Most useful/annoying - The brewing process

[storeboughtcheeseburgers]

Just thought I'd start this as I was thinking the other day how handy and easy certain parts of brewing are and how trying other parts are.

For me - the most useful parts of my system are my bottling bucket and 30L Birko urn - The bucket I use for measuring water, bulk priming wort, bottling and many things in between. The urn has saved me a lot of hassle, pots and pans and the risks of boiling water.

Most annoying are the bottles.. Collecting, sanitising, filling, rinsing. I would move to kegs but am constrained with space, but don't wish to worry about the extra power usage of a separate fridge, and/or gas bottles or the like.

Anyway, thought it might be good to hear everyone's report on the subject.. I'm sure some don't mind things that other hate but some tips will be picked up for sure.

 

[TimT]

Most useful at the moment is the heat pad, which, with the heater, is keeping my brews warm in winter.

Most annoying is that f&^&*%^&* &%^&*&%*ing bloody syphon that I could never get the hang of, and ended up throwing out in a fit of pique.

 

[Beertard]

I like my bottles, my precious, most annoying for me is hitting or not hitting step mash temps. Gas might help here but I'd planned erectric gravity fed all along.

 

[Beertard]

Oh and running out of drinkies

 

[pilgrimspiss]

The following is a list of process and equipment upgrades that really stepped up my all grain brewing skills, repeat-ability and efficiency:

• Custom RIMS
• Temperature controlled fermentation fridges with fans installed.
• Accurate thermometers (installing mash master gauge on my mash tun, and using a liquid mercury thermometer for double checking everything).
• Ensuring I use and hit accurate measurements for weight, volume and time.
• Developing a brew day routine from grain crush through to cleanup.
• Accurate record keeping.
• Slowing down my fly sparging routine and not rushing my brew day.
• Moving to an electronically controlled brew rig to ensure repeat-ability (eg pumps, PID's, electric elements).
• Growing my own Hops and Barley to better understand what goes in my beer.

These are things that still annoy me:

• Copper Immersion chiller. I always seem to have leaks from fittings / hoses etc when i use my chiller, doesn't matter what I bloody do!! and it always sits funny around my boil elements, I'm still coming up with a new plan for that.
• Emptying and cleaning my RIMS. I currently have it mounted vertically to ensure the wort covers the element the whole time. It works REALLY well to ramp temps, clarify and never had and problems with scorching but a PIA to clean. Need to fit some quick release style fittings to get the element in and out.
• Little Brown Pumps - I run two on the rig but I've managed to snap inlet / outlets off of four of them now regardless of how I mount and support them. Need to upgrade to chuggers or something stronger.
• 3V size. - This rig is currently only big enough to make 22litre (into fermentor) batches. I need to triple that I think.

Cheers
Matty.

 

[mje1980]

Most useful would have to be a bag, to brew in. Allowed me to get rid of a HLT and an esky tun and just have one vessel for brewing.

 

[storeboughtcheeseburgers]

Oh and running out of drinkies

Its worse when there are drinkies and they get frozen in the freezer.

 

[pedleyr]

I hate my grain bag getting stuck inside the lip of my keggle.

I've been resisting just cutting the top right out because it'd be hard to cover it with a lid but the bag bulges so much below the lip, on bigger grain bills it's really getting on my nerves.

 

[slcmorro]

Ped, just do what I do. Tie a rope to the bag, then lift with one hand swiftly while tying the rope off with the other to a cleat or something similar. Minimal spillage if you're quick enough.

 

[The Judge]

• Growing my own Hops and Barley to better understand what goes in my beer.

Cheers
Matty.

wtf? you grow your own barley!? How big is your property dude

 

[mr_wibble]

Most useful at the moment is the heat pad, which, with the heater, is keeping my brews warm in winter.

Most annoying is that f&^&*%^&* &%^&*&%*ing bloody syphon that I could never get the hang of, and ended up throwing out in a fit of pique.

Auto-syphon. Worth it's weight in gold.

(although the big one just doesn't fit into demijohns)

 

[pilgrimspiss]

wtf? you grow your own barley!? How big is your property dude

Got 3 acres at the moment, trying to sell up and buy closer to 20 acres so I can grow more Barley!! LOL. the mrs hates me.

 

[Midnight Brew]

Most useful: Pulley for hoisting the bag, SS ruler so I can measure volumes in the kettle, refractometer for readings during mash and boil, yeast freezing.

Most annoying: Bottling, cleaning bottles, sanitising bottles. Looking at omitting these from my brewery.

 

[mje1980]

I've only used my auto siphon once, but it's a pretty good bit of gear I reckon. Can be a bitch to prime, but i found a few quick pumps got it going great. The coiled hose is too short and is ridiculous with the coiling, so you have to hold it in the bucket, or fermentor but it's no big deal.


Hmmmm I have 2 carboys which is why I bought it, so I hope it fits

 

[Tahoose]

Most annoying is that f&^&*%^&* &%^&*&%*ing bloody syphon that I could never get the hang of, and ended up throwing out in a fit of pique.

I'm with you mate, could get it to work with a bucket of water but never with wort, now I just make sure a tap, hose and gravity are included in my process.

Accurate thermometer
Refractometer

I like the process but my system is just a little too hands on. When I think about it, it adds up to about 6v. I'm holding off on upgrading so that one day I can buy a braumister.

 

[Truman42]

The most useful thing Ive added to my brewery is not so much equipment but process improvement. Over almost 2 years of brewing on my system Ive improved my process so that brew day always runs smoothly.

But these things have also helped..

My new brew rig on castors.

Electric brew controller with Pids. Just set and forget and wait for the alarm to go off.

I have a small tray under my pump to catch spills which saves mopping the garage floor. My plate chiller also sits in a washing tub for the same reason.

Using a hop spider.

Upgrading from a brown pump to a march pump.

Upgrading to quick disconnects on all of my hoses.

Fitting a thermometer to my plate chiller

Most annoying part about brew day would have to be cleaning my mash tun, scooping out the grains etc. Although ive improved that process too.

 

[bullsneck]

I hate milling.

But I don't want to add a motor.

I guess I'll have to get over it.

 

[mckenry]

The most useful and most hated thing I have is my Blichmann Beer Gun.

Firstly I have to over-gas my kegs by 10% - thats bloody hard to guess
Then if the beer is too highly carb'd the beer is all froth and I cant counter fill any bottles.
Relieve the pressure for another day or two then try to bottle. Cant drink a decent beer in between.
Then after over carbing I have to let it get back to normal carb before I can pour a regular beer.
Its messy, a pain in the arse, but oh so good when it works well....

Love/hate me and my Beer Gun.

 

[Tex083]

I have a keggle boiler and I hate cleaning it! The top has been cut in circle and trying to wash it out is a bustard, also its heavy compared to SS pot.

Love: HERMS coil and PID
Refractometer
Drinking home made beer and not buying much beer now

 

[Tahoose]

I hate milling.

But I don't want to add a motor.

I guess I'll have to get over it.

haha i'm the same, I think ahhh it's not too bad it will only take me 10 mins, about 4.5kg into a 5 kg grain bill i'm really over it.

 

[Donske]

Everything about my brew day is pretty streamlined, not stressful at all.

I am starting to get the ***** with the packaging side of brewing though, even with kegs I'm finding a lot of the time I'm putting off packaging longer than I need to.

 

[S.E]

Most useful for me is using hot caustic and sodium percarbonate for cleaning. My old process was to fill fermenters, casks bottles etc to the brim with cold water and nappy san then leave them at least overnight to soak.

Now I do nearly all my cleaning on brew day. I add a little caustic to about 4 or 5 litres of cold water in a stock pot bring it to the boil while I’m waiting for my mash liquor to reach temperature.

I don’t use kegs (or bottles very often) but I use cubes as real ale casks so after I have mashed in I pour the hot caustic in to 2 or 3 cubes and give them a shake while exercising extreme caution because hot caustic is nasty stuff. I usually pull the taps apart bung the tap hole and pop the taps inside the cubes along with the sealing ring from the cap.

If I had remembered to rinse out the cubes after last use and the caustic solution is still clean I return it to the stock pot and re heat it to clean the fermenter if not make up 2 or 3 litres of clean solution.

Rinse out the cubes with cold water then pour in a little phosphoric sanitiser, give them a shake and drain them.
By this time it’s about time to start the fly sparge. During the sparge I transfer the last brew from my fermenter in to the cubes. I collect a jar of yeast from the bottom of the fermenter with a jar and desert spoon that I had put in the stock pot while the caustic was heating up then rinsed and sanitised them.

Hose out the fermenter, pour in the caustic replace the lid and roll it about for a minute or so till the dried yeast and crud ring around the top has disappeared then rinse, sanitise and leave it upside down with the lid on to drain till needed.

Near the end of the boil I connect the pump and counter flow chiller and re circulate boiling wort through it to clean and sanitise it. (Hose cold water through the chiller first in case something has crawled in since last use). After whirlpool I pump through the chiller straight in to my 60L fermenter. I sometimes run off a no chill cube of wort first to use with a fresh packet of dried yeast or smack pack.

I then aerate the wort with my new aeration kit and add the yeast I had collected. Until recently I chilled into a 25L cube before shaking it and tipping into the fermenter.

Then it time to recirculate a few litres of warm sodium percarbonate through the copper chiller back to the kettle and finally in to the mash tun to clean them.

So there you have it the most useful thing for me is cleaning with hot caustic.

The most annoying thing used to be the time it took to soak and clean everything with cold water and nappy san and the amount of water it wasted but I’m happy with my whole brewing process now.

Cheers Sean

 

[Tahoose]

Hmm caustic might be the go for me then, what ratio are we talking? 2 teaspoons to 5 litres? Caustic can be bought at bunnings?

I don't find kegging stressful at all, it requires little movement for me as I cold condition my beers in the keezer anyway. So once the keg blows I just rinse, sanitise, lift the fermenter out of the keezer, return the keg to its spot and gravity feed.

 

[S.E]

Hmm caustic might be the go for me then, what ratio are we talking? 2 teaspoons to 5 litres? Caustic can be bought at bunnings?

I don't find kegging stressful at all, it requires little movement for me as I cold condition my beers in the keezer anyway. So once the keg blows I just rinse, sanitise, lift the fermenter out of the keezer, return the keg to its spot and gravity feed.

Caustic is a great cleaner on stainless so good for kegs also.

I use about a desert spoon per litre. You can get Diggers caustic soda from IGA, I think its Mechanix caustic sold in BI-LO. You will find it near the drano as it’s used for unblocking drains as well as a heavy duty cleaner. Keg king sell it by the kilo.

Take heed of the warning on the container if you do use it and never add caustic to hot water or it can erupt in a boiling volcano. Only add it to cold water then heat it up. If cleaning sealed containers kegs cubes etc make sure they haven’t built up pressure that can blow caustic at you when you open them.

I also wear rubber gloves and avert my eyes when shaking cubes. Protective eyewear is probably a better idea. It burns the skin when I have managed to splash it on my arms and legs, you really don’t want to get it in your eyes. It’s quite hazardous stuff so treat it with respect.

Cheers Sean

 

[MarkBastard]

Most useful is the silicone tube to john guest adapter that allows me to tranfer from fermenter to keg using the keg dip tube.

Most annoying is cleaning kegs and fermenters

 

[SmallFry]

Most useful is the silicone tube to john guest adapter that allows me to tranfer from fermenter to keg using the keg dip tube.

Pics?

Seriously, I'm intrigued, and would love to see one of these, as I would like to keg this way, too.

 

[DU99]

Most useful for me is the grain mill with a drill,saves time.most annoying "weighing" hops and grains

 

[MarkBastard]

http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=1118

 

[SmallFry]

http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=1118

Sweet, thanks random-stranger-on-the-internet.

Will be ordering one soon.

 

[Truman42]

Most useful is the silicone tube to john guest adapter that allows me to tranfer from fermenter to keg using the keg dip tube.

Most annoying is cleaning kegs and fermenters

I have this here which I brought from Keg King. I use it to flush PBW through my dip tubes and never thought to use it for fermenter to keg transfer. Will give that a crack next time. Cheers