Boat Brewing

Hey yall
I've allways wanted to brew my own beer and now I have the perfect reason.
The wife and I plan on doing a circumnavigation on a 40ft yacht in the near future and the price(50 bucks a case in the Bahamas) and quality (or lack thereof)of beer in some areas leaves alote to be desiered. I had read about a guy that brewed his own beer on the boat but have concerns about the motion of the boat screwing up the fermenting process. I'd be doing the actual brewing on the hook in a calm anchorage, but what about after???
Very interested to here yalls take on this.
Boozecruise

first off i hate you!

on to the brewwing q's,,
are you gonna keg or bottle? kegging would be easier on ship i'd think
buckets or carboys? buckets probably safer but carboys/BB eaiser for useage


after fermentation it shouldn't be a deal cause the british empire shipped beer all over the world in the age of sails, it's why we have IPA

I think you need your own personal brewer/chaplain on this journey....



(interesting idea btw, are you going to keg? Are you going to do AG or extract? Are you going to stock up or find materials (grain/hops) on the trip?)

Best of all are you going to take pics on your brewing flotilla?

Hey Eric
Dont be HATEN
Youd be suprized how cheaply it can be done..(other then beer cost)
Sell the house buy a boat, no car note no property tax. The list goes on and on. You can pull it of for about 1500.00 a month.
Anyway back to the beer questions. It would have to be bottled because the lack of refrig. space. if I had a way to keep a keg cold that would be sweet. So im stuck with bottled(unless I go the brit way and drink warm beer..not gonna happen) So from start to the bottle,how long are we talken?
Boozecruise

Sup Rev
Youd be suprized at all the offers ive had along those lines..from cabin boy to barnacale scraper. And now brew master
I think i'll have to bottle for storage reasons.I'd load up on the ingredients as best i could and restock when I could.
Boozecruise

My 2c;

- Convert either a pony or 1/2bbl keg to a fermenter and tie that beotch down tight. Can be done by cutting top off corny and having it welded to top of Sanke.

- Don't expect anything that resembles flocculation to occur in high seas so, brew heffe with a very lowly flocculant yeast.

- Consider a jockey box and custom makeing dip tubes so you could pull directly from fermenter.

- If you scuba, clearly label the gas tanks.

- Bring me a long to make sure it all works.

my wife and I looked into living on a boat and traveling the world; for us, it sounded WAY more romantic than it was. We spent 2 weeks in Key West living on a 40+ footer and hated it. I can't tell you how often I hit my damn head when the anchor drag alarm went off in the middle of the night! OUCH! If I could afford a multi-hull....that would be different.

Anyway, I would think keeping temps stable and keeling would be an issue. If you have a cat, that would solve some of that. Good luck to you!

Hey Gila
Holy sh#t are you speaken russian? Ive surely got alote to learn about the brewen process..but on the pluse side I have the drinken part down patI'm gonna have to bottle it for storage reasons(cant keep a keg cold)unless I were to keg it and then fill a jug say a gallon at a time and then chill it.
BC

Brewme
Now that you mention it the guy who was brewen on the boat had a cat.
I know what you mean about the cats$$$$$ a semi decent one runs damn near a half mill. We've done some bare boats in the carrib. and loved it and dont plan on retiring on it. The max would be four to five years or till we get sick of it.
BC
After reading your profile sounds like we got a lote in common..changing hobbies like underwear. LOL

You wouldn't neccisarily need to keep the whole keg cold you could either use a jockey box and ice like Gila said or plumb it through the sides of a fridge and have a cold plate in the fridge. That would take up very little room from a refrigeration aspect.

You can use the whole ocean as your wort chiller. Course if you're in the Bahamas you might find it a little harder.

Boozecruise said:

Hey Gila
Holy sh#t are you speaken russian? Ive surely got alote to learn about the brewen process..but on the pluse side I have the drinken part down patI'm gonna have to bottle it for storage reasons(cant keep a keg cold)unless I were to keg it and then fill a jug say a gallon at a time and then chill it.
BC

Click to expand...

The jockey box doe the chillin cap'n.

This deck hands gotcher stern completely covered with my final suggestion. That'll leave you to the navigatin' and drinkin' parts.

Heck, I'll step that up one more. When in port I'll hang back on the yacht with your wife, I...I...I...I mean the beer, the beer.

:cross:

Dataz
Good idea. I never thought of adding another cold plate. The dont draw to much juice. Kinda like a heat exchanger but cold.
BC

speaking from first hand experience... There is no way you will have room for a keg on the boat. 2nd... Temperature is going go kill you - you will be lucky to keep the daily temperature below 90 in the cabin unless you plan on running a/c which won't happen.

No, this just isn't fair. You are in no way allowed to have your cake and eat it to. Not while there is still air in my lungs damnit!

Boozecruise said:

Brewme
Now that you mention it the guy who was brewen on the boat had a cat.
I know what you mean about the cats$$$$$ a semi decent one runs damn near a half mill. We've done some bare boats in the carrib. and loved it and dont plan on retiring on it. The max would be four to five years or till we get sick of it.
BC
After reading your profile sounds like we got a lote in common..changing hobbies like underwear. LOL

Click to expand...

1/2 mill for a blue water cat that is big enough to brew on? No way. You are easily talking 1.5

You would be best off brewing applewine in gallon jugs one at a time. Stuff not related to the boat and not absolutely essentional for acfossing needs to take up the space of a large duffle.

Boozecruise said:

Brewme
Now that you mention it the guy who was brewen on the boat had a cat.
I know what you mean about the cats$$$$$ a semi decent one runs damn near a half mill. We've done some bare boats in the carrib. and loved it and dont plan on retiring on it. The max would be four to five years or till we get sick of it.
BC
After reading your profile sounds like we got a lote in common..changing hobbies like underwear. LOL

Click to expand...

I love sailing and I move cats; problem is I will never afford a cat. $500k is the minimum for a USED cat and then plan on thousands in maintenance a year. I think a house on the beach (with room for my microbrewery) and a 16' Hobie cat is what I want now. But who knows, life changes and so do my needs/wants!

All I can say is "Wow." Good luck, and have fun, as I have nary a clue how to make it work.


TL

Brewme said:

I love sailing and I move cats; problem is I will never afford a cat. $500k is the minimum for a USED cat and then plan on thousands in maintenance a year. I think a house on the beach (with room for my microbrewery) and a 16' Hobie cat is what I want now. But who knows, life changes and so do my needs/wants!

Click to expand...

I didn't mean to discourage you... although it may have sounded that way. You certainly need to chase those dreams. You can get a really good new cat from performance cruising for $170,000 and a used one for $50-60K but they would not be my first choice from blue water cruising... although they can be well built.

For long-term cruising you need sooo much space in the boat for stowage of day-today backups (think multiple sets of sails, extra props, guys, lines, and on-and-on) for those items that are particular for your boat that you can;t easily find or fashion by yourself.

I just don't see how you would be able to find the space for brewing. There are a lot of campgrounds around the Caribbean that you could hook for the two or three weeks necessary for a descent fermentation but keeping that wort cool would be trouble but if you were cruising the St. Lawrence you might have trouble keeping it warm enough.

However, if you can get primary fermentation done at a campground and in a plastic bucket for secondary you might be able to pull it off.