Home brewing in Japan

I've ordered from them before. Turned out ok. The prices were better than niko, but niko has a wider selection. It took a little over a week to arrive, though.

FYI, pellet hops are cheap. Many shops won't sell whole hops due to customs. If they do, the same envelope will only fit half as much or less by weight.

Hey guys,
Any of you have a line on reasonably priced fermenters? I'm thinking about getting a couple of carboys or better bottles but want to stay away from the bucket types. I have a friend on one of the US bases that sometimes offers to order things from the States for me but was hoping to support some domestic places.
Cheers

ShizuokaBrad said:

Hey guys,
Any of you have a line on reasonably priced fermenters? I'm thinking about getting a couple of carboys or better bottles but want to stay away from the bucket types. I have a friend on one of the US bases that sometimes offers to order things from the States for me but was hoping to support some domestic places.
Cheers

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I was thinking about getting one of these.

http://www.sanplatec.co.jp/product_pages.asp?arg_product_id=SAN2091

The Muntons water tanks at AB are free (shipping 550 yen for 3). They work for many applications, not so well for others (like if you want to harvest yeast after ferment).

http://advanced-brewing.com/0_equipment.html#water_tank

Thanks guys.

WhoZit, have you used one of those for fermentation? What kind of gasket is used under the cap? Free is always good if it works

To be honest, I never thought much about the gasket. It's a food grade container that stored malt extract, so I assumed they were ok. And FYI, I just drilled a hole for the stopper/airlock towards the back of the container rather than the lid. I have 4 fermenting away right now.

Only problem is the headspace if you have a high kraussen. For Apfelwein, I filled it to the top, but for my last pale ale I brewed 36L and split it between two of these-18L each. In the case that I anticipate a high kraussen I just make sure to use a bucket.

Interesting. I guess the gasket doesn't matter much if you put the airlock at the back of the container. Is it pretty thin plastic? The reason I ask is because I wonder if it would be possible to put a spigot at the bottom to make a bottling bucket. I'll probably end up ordering a couple of these because I'm sure they'll at least come in handy for keeping some sanitized water for top-ups and such. Thanks for the info!

ShizuokaBrad said:

Interesting. I guess the gasket doesn't matter much if you put the airlock at the back of the container. Is it pretty thin plastic? The reason I ask is because I wonder if it would be possible to put a spigot at the bottom to make a bottling bucket. I'll probably end up ordering a couple of these because I'm sure they'll at least come in handy for keeping some sanitized water for top-ups and such. Thanks for the info!

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Actually they're pretty thick. And I think putting a spigot on it would be a PITA. Of course, these days I rarely even use my spigots, even if there is already one on my buckets.

My original reasoning for drilling the hole in the back was because some of them have a very tiny hole already there. I think AB used to punch a hole there to help with draining the extract. The last batch I got had no holes, though.

Once I get my order of grain, I'm hoping these might be good for storing malt. Might be a bit of a pain to get the malt in there, but they'll probably be an easy and cheap way to store and dispense it. Large tupperware-type containers can be much more expensive here. Although my main concern was keeping pests out (and/or in). If it fails, hey, extra vessels for fermenting.

I have made myself a wort chiller!
about 2500 yen for a 10 metre long copper pipe, although I had to choose a smaller diameter to fit my budget. I also got myself 10 metres of silicon tubing to fit the pipe for about 2000 yen.

Looking good! I'm waiting for some stuff to arrive by takkyubin. As soon as it gets here I'm off to enjoy the start of the long weekend!

3 days, yeah! What will you be brewin'?

Well, I just got two brews worth of ingredients. It'll either be a Scotch Ale or an IIPA. I'm leaning more towards the Scotch Ale because it'll take longer to finish... but my IPA supply is starting to run low. What a dilemma!
On a related note, the honey nut brown ale I brewed last month is almost ready now. Going to sample another bottle now to see how it is coming along Have a good one!

Just placed an order with AB, but after signing up, shopping, typing in all the forms and hitting OK I realized whoops I missed my house number I thought I had copy and pasted it all. Anyway I have sent in an email to explain, hope I got through to them...
*Edit* - turns out I also tried to order 600X100gm Chocolate and 500X100gm Carared specialty malts! I was thinking in grams and typed out what I wanted (600gm and 500gm). Glad they caught that or I'd be making porter for a whole year! I suppose a brew supply website must get all sorts of intoxicated looking orders.

I asked for 2 of the Munton's tanks, seems like its worth the shipping cost for passable fermenters.

WhoZiT said:

3 days, yeah! What will you be brewin'?

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I will be brewing my first brew tomorrow if all goes well, finally got all my stuff here from the US. I got a Midwest Smooth Nut Brown Ale that is calling to me.

mpearce said:

I will be brewing my first brew tomorrow if all goes well, finally got all my stuff here from the US. I got a Midwest Smooth Nut Brown Ale that is calling to me.

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May the schwartzbier with you!

For those Muntons water tanks, what would you suggest for the airlock? Did you use a stopper to go with it or some other way to seal it?

I just got a first taste from a smoked maple porter I brewed up a few weeks ago (had to do something with the sample from the hydrometer ). It is going to end up being a really nice beer I think. Next up is the Scotch ale!

ShizuokaBrad said:

For those Muntons water tanks, what would you suggest for the airlock? Did you use a stopper to go with it or some other way to seal it?

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Drilled a hole to fit the stoppers that I already had for my buckets. Interchangeability was the goal.

If you move one of the muntons tanks while fermenting, does it depressurize and suck air back through the airlock? (are the sides rigid enough to hold their shape well?) I have that problem with the "BUB" water tanks I am using now; the sides are too flexible. I use about 50cm of tubing into a blowoff bottle/airlock instead of a regular airlock. When I move it I pull the tubing in the blowoff bottle up out of the liquid, so instead of sucking back water into the fermenter it pulls up residual CO2 and perhaps a bit of dust free air. I don't know which is worse but I don't really like the idea of liquid dripping into the beer.

AB brewing communicated by email until everything was corrected on my order. Next time I will pay a bit more attention to the significant digits when I click OK.

That smoked maple porter sounds good! Is it maplewood smoked or maple syrup spiked? I am going to bottle a Sakurawood smoked porter on Monday, it finished with a high gravity of 1.024 but I have oatmeal in it and it hasn't moved for a week. Smoking the malt myself was quite enjoyable, I will do that again!

Yeah the sides do compress a bit. I should have mentioned that. The most moving I do after fermentation starts is to raise or lower the vessel. What i do to compensate is either lift it without using the handle or just pull the airlock. I suppose if you had a long enough hose that was full of co2, having the blow off might be more ideal.

I actually used maple syrup I brought back from a friend's sugar shack in Ontario this summer. I reduced it before using it because I wanted to reduce the fermentable sugars so that some of the flavour sticks around. I used a little more than I intended (about 500ml) and my OG was on the high side 1.065. The reading I took the other day was 1.018 and appears to still be falling. I thought I would have had a higher FG so it's going to be a strong one!

If this ends up being as good as I think it may (fingers crossed!) I'll be making another batch of it but racking it onto cherries for a few weeks. Something about a smoked maple cherry porter just has such a nice ring to it

Just got my Munton's tanks and other stuff from AB, it was only shipped yesterday afternoon so that was quick! I took some photos for anyone who wants to see. (click)
These are exactly what I wanted, its stronger plastic and compresses less than the fermenters I currently use. Volume marks on the side are nice although the plastic is opaque. There aren't any vent holes in either tank though so I drilled the center of the lid for the tap addition on one and put a tiny vent on the other end of the top.

Quite a bit of extract in there too! I added a bit of hot water to each tank and rinsed it out into a pitcher, about a kg without the water. After diluting some and checking the SG it looks like I should be able to make 6L of wort at 1.05 Starting gravity. Right now I am heating up the undiluted extract to sterilize it, should be fine in a sanitized glass umeshu jar for a few days while I figure out what to make with it.

Bottled my smoked porter today too; that 100 yen bottle drying rack worked fine without any extra support. I could fit about 25 bottles on it, long necks fit quite well.

Wish I had seen this thread earlier!

Another Japan (Tokyo) homebrewer here. Great to see a bunch of people here enjoying the hobby.

Brendan, I met you (or at least remember a white guy with dreads named Brendan, hah) at the Advanced Homebrew meet at the Watering Hole in August. I wonder when their house beers will be available to the public.

Do you know when Devil Craft will have their beers ready to go?

Hi JiBiru8 that was me alright:fro:! This time I will have an all-grain to bring to the party.. er.. meeting. I have a weak IPA (my goal was a beer that SWMBO could partake) and a smoked Porter that are both conditioning. The house is so cold right now that I will be lucky if the porter is fully carbonated by next week, I only bottled it a week and a bit ago.
This thread has been growing since a little after that meeting when I started it. I'm pretty happy to find this many enthusiastic people here as well!

I live a bit of a ways out of the city so I've only been to the WH the one time. I don't know when DC or the Watering hole will have their beers made. Maybe we will see one of them at the meetup and can pester for information

OppamaBrendan said:

Just got my Munton's tanks and other stuff from AB, it was only shipped yesterday afternoon so that was quick! I took some photos for anyone who wants to see. (click)
These are exactly what I wanted, its stronger plastic and compresses less than the fermenters I currently use. Volume marks on the side are nice although the plastic is opaque. There aren't any vent holes in either tank though so I drilled the center of the lid for the tap addition on one and put a tiny vent on the other end of the top.

Quite a bit of extract in there too! I added a bit of hot water to each tank and rinsed it out into a pitcher, about a kg without the water. After diluting some and checking the SG it looks like I should be able to make 6L of wort at 1.05 Starting gravity. Right now I am heating up the undiluted extract to sterilize it, should be fine in a sanitized glass umeshu jar for a few days while I figure out what to make with it.

Bottled my smoked porter today too; that 100 yen bottle drying rack worked fine without any extra support. I could fit about 25 bottles on it, long necks fit quite well.

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If you water that wort down to 1.030, you could use it for yeast starters.

tektonjp said:

If you water that wort down to 1.030, you could use it for yeast starters.

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Thats exactly what I did, I made a 2L starter for the Lager this week. I added the rest to the Pilsner kit for the extra fermentables instead of sugar. It says it was "light extract" so I hope that doesn't change the pilsner flavor too much. I have a bit left over that I put in canning jars and heated to 90 in a water bath for a while, hope that holds them over until the next brew.

This is my first lager in a long time; the first in Japan for me. The kitchen is 5-10 degrees Celsius and my winter jacket has been on it all week keeping it at around 15 I hope? I keep thinking there's a little guy standing in the corner when I see it out of the corner of my eye... It seems that if I really want to enjoy this hobby in Japan or at least this house, I will be better off doing a full temperature controlled fermentation chamber.

How are you guys dealing with temperatures in Japan? Do you have insulated buildings or live in a rabbit hutch like I do?

I also raise geckos, so I had heat tape and a thermostat on hand. I wrap each fermenter in a strip of flex watt heat tape (a heating pad would be ok) and then wrap that with some leftover polyurethane foam I had from another project. The thermostat keeps everything in check. Again, I happened to have all this on hand, so it may not be for everyone.

You could probably use an aquarium thermostat. You'd need to figure out the difference between liquid inside the vessel and the temp setting. I put the probe between the foam and the fermenter. I connect a power strip to the socket and daisy chain 3-4 at a time, with one thermo on one of the fermenters.

Cold crashing is easy now, eh?

Advanced Brewing put up a photo of some homemade fermentor covers on their Facebook page about a week ago. It looked like a few layers of newspaper shaped into a cover that fit over the fermentor with a little space in between the ferm sides and the paper. I think they just threw a heating pad underneath it.

Anyways, I thought the newspaper thing was an interesting idea. I still like the idea of some sort of temp controller in the heating source.

While this is my first brew. I wrapped a heated blanket for a twin bed around it then put a spare sleeping bag around that. I bought a digital thermometer for 700 yen that has an external probe that I taped to the bottom of the ferm so the blanket wouldn't give it false readings. Seems to work good. I checked my strip temp to my prob temp and it is very close so no worries. Now I don't have to open the whole thing up to check. I will upgrade to a controller and ferm wrap or something when I have extra funds.

OppamaBrendan said:

How are you guys dealing with temperatures in Japan? Do you have insulated buildings or live in a rabbit hutch like I do?

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I"m in a house I built with my very own two hands. The walls, floor, and ceiling have 20cm of glass wool insulation. What with my wood stove, the challenge is not to have a fermentation get too warm during the winter. Hope this story warms your hearts!

tektonjp said:

I"m in a house I built with my very own two hands. The walls, floor, and ceiling have 20cm of glass wool insulation. What with my wood stove, the challenge is not to have a fermentation get too warm during the winter. Hope this story warms your hearts!

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Oh nice! Its funny, Im from Canada and im not used to the cold INSIDE although its still tshirt weather outside.

The temperature controller is what I want, something I can use with a cooler in the summer and a heat pad in the winter. Any ideas where they can be found and price ranges? Johnson Controls' factory or warehouse is near my place maybe I can ask for a sample haha.
That newspaper contraption looked alright but I wonder if it would get moldy? There is a ton of condensation on my windows these days and i dont want to have any spores getting cozy and contaminating a batch...

Let us know on the Johnson's. would love to get one if they aren't too pricy.

The STC1000 can be had for cheap on ebay with easy delivery to Japan from Hong Kong. It's a simple build to give yourself a digital controller which will do heating and cooling.

Ok, I'm planning to buy the bag of English Ale Malts from Asahi BM pretty soon. Anyone interested in sharing the bag?

surume said:

Ok, I'm planning to buy the bag of English Ale Malts from Asahi BM pretty soon. Anyone interested in sharing the bag?

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Im still interested. I had only picked up specialty malts from AB and am almost out of base malt. Also, I am just plain curious how ordering from them will go.

OppamaBrendan said:

Im still interested. I had only picked up specialty malts from AB and am almost out of base malt. Also, I am just plain curious how ordering from them will go.

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AFAIK, by fax and bank transfer.

My house is damn cold in the winter. To keep my fermenter warm I wrap it with an old sleeping bag and have a small pet bed warmer (1700Y) tucked inside. That keeps it at a pretty constant 20C. To adjust the temp I very scientifically loosen or tighten the sleeping bag around the fermenter.

If anyone is thinking of ordering some specialty malts I'd be interested in doing a group purchase... I'll even do all the leg work

Alright there, all

Didn't realise there was a thread like this on the go:

surume said:

Ok, I'm planning to buy the bag of English Ale Malts from Asahi BM pretty soon. Anyone interested in sharing the bag?

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Would be interested in finding out the details for the sacks of English Ale Malts from Asahi. 67 yen per 100g of uncrushed Marris Otter from advanced brewing works out a bit expensive. Are they shipped from the big plant at Fukushima?? 25kg sacks?? How good is the price?

OppamaBrendan said:

Oh nice! Its funny, Im from Canada and im not used to the cold INSIDE although its still tshirt weather outside.

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Yeah, hotter inside than outside in the summer and colder inside than out in the winter. Keeps the kotatsu business going though,, I suppose

Asahi malt ships from Shiga. Not guaranteed MO, it's only listed as English pale malt. But it is a good malt. 20k sacks. 3700 to 3900 a bag. Crushed bags run a bit more. 2row, pale malt, munich, german (pils?), and wheat. And you might want to join the Kinki brewers FB group. We're always doing group buys on malts and hops and gear. Let me know if you're interested in that.