Need Help To Brew In Thailand

Hello All=
I've never brewed before but long enjoyed my friends home brew and micro's in the U.S. Now i'm living/working in Thailand and really want to brew some GOOD BEER! It is very expensive to ship large items over so i'm looking for the DIY guide to making the equipment. I know I can get the ingredients sent from some friends in the U.S.
Please Help Me! I really need some good dark beer.
Thanks in advance,
Tanukimo

That's a lot to answer but in it's most basic form you need.

For good beer (no sugar)
Ingredients you need at least
Malt extract and yeast. You can use some sugar but the beer will not be as good.

For equipment you can do it in a plastic bucket then put into bottles with a little sugar.

Anything else will help you make better beer.

I'm looking for some good tips to get me in the right direction. I have access to plastic buckets and glass but not sure about the air locks etc... I can get the ingredient kits sent to me but not the heavy equipment... Any DIY advice with Pics out there= I'm pretty handy and have power tools etc...
Thanks Again, this swill is hardly beer to me!
Tanuk

I can figure out the recipe from this site and books etc... It's really the equipment I can't get here= Please someone show me how to make it myself...
I own a bar/restaurant here on the beach and really need some good beer to go with it= Check us out @
www.1morebeer.net

if someone can help me get this going I offer a great place to stay in Thailand for free
-Tanukimo

The only big/heavy brewing items I can think of would be primary fermenters (plastic buckets), a boil pot, and a glass secondary vessel. The rest is fairly light.

Find a stainless/aluminum pot capable of 2-5 gallon boils. You can get this there or probably have it if you have a restaurant.

Find a good food-grade 6-6.5 gallon bucket and lid. Get a glass bottle that can hold 5 gallon somewhere (or several 1-2g. glass bottles) that you can stopper/airlock. Food-grade buckets can be obtained for restaurants, etc. so if you own one, you are good to go. Try order some sot sauce or something in bulk...

You can do your primary fermentation in the plastic (just need one hole drilled in top for the airlock) and its ideal to do secondary/clearing in glass, but if you can't obtain glass, leaving it in plastic 2-3 weeks shouldn't hurt much.

Have your friend send you some stoppers, plastic tubing, and airlocks from the US. Also, bottle caps. Airlocks, caps, and stoppers weigh maybe 1-2oz each. He can send this with the first shipment of ingredients he sends you. Ingredients are going to weigh probably 10lb. for a "kit" of grains, malt extracts, etc. so hopefully shipping 10lb isn't an issue. Either way, the stoppers and small equipment is easier to ship than ingredients. This should be all you really need to get started.

Of course you will need bottles to bottle the 5 gallons of beer when complete. You'll need 45-50 bottles roughly, so hopefully you can get these there. I'd assume you could if you run a restaurant, but who knows... They cannot be twist top, but bottle opener type (and able to accept carbonation) capable of taking the new crowns/caps your friend will send. Or you can use plastic soda bottles if necessary. 20oz. Coke or A&W root beer will work. The root beer is better due to the brown plastic. Drink a lot of these and you'll have some fairly cheap bottles (cheaper than shipping). Or, if you are looking to do this in bulk and to serve on tap at the restaurant you will need corny kegs and C02. This is definitely heavy, so I'm not sure how you would get this. Bottling is probably a better route... Heck, you can always bottle in soda bottles and just pour into a glass for yourself and/or customers?

That should do it. I don't know much about Thailand, the products they sell (do they even sell A&W rootbeer there?!), shipping, etc. but you should be able to pull it off if the shipping of ~10lb. at a time isn't too costly...

You're thinking in terms of supplying your restaurant? What sort of volume? Brewpastor uses steam-heated soup kettles. Restaurant supply houses should have pots, strainers, etc. Hardware stores for valves, connectors and hose. One larger setups, you use blowoff hoses, rather than airlocks. Australia might be a better source for malts & bottling supplies.

Airlocks are cheap and light, but if you're looking for a substitute, either a blow off tube or a stopper / tube would work fine.

Hmmm... checked out the website and looks like you are doin alright as is. Restaurant and bar on the beach. Fully stocked with spirits and international beers... Restaurant jeep, etc.

Are you looking into home-brewing for the restaurant as to make it more of a micro-brew? My first impression was you had little-no beer to serve there, but if you are doin OK as is, I'm curious as to the motive? If you are looking to supply a successful restaurant with tap beer you are going to need to do more and obtain more heavy equipment than I initially posted my reply based on. 5 gallon batches are not going to fulfill the demand of a successful restaurant for long...

If its just for hobby purposes, then see the posts above for a good start.

Pay for my ticket and I'll come be your brew master!!!!

I can fetch some ingredients with me.

That beach look awesome.

Thanks All-
I am trying to brew for personal use only. We have plenty of 'beer' at the bar but it's Singha, Tiger, Chang, and Heineken- I really miss the good beer available in the U.S. and now need to try my hand at making some.
Silkky I appreciate the help, I don't have A&W here but other similar bottles are no problem, I have plenty of beer bottles that I would guess could be washed/sanitized and used again? The boil pot I have and I'll start lookin for the bigger food grade plastic/ glass= I know they are here somewhere...
I'm checking into Australia for ordering ingredients=
Thanks again I'll post more with pics- as I get it together- really busy lately...
It's Beautiful here but something is missin... Good Beer!
thanks

Beer bottles are one of the most re-usable things ever made. Bottles that use twist-offs are difficult to cap. You can cover your fermenter with plastic wrap, there is a local brewery that uses 500 gallon milk tanks for fermenters and covers them with wrap.

Just about any food grade bucket would work, but a pickle bucket is a pickle bucket forever!

I am very NEW here but I wonder how the airlock works with plastic wrap. Or do you mean no air lock as i've read some people are doing...?
Thanks again any help from the DIY people is great!
T

The wrap keeps the dust & bacteria out, but isn't tight enough to prevent CO2 from leaking out. So, no airlock is needed.

You'll be brewing a Singha in no time hehe.

Tanuki said:

I am very NEW here but I wonder how the airlock works with plastic wrap. Or do you mean no air lock as i've read some people are doing...?
Thanks again any help from the DIY people is great!
T

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Hi there, I live in the US but I am from Argentina. Have some friends that homebrew there (I even participate in their list regularly). This is what they tell me they use:

1) No extract. There is no malt extract available there, but there is excelent homegrew barled and locally produced malt, so everyone mashes.
2) Primary AND secondary: plastic... yeah. They use the 5 gal. water bottles. They ferment for ~one week and then 2 weeks in a plastic secondary (usually inside a fridge @ 2-5 C.)
3) Airlock: take a balloon pucture it, put it around the neck of the plastic 'carboy', done! it inflates and the pucture opens and lets CO2 out as needed... when deflates (usually 5-10 days) it is done fermenting.
4) most important restrictions: 90% of the local hops is cascade, the rest is imported and very expensive. Liquid yeast, only Wyeast and very expensive. not-so-common specialty malts: if available= imported (very expensive again).

In your case, I would be more concerned about geting quality supplies (malt, hops, yeast AND water) than the equipement, the equipement may be adapted from a pletora of gadgets that you already have available, but the ingredients... have to be fresh and good quality.

good luck!
JP

Thanks David and JP= and no thanks Zoe, I've got plenty of Singha, that's the problem! I need a rich, dark ale, stout, or porter!!!

I will try the plastic wrap or balloon method! This sounds easy and I have everything else- I'm ordering ingredients from Australia and will use extracts for the first few runs- I'm lookin into locally grown barley and hops etc... But will start as a NEWB and learn more...

Now trying to find a good Aussie homebrew co. that will ship to Thailand at a reasonable rate... thanks again and pics coming in a month or so when i get it going...

Good luck.

Tanuki said:

and no thanks Zoe, I've got plenty of Singha, that's the problem! I need a rich, dark ale, stout, or porter!!!
.

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A man after my own heart.