can always put in a larger system. My kitchen is pretty small. and I use one of those 2 fan window fans and have it running to blow air out of the window once I take the lid off. I pretty much brew right near the window. https://www.amazon.com/Lotus-Analin-9-Inch-Window-Portable/dp/B076FDD4G5/
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Mar 9, 2021 12:47
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With fermentation, how do you all keep the temperatures within a happy range for the yeast? I put my carboy in a corner and slipped the box loosely over it to keep it dark, but even inside there’s going to be some temperature fluctuation and I think the basement might be a bit too cold. Is this a “relax don’t worry” thing I’m overthinking, or are there good compensating solutions? On a similar note, I really like the idea of conical fermenters and looking to buy a system... any particular recommendations from the thread?
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Mar 9, 2021 18:12
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That's basically what I ended up doing in my apartment, since I was doing 2.5 gal batches I could set up a small Ikea induction hot plate next to my open patio door and let the steam go out that way. My stove's "vent fan" is very leaky and vents a lot into the cabinet directly above my stove, so I figured it wouldn't work very well for actually venting water vapor.
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Mar 9, 2021 18:18
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When you’re starting, yeast temp is a relax thing if it’s within the right range. If it’s colder, it’ll work slower; if it’s hotter, it’ll throw off flavors. You can build fermentation chambers with fridges and freezers, but you can also tailor your yeast choice to the temp your area is running. Plenty of ways to manage it in between too. There are heat wraps, and cooling jackets that are sold too. But for your first batch, there’s nothing wrong with not going extra on it. If it’s too cold on the floor, just put it up on some wood to help with temp loss. The yeast will make some of their own heat too. If it’s much too cold, you may want to put it in another room. I’ve gone so far as to put it wrapped up next to a radiator when I tried to use a heat loving yeast in the winter (my own fault there).
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Mar 9, 2021 18:24
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Personally I use a minifridge with a temperature controller and a reptile heating pad. It's not perfect, because I can only temp control one batch at a time, and only certain fermenters fit in it, but I've been using it for 8 years or so.
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Mar 9, 2021 18:33
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I live in the northeast.. my basement is maybe 62-65 max in the summer in the winter my fermzone gets down to 55. My beer sits in a box wrapped up with a blanket and has a seed mat & inkbird sensor taped to it. When I was in my apartment i found the coolest closet for my mister beer in a cooler and put it in there since my laundry room was too warm in the summer. Recently I've also been including a hello-fresh bag reflective bubble wrap bag that someone tossed my way. tater_salad fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Mar 9, 2021 |
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Mar 9, 2021 21:27
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