Recent content by Sadu

I'm still using it, would have put it through well over 50 brews I guess. I really like it. Definitely had a few ups and downs with it over the years, but I know it well enough now to be able to work around it's quirks and produce great beer with it. Since I posted this, there has been a few...

With any brewing event or workshop, the trick is to focus on wort, not beer. You are selling sugary malt juice which is totally fine. The attendee pitches the yeast themselves when they get home and makes beer, that side of things is nothing to do with you. As soon as you start fermenting...

Our local school used to sell bottles of wine as a fundraiser, with label artwork created by your kid. I think they got a bulk deal from one of the local vineyards and it was a good fundraiser because most parents got a bottle or 2 and they make good gifts. One year the police objected to the...

Agree about the durability of the plastic. It's fine. PET doesn't like too much heat, mine got slightly warped when I accidentally left the heat belt going with the thing empty. Don't do that. In terms of cold crashing, very easy. If you have the pressure kit then connect your gas at 12 psi and...

Oh also, expect to spend $5-10 per brew on LPG depending on how long you boil and whether you heat some of the water inside on the stove as I did. Electric has much lower running costs.

I live in NZ as well and had one of these in my previous setup. You should be able to get a 4 ring burner off trade me for about $200 shipped. 3 rings should be about $120 and you can get stock pots from there too. Recommend 40L pot for 23L batch. Lots of headspace helps prevent boilovers. If...

I think the timetable is important if you are trying to go grain to glass in say a week, otherwise it's a very broad set of guidelines. For me it's driven by a few things. Firstly, is the beer ready to move to the next stage? If not, it gets more time at the current stage. Secondly, do I have...

Yep it's to do with the amount of headspace. With kegs you don't need to get it perfect as you can always force carb if it's a bit low or release pressure if a bit high. Should take about a week at room temperature to carbonate.

There's a few ways to look at it. Sometimes I'll just brew beer, make sure I keep a few bottles from every batch, then come submission time I'll submit what I think is good or what I want feedback on. For this reason, I rarely brew off-style. Other comps require you to brew something specific. I...

Dredging up this thread with a bit of an update. I've kitted out my HLT with load cells connected to a raspberry pi and python script. Not a great photo but there is a board that rests on top of the 4 load cells and the pot on top of that. Pot stays there permanently. I've only done about 3...

Yeah that looks way better IMO. nly change I'd make here is to reduce the bitterness from that 30 min addition. You've got 60 IBU which is ok for an IPA, but you are also gonna get some bitterness from the whirlpool which could push it over the top. I'd aim for 40IBU from that 30m addition (or...

150g total hops is a bit on the light side for an IPA. Depends what you are looking for, but I'd increase the total amount to 250-300g. After that you get diminishing returns. Also Simcoe has heaps of flavour and good bitterness so you don't need to do 60 min bittering additions with it. You...

Yeah I wasn't sure how much current the solenoid draws and whether the float switch would handle it. But if the draw is low enough then this would be super simple, a good thing in this context. Cheers.

Surely you mean the day before bottling?

Hey everyone. I'm in the early stages of making an automated brewery and are currently working on the HLT (modified Grainfather sparge water heater). I have this pretty much working. But I'd like an independent failsafe in place in case my software crashes or whatever. I really don't need that...