World's First Solar Homebrew Beer

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
This is Joe Bair from Princeton Homebrew in NJ, my LHBS. Joe Bair is the owner, a true veteran, an innovator, and part-time mad brewing scientist :)
 
interesting concept ... But he boiled the grain for an hour in the brew pot actually looked like a 10 gallon corny painted black ? Also the black hose I hope it was food grade and not just a rubber garden hose , think I would pass on this.
 
Hi, Of course we did not use the water in the black hose, we used that water through a wort chiller to fresh water for the beer. It is a 10 gal corny and we did not boil the grains either.
 
Hi, we do not presently have videos of the all-grain batch we did the week before because the video team could not make it, but we did do an all grain batch and it is like a decoction. Roasting Hops bring out all the smell of its close cousins, they burn like cigarettes and the ash can color the beer. It also changes the flavor of the hops to a spicer note.
 
Hi, Of course we did not use the water in the black hose, we used that water through a wort chiller to fresh water for the beer. It is a 10 gal corny and we did not boil the grains either.

ohh it wasn't clear on the video that water was used to heat the fresh water with a chiller like a water heater. I got the impression that the grain was boiled for an hour . I did see around 7.10 the video says the grain is steeped but then around around 7.26 it states that the grain was boiled in the pot for an hour.

interesting and thanks for clearing that up
 
ugg....:rolleyes:
you know wood is solar energy too
how about a woot fired mash and kettle
from wood reclamed from utility easements and hwy project they just pile that up and burn it any way.
that would be much less lame
 
Roasting Hops bring out all the smell of its close cousins, they burn like cigarettes and the ash can color the beer. It also changes the flavor of the hops to a spicer note.
Do you get the same level of bitterness from roasted hops as unroasted?
 
ugg....:rolleyes:
you know wood is solar energy too
how about a woot fired mash and kettle
from wood reclamed from utility easements and hwy project they just pile that up and burn it any way.
that would be much less lame

If you're going to make that stretch, oil is also solar energy.
 
First solar homebrew? It looks cool but not sure about that claim! Here in Portland there are a few rigs for solar heated water, and at our organic brew fest this year (and I believe last?) we had brewers using them to do brewing demos.

Edit: Ok maybe he is the first guy to sunburn his hops ! ;)
 
Yes, the big apprehensiveness about having a video team coming over to document your solar brewing is the sun not showing up. All-grain could have been completed in that afternoon due to clear skies -- but I only had one chance to get it right... and it was cloudy in the morning, so we did an extract and specialty grain batch. The week before we did all-grain, mashing in the black corny and bringing it up to temp with the fresnel lens. It is necessary to have metal handles on the corny instead of the rubber ones because the glue will get soft and you'll be holding the rubber top minus the SS keg. That is what he meant to say about the cornys black paint statement.
 
If you look at modern breweries like Harpoon, they use pressurized brew kettles. Water boils in a regular pressure cooker at about 250F. If you look at the formula for IBU's, the hop utilization is dependent on temperature (boiling 212F) and gravity. The best you can get is around 30% utilization with those parameters. If you use pressure, you must vent or you'll get DMS. The answer is you'll get more IBU at higher temperatures (above 212F) and Corny's are pressurized high, and you can put a higher pressure relief valve. I believe 300F is about as high as you can get H20.
 
Did they use the sun to boil the wort for an hour? I agree, Solar Hot Water has been around a long, long, time - but that is not the same as what I did.
 
You know, when Roasted Barley came around with the simple idea of not malting it before kilning it, some folks had your attitude I'm sure back then. I'm sure Guinness did not pay them any mind.
 
Man, this is the coolest thing ever! Like Mythbusters meets brewing.

I don't think its fair to compare solar breweries to this. They are using solar panels to run their boilers. Solarhomebrewer's boiler IS the sun. More geek/mad scientist than trying to be green.
 
Solarhomebrewer asked me to post this pic of his mash tun.
solarhomebrewer said:
Solar Mash Tun
Mash in at 120F and bring the mash up to 148-158F using the Fresnel lens. The mash will convert quickly as it is decoction and there are rests if the clouds block the sun. Notice the scorch marks from where the linear lens was focused - An 1/2" Schmedling Easy Masher Screen slid on rubber grommets on the dip tube of a 10 Gallon Corney Tank painted Flat Matt Black, Melanoidins galore. Runnings are pushed through with C02 to brew kettle. This set up can be used without the Solar Oven.

SolarMashTun.jpg
 
Joe is definitely the first brewer I've ever seen make a rock melt. No ants were harmed in the making of any of this beer
 
Back
Top