Post Your Ghetto Gear Thread. The < $2.00 Hopper

[Punkal]

apart from 65% efficiency leaving a little to be desired (i'm sure could be improved with better brewing practise), it makes fantastic beer, and super easy to! never had any experiance with all grain apart from what i've read on here and brewing is a sinch with this setup pretty happy with it. And love that it cost pratically nothing! ($50 keggle) + gas


Ghetto Gear All The Way!!!!

Its not that different from my setup, I am on the kitchen sink with electric elements. I am looking for better efficiency also, I think I know where I can get some but we will have to see over the next few brews.

 

[manticle]

Perhaps I'll start using the leftover wort for priming, or something.

No need. Wort is fine acording the the lnked instructions - it's the temperature that is key.

Sprinkle the dry yeast in 10 times its own weight of sterile water or WORTat 27C 3C (80F 6F).

Also try 1272 liquid in an apa - lovely stuff. 05 is the only dry yeast I tend to use - works fine (and I just sprinkle straight in) but I prefer 1272.
Denny's favourite ism't too shabby either.

 

[MaltyHops]

Yeah, that's why I bought it in the first place ... And still haven't built the stir plate. I shoul get onto that.

If using a stirplate, you don't actually want to use an airlock
- need to be able to let oxygen get in to the yeast for growth.
Usually, loosely capping the mouth of a flask wih alufoil works
well.

 

[waggastew]

Just mounted my ~$280 Mashmaster Mini-mill on a $10 plastic bucket, a piece of ply and a $3 plastic bowl for a hopper. I only do partial mashes so I don't need alot of capacity.

Just ran some grain through it and it works a treat!

Stew

 

[Diesel80]

Just mounted my ~$280 Mashmaster Mini-mill on a $10 plastic bucket, a piece of ply and a $3 plastic bowl for a hopper. I only do partial mashes so I don't need alot of capacity.

Just ran some grain through it and it works a treat!

Stew

Stew, you could almost retail that setup. Pretty neat for Ghetto.
Cheers,
D80

 

[Edak]

Just mounted my ~$280 Mashmaster Mini-mill on a $10 plastic bucket, a piece of ply and a $3 plastic bowl for a hopper. I only do partial mashes so I don't need alot of capacity.

Just ran some grain through it and it works a treat!

Stew

My arm is getting sore just looking at that image (which could be a bad thing or a good thing, so I will let you use your imagination). Good job! Totally "ghetto".

 

[Barley Belly]

Just mounted my ~$280 Mashmaster Mini-mill on a $10 plastic bucket, a piece of ply and a $3 plastic bowl for a hopper. I only do partial mashes so I don't need alot of capacity.

Just ran some grain through it and it works a treat!

Stew

If you lift the bucket higher up you could spin the handle round and around. Instead of it hitting the ground all the time. h34r:

 

[Batz]

Just mounted my ~$280 Mashmaster Mini-mill on a $10 plastic bucket, a piece of ply and a $3 plastic bowl for a hopper. I only do partial mashes so I don't need alot of capacity.

Just ran some grain through it and it works a treat!

Stew

I love it, opps handle hit the tub...cut that bit off!

 

[KingKong]

I just used about 20 cm of left over 'pool noodle' (from another project) cut in half and wrapped around a long neck to insulate its journey to Melbourne for beerfest.

Ghetto bubble wrap anyone ??? It actually worked really well tied up around the bottle and packed into a small box with some extra screwed up newspaper. Probably has insulating qualities better then bubble wrap as well. I don't think any Aus Post workers will be able to break it ...

:icon_offtopic: Obviously the beer is going to be shaken up and the sediment suspended again. Do they do anything in comps to rectify this or is it just some thing that cant be avoided if you have to mail your entry ??? Not planning on winning or anything, much more interested in some unbiased comments ! Ill probably cry for a week at my highly prized beer being torn a new one.

 

[QldKev]

Ghetto march pump cover - $2.50 @ supercheap from memory.

Here's mine. A kettle after I removed the element to use in the HERMS.

which doesn't look to bad on the stand.

 

[Higgie]

Does my patented through the door temperature controller install count as ghetto?



The black electrical tape has since been replaced with a more aesthetically pleasing silver duct tape.

 

[angus_grant]

How about a ghetto BIAB drainage system? It is the two side frames to a garden seat which I tied quite neatly together ( h34r with about 10 metres of rope.

My wife said she was impressed but I think she was lying....

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

What were you brewing then mate?

 

[angus_grant]

That would be your Lord Nelson. :beer: I didn't take the end of brew gravity (forgot again) but everything else was within range of recipe so not too worried..

I'm waiting for a temp mate to arrive so I can shift the Vienna Lager into my spare fridge for cold conditioning and then start fermenting the Lord Nelson which is still cubed.

I am starting to get the feeling I should brew a non-Goomba beer. ha ha...

Also need to mount and power my mill before next brew. Took me 50 minutes to crush the grain for it with my malt muncher mill. It has a puny little handle and therefore, is a right pain in the arse (arm) to use. Good crush though... Powered mill it is!

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Sweet.

Without craftbrewer to mill for me, I had to do the coffee grinder and BIAB bag.

The grinder can only get through about 1.7kg tops without needing a break, so it takes a while to get the grain right.

I do need a mill, but getting that expense past SWMBO might be a stretch, especially if there's nothing wrong with this beer. I get to try out Mosaic, which I'm looking forward to.

On topic, is your bag that dark? The liquor looks a little dark from memory.

 

[angus_grant]

I may or may not have completely cleaned the bag from the red ale. h34r: Plus photo was taken on my iPhone 3Gs which does not take the best photos so it is not that dark in real life...

The liquor is certainly a lighter colour than the bag. I am overdue to fire up my smaller pot and boil the BIAB and hops bag to clean them up. They are always blasted with the hose after the brew and blasted again and Star San'd before batches. It must be retaining some colour from the red ale which comes out when boiled.

Still needing to fire out some batches for my boys 1st b'day. Will have the Vienna lager kegged and ready and a Lord Nelson kegged and ready. I may fire another Lord Nelson and my last remaining kit Saaz pilsener. Four kegs should be enough. Well, it will be enough free beer anyways. :chug:

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Mmmm.... I had a couple of Danish IPA - I can't remember the brand (I can't remember much at all - they were 7% 500ml bottles), but I was halfway through a Lupulus before it (shared a bottle with SWMBO, who loved it) and thought "Man I wish I had another Lord Nelson".

I'm hoping that Mosaic is as good as Yob says - if it is, then I reckon another Viscount is dead, with Citra, Galaxy, Mosaic and Chinook is on the cards.

 

[Yob]

other insights >HERE< LRG

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

Sweet.

Without craftbrewer to mill for me, I had to do the coffee grinder and BIAB bag.

The grinder can only get through about 1.7kg tops without needing a break, so it takes a while to get the grain right.

I do need a mill, but getting that expense past SWMBO might be a stretch, especially if there's nothing wrong with this beer. I get to try out Mosaic, which I'm looking forward to.

On topic, is your bag that dark? The liquor looks a little dark from memory.

If you get the variable speed coffee grinder, (silver $19ish from kmart) it will chew through7kg's without a problem (apart from getting very very warm. If using a coffee grinder from kmart, dont get the cheaper white plastic one. it overheats through 1 kg and then i usually put it in the freezer to cool down before i start again. It was a bigger pain in the arse than the more expensive homemaker brand. but since i "accidently broke it" i have boutht 22 of the good ones so i have a back up.

I usually dont grind like this, i have 2 mills that i machined and assembled that need bearings and a clean up

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

other insights >HERE< LRG

Thank you very much Yob. That looks perfect. Been struggling to get decent descriptors on it, but used it on your recommendation alone (with Citra).

How good is this beer going to be with Citra then!!!!!! I reckon the fact that I accidentally added an extra 10 IBU will be okay give the descriptors about it not being bitter (perception wise) at all.

Thanks again.