Shopping list for new starter?

[skuzy]

Any reason you want to go no chill? Every time you transfer your wort, you're increasing the risk of infection and the Robobrew comes with an immersion chiller. I brew wort for a mate and we throw it straight into his fermenter at pitching temperature and he pitches his yeast straight away. The fermenter goes onto his front seat and gets buckled in and we also put a strap around the seat and fermenter just to be sure.

I'd also recommend a bigger fermenter to give you a bit more head space. If you go to your LHBS, you'll be able to pick up something that's completely set up like this https://www.thebrewshop.com.au/catalog/product/view/id/211/s/carboy-fermenter-30-litre/category/50/ The plastic is much smoother than the Bunnings drum, which makes it just a touch less likely that your ferementer will be harbouring bacteria. For the extra bucks, I reckon it's worth the peace of mind.

I am keen on no chill method because Im really conscious about water usage & I'm lazy. Transferring wort into a container then letting it do it's thing sounds alot easier (for a newbie) than chilling down to right pitching temp.

That fermenter vessel link you showed looks a winner! Thanks for sharing that

 

[ABG]

I am keen on no chill method because Im really conscious about water usage & I'm lazy. Transferring wort into a container then letting it do it's thing sounds alot easier (for a newbie) than chilling down to right pitching temp.

That fermenter vessel link you showed looks a winner! Thanks for sharing that

You're welcome mate.

If you're worried about water usage - and let's face it, in Australia we all should be - use a recirculating system. I bought a pond pump and 2 plastic garbage bins from the big green shed. I also bought 2 bags of water bottles which I store in the freezer.

On brew day, fill the bins up a bit over half way with water and recirculate the water through the chiller. The first bin load of water gets hot pretty quickly and I generally find it drops my wort temp down to somewhere around 70 degrees. Stop the pump and do your whirlpool hops addition. Reserve the now hot water in the first bin for cleaning your Robobrew with PBW and transfer the pump to the second bin.

The second bin is filled with water and the frozen water bottles (caps off). It drops the water temp from 60 to 18 really quickly. You'll find you'll get a thermal layer in your bin - the water at the top will be tepid, while the water at the bottom (where the pump is drawing water from) is still near freezing. When the wort drops to pitching temp, take the bin outside and water your garden.

This is the pump I use https://www.bunnings.com.au/aquapro-water-feature-pond-pump-small_p2820006
These are the bins I use https://www.bunnings.com.au/ezy-storage-60l-dome-rubbish-bin_p0045911
Buy whatever water bottles are on sale - you're not going to drink the water in them anyway. I use 2 x 24 packs of 600ml water bottles. This fills my freezer completely. The only other bits and pieces you'll need will be 3 hose clamps (1 for the outlet of your pump, 1 for the inlet side of your chiller and 1 for the outlet side of your chiller) and 2 lengths of hose. The inlet hose on mine is about 1.5 m long. The outlet hose is about 1m. It's a super simple set up that wastes about 30L of water (which you will waste anyway cleaning your Robobrew). It might even be safe to use the clean up water after the temperature has dropped sufficiently - I'm just not sure whether the PBW will kill the lawn. Perhaps one of the more switched on brewers here can confirm?