Group Barley Wine

[mr_wibble]

I think the champagne bottle is a good idea.

I toyed with the idea of filling a 2.5 litre champagne bottle to keep for years and years.
But alas, i was too miserly to spring for a whole packet of plastic "corks".

 

[pmastello]

Champagne bottle with bottlecaps - Unless anyone has a corker I could borrow?

 

[mr_wibble]

Do you use just normal-sized caps?

i thought you had to have special cap for them, and a bigger "bell".
I hope so, otherwise I've been recycling Potter's bottles whereas I should have been keeping them.

 

[joshuahardie]

No you need a larger bell, and larger caps.
Not hard to find, and those bottles are great to use as they are so thick

 

[joshuahardie]

No you need a larger bell, and larger caps.
Not hard to find, and those bottles are great to use as they are so thick

 

[pmastello]

Yeah I've got the bigger bell and caps for it. It was a pain to get and seemed outrageously expensive for a small piece of metal but great to have once you've got it. I put my yearly big/anniversary beers in them and it looks great

 

[Jaynus]

Sounds fine Pete!

 

[Jaynus]

If any of you guys know of anyone who has a working keg fridge they no longer want (which I strongly doubt) let me know as after this weekend I'm sure to be well over bottling beer!

 

[mr_wibble]

If any of you guys know of anyone who has a working keg fridge they no longer want (which I strongly doubt) let me know as after this weekend I'm sure to be well over bottling beer!

You can typically get a small chest freezer 2nd-hand for ~$50 on gumtree.
Here's three of them within 20km of the CCoast ~
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/belmont-north/fridges-freezers/mistral-bar-freezer/1049920098
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/ourimbah/fridges-freezers/freezer/1049874868 EDIT: This one is no good, it has freezer elements as shelves.
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/carey-bay/fridges-freezers/chest-freezer/1049851188

A wire-in temperature controller will be $20-50 depending on where you buy it.

 

[Jaynus]

Thanks buddy!

 

[pmastello]

You can typically get a small chest freezer

Small? Give it 6 months and you'll need room for 10 kegs. Just don't let the Mrs know you can make soda water with kegs, because that's one tap you'll never see again.

Anyway, back to the barley wine- after much procrastination, I finally bottled mine last night. I can see why you're looking for a keg setup Jay, bottling sucks. At least with 4 weeks on the yeast, it should definitely should be finished. Let's just hope it carbs up OK. How many volumes did you guys go for? I had a taste of it and its quite good! Very little alcohol, lots of malt, huge bitterness, and no unpleasant burnt flavours. I'll try and do a proper tasting in a few weeks when I check for proper carbonation before the swap. That bitterness should fade over a year or two. Should be a great beer for the next few years!

 

[mr_wibble]

Small? Give it 6 months and you'll need room for 10 kegs. Just don't let the Mrs know you can make soda water with kegs, because that's one tap you'll never see again.

Geeze, you must have been sneaking around my house, that's *exactly* the situation.
Except I already have room for 8 kegs, and I *need* more.

How many beer fridges have all you guys got? Maybe I could present a case for getting another.

"but... but... all the other kids have 3 keg fridges too"

 

[Jaynus]

Haha seriously KT do you really have 8 kegs running? That sounds a lot like heaven!

 

[pmastello]

I think KT has lost a few kegs to the kids and wife with soft drink.
One bit of advice when designing a keg fridge, is not too many taps. The more taps, the more cleaning and replacing of lines you'll need to do. I can fit 6 kegs in my keezer, but only have 3 taps - 2 for beer and 1 for sodawater, which doesn't need cleaning as often.

I've got 2 fermenting fridges and a keezer. Only the keezer is running at the moment due to me not having power in the back shed - Is anyone here an electrician or know a good one in Newcastle? I need to run a new submain power supply out to the brewshed.

 

[mr_wibble]

Haha seriously KT do you really have 8 kegs running?

No, and Gingerbrew is correct - I have 5 taps left after the kids channel
Currently on tap: Water, Belgian Pale Ale, Smokey Robust Porter, Munich Dunkel, Hoppy & Bitter Pale Ale, and Brown Porter.

I used to have 1x soda water and 1x kids ginger beer, but then I figured the kids could put ginger cordial into soda water.

I didn't really plan on doing a keg-thingy this big, but the first 2nd-hand freezer to cross my path was *shrug* 8x kegs big
and it got out of hand from there.

It's not allowed inside the house though.

The cleaning isn't so bad. Last time it took me about 3/4 hour to flush the lines, and the first 15 minutes of that was getting the cleaner and rinse water ready. (into kegs to be pushed through the lines with CO2)
Inside the chest it is a fricken huge tangle of lines though.

It's pretty cool just go outside and tinker with. Taste a few beers, see how they're ageing, ooh that's a bit over-carbed, burp the keg. etc.

 

[Jaynus]

Yowser!

 

[Jaynus]

Would anyone be interested in a Sunday lunch and beers soon at the grain store in newi?

 

[Weizguy]

Geeze, you must have been sneaking around my house, that's *exactly* the situation.
Except I already have room for 8 kegs, and I *need* more.

How many beer fridges have all you guys got? Maybe I could present a case for getting another.

"but... but... all the other kids have 3 keg fridges too"

A bit off-topic I suppose, but I'm in Newie (north a bit), and I have lots of fridges. I got a couple replaced due to a flooding incident here, so I now have:

1 normal size fridge/kegerator + a small kegerator (that you can have for $125, if you want, with gas line/beer line and door tap, and drip tray).
also 2 ferment/lagering fridges
a keg cold storage fridge,
a yeast culture/ beer bottles fridge
a large 500 litre keg freezer (in the conversion stage), +
a smaller 300 odd litre freezer too
oh, and a dead fridge, fits 2 fermentors and suited for Winter ale fermenting with a heat pad inside.
3 temp controllers.

So 7 fridges and 2 freezers all up

 

[mr_wibble]

Would anyone be interested in a Sunday lunch and beers soon at the grain store in newi?

Did you have any particular Sunday in mind ?

Sounds good to me.

 

[pmastello]

Im in! The grain store is only a 20min walk from home!
Should we start this on another thread so other people can see it?