New Brewing Pot

[wolfenrook]

So, my wife gave me the go ahead to buy a brewing pot. Went for a 30l one form Brew Builder (50l was out of stock I think, wouldn't let me add it to cart). Hopefully big enough for me to make a start with either extract, or BIAB, brewing?

It's very shiny...

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

It will make a start. Stove top? You will get batches in the 15-18L size for BIAB with 30L

[wolfenrook]

Yeah, our cooker has a gas hob with a big ring on it that should do the job.

15-18l sounds good enough to me, I'd been thinking of trying to make smaller batches anyway, that way I can make a larger variety of brews without ending up with an insane amount of beer. lol

[pvt_ak]

It’s what I started with


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[TheSumOfAllBeers]

I think you have goldilocks-ed that pretty well. You can stretch out the volume with a water top up if you need to do something like fill a corny for a party.

Good balanced size for a stovetop

[wolfenrook]

Cool. Taken another step towards all grain/extract today too, ordered a copper immersion wort cooler. Making my own is as far from an option as you can get as I have a bit of arthritis in my hands and a tremor. It'd end up resembling a globular protein molecule.... I discussed cooling with my wife and she felt that a wort cooler was preferable to my using the kitchen sink or the bath to cool with....

[Manngold]

Cool. Taken another step towards all grain/extract today too, ordered a copper immersion wort cooler. Making my own is as far from an option as you can get as I have a bit of arthritis in my hands and a tremor. It'd end up resembling a globular protein molecule.... I discussed cooling with my wife and she felt that a wort cooler was preferable to my using the kitchen sink or the bath to cool with....

I find it's all in the phrasing!

[wolfenrook]

I'm fortunate, she came to that conclusion without my encouragement! She wasn't keen on the running water initially either, until I explained how you can use a fair bit of it to wash equipment etc. I looked into "no cool" and discussed this with her too, but we both tend to be a bit sensitive to even a hint of plastic flavour in our food and drink. Gotta love having a wife who loves beer as much as you do, I've even gotten her to agree to assist in the brewing (she does anyway with the kits, including label design. lol). Hobbies are always more enjoyable when shared. Oh, bought a cooking thermometer too (analogue dial one as didn't fancy faffing around with batteries) to help with temperature measurement when mashing. Seems fairly accurate from a brief comparison to other thermometers we own (I keep freshwater shrimp, and used to keep frogs, so have quite a few around the house). I have a glass Kilner one, but find it a pain to use, not really a good design where I want to monitor temps constantly. My wife crafts too, so understands the drive (she crochets, mainly amigurumi) to try to create something good. I'm not even a big drinker, just a pint or two a week tops and a bit of single malt scotch or bourbon every now and then.

Really looking forward to taking the next step from tweaking kits. Just wish there was a home brew shop in Wolverhampton town center, my wife doesn't fancy a trip to Bilston. lol

Oh and you can bet I'll be asking for something brewing related for Christmas and my birthday. lol

[Fil]

for a brewday thermometer the eti thermapens are very hard to beat, UK manufactured (well??) Big clear lcd display and a superfast zeroing in of an accurate reading, not cheap though but if bought it will also become an invaluable cooking thermometer too, it never gets lost as it lives in the kitchen by the cooker..

for that local home brew shop experience, over the phone at least.. check out the copper kettle online brewshop, and our local homebrewshop (stonehelm, silly name nice folk, go figure..) who also deal online, both run by avid brewers and will give honest opinions on the stock or questions you may have..

[wolfenrook]

Something to consider adding to my "Upgrades when money allows" list. At the moment I'm trying to make a start on a budget, looking to upgrade over time to either a larger batch BIAB setup or maybe even a 3 vessel set up (3 vessel is my preference to be honest, I'm a geek and it appeals to my geekness. lol). My wife gave me what is best described as an old fashioned look when I showed her the prices on the single vessel systems, even the Bulldog and ACE brewers got the same raised eyebrow.... lol

Thanks for the supplier suggestions. I have found a few good ones so far (love brewing have been excellent for 30 litre bucket FVs for example), I tend to order different things from different suppliers depending on quality and price. I just like popping into a shop for a browse to be honest, maybe a natter with the folks in the shop. I'll just have to keep trying to get my darling wife to pop to Bilston with me (they sell on eBay too, but their prices are much higher than other online sellers). There's another over near Dudley, but that's way to awkward to get too via taxis or public transport.

Amusingly, I haven't actually finished my tweaked kit brews yet! They're both still bubbling away... No point not planning ahead though, as I'll never get the brew I want with just kits sadly. Plus I want to enjoy the feeling of having fully crafted my own beer, rather than feeling like I've made somebody else's.

[wolfenrook]

Just to update on this. After doing 2 brews (1 BIAB that came to 19 litres in the FV but fell short of target OG so had to be tweaked with some DME, 1 stove top that came out at a higher OG, but shish what a lot of work for 4 litres....), I made the decision that boiling anything more than 13 litres on our gas hob just isn't going to happen....

So, long story short, I bought me a nice ACE mash tun/boiler with timer and digital temperature control, complete with bag, hop filter, tap, false bottom.... Not used it yet as waiting for one of my decent FVs to come free (1 is housing the BIAB I did (a sorta Saison), the other is housing a Youngs AIPA kit which is STILL fermenting....), but a quick test and it certainly manages a proper boil (with water in there I had to turn off the 900 watt element and just use the 1600 watt one).

[Fil]

and the collection of large shiny brewpots etc has started,, hehe

[wolfenrook]

Shinies. lol

[wolfenrook]

Updating this once more.

I finally used my new boiler on the 25/11, and it went really well. Efficiency was around the 80% mark, and I actually overshot target OG and ended up diluting to 23 litres in the FV, and was still on 1.040 rather than 1.038. Made rather a yummy variation on the Greg Hughes summer ale recipe that we've named Cascades of Summer for now. Was down to 1.010 (target FG was 1.012...) by yesterday using CML Real Ale yeast, and seems to have pretty much finished already...

So yeah, I'm happy.