New Bee(r)

[agorganic]

G'day guys

This is my first post on AHB. I'm an avid (craving) beer drinker, can't really afford the supermarket costs cause I'm a fulltime (2nd yr) uni student and just managing to keep up with all the homework.

Anyway, I made my first brew of a fine tasting coopers pale ale couple of months ago at my mates place who guided me through the process and I filled two slabs and a six pack from it, I was lucky enough to borrow his plastic tub brewing kit which I ended up wheel barrowing the week old brew 100 metres back to my place and split the bottled goods in return for the loan but have since drunk my share.

I'm looking at becoming more self reliant and interested in something nostalgic to sit in the kitchen as a display to my batchelor lifestyle, particularly brewing in carboys or demijohns. What is best for beer brewing? What's capacity do carboys come in?

I have several 2 Litre (screwlid) glass bottles inherited from my grandfather, which I imagine were for juice as they have no little handles and I often use them as water bottles. They are a little small for brewing beer, but perhaps I could use them for wine or spirits - but I don't know how difficult that is compared to beer brewing.

Also, I have a very large screw lid glass bottle (20L??) that my mum thinks used to be her grandma's. I can't remember whether it originally had liquid in it or not, or whether I had tipped it out, too long ago for me to remember. I have washed the bottle out a couple of yrs ago with hot soapy water (using dish washing detergent) and there is still a white stain on the floor of the bottle that has proved too far down for the scrubing brush to reach. I haven't used this bottle for drinkable liquids, just as a container to catch the expelled water from my portable air con, but that was just temporary. It seems a bit of a waste not to put it to good use. There are absolutely no markings (numbers, emblems, words etc) on the bottle to indicate what its purpose was or indicate its age. I can't recall if it had a peculiar smell prior to cleaning it either.

The concern I have is, if this large bottle was used for storing toxic chemicals what should I use to clean the bottle? Should I soak it several times with a range of different solutions? How long would I need to soak it? does anybody know of a business that specialises in cleaning old bottles?

In the meantime, my mum (who is in her 60's) mentioned there is a guy related to her grandma that might know what it was used for and plans to visit him with my aunty sometime soon....

What do you think it could have been used for?

Cheers

Jesse

 

[argon]

looks lik a 20L carboy to me... just soak it with some hot napisan solution. That should remove just about anything that's in there. Or for something a touch stronger get some PBW which will certainly get rid of it.

Measure the volume and it should be good for fermenting in.

 

[felten]

If you're going to be using the carboy, google up some carboy safety tips, they can be difficult to handle if you aren't careful.

 

[agorganic]

Thanks for the advice argon and felten thanks for the tips! Much appreciated. What part of Australia are you guys located in?

 

[peas_and_corn]

If people enter their location it's under their avatar on the left column of their post. Felten is from Melbourne, Argon is from Brisbane.

 

[Bribie G]

May have been a glass water cooler bottle that they used in the old days in office coolers before plastic ones were invented. They had those water 'fountains' way back in the 1930s, still see them in old movies - in one movie Harpo Marx does a duet for harp and blooping water bottle.

Edit: this style:

 

[agorganic]

Alright. I'm gearing up to prepare for brew number 2 and still keen on the nostalgia concept.

So I spoke with a local brew supplier, seems to have what I need, heres my checklist for tomorrow:

• bungs (large range of sizes in stock suitable for my large and small carboys)
• fermentation locks,
• PBW or similar product for cleaning carboy (will pre-soak overnight with napisan).
• Replace my mates Sodium metabisulphite which I used up to clean my first brew bottled from his kit; for myself, I will look for some other alternatives that aren't so irritating when breathed in.

I have a proper cooking thermometer.

• Need to source a really long scrubing brush that allows me to clean a 20L capacity glass carboy
• Supermarket for napisan.

Last resort > I read somewhere to put sand and water in dirty Carboy and stir/shake, though I wasn't sure if that would scratch it too much? has anyone had a glass carboy that went bad permanently i.e. continuous yeast infections from cleaning with sand?

Also I really like the idea of brewing beer in my small (2L) glass bottles and was wondering if anyone here had done this before, if so did you (or they) need to do anything out of the ordinary due to the reduced mass of liquid? I can't determine whether it would be a shorter initial brew length or require longer time or whether I would need to increase the heat by adding an heating element etc.

BribieG > Too funny. I could almost visualise that dance.

Peas and Corn > Thanks man. I hadn't looked there.

Cheers

Jesse

 

[bradsbrew]

If you use the sodium perc it shouldnt need the sand. But I personally would not use the sand as its an abrasive. How about a steely tied on the other end of a brewing spoon?

Cheers

 

[manticle]

Uncooked rice is your best bet.

Soak with sodium percarbonate first to loosen grime

 

[agorganic]

Will try those suggestions soon.

 

[Maheel]

if you use that bottle just put some cling wrap and a rubber band over the top and dont worry about a bung and airlock.... waste of $$ really
search "cling wrap" here why many dont bother with lids and air locks on FV's

but one issue is if you fill it "to high" it might spew yeast out the top when fermenting but it depends on the volume and what your brewing etc

 

[agorganic]

if you use that bottle just put some cling wrap and a rubber band over the top and dont worry about a bung and airlock.... waste of $ really
search "cling wrap" here why many dont bother with lids and air locks on FV's

but one issue is if you fill it "to high" it might spew yeast out the top when fermenting but it depends on the volume and what your brewing etc

I poured some beer from my plastic fermenter into a beer bottle and did just that, except I dropped a carbonation drop in bottle and covered with cling wrap with brew at 1.030, cause I guess if you don't experiment then you never know if its :icon_vomit: or :icon_drunk: