China Sourcing Trip

[technocat]

Awesome - any contact details or link?

PM sent

:icon_cheers:

 

[Tim]

Stainless Coil for miracle boxes/heat exchangers

 

[Quintrex]

How bout a shipping container of 10L corny kinda kegs. The new kegs that grain and grape sell are good cos they are more squat then the standard cornies, allows more flexibility imo in using them in different fridges.

I bet you'd be able to sell off a containers worth.

Q

 

[brettprevans]

How bout a shipping container of 10L corny kinda kegs.

oooohhhh cheap kegs. wonder how much normal 19L cornies would be.

 

[Tony]

Im still keen on my 100 liter kettle...... will need a price first though.

cheers

 

[captaincleanoff]

a China Sourcing Trip should involve plenty of

 

[Daniel.lear]

1. smudge (150 litre kettle)
2. ........... (140 litre kettle)
3. ........... (120 litre kettle)
4. Rooting Kings (110 litre kettle) dependent on pricing and probably 2-3 of them ($200 a piece or there abouts). Conical would be nice too at the right price (sub $500 delivered) Like this
5. Tony (100 litre kettle) must have thick base!
6. Batz (120-150 litre kettle) & (80 litre kettle) price depending,must have thick base!
7. Retsamhsam (120-150 litre kettle) price depending,must have thick base!
8. QldKev Couple of kettles, price depending
9. mitysa. 80ltr kettle depend on price
10. Duff (100L kettle with lid) price depending, must have thick base! I'd go another conical if they have the jacket.
11. PoMo 100L SS kettle with thick base and lid.
12. OLDS2006 100ltr SS kettle and 2 large burners.
13. Jimmyjack 100L SS Kettle with 1/2 SS socket prewelded
14. lastdrinks 100L-120L SS kettle probably 2or3 depending on price
15. Leary QTY:1-2 80-120L SS kettle (price pending) (best get on board b4 i become no 112 somepoorbastard)

Very interested

Leary

 

[Tony]

a China Sourcing Trip should involve plenty of

Might be a good additive to most APA's to hide the hop flavour and aroma h34r:

 

[InCider]

 

[Tony]

at the right price of course

 

[hsv_069]

how about taps?

 

[Tony]

Taps would have to be cheap.

with the aussie dollar at good rates to the greenback, i just got 3 perlick taps and handles delivered from the US within a week for about $130 delivered aussie dollars.

worth a look though i guess

 

[Fermented]

How bout a shipping container of 10L corny kinda kegs. The new kegs that grain and grape sell are good cos they are more squat then the standard cornies, allows more flexibility imo in using them in different fridges.

If the market was that good, then the forum sponsors and other merchants would already be on it. I'm not interested in disrupting their business - that's a shxtty thing to do. Biz is tough enough down here without some cowboy messing up things. I would be well pxssed at someone playing in my puddle, so am sure they too would have similar sentiments.

However, if they're up for a quantity of something, I'm interested to deal. An FCL or an HCL of product is rather too much for one house to deal with, but I'm happy enough to broker deals for merchants, albeit with a margin. Similarly, I'm happy enough to arrange agency or distribution agreements - been there, done that, not new territory, all done for a fee. PM for a meeting and details.

a China Sourcing Trip should involve plenty of

lol... that's a small supermarket! You should see the ones in my mother-in-law's town... a small regional centre of about one million people - tiny by their standards. So very cheap and the staff are expected to carry your groceries for you in the supermarket (forget about trolleys - you get dollies!) and to bring it to your home - without additional fee, besides a little tip of about AUD$1 for the youngster who carries the groceries to your home.

You gotta love China when it comes to copying stuff. There is a really famous brand of chilli condiments branded "Lao Gan Ma" (mentioned in some of my brew food posts; originally sauces made by a lady street vendor in Sichuan province who somehow got a commercialisation deal; bloody good stuff), loosely translates as "[doesn't really translate - kind of a trade name] Mother". After that lady got success out of her brand, then came "Lao Gan Ba", or "[etc] Father", then "[etc] son" then... etc. Just like the Marmite - Parwill (i.e. If Ma might, then Pa will) brand wars in AUS and UK so long ago.

And yes, Leary is right. Some of the regional beer needs to have the flavour washed away with something, anything, battery acid, vinegar - just some harsh tasting thing so that the foul, foul taste is gone. It's worse than my first and truly tragic homebrew - I kid you not.


Anyway - looks like pots, kettles, chillers and coils, conicals, burners, pH meters, other measuring toys, etc are the go. I've instructed my guy to start snooping as soon as he is back in Shenzhen. He's in Zhuhai on another project for a few weeks for me.


And Tony, the only Santa-babies to be found around there are from Russia and they charge by the hour. At least that's what some of my business colleagues tell me. For some odd reason they're all into white chicks. Go figure.


OK - in all seriousness:
* Stainless stuff: Is there a preferred grade? e.g. good pots are 18/10, good edgware is 440C, etc...

* Conicals: Jacketed or bare?

* Conicals II: Do you really think there is a market for plastic conicals? It IS possible, but we're talking >1K units (at least!) to justify the mould development costs (IM mould and blow-mould).

* Chillers / Coils: What outer diameter for the coil, how many turns, what diameter pipe, what fittings?

* Fridgemate, etc: Forget it. Getting it certified and going through the product development cycle is not cost effective for this project. If I was making money on it, it would still be a distant maybe.

* Burners: Checking the relevant certification and foreign equivalents to make sure, but I have a little lack of confidence until I have enough information. Will revert to you on this one.

* pH Meters: What kind of probe is preferred? As most of them are reactive to some extent, sooner or later they will fail /wear and you will need a new one. e.g. Temp measuring gear usually uses K-type thermocouple, etc. What is common and cheap for pH meters? Or is one spare probe with each kit enough (can squeeze for add-ons)? How many decimal accuracy? x.x? x.xx? x.xxx? ??

* HERMS / process automation: I doubt that there is any off-the-shelf solution available. Code development costs would be too high for the limited number of units if I understand correctly, either that or I'm still stuck in the German mindset of full auto PLC based controllers.


And one BIG point: Chinese stainless, regardless of grade, isn't high polish like the US stuff. It's coarse, comparatively. However, it's tough as nails. e.g. I bought a fancy-schmansy US made pressure cooker with lots of high polish and plastic crap ($200 on sale), my mate bought a cheap ($80?) Chinese one. His is rock solid. Mine has plastic crap falling off. Some stuff from China is much simpler, much less impressive, but made rather well. If you want shiny, shiny Euro or USA style product, Chinese metal work is not for you.


Let me know and let's move it forward.



Cheers - Fermented.

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Maybe import a load of communism ! Just joking ! It doesnt work any where. :icon_cheers:
GB

 

[Fermented]

Taps would have to be cheap.

I will look into taps too. I don't like my chances too much. Nonetheless, it is on the list.

However...

They're not that popular in China as most pubs deliver beer by the dozen (gal bucket with ten x 330 mls, yes - it's ten to the dozen lately) to the table. Beer on tap is still seen to be one of those weird western things. Ditto post mix / fountain soft drink. It is only found in a few areas where expats and the newly-moneyed are found, such as parts of Shanghai and Beijing.

Why? The bar proprieter's middle name is usually "dilute". One of the folk I know owns a few bars in one city... He's a cheeky folker. If the beer goes to a table with the lids off, you can be sure his girls pulled 20% out and replaced it with something else (water, tea, etc) if the clients are drunk enough. It happens to locals, not westerners - he knows better than to mess with us. After all, we outweigh them 2:1 on a bad day and the cops side with us more often than not. Other bar owners may try other things on with anyone. Lid off? Refuse it.

Big party at someone's home? Buy a pallet of Tsingtao. Big discount. Free delivery. Refunds on the bottles. Why keg?

In the case of buying taps, I feel that there could some fit and finish issues. I would expect weak or poor nickel plating at best unless the price-point was higher. They are very economical people for a reason.

If you can take into account the fact that they would rather buy something cheap ten times than buy something top quality once, then you have a clean grasp on their mentality. Our sense of "do it good, do it right, do it once for a lifetime" is an obscure, arcane and indecipherable concept. They buy new, run it into the ground, dump it, do it again. The idea of maintain, repair, recondition, renew, re-use is completely alien.

Cheers - Fermented.

 

[fraser_john]

What about 16 100w solar panels, two 1 kilowatt wind turbines and towers, grid-tie inverter to handle output of the panels and wind turbines?

I think that would be sufficient to make me electric carbon neutral, even with all my fridges and brewery running

 

[lespaul]

a man with that many contacts and speaks Chinese is a powerful man...
excited to hear some results!!! :lol:

 

[hsv_069]

Taps would have to be cheap.

with the aussie dollar at good rates to the greenback, i just got 3 perlick taps and handles delivered from the US within a week for about $130 delivered aussie dollars.

worth a look though i guess

Tony,
Can you pass on the details for where you got these?

 

[captaincleanoff]

lol... that's a small supermarket!

that wasnt the point....


and thanks for your stories, I've lived in China for 5+ years

 

[crozdog]

* HERMS / process automation: I doubt that there is any off-the-shelf solution available. Code development costs would be too high for the limited number of units if I understand correctly, either that or I'm still stuck in the German mindset of full auto PLC based controllers.

Fermented, i was referring to the hardware, not the process control. PID's & sensors can be readily sourced, but you have to fabricate a RIMS chamber or a Herms pot/coil