# Shred's (almost) Nil-cost Brewery



## ShredMaster (12/10/11)

Well I'm almost there... But first, a little back story to put this in perspective....

I started (several years ago) with the gift of a standard Brigalow starter kit (fermenter, hydro etc etc) and learned how to make pretty awful tasting alcoholic mop water. Leaving it in the bottles for a couple of months made it somewhat drinkable but I only found that out by giving up brewing and stumbling across a box of forgotten bottled beer a few months later (funnily enough, I remember opening a couple of bottles after the standard 1 month of being bottled and remembering how foul they tasted and moving the box elsewhere in the garage so I wouldn't get that crap mixed up with my other crap). Must have been 4 months or so since being bottled and, like I said, it was drinkable, that is all.

Again, a bunch of months or so go past and I found myself staring at all these empty bottles and fermenting gear thinking that I really needed to conquer this beast, it can't be that hard, really... But this time I was smarter than the average bear - I had to start buying better ingredients because, as the saying goes: you put shit in then you get shit out. So there I was, spending top dollar at Big W rather than Woolies and getting all the good stuff like dextrose, the occasional box of "Brew Enhancer" (for "enhanced" brews, of course). I even bought better yeast, yes, the Coopers stuff hanging on the shelf on a hook, 2 packets for each tin of quality ingredients. Yeh, the beers still tasted pretty damn bad. It didn't take long before I realised there must be something I'm missing but still, the effort outweighed the benefits so my gear was again stored.

Then we moved house many months later and I came across all my brewing gear which Wifey was in the middle of taking towards the skip bin on the lawn. After some "negotiations" I managed to rescue it all and move it to the new place with the new rule: if it is still unused or stored when we move again, it's in the bin for good!! Hrm... Cranked up the whole process again over the following month, buying even BETTER ingredients like the Toohey's tins and Cascade lager. I even went to the internet to find out how to improve my beer-making skillz but I kept finding all these American pages talking about "kettles" and "mashing" and "burning the kitchen bench" and very little about using kits at all, or even fermenting. This was early 2000's and I didn't really bother looking too deeply, these "brewers" were obviously doing far more than what I was prepared to do... So I consult a local home brew shop instead.

Well, primed full of useful information to make better beer (such as keep it clean and sanitised using Sod Met, don't use table sugar or caster sugar, try to keep it fermenting in the garage as it is cooler, and the best one: brew a lager using lager yeast..) I started up the beer making again. Wow, it totally changed the results!! What was once alcoholic mop water was now not even fit to be put into a bottle to begin with let alone waiting a month or so to taste how disgusting it was. When I read about people having this twang, or a green apple taste or fruity esters I get this little gag in my throat as I remember trying so very hard to drink my own "lagers".

To put this even better in perspective: I am in Cairns, North Queensland. We get hot for 3/4 of the year, it rains alot during that time keeping the average temp at 28-36c. We do get quite cold in winter, some months we even get below 18c of an evening and I have to get on my winter clothes, like a shirt (if it's really cold, like 14c or so, I even have to get a shirt with sleeves). Imagine the taste of a nice lager fermented somewhere between 25c and 32c. Yes, I thought the same thing after I tasted it...

OK, enough rambling...

To me, to master the art of brewing is to master 3 things: making the wort, fermenting the wort into beer, serving the beer. To be able to brew beer I need to win over Wifey especially in the areas of space, cleanliness and cost. As the GFC has affected alot of this town badly (tourists bailed out, tourist operators bailed out, shit gets more expensive as income goes down) I decided that I need to brew beer, I simply cannot afford to buy it all the time. Given my prior experiences, I sought some REAL advice and stumbled into this forum several months back and read, and read, and clicked, and read, and clicked even more, then onto clicking while reading, and eventually posting. I survived a handful of posts and received some great answers to silly little problems and even some PM advice from some dead-set legends which helped me.

There is a golden rule that Wifey has set in stone and must not be broken:* the brewery must cost less than bugger-all and must make great beer. *Being I have other expensive hobbies (guitars, my Harley) this "cost" thingy needs careful consideration....

That doesn't sound too hard, in theory. But several months of reading about all the million different systems from professional through to full-ghetto and everything in between taught me that I need to start acquiring pieces as I go or this will start getting pretty expensive. I also need to try out this whole "grain business" about brewing to see what all the rage is about.

With thanks to the "AG for $30" thread, I think it was that one, the stovetop 10L one anyway. Well my biggest pot is 5L so I halved the recipe, spent a couple of $'s with Ross and got me a kilo and a bit of grain as well as a little bag to use. Then I made myself some beer. DAMN NICE BEER!!! Woo hoo! 

In one fell swoop I am addicted to getting me an AG setup. But still needed more gear to do it right.

Thus was born "Shred's (almost) Nil-Cost Brewery". 

Priorities kiddo!! There is no point making awesome beer if I get the shits about spending 1/2 a day cleaning bottles and bottling and cleaning the mess I made cleaning the bottles let alone the mess I created actually bottling. I needed some kegs. I figured I could at least work out how to make a few cheapo kits and whack them in a keg and drink myself silly while acquiring my brewery components.

Ahh hang on, I still have that temperature control problem with fermenting. Well, I kinda worked around that for the past couple of months using a soft esky-thing on wheels (more like a beer cooler but square), cutting a hole in the side for the tap and a hole in the top for the lid to stick out of and by using a couple of frozen ice bottles twice a day and a towel wrapped around the top I can keep the temp between 17-20c during a ferment. I'll add some pics at some point, it is pretty ghetto but I didn't get a pic of the massive gash on my finger I decided to give myself during the process, it was almost 1cm long and hurt like buggery when I did the smart thing and put dettol on it. I still consider myself lucky I didn't bleed out... 

So the kegs... Well a stroke of luck happened and I made the first and only "massive purchase" for my brewery: a bloke in the paper was selling a "beer fridge, 2 kegs, tap in fridge - $300". When I went to check it out, it was pretty much brand spanking new (fridge is a few years old) and included 3.6kg brand new bottle and reg, lines, tap, kegs as well as his fermenting bucket and attachments, big paddle-thingy and even a tin of goop! $300 later and he even delivered it to my place an hour later. Took me a week to get it set up with some beer in it, took me about 15mins to over carb the keg, then took me 2 days to empty my gas bottle (don't ask, that's for another thread about Shred's Misadventures in Kegging Land). 

Anyway, I have kegs, and gas, a tap in the door of a fridge and it works. Woo hoo! Serving the beer has been solved many thanks to AHB forum members, especially Screwtop for the awesome detailed advice.

So there I am at work and somehow the topic of "do it yourself" came up and before long we were talking about brewing beer. Now most people I've tried to have this discussion with say either "tastes bad", "takes too long" or "my dad used to" or similar. They all seem to think the same way I did when I was starting out: buy a can of goop, add sugar, throw some yeast at it and hope some of it gets going, bottle, wait, drink, repeat the process... Anyway this bloke seems to know his stuff, he's pushing 60-ish years old and even asks me how I go cooling my wort after the boil. WOW!! Turns out this lad was once part of some uber-brewer club back in his University days and some of his old clubmates are now head brewers around the place and he doesn't drink at all anymore but may have some old brewing gear he can bring in to me. He hasn't used any of it for many many years and would rather see it go to good use than be thrown out.

A week later he drops in to me a couple of ancient buckets, a dirty old immersion chiller and a box thingy with a cord, plug, a light and a dial (sounds technical). This stuff looks like it last saw light around 1994. There was supposed to be an element in there but I never found it, I'm not about to ring the bugger up and ask for it either, this was a gift and I appreciate it immensely, even if I don't know what it does exactly. 

At the same time, another mate was scouting for a boiling pot of some description and produces a (no doubt, legally acquired) 50L SS keg for me. I have another mate who may be able to cut/drill the keg for me but I realised a slight issue with that - I would need to buy some pretty funky attachments like weldless stuffs and hoses and something to cook it all with which means a stand or bench of sorts which won't burn down and a height where I can easily take out a full bag of wet grain (I'm a short bugger). Bah too hard! Let's look at these buckets in the meantime, I can keep the keg and make it a pretty neat keggle over time as I get more bits...

Hmm, a bucket-in-a-bucket. Interesting. I read all about this in that All-In-One brewery thread which seemed to spark the BIAB investigations. I was prepared to go all out BIAB but this poses me some interesting design changes... Both buckets look like the standard 30L fermenter style bucket, one of them having had many hours spent attacking the bottom of it with what looks like a 1/8" drill. There must be just less than a million holes in this thing. It fits neatly and tightly into the other bucket (the one with a tap in it) and leaves about 6 inches or so at the bottom. The immersion chiller was made to work with these buckets because it fits snugly into it keeping a few inches of the bottom leaving the hose in/out over the top lip. (Pics later)

I have just received my $40 element from Ross at Craftbrewer (cheers mate!) as my only "new" item purchased for this brewery so far. I'm going to stick it in the bottom of the big bucket once make the hole a little bigger. The tap that was put into the bucket is about 2mm to narrow to fit the element into but I'm sure even a tool-tard like me can make that a little bigger. If not, I have that other bloke's spare fermenter I got with the keg fridge as a backup but I reckon I won't bugger it up too much. *knock on wood*

I kinda need a new tap for it, the old one was brittle and worked like a garden tap which squeaked just trying to move it a little. So I need to get a mate with a holesaw or drill to get a tap onto it for me. There is the recess for a standard fermenter tap which is threaded but still sealed inside (never tapped) and he put the tap into a bigger hole beside it, if I drill the recessed threaded hole through to the inside of the bucket I can use a standard fermenter tap, I hope. 

I intend to heat my strike waster using the element, with both buckets in place, then dough in and mash. I'm actually thinking of manually recirculating the mash (possibly doing step mashes later but for now just to keep the temp constant) by pouring out the bottom into a jug and back into the top and repeating this with the element on to keep the temp where I want. I've even looked at caravan style hand-pumps (think: caravan sink) to see if that would work, they're only like $30 or so... Dunno that part yet... I only really need to keep it at mash temp for however long I plan on mashing. I'm going to keep to 20L (ish) brews for a while to get my house beer recipe sorted and so that 1 brew = 1 keg less the crap I leave in the fermenter.

As far as a fermenting fridge, I am waiting for one to become available to me then I make my second "new" purchase for my brewery - the temp controller. Still working out how to go with that, so many options. I have a mate who works in a place where used fridges occasionally pop up in working order with intact seals, it could be a week, a month or a year but I'll get one for about $30 or less, I'm aiming to barter with decent beer once I make some which I am prepared to give away.


....to be continued.... (probably once I get home if I can find the camera)


PS. Sorry about the length of the post, was rather dull at work this arvo and I've had too much caffeine, but if you can read through it then you know where I came from and where I'm up to.

PPS. Again, thanks to AHB members for making me addicted to this!!


Cheers,
Shred.


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## pk.sax (12/10/11)

Good on ya mate. It's quite 'interesting' brewing up north here unless you have the means & space to keep it all cool for a while. Good luck and wish u well.
PS: a guy around here has a spare bag of pale ale malt that he picked up, one too many. Give me a yell if you want say..... Half of it? I was gonna grab it soon.


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## kalbarluke (12/10/11)

Excellent post.


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## Guysmiley54 (12/10/11)

I got a pretty cheap set up too:

Fermenter, basic kit - FREE for a birthday present years ago
60L Aluminium pot - FREE A spare stockpot at work that wasn't being used
Immersion Element - $39.90 (thanks Ross!)
BIAB bag - FREE, Mum sewed it up real good 
NC Cube - $20
Ferment Fridge - $50, from the newspaper classifieds
STC Temp Control - $30 (including case and stuff)

I bottle so I that part is a pain but otherwise have the tools to make awsome beer quite easily 

Total for full volume AG setup including temp control
*$139.90*

:super:


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## Fodder (12/10/11)

Nice read...be great with pics and looking forward to chapter 2


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## kelbygreen (12/10/11)

lol its long but detailed  I think with a bit of luck and research people can be making good beers with gear that didnt cost them a fortune. I have found cheaper stuff then I have but at the time could not afford it or missed it by a few mins (gotto be ultra quick on here).


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## Feldon (12/10/11)

Inspiring read.

Thanks, Shred.


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## Nick JD (12/10/11)

Hey ShredMaster ... want pdf blueprints for a 1958 Gibson Explorer?


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## ShredMaster (12/10/11)

Nick JD said:


> Hey ShredMaster ... want pdf blueprints for a 1958 Gibson Explorer?



Oh please no. I mean hell yes, but no. If I had them I'd go and spend money on tools and figure out how to make one... 

Now if it was a '59 Les Paul..... 

Actually, I'm more an amp geek lately, got my US strat for my 30th a cpl years back so I can have some real tone to work with but love my little valve amps. Got my little Vox AC5 cranking out earlier this eve as it were haha before I took the photos..

Speaking of which, I'd best work out how to get them up here!


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## Nick JD (12/10/11)

I made this recently out of Bunnings Tassie Oak. Oh yeah!


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## ShredMaster (12/10/11)

Oh wow! Nice work mate!! Just blended volume pots? NICE! I like to use a 3 way setup the same, I have a Washburn with KILLER tone when you get the neck/bridge levels right! 
Did you use a set value tone cap or just raw from the pickups?

I see you worked around the weight issue nicely lol

Mate, you risk turning this thread into a guitar-geek meets beer thread! Pics are uploading currently however, trying to keep on topic...


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## ben_sa (12/10/11)

Great read mate! Look forward to your future posts :-D


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## gregs (12/10/11)

Nick JD said:


> I made this recently out of Bunnings Tassie Oak. Oh yeah!
> 
> If that guitar sounds like it looks then I never want to hear it and dont argue Ive heard that crap before.



If that guitar sounds like it looks then I never want to hear it..................... and dont argue Ive heard that crap before.


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## Nick JD (12/10/11)

ShredMaster said:


> Oh wow! Nice work mate!! Just blended volume pots? NICE! I like to use a 3 way setup the same, I have a Washburn with KILLER tone when you get the neck/bridge levels right!
> Did you use a set value tone cap or just raw from the pickups?
> 
> I see you worked around the weight issue nicely lol
> ...



Beer?  

:icon_offtopic: 

Volume for each pickup. The bridge pickup is 16K ... I wound it HOT. There's no cap in the wiring. Google "Holy Explorer". Ironically, that's about $30 worth of Tassie Oak. Heh heh.

Looking forward to your beer pics.


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## mccuaigm (12/10/11)

Nick JD said:


> I made this recently out of Bunnings Tassie Oak. Oh yeah!



That looks pretty sweet, did it take long to make?


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## Nick JD (12/10/11)

goldy said:


> That looks pretty sweet, did it take long to make?



'Bout a week.



gregs said:


> ... and don’t argue I’ve heard that crap before.



I bet you've heard lots of crap before, with that attitude.

Anyway, back to ShredMaster's brewing.


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## ShredMaster (12/10/11)

practicalfool said:


> Good on ya mate. It's quite 'interesting' brewing up north here unless you have the means & space to keep it all cool for a while. Good luck and wish u well.
> PS: a guy around here has a spare bag of pale ale malt that he picked up, one too many. Give me a yell if you want say..... Half of it? I was gonna grab it soon.



Hell yes that would be cool if you'd want to part with 1/2 a bag of grain, that would be nice and easy for me to test it all with! I'll be in touch via PM once I get this thingy all sorted and able to boil 20ish liters of water or so...

Still uploading pics /sigh, it's a mix between taking too many pics of random shit in the garage and being on carrier-pigeon rated internet. Such is life....



EDIT: Wait (dammit), I don't have a grain mill. While I do have a coffee grinder, I'm not exactly sure where it is.... I'll work something out, I'm in no rush lol, somehow it has to stick to the Wife's Law (cost less than bugger-all)...


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## pk.sax (12/10/11)

Lol. Unless ur eons away, feel welcome to using my mill. Haha.
I'll call the guy tomorrow and pickup the bag of grain, bn meaning to, now I have half a reason more.


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## ShredMaster (12/10/11)

Well that works for me!


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## ShredMaster (12/10/11)

OK, Pic time, bear with me....


First, the problem:





(I have 2 of these bins...)





Then, the solution:





NOTE: I even tried to remove the sticker, see the torn part near the top. All that did was remove the plastic and leave the sticky bit. Now I need to come up with a brewery logo that is diamond shaped....


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## alcoadam (12/10/11)

Nice post Shred, I gotta great laugh as it almost sounded exactly like my story!

I was brewing in Cairns some years back and can relate. I use to shop at the showgrounds there where i was sold lager yeasts in summer and also given advice on where to fill my fermenter up to (which i know now is almost the 25L mark!)

Only good thing to come out of my brewing up there was the garden seemed very happy.


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## ShredMaster (12/10/11)

Then there's the fementing temperature controller....











NOTE: The towel is "light red", it is not pink. I can fit 1 x 2L Coke bottle and 1 x 1.25L bottle down either side. There is a temperature measurement strip and to access it is easy... First, you remove the towel, unzip the pathetic lid, pull out the bottles and squeeze down the cooler enough to see the strip which is carefully located about 5cm above the tap on the right side of the fermenter. Pure fkn geniousness courtesy of me!


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## ShredMaster (12/10/11)

Being that my mini-batches are 5L or less, here is my mini-fermenting-fridge-setup....










1L or so of ice per day seems enough to keep this puppy at 15-17c for most of the time. NFI what it gets to max/min, I just know when I come home from work what it reads and that I need to stick more ice in it.... I close my eyes and pretend it's controlled and I like the beer it makes, usually.


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## ShredMaster (12/10/11)

The Brewery Room (before shots, wait a few months for the after shots)...

From the right...





From the left...





No, I do NOT hoard crap.... As I tell Wifey, this is ALL important, useful, valuable and required. No further discussion!


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## pk.sax (12/10/11)

I fermented my first and so far only batch up here in a cube in one of those collapsible can coolers from bunnings, frozen bottle + thermi ice gel packs in there and towel on top. Kept it 16-18 for 5-6 days, then I just let it rip  2 weeks in there overall.
If u plan to brew in cubes, grab a cheapie esky from somewhere that an hold a Squarish 25 Ltr cube. That will sort u out short of getting a fermenting fridge.


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## ShredMaster (12/10/11)

Now, the buckets...

This is how I got them:





And that didn't really make sense to me... Not in the slightest...

So, I worked out I had one of these (this has been lightly washed):





And some of these:





And when paired up, they look like this (note the space available at the bottom where the colour changes):






The inside bucket looks like this, alot of hours spend on this puppy and I don't want to ignore that:










And the holes on the outside (bottom) bucket:


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## ShredMaster (12/10/11)

The element from CraftBrewer, if you haven't seen it before, a nice tidy piece really.






And how I intend to use it once I work it out, I've made many a piece of hose into an angled water-tight fit in the side of the odd Orchy bottle, it can't be too hard...


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## ShredMaster (12/10/11)

OHHHhhhhh and this thingy, I forgot to go into detail about that, it's pretty cool....











And my hi-tech thermometer, it's pretty bloody good, just keep it in the red-zone when mashing and it should be ok....








Ok that's enough pics.... Heh...


Cheers,
Shred.


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## Adam Howard (12/10/11)

Iron 883? I WANT ONE. Good to see the plan finally coming together. Making good beer is pretty cool.


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## ShredMaster (12/10/11)

Adamski29 said:


> Iron 883? I WANT ONE. Good to see the plan finally coming together. Making good beer is pretty cool.



Hahaha! Yes, well spotted... 

That was the ecconomical cost of me having to brew nice beer. After refinancing, I worked out that the bike costs me exactly as much as my weekly beer fund, working out how much I drink and how much I can realistically brew, the Harley stays and I learn to brew beer. 

There is no alternative.


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## pyrosx (13/10/11)

> I've made many a piece of hose into an angled water-tight fit in the side of the odd Orchy bottle, it can't be too hard...


You're selling yourself short - those right there are damn near "air-tight" fits! 
:icon_chickcheers:


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## flano (13/10/11)

great thread!

is that 30 dgrs on that thermometer at room temp?


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## ShredMaster (13/10/11)

beernorks said:


> great thread!
> 
> is that 30 dgrs on that thermometer at room temp?



Yeh, that's room temp at 7:30ish in the evening too....


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## flano (13/10/11)

...and an electric drum kit?


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## kjparker (13/10/11)

That box with the dial on it looks like a thermostat controller for your element. I'm betting you could run your craftbrewer element through it, to regulate the power somewhat. Could be good for maintaining the boil you want!


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## ShredMaster (13/10/11)

Yeh I'm pretty sure thats exactly what it is, still I'd better open it up and check what it is just in case...

@beernorks yeh and that big room thingy there is meant to be a soundproof recording booth, just gotta work out where the roof went and put the door back on... I'm gonna be moving a heap of crap around in there over the next couple of weeks to fit my brewery in properly.


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## crozdog (15/10/11)

good to see the "bucket in bucket" and "bucket of death" making a comeback!

top stuff


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## warra48 (15/10/11)

After just coming home from morning tea with a geriatric Father-in-Law, and his two geriatric sisters, it was a pleasure to read this thread.

Well done. Keep up the good work!


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## ShredMaster (16/10/11)

Well I made the big hole a little bigger (heh) and was able to fit the element through it with just some minor swearing however it was letting some drops of water through, mind you it was only hand tightened.

Went to a Purveyor of Fine Tools this morning and picked up a $12 pair of multi-grips, hoping to see if I can make it watertight this evening and give it a test boil to see if I'll melt through this bucket.

I'm madly following the other few threads about "Bucket Brewing" and associated pitfalls and ideas. My system is obviously quite old so it will be cool to watch how other people tweak theirs during the design phase whereas I get all the joys (read: hassle) of adapting my system to how I think it will work. FUN! FUN! FUN!

Cheers for the feedback, it's actually making me put some effort into this thing and get up and running as soon as possible. Just sweating on finding a decent fermenting fridge and it will be complete(ish)!

Cheers,
Shred.


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## Dazza88 (16/10/11)

Hope ya got a real good scrubbing arm for those buckets and coil.


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## ShredMaster (16/10/11)

Yeh they'll scrub up ok. Nothing a bit of Napisan and a scrub won't fix. Mind you, once this all becomes "brewery equipment" then it gets the full cleaning treatment but until then it remains just a pair of buckets, 1 with holes in it. 

Speaking of which, I came home with my awesome and shiny new multi-grips and fitted the element firmly and watertight. Well ok, I worked out that I could probably tighten it until I went through the bucket but if that silicone washer inside keeps going off to the left like that then water will still get through. Loosened the element off, turned washer around and held in place while it was all tightened and woohoo it's watertight! Tbh, I didn't need the multi-grips but they'll come in handy sometime soon enough. 

Love my obvious answer tho? heh. "If it doesn't fit, get a bigger hammer!". Buying a new tool which I didn't actually need to correct the problem. 

Just about to plug it all in and fire up a 1/2 bucket boil to see if it works or if I mop out the garage. Depends on when the Mrs gets home, I want someone there to whack me with a plank of wood if something goes wrong while I'm mucking around with electricity and water in the garage.


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## pk.sax (16/10/11)

You sound dangerous 

Btw, I've got your bag (or half) of grain now. Gimme a yell anytime, I'll probably get around to weighing and splitting it sometime this week.

PS: will pm u


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## ShredMaster (16/10/11)

@practicalfool, I'll be in touch for sure mate!! Cheers!

Hrm well I managed to not kill myself and plugged my Bucket Of Death in, and it didn't spark or smoke. It heated nicely. I was only using about 1/3 bucket of water just to test if it would seal, heat and sustain a boil for a while and it almost worked.

About 10minutes into the boil I noticed wetness in the grout of the tiles (was doing this on the back patio in case something went wierd on me). So I moved the bucket about a metre over and water was definately leaking out of where the element is installed. I've probably buggered it up somehow but I'll order a new pair of silicone seals (getting 2 this time: 1 for the inside and 1 for the outside) and try it again. I've probably mashed up the supplied silicone seal by tightening it too much before realising it was not centered correctly. Meh... :chug:


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## pk.sax (16/10/11)

Get a silicone baking sheet and cut ur own silicone seals


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## Tim F (16/10/11)

ShredMaster said:


> No, I do NOT hoard crap.... As I tell Wifey, this is ALL important, useful, valuable and required. No further discussion!



I hear ya, spent the weekend cleaning up my own shed. Another skip full of useful, valuable possessions ready to leave forever 

BTW you have the most awesomely ghetto brewing setup I've seen yet


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## crozdog (17/10/11)

as you say sodium perc to clean out the buckets.

Mix up a vinegar / salt / water solution & soak the chiller in it. that'll clean it up. don't leave in too long or it'll turn black.

PF's on the right track with silicon bakeware for diy washers.


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## ShredMaster (23/10/11)

OK so I re-adjusted the element again, the silicone washer was perfectly intact and not damaged like I thought it was. I loosened it all up and centered it a little better by holding it with one hand and tightening the nut with the other just to the point that it is tight and the silicone washer starts to compress. I found that I had to keep my fingers holding pressure around the washer as I tightened it or it would always slip to the left a little. I read somewhere not to overtighten to the point that it gets disfigured so I made sure I did that correctly. 

Re-tested by leaving a FULL bucket of water for a day on the concrete in the garage, no drips, not even dampness. Fired up the element with 1/2 a bucket it in again, heats fine, starts the boil fine, 10mins into it and it dribbles out of the bottom again. I'm just going to use some silicone sealant on the outside of the element fitting (over the nut, thread and plastic surrounding the hole). I checked, the silicone I have is rated up to -60something to 150'c If that doesn't stop a small slow leak after boiling for 10mins then nothing will!!

So on to the Great Ancient Chiller Cleansing Debacle. Well, it's not a debacle yet but give me time and I'm sure it will be. So far I've soaked it in a full bucket of water with napisan (and some left over sod perc I had lying around). Foamed up and went nuts, left it overnight and it has removed alot of the gunk all over the chiller but I still want to get rid of the green bits (verdi?) before I use it. I'll try the vinegar/salt trick crozdog mentioned and see how it works. I could always just actually scrub the bugger harder I guess.... Firstly though, I need to hook the bugger up to some hoses and make sure water actually flows through it and it's not full of ants or hornets nests or whateverthefuckelse. I would hate to have a nice shiny clean blocked up paperweight. 

....almost ready to do a mash in this setup.... 

Time to write some Q's for the more experiences mashmasters and mathsbrains about volumes etc with this particular setup...


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## Duff (23/10/11)

Shred,

I've just moved from Port Douglas to Brisbane after many years. Get yourself along to Bluesky and meet Hayden the brewer. There is an active and growing AG scene in Cairns and FNQ, for instance just this weekend is the competition up at Yungaburra which is always good fun. We do Big Brew Day every May and there are regular meets for brew days, swaps, etc. Hayden is good enough to organise bulk buys of grain and hops twice per year at the brewery so get along and meet the guys. Alot of good and very helpful brewers. They can also get you onto the email list. I actually sold all of my AG gear to one of the guys before I moved down here (bought a Braumeister) so there is stuff around from time to time.

Cheers - Brett.


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## ShredMaster (23/10/11)

Cheers Brett! Grats on the Braumeister! 

I actually got onto the FNQ mailing list a few weeks ago so I will be meeting and joining in the other brewers soon enough. I missed out on the last grain bulk buy as I wasn't ready for going AG then, but another one will pop up soon enough. Haven't yet met Haydon but that will happen soon enough, I have only heard good things!

I was planning to go up to Yungaburra yesterday to sit in on the beer judging but unfortunately I had to work. I had no beers ready to enter the comp so I'm waiting to hear the feedback about how it went and what the judges thought. I'll make sure to have some brews ready for the next comp I hear about tho!

My fermenting fridge has been found (well it was available as of last week, hopefully it's still there for me). Next I need to get my temp controller, wire it all up and get the fridge delivered home. With luck, it is only a matter of weeks before I will have a complete AG brewing setup.

Just working out what I need to ask about how to make by Bucket-In-Bucket system work. It's not as easy as designing one from scratch where I have control over all of the different parts but that's the fun of it!!

Cheers,
Shred.


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## ShredMaster (1/11/11)

OK well I've tested out the Bucket-in-Bucket mashing setup and it works pretty well from what I can tell, well it made beer! 

I only had about 2kg left over grain so I used that and topped up the final gravity with some other bits and pieces like LDME, a bit of cane sugar and some spices to throw together a Spiced Xmas Ale for the in-laws. I think I went a bit nuts with the additives as OG in the ferementer was 1.072, meh we'll see how it turns out. I have a batch of grain arriving in the next couple of days to do a full volume AG batch with this setup now that I know that it works well.

With the mash bucket inside the kettle bucket it seals together along the sides but leaves about 5.5L at the bottom where the element is. This is the old pic but you can see the dark part at the bottom between the buckets.






This means that I need 5.5L more strike water than what I need to mash in and my thoughts say that it also means that I can ramp up temps by turning the element on and recirculating via jug out of the bottom and pouring in the top over a plastic lid resting on the grain bed.

I didn't bother getting pics of the first brew but I'll get some of the next one later this week...

So I got my 11L strike water up to 71'c and doughed in dropping it back down to around 66-67'c. Mashed for an hour (I recirculated a few times with the jug). Ramped to mashout @ 78'c via the jug again with the element turned on and left for 10mins. Raised mash bucket and let drain for a minute while holding it then moved mash bucket to the spare fermenter bucket to let drain and do the 1.5L sparge while starting the boil. Boiled for just over an hour with hop additions and adding the spices in the last 10mins (at the same time as I dropped the cleaned chiller in the boil). Stopped the boil, hooked up the chiller and chilled to about 38'c in 15-20mins, transferred to 10L fermenter and left to cool to pitching temp. Currently bubbling away happily....

I like it so far, was a pretty simple process. 

I'll update with full-batch pics later this week.

Cheers,
Shred.


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