I don't know the best place to put a list of websites to visit if you want to clutter your brain with stuff. So, in no particular order:
Chris White on yeast nutrition:
http://www.jstrack.org/brewing/Yeast_nutrition_article.pdf
Usually correct, largely accessible brewing science:
http://braukaiser.com
Inaccessible science compilation on boiling heat load by someone who works for the world's largest brewer:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/28360713_The_influence_of_thermal_load_during_wort_boiling_on_the_flavour_stability_of_beer
John Palmer:
http://www.howtobrew.com/
A calculator for every occasion:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/
The following two links are by leaders in brewing water related matters.
AJ DeLange:
http://wetnewf.org/
Bru'n Water:
https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/
I couldn't see myself working in any other brewshop, so if you want to tell me to my face that I'm an idiot:
http://www.grainandgrape.com.au/
Wednesday 22 February 2017
Friday 31 October 2014
A new system is born!
Automated mashing systems are common. Direct-fired gas recirculating mash systems are common enough in the USA, but not so much here. Single-vessel, direct-fired, gas recirculating mash systems are probably the smallest subset of the species.
I've been brewing with the G&G 2Pot Screamer system (40litre pot with a perforated base inside a 60litre pot) on gas for several months now and love it: to the point where I prefer it over BIAB. I've been recirculating with a pump and slowly ramping mash temperatures from 55degC through to 76degC. A brief photoplay can be found on the Grain and Grape Facebook page.
Next: Automating it with a PID controller and stuff...
Thursday 7 April 2011
Theatre Nurses and Brewers.
For years, I used the cheapest unscented nappy wash powder I could find - usually from the supermarket. Containing Sodium Percarbonate, these things work really well at removing the various kinds of brewing/fermentation deposits from equipment.
Then, I discovered Five Star Chemicals' PBW. It's hideously expensive, but not so bad if you buy it in the Really Big Containers and works so much better than nappy wash. A mate of mine keeps a solution in a keg/cube and reuses it again and again.
The manufacturers claim it is safe to use on soft metals, which nobody does with sodium percarbonate and aluminum - although I used to use it routinely on my kettle ensuring I was quick and gave it all a good rinse afterwards.
The thing about the supermarket nappy washes is that they contain no more than 35% sodium percarbonate - the balance is fillers, surfactants and who-knows-what-else. If you buy pure sodium percarbonate, you don't have to carry home all that extra stuff that might be good for clothes, but is irrelevant to brewers.
My last 1kg container of nappy wash was purchased from the local supermarket for $4.99 and claims to comprise 34% active ingredient. Yesterday, I purchased 1kg sodium percarbonate from a not-so-local home brew shop for $7.95. I reckon that is 1.85 times better value.
So, my new cleaning regime is to use the sodium percarbonate for general cleaning and the PBW for the occasional clean or when the former doesn't work (or on my aluminum things).
Lots and lots of rinsing goes on after this - usually more with the nappy wash to get rid of the surfactants - and then Sanitation takes place.
No rinse sanitisers all round. Usually Star San, but sometimes Iodophor. I particularly like Iodophors, because they come with a built-in indicator they are still good to use.
The decay products of all these things are essentially benign (unless you're very, very small); I've been draining mine onto a particular patch of garden for over two years and cannot see any change. Apart from the three-eyed frog of course.
Then, I discovered Five Star Chemicals' PBW. It's hideously expensive, but not so bad if you buy it in the Really Big Containers and works so much better than nappy wash. A mate of mine keeps a solution in a keg/cube and reuses it again and again.
The manufacturers claim it is safe to use on soft metals, which nobody does with sodium percarbonate and aluminum - although I used to use it routinely on my kettle ensuring I was quick and gave it all a good rinse afterwards.
The thing about the supermarket nappy washes is that they contain no more than 35% sodium percarbonate - the balance is fillers, surfactants and who-knows-what-else. If you buy pure sodium percarbonate, you don't have to carry home all that extra stuff that might be good for clothes, but is irrelevant to brewers.
My last 1kg container of nappy wash was purchased from the local supermarket for $4.99 and claims to comprise 34% active ingredient. Yesterday, I purchased 1kg sodium percarbonate from a not-so-local home brew shop for $7.95. I reckon that is 1.85 times better value.
So, my new cleaning regime is to use the sodium percarbonate for general cleaning and the PBW for the occasional clean or when the former doesn't work (or on my aluminum things).
Lots and lots of rinsing goes on after this - usually more with the nappy wash to get rid of the surfactants - and then Sanitation takes place.
No rinse sanitisers all round. Usually Star San, but sometimes Iodophor. I particularly like Iodophors, because they come with a built-in indicator they are still good to use.
The decay products of all these things are essentially benign (unless you're very, very small); I've been draining mine onto a particular patch of garden for over two years and cannot see any change. Apart from the three-eyed frog of course.
Sunday 24 October 2010
Fan Forcing the NoKill Fridge Heater
My NoKill Fridge Heater proved itself as a heater (and is yet to kill anyone that I know of) but needed a cute stand to complete. Rather than do that, I mounted it on a 100mm fan scavenged from a computer. A quick and dirty rectifier (low-voltage light transformers supply AC to the lights, but low-voltage fans prefer DC), some rubber feet and a long cable tie makes it all happen.
As luck would have it, the fridge is completely full of fermenters, so no pics until the next stage of the Shepherds Flat Fermenting Fridge Improvement Plan is ready for showing.
As luck would have it, the fridge is completely full of fermenters, so no pics until the next stage of the Shepherds Flat Fermenting Fridge Improvement Plan is ready for showing.
Sunday 22 August 2010
NoKill Fridge Heater
The inside of a fermenting fridge contains enough danger without the addition of mains voltages. But, many home-brewed heating solutions (including my own) seem to revolve around a standard incandescent light globe in a tin or a terracotta pot or some such thing.
When the latest globe blew in my dog-food-tin brew-heater, I decided to accelerate my move to a safer fermenting fridge.
Inside a cast aluminum project box (available at almost any electronics supply store) now live two 12V 50W halogen globes wired in series. A long-ish piece of figure-8 cable ties this to a small, double-insulated halogen transformer. The latter lives outside the fridge. An old LED minus its leads pushed into a hole in the box indicates the globes are working.
Wiring two globes in series halves the voltage across each filament and therefore the wattage drawn by each. I figure this might result in longer bulb life.
Obligatory Pics:
When the latest globe blew in my dog-food-tin brew-heater, I decided to accelerate my move to a safer fermenting fridge.
Inside a cast aluminum project box (available at almost any electronics supply store) now live two 12V 50W halogen globes wired in series. A long-ish piece of figure-8 cable ties this to a small, double-insulated halogen transformer. The latter lives outside the fridge. An old LED minus its leads pushed into a hole in the box indicates the globes are working.
Wiring two globes in series halves the voltage across each filament and therefore the wattage drawn by each. I figure this might result in longer bulb life.
Obligatory Pics:
 |
| From Beer Equipments |
 |
| From Beer Equipments |
Wednesday 21 July 2010
Fermentation Fridge
Warning: This post contains no pics. I am assuming you know what a fridge looks like.
The Shepherds Flat Brewery has a Fisher & Paykel 520litre upside down fridge for fermentation control. For ages, I've been maintaining desired fermentation temperature ranges with a CraftBrewer TempMate, a 40Watt light globe in a couple of dogfood tins and the unmodified fridge.
One day it occurred to me that I could fit - as well as four fermenters in the fridge section - two fermenters in the downstairs freezer section. After a greater than usual (even for me) amount of *cough* basic research *cough*, I found that the fridge section is cooled by what amounts to a temperature-controlled 12Volt fan blowing cold air in from the freezer section. If I were to intercept this, I could then do exactly what the manufacturers do, but at temperature ranges that are of more interest to me. As long as the freezer section is colder than the fridge section, everything is okay. So, I can use the freezer section to ferment lagers (as if!) or to cold condition finished beer before packaging, and reduce the workload on my beer filter.
I had previously purchased a cheaper alternative to the TempMate from someone in Hong Kong via eBay and used it to control the keg fridge. Some rearranging and redeployment of various bits and pieces and I now have two controllers for my fermenting fridge. I dug up a 12VDC plug-pack from the bits box and made a connector to fit the fridge-resistant Molex connector used by F&P.
Right this instant, I am lagering an English Best Bitter in the freezer section and fermenting an English IPA and a Mixed Berry Mead in the top section. All seems to be working okay.
If I want to return the fridge to normal fermenting practice, I can plug the plug-pack and the fridge into the same controller and it works as it used to, or - in extreme circumstances - rework the fan connection to original.
Next step: build a 12V heating box to remove mains voltage from inside the cabinet.
The Shepherds Flat Brewery has a Fisher & Paykel 520litre upside down fridge for fermentation control. For ages, I've been maintaining desired fermentation temperature ranges with a CraftBrewer TempMate, a 40Watt light globe in a couple of dogfood tins and the unmodified fridge.
One day it occurred to me that I could fit - as well as four fermenters in the fridge section - two fermenters in the downstairs freezer section. After a greater than usual (even for me) amount of *cough* basic research *cough*, I found that the fridge section is cooled by what amounts to a temperature-controlled 12Volt fan blowing cold air in from the freezer section. If I were to intercept this, I could then do exactly what the manufacturers do, but at temperature ranges that are of more interest to me. As long as the freezer section is colder than the fridge section, everything is okay. So, I can use the freezer section to ferment lagers (as if!) or to cold condition finished beer before packaging, and reduce the workload on my beer filter.
I had previously purchased a cheaper alternative to the TempMate from someone in Hong Kong via eBay and used it to control the keg fridge. Some rearranging and redeployment of various bits and pieces and I now have two controllers for my fermenting fridge. I dug up a 12VDC plug-pack from the bits box and made a connector to fit the fridge-resistant Molex connector used by F&P.
Right this instant, I am lagering an English Best Bitter in the freezer section and fermenting an English IPA and a Mixed Berry Mead in the top section. All seems to be working okay.
If I want to return the fridge to normal fermenting practice, I can plug the plug-pack and the fridge into the same controller and it works as it used to, or - in extreme circumstances - rework the fan connection to original.
Next step: build a 12V heating box to remove mains voltage from inside the cabinet.
Shepherds Flat Brewery
Part of why there hasn't been a post here in a very long time has been that I've moved house to a small farm-type property north of Hepburn. Here, I've rebuilt the building that was used to process olives and turned it into the Shepherds Flat Brewery.
Pics at a later date. More to follow.
Pics at a later date. More to follow.
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