Novel use of Beer Machine

[Happy home brewer]

Hi, I last did home brewing in my student days, some 50 years ago. My last brew accidentally involved malt extract which unfortunately included cod liver oil. I am only just recovering.

My approach involves the Beer Machine which have received mixed reviews. I do a couple of things differently from the instructions which come with the machine. I remove the internal feeder and dont bother with defoaming discs. I use a whole Coopers (usually IPA) kit which is supposed to be for 23 litres in the 10 litre beer machine. It produces a rich clear and pretty strong but delightful brew. No doubt other kits would be great and non lazy brewers could start from scratch. To sterilise, I wash out with sterilising solution rather than pulling the barrel to pieces and I can lay down a new brew in less than 10 minutes. After brewing I leave the barrel alone for at least 6 weeks to settle and so far have had no failures after around 20 brews. I also modified a Sodastream cylinder to supply pressure.

As 6 weeks is a long time to wait, I have acquired four barrels. They are periodically sold on eBay, usually unused for around $40 to $50 each to give me a bit of lead time for the brew to settle.

Anyone in the Sydney area is welcome to have a look at the setup.

cheers

John

 

[Beer_Sheriff]

Hi John,

Thanks for the info. I recently purchesed a BM from someone. Everything is still sealed and in it's packaging and has never been used. So for $20 I thought I'd roll the dice and find out. Obviously this machine is old and finding replacement parts online is like trying to get blood from a stone. I am compeletly new to brewing, and reading some of the comments of this machine has been disheartening. But i'm going to give it a go anyway. Have you tried using defoamer drops in the machine? Does the machine still do its job without the defoamer discs? Any tips, tricks or advice would be muchly appriciated. Thank you!

Cheers and Beers,

Luke

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Hi John,

Thanks for the info. I recently purchesed a BM from someone. Everything is still sealed and in it's packaging and has never been used. So for $20 I thought I'd roll the dice and find out. Obviously this machine is old and finding replacement parts online is like trying to get blood from a stone. I am compeletly new to brewing, and reading some of the comments of this machine has been disheartening. But i'm going to give it a go anyway. Have you tried using defoamer drops in the machine? Does the machine still do its job without the defoamer discs? Any tips, tricks or advice would be muchly appriciated. Thank you!

Cheers and Beers,

Luke

I think John may have had a relapse due to the cod liver oil in his malt extract, seen hide nor hair of him for the last 3 years.