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I have had some dealings with a Chinese company that manufacture brewery and distillery equipment (among other things) and received an email 6 days ago from my contact there, in part:
"how about new virus impact now in your location? i hope you are good at health and safe. Kindly follow you, are you lack masks now? if really need i help to get some freely send you, hope it helps you a lot.
Have a wonderful weekends."

Clearly PPE is available from China, so have years of ego driven decisions, and general bureaucratic fcktard-iness led to shortages here? and if so, is it the same red tape bs that's preventing KL/Kogan et al from supplying the health sector? If you think that question time in the House is a Punch and Judy show you should try working in the public service at some moronic ministers behest. Send a C130 or better yet a Galaxy to China, fill the thing with PPE and fly it back, job done, except of course they wont do it. A US doctor has just died, his symptoms started 9 days after being forced to wear his single use mask for 4 days, no coincidence. The US is a third world country in parts, just go and visit, I'm dreading what is going to unfold over there in the coming weeks almost as much as Africa and India. Rant off.
Stay safe people, take as many precautions as you can and hope you are lucky.
This is a tough one.
standards exist for a reason.
buying equipment from China to an international standard has a bad reputation in many industries for a very real reason.
I’m an engineer in industry and chinese stock comes with extra precautions, procurement support and inspection. We buy from China if we have to, but have had some nasty surprises and bad Steel heats in a large job that lead to us cutting out parts and replacing them before we started.

there is no shortage of people looking to take advantage of the current world situation and that’s not restricted to China.
If I was a front line health professional then I’d have concerns about Using PPE from a Chinese source who previously sold some other widget.
is it better than using a mask that is 4 old?
Quite probably.
I’m sure all the importers of brewing equipment are selective of who they work with and that’s just stuff for making beer. if it’s keeping people safe then extra precautions are needed.
 
This is a tough one.
standards exist for a reason.
buying equipment from China to an international standard has a bad reputation in many industries for a very real reason.
I’m an engineer in industry and chinese stock comes with extra precautions, procurement support and inspection. We buy from China if we have to, but have had some nasty surprises and bad Steel heats in a large job that lead to us cutting out parts and replacing them before we started.

there is no shortage of people looking to take advantage of the current world situation and that’s not restricted to China.
If I was a front line health professional then I’d have concerns about Using PPE from a Chinese source who previously sold some other widget.
is it better than using a mask that is 4 old?
Quite probably.
I’m sure all the importers of brewing equipment are selective of who they work with and that’s just stuff for making beer. if it’s keeping people safe then extra precautions are needed.
Agreed, but some of the worst crap I've ever received has been from the US (third party anti theft electronics for Harleys) the old saying "you get what you pay for" doesn't seem to apply these days, although "buyer beware" seems even more relevant (having said that most of my tools are Snap on). Remember when "made in Japan" was reserved for the little plastic doo dads in christmas crackers, for a giggle Google Honda N600 yep I had one, 600cc vertical twin air cooled motorbike engine in a little 2 door 4 seater, look at Honda now, China CAN produce quality stuff you just have to "beware" and I'm sure our government could procure quality gear if they wanted, China has just donated 1000 ventilators to New York, do you think it really matters if they are N95 or KN95 to the person unable to breath without one?
A few years ago (pre HIV control drugs) I was going into a situation that had a high chance of me requiring a blood transfusion, it was a third world country with rampant HIV and no blood testing was done/possible, I signed a document allowing medics to give me blood if necessary, 75% chance of HIV or bleed out there and then, at least I would have been able to say goodbye to loved ones, times change and HIV is no longer a death sentence but it was back then, so if you were that US doctor that just died and was given the choice between a new "unapproved" mask or your single use 4 day old mask??? And have you seen the you tube "how to make a mask" vid's that are rampant in the US? little old ladies hunched over their sowing machines helping the war effort wtf? As you say it's a "tough one" Wolfman, for me it's "gimme the blood/unapproved mask) each to their own of course.
 
Hey @KegLand-com-au, for reasons I want to switch the drain port (pump intake) on my 35L Brewzilla to a 1/2" BSP fitting - is there any drama widening the existing hole slightly with a step bit?

Thanks,

There is no issue doing this and the step drill bit or knock out punch is probably the best tool for the job. For thinner stainless under 1mm I think the knockout punch is the best way to go.
https://www.kegland.com.au/20mm-hole-punch-knockout-die-and-punch-set-slugbuster.html
 
What I am saying is, that if a company Like Kegland can source this stuff yet our hospitals are running out, do you not think that is an issue for the various governments? because clearly, it's not that hard.
I'd guess it's more a point of Kegland having good distribution network from China that helps bring them over. Just knowing different people than the networks the government would have

Kegland - do you know of any issues with yeast accessibility? I wonder if I should be starting to make bigger starters to keep some yeast
 
@KegLand-com-au Considering how quickly the N95 masks sold out, will you be putting a limit on how much hand sanitiser people can buy?

We have already allocated hand sanitiser to medical facilities and local councils that have pending orders. The remaining stock that we put up online has no limits so anyone can purchase this stock in whatever quantities you like.
 
I have had some dealings with a Chinese company that manufacture brewery and distillery equipment (among other things) and received an email 6 days ago from my contact there, in part:
"how about new virus impact now in your location? i hope you are good at health and safe. Kindly follow you, are you lack masks now? if really need i help to get some freely send you, hope it helps you a lot.
Have a wonderful weekends."

Clearly PPE is available from China, so have years of ego driven decisions, and general bureaucratic fcktard-iness led to shortages here? and if so, is it the same red tape bs that's preventing KL/Kogan et al from supplying the health sector? If you think that question time in the House is a Punch and Judy show you should try working in the public service at some moronic ministers behest. Send a C130 or better yet a Galaxy to China, fill the thing with PPE and fly it back, job done, except of course they wont do it. A US doctor has just died, his symptoms started 9 days after being forced to wear his single use mask for 4 days, no coincidence. The US is a third world country in parts, just go and visit, I'm dreading what is going to unfold over there in the coming weeks almost as much as Africa and India. Rant off.
Stay safe people, take as many precautions as you can and hope you are lucky.

Yes it's fair to say that in China there is an abundant supply of PPE. One of the issues that we have found is that with a lot of the flights cancelled we are having a lot of issues getting product air mailed to Australia. We had one shipment of product that we booked in by air freight and this has been almost as slow as going on the boat due to all the air freight delays.
 
Seems surprising Kegland are selling N95 masks to the public. All N95 mask stock in the country should be reserved for front line medical staff. No member of the general public requires an N95 mask to avoid COVID-19, and stock is in short supply.
N95 masks are only required for high risk medical procedures (which you're not doing at home). A normal surgical mask with gloves and goggles will protect you if you have to look after a family member with COVID-19 (as long as they wear a surgical mask as well). Even medical staff looking after patients with COVID-19 don't use N95 masks, they use a normal surgical mask, with a gown, gloves and goggles (unless that patient is in ICU). It's disappointing to see Kegland selling this precious resource to people who don't need it. Some retailers now require identification that proves the purchaser is a health worker.

Reference: https://www.health.gov.au/sites/def...le-with-coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19.pdf

As there is an abundant supply of PPE in China KegLand is not putting any strain on local supply. If we were purchasing from local suppliers I would agree with you we would be making the situation worse. KegLand import the products that we sell therefore reducing the pressure on other local suppliers.

In addition to this KegLand is supplying this PPE to hospitals and local councils first giving them higher priority to the products.

If we were purchasing the products locally and re-selling them I would agree with you, we would be making the situation worse but the reality is the more importers that bring the products in from China (where there is an abundant supply) the more available the products will be in Australia. What we have at the moment is a lack of supply in Australia.
 
I'd guess it's more a point of Kegland having good distribution network from China that helps bring them over. Just knowing different people than the networks the government would have

Kegland - do you know of any issues with yeast accessibility? I wonder if I should be starting to make bigger starters to keep some yeast

Most yeast in Australia comes in via air mail and yes the air shipments have been problematic in general. We have been talking to Lallemand about bringing in a Sea shipment (obviously a lot slower). So yes keeping some yeast and trying to hold a supply of yeast at home makes some sense.

We really like the Lallemand yeast and we are going to expand the selection of dry yeasts from Lallemand. Fermentis have not done anything innovative for some time and really I think the Lallemand product is superior. It has lower microbial count so for re-pitching it's better in that regard too.

Lallemand were quick to get this awesome Kveik yeast:
https://www.kegland.com.au/lalbrew-...norwegian-high-temperature-ale-lallemand.html
They also have some really exciting stuff like available soon:
https://www.lallemandbrewing.com/en/united-states/product-details/sourvisiae/
For cloudy beers and things like NEIPAs it's hard to bead this product:
https://www.kegland.com.au/lalbrew-new-england-x-11g-lallemand.html
As an alternative to US-05 I think you should try BRY-97:
https://www.kegland.com.au/lalbrew-bry-97-yeast-x-11g-american-west-coast-ale.html
Once upon a time you really could not get great quality dry yeast but I really believe Lallemand have an amazing selection and the convenience of just having a few backup sachets of yeast with long shelf life is kinda nice. I have used a dry pack of yeast more than 1 year after it's used by date and it still worked great. We really would like to discontinue all the Fermentis stuff all together but the reality is they still have a legacy following in Australia.

With regards to White labs we have been trying to order ahead of time but with all the air freight issues we might see some out of stock events. So please do not leave you order until the last minute.
 
We really like the Lallemand yeast and we are going to expand the selection of dry yeasts from Lallemand. Fermentis have not done anything innovative for some time and really I think the Lallemand product is superior. It has lower microbial count so for re-pitching it's better in that regard too.

They also have some really exciting stuff like available soon:
https://www.lallemandbrewing.com/en/united-states/product-details/sourvisiae/

Wow this looks awesome. Love this instead of stuffing around with Lactobacillus and worrying about infecting brewing equipment
 
Thanks, the base seems to be more like 3-4mm with a cast section bonded to the elements so I'm assuming a punch won't play nicely with that? Need to use the step drill?


The pump inlet is off to the side of the element. So even if you enlarge the hole you should not need to drill into the cast aluminium element. I would avoid coming in contact with the element as you could damage the element if you start drilling into the casting.
 

Yes this is the best option for a 6 keg kegerator. I know it's a bit of a jump up in price and it's cheaper to purchase 2 of the Series X Kegerators. The Grand Deluxe units are built to be used commercially with larger fans, more power, stainless interior etc.

I am assuming the reason you have asked this question is that you want a 6 keg kegerator but you want something that is a bit more expensive than the Series X but less expensive than the Grand Deluxe? Is that the main reason you asked? Is this something other guys out there would be interested in? Would be keen to get some feedback from the others out there.

If we made a wider Series X it's definitely possible to make a 850-900mm wide model Series X and this would end up fitting 6 kegs. If we had a single door and used similar materials to the Series X the cost would only increase by about $200. Is this something you guys want us to work on?
 
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The pump inlet is off to the side of the element. So even if you enlarge the hole you should not need to drill into the cast aluminium element. I would avoid coming in contact with the element as you could damage the element if you start drilling into the casting.
Thanks for the response, but just to confirm we're talking about the same thing the picture below shows the hole I want to widen in the BZ35. Is this one OK to widen slightly? It does appear to be through the aluminium casting when looking from below.

Cheers,

2020-04-07_10-51-16.jpg
2020-04-07_10-51-48.jpg
 
Yes this is the best option for a 6 keg kegerator. I know it's a bit of a jump up in price and it's cheaper to purchase 2 of the Series X Kegerators. The Grand Deluxe units are built to be used commercially with larger fans, more power, stainless interior etc.

I am assuming the reason you have asked this question is that you want a 6 keg kegerator but you want something that is a bit more expensive than the Series X but less expensive than the Grand Deluxe? Is that the main reason you asked? Is this something other guys out there would be interested in? Would be keen to get some feedback from the others out there.

If we made a wider Series X it's definitely possible to make a 850-900mm wide model Series X and this would end up fitting 6 kegs. If we had a single door and used similar materials to the Series X the cost would only increase by about $200. Is this something you guys want us to work on?

Thanks for the reply @KegLand-com-au that would be exactly what I am looking for. The grand deluxe is way to big for my needs and as you said, more for the commercial side of things.

I would be happy with 4 taps still, just extra space for 2 more kegs for cold storage. At the moment I'm running a second fridge and it just seems pointless running it sometimes when there's only 1 keg in there.

I'd be happy to wait for what you described if it's something you think would be available in the near future? Surely others would be interested in it as well??
 
Thanks for the reply @KegLand-com-au that would be exactly what I am looking for. The grand deluxe is way to big for my needs and as you said, more for the commercial side of things.

I would be happy with 4 taps still, just extra space for 2 more kegs for cold storage. At the moment I'm running a second fridge and it just seems pointless running it sometimes when there's only 1 keg in there.

I'd be happy to wait for what you described if it's something you think would be available in the near future? Surely others would be interested in it as well??

Sorry about that I was looking at the the wrong model. Yes with that one I would not recommend enlarging the hole as it would be possible to damage the element.
 
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