Home brewing in Japan

I ended up being able to get most of the parts by going to several DIY places. I did a test yesterday and nothing seems to be leaking. I'm not entirely satisfied with it though. It cost a lot more than I was hoping it would and each fitting was individually wrapped in plastic (HUGE pet peeve of mine). I'm thinking about trying to find something similar to a false bottom, but one that I could fit into my 48q cooler. In Japanese it's called パンチングメタル... not even really sure what it's called in English :/

If you're sticker shocked now, wait till you price out punched stainless. Ouch.
My MT using the stainless kettle strainer. Works great. You could make your own by rolling up stainless mesh/screen.

ShizuokaBrad,

Have to agree with Tektonjp. If you are buying new punched stainless will be pricey. I suggest politely asking at scrap yards to look at their stainless pile.

I found a 4 ample pieces of stainless screen 4mm gauge for pennies. I think they cost me two cans of coffee (they were too light to weigh so the scrap yard said take them- but I think it's better to pay heavy for the light stuff and hopefully you'll pay lighter for the heavy stuff later). I made a hop bag and a large (fits the bottom of my kettle) pick-up screen. by folding the edges together.

GB

I had the same beef with individual wrapped parts, how the f@#! do I test the thread fit properly? I dont trust my eyes to say "yeah thats the same thread"...

I see a section in my local hardware store that holds the punched steel, and other sheets of various materials like copper or aluminum. I agree that it is likely to be more pricey to buy the parts than to find scrap or another off-the-shelf item that contains the part you are looking for (or can be repurposed). My father buys those little tea-light LED lamps from dollar stores and just takes the batteries out when he needs new batteries - he says the cost of the batteries alone is 4 times that of the tea lights...
The problem for me is being certain of the content of the material I am buying though. How do you ID stainless vs nickel plated or some other shiny stuff GB?

Well guys I messed up. I accidentally ordered whole grains instead of crushed, and now I have 4.5kg of ale malt taunting me for not owning a mill. Do you think a neighborhood rice store would be able to crush it for me?

I would suggest purchasing a mill as you will have fresh malted grain at you finger tips for ever
Buying un crushed malt should be paramount for a brewer
But a mill is a little pricey and only gets used for a few minutes per brew
Look at the milling options
You could use a bag and a rolling pin to get you on your way!
Corona mills are a cheap alternative but I'm not to sure how easy they are to get this side of the pond

Mills are way too expensive in Japan. I've also searched high and low for corona mills but to no avail. I was actually considering trying to convert a pasta maker into a mill. That will be my next project after I test out the mash tun.

I would look on eBay for mills. You might get it cheaper even if from the US. I agree though having a mill is awesome. While I am in the same boat as everyone else with keeping the costs down. I am finding while it is pricy upfront ultimately I am saving later. After all you probably will be getting all the stuff everyone is mentioning so why buy it twice?

Also with Christmas around the corner you can always tell everyone you want gift certificates to MoreBeer. That will cut the price for a lot of stuff.

Haha, yeah morebeer gift certs were already on my list.

I'll take a look at ebay and yahoo auctions, maybe I can find something. SWMBO has forbidden me to buy the JPY 12,000 corona mill I saw on brewland, so I have to find something cheaper.

Fencdar,

You say you are looking for a grain mill? I've had some ok luck with a modified old cast iron soba maker- check out yahoo auctions here's one http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f103515595

They can be found for 1000 yen or less. I used a dremel tool to groove the rollers so they grab the grain. It's noisy but works ok- I run my grain through twice. I also use a cheap variable speed drill to power it.

GB

OppamaBrendan,

Short answer? I don't.

Stainless comes in a lot of forms, but most of the stuff in the form of pipes and screens I have been told is mostly 304 food grade stainless. I personally boil and clean, boil and clean anything I find in a scrapyard. If you look at it you can often tell what it belonged to by context. I pick up stuff that looks either medical or food related. Also it has to be pretty clean, no residue in it, no funky smells, is clean, has clean fittings on it excetra. You can also find a lot of good stainless stuff from places that scrap industrial kitchen materials that is about 99% likely to be food grade.

But it is pretty hard to determine what exact grade of stainless you are dealing with- so when in doubt pass. Of course the same thing can be said for the stainless screen sold at a home center or even the stainless stuff sold at a 100 yen store...

GB

Where is everyone buying their yeast? I was looking for some White Lab or Wyeast yeast.

Any suggestions?

GB

Guzzibrew,

I purchase my yeast from Midwest supplies or More Beer. I also get it shipped with the ice pack just to insure it gets here safely.

Guzzibrew said:

Where is everyone buying their yeast? I was looking for some White Lab or Wyeast yeast.

Any suggestions?

GB

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As for liquid yeast you can sometimes get it from Advanced Brewing. They do have most of the dry yeast you would need. If you are dead set on liquid you are better off going through MoreBeer. I say them because they ship easily to Japan.

It occured to me while at work the other night, the stainless flat pan I was using was bought at Daiso. It has about 2 cm depth to the lip, and maybe it would take 2 to fill the bottom of my mash tun. All I need to do to make it into a false bottom is drill/punch a ton of holes in it. Not sure the price for that, but its an option if you are still looking for stainless.
For those who are looking at mills, I have seen roller mills in action and compared to a victoria/corona mill they are pretty damn fast. That soba mill looks pretty cool, and for 5000 yen it looks indestructible!

Thanks for the info on the yeast. I'll check out more beer and midwest supplies.

I was looking at Advanced Brewing and the selection was rather limited.

What do most of you use? I've been using Safale 04 with pretty good luck.

OppamaBrendan,

That sounds like a pretty good idea for a false bottom. Punching the holes would be the easiest if you had a good punch on hand. As for drilling stainless remember lots of coolant and pressure and a slow drill. Otherwise you'll spend more on drill bits than you would buying punched metal.

The modified soba mill is pretty fast. I can get through 5 kg of malt in less than 10 minutes.

It did take a bit of farting about to get it mounted to a bucket with a hopper on top, but it works out ok.

As soon as I get my lathe wired up I want to build a slightly bigger more accurate mill, but for the time being I'll live with it.

Shot my mouth off too fast. Advanced Brewing *does* have a pretty good yeast selection. I just didn't look hard enough, either that or the confusing layout of their website.

Thanks again.

Anybody looking for an amazing mash tun?

Check this out:
http://page22.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/l28918384

Insulates as well or better than an igloo cooler, is stainless and already has a spout installed.

This one has lost the packing- but if you go to the super chef website they sell the packing.
http://www.americanproduction.com/military_spec.html

I've got two of these that I'm thinking about using as a fermenters (the cap already has a pre-drilled hole). I'm just not sure how easy it would be to monitor and maintain temperature...

GB

Stopped by my local scrap yard and found a three lonely 20l kirin kegs there- no corny kegs alas.

I don't need kirin kegs but if anyone is interested they'd be about 2,000 yen each. I'll even throw in the Kirin keg coupler I have - as I'm now going full corny.

There was also a huge assortment- and I mean assortment of sanitary clamps pipes, and valves of which I picked up most of the good sanitary clamps and fittings- but the sizes are all over the shop- and a couple of stainless steel valves- one of which was a butterfly valve! The other valve was a Kurtz valve- top of the line valve.

There was a whole bunch of other valves there 1/2" to 2" if anyone is looking for some valves let me know. Much, much cheaper than a home center, and better quality. They'll need to be dissasembled cleaned, boiled, polished and boiled again before sterilizing but you'd do that with a new valve too- wouldn't you?

There were also some sanitary threaded fittings - again all sorts of sizes and pipes to go with them but I left them behind.

There were also a lot of standard pipe fittings as well- most of which were stamped with 304 which is food grade stainless.

So again if anyone is interested in any of this stuff let me know ASAP. I can go down and drag it out ( glad to pass on the bargains I don't need).

GB

Just ordered some yeast. I priced both MidWest and Advanced Brewing
and also Hop and Grape. I bought from Hop and Grape. It was quite a bit cheaper with the cheaper shipping rates from Britian. YMMV

GB

Guzzibrew said:

Just ordered some yeast. I priced both MidWest and Advanced Brewing and also Hop and Grape. I bought from Hop and Grape. It was quite a bit cheaper with the cheaper shipping rates from Britian. YMMV GB

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what if you buy and how much was it? Liquid or dried yeast?

Hello all,

I was wanting to start growing a few hop vines this coming up season and was wondering if anyone will have any extra rhizomes that they would be willing to part with. If no one has any extras can anyone suggest where to purchase some from.

Thanks in advance,
John

I'm thinking about growing a couple of rhizomes, too. I wonder how good the yield gets?

Brendan, I've been getting terrible efficiencies on my last couple of brews, using those laundry bags you recommended. What kind of efficiency do you normally get?

My last two brews were at 40% and 49% efficiency, no matter how much I squeeze it. The only thing I can think of is that my bags were rather small- big enough to hold all the grain, of course, but not big enough to completely line the pot. Would that negatively impact efficiency?

Fencdar said:

I'm thinking about growing a couple of rhizomes, too. I wonder how good the yield gets? Brendan, I've been getting terrible efficiencies on my last couple of brews, using those laundry bags you recommended. What kind of efficiency do you normally get? My last two brews were at 40% and 49% efficiency, no matter how much I squeeze it. The only thing I can think of is that my bags were rather small- big enough to hold all the grain, of course, but not big enough to completely line the pot. Would that negatively impact efficiency?

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You do need enough room for the grains to saturate well. If you have small bags that won't be good. Ideal is a bag that lines the brew pot. But the other question is how is your grind? That is the most important. If you are doing BIAB you can grind to almost a powder. Also how long was your mash? With BIAB you should go for 90 minutes.

I used multiple bags and stirred them around fairly often since I could not find any bags big enough for my 50L pot. I think small bags were OK if you leave lots of space in them for moving the grain - I wouldn't fill more than half of each bag, the grain swells as it absorbs water and moves into some of that extra space. My home brew efficiency has never been spectacular but if I recall the BIAB for me was in the high 60s which at the time was acceptable for me. There are threads on here where other people say they get 80+% efficiency all the time but the descriptions of the bags doesn't go into detail. I agree the grind can be quite fine if the weave on the bag is tight enough. I found more trub material in BIAB so a whirlpool after chilling really helped before I racked to fermenter. I just gave a good stir and let settle for 10 minutes, the sediment settles into a pile in the center of the pot and you can rack from the edge without sucking it all up into the fermenter.

As for the rhizomes, I can't say how many I can part with yet. As is the case even with the commercial suppliers they need to go through winter to assess the viability. Some will die off in the cold and we wouldn't want to cut and send any of those weak ones. I cut probably %50 of my shoots last year for the community so I may not be able to supply as much this time round. The Japan Hops Trading thread (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/japan-hops-trading-360693/)will have updates when I assess the crowns in late Feb or early March. There is at least one gardening website listed in that thread that sells some hops. Additionally there are several of the craft breweries that have or are planning hop yards, so if anyone managed to take a tour of them and snag a new variety that would be cool. Careful if you buy somewhere domestic that you are actually getting a brewing and not ornamental variety. Some people sell but have no idea what variety other than it is hops/humulus lupus.

mpearce said:

You do need enough room for the grains to saturate well. If you have small bags that won't be good. Ideal is a bag that lines the brew pot. But the other question is how is your grind? That is the most important. If you are doing BIAB you can grind to almost a powder. Also how long was your mash? With BIAB you should go for 90 minutes.

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Thanks for the advice guys.

Yeah, my bags were full-up after absorbing the water. I think it was straining the stitches when I pulled it out of the mash. I found bags big enough once, so I'm sure if I look hard I can get them again.

I bought my grain crushed from Brewland- I still haven't pulled the trigger on a mill of my own. Just an idea, but as BIAB doesn't have a drain to clog, would it help if I strained out the husks, with a loose strainer or something? That would certainly eliminate a lot of the volume that's getting in my way.

For the hops, there are a bunch of sites to order from.
Like Brendan said, maybe we should move this discussion back over to the other thread.

I'm posting because I couldn't see the option to subscribe to this thread, and I'm assuming that I'll be subscribed after I post. Greetings from Fukuoka!

saintjondoe said:

I'm posting because I couldn't see the option to subscribe to this thread, and I'm assuming that I'll be subscribed after I post. Greetings from Fukuoka!

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Welcome. What are you doing in Fukuoka?

Fencdar said:

Thanks for the advice guys. Yeah, my bags were full-up after absorbing the water. I think it was straining the stitches when I pulled it out of the mash. I found bags big enough once, so I'm sure if I look hard I can get them again. I bought my grain crushed from Brewland- I still haven't pulled the trigger on a mill of my own. Just an idea, but as BIAB doesn't have a drain to clog, would it help if I strained out the husks, with a loose strainer or something? That would certainly eliminate a lot of the volume that's getting in my way. For the hops, there are a bunch of sites to order from. Like Brendan said, maybe we should move this discussion back over to the other thread.

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I wouldn't worry about straining. That's just more work when not needed. Just get a bigger bag and mash longer. If you can't find one big enough make one. That is what all the guys do in Australia where BIAB is from. Also what was your mash temp and how did your temp stay during the mash? These are factors too.

saintjondoe said:

I'm posting because I couldn't see the option to subscribe to this thread, and I'm assuming that I'll be subscribed after I post. Greetings from Fukuoka!

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Welcome!

mpearce said:

I wouldn't worry about straining. That's just more work when not needed. Just get a bigger bag and mash longer. If you can't find one big enough make one. That is what all the guys do in Australia where BIAB is from. Also what was your mash temp and how did your temp stay during the mash? These are factors too.

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Well when I first looked into BIAB I planned on making a bag and couldn't find material, and now my source for bags has run out of large ones. There are other ¥100 stores around tho. I just gotta find one with the right stuff.

Edit: sorry for double-posting!

My yeast from the Hop and Grape arrived the day before yesterday. Super fast service- though you have to place the order before you get a shipping quote. So it's not a step procedure.

I ordered three vials of White Labs Yeast. California Ale (WLP 001), East Coast Ale (WLP008) and Edinburgh Ale (WLP028). Each vial was just under 6 pounds sterling and the shipping was a very reasonable 8 pounds.

The whole order came to just over 25 pound -that's about 4,200 yen to us. Not cheap, but I found it cheaper than ordering from the states because of the crazy postage rates. YMMV

Fencdar,

I bought my BIAB cloth from Ikea (the cheapest curtains (799 yen?) there are made of the stuff often recomended) 100% polyester. The curtains are huge enough for numerous bags.

I've done 4 batches on my first bag and it's holding up fine- though I just managed to snag a huge stainless steel industrial strainer for soup (looks like this: http://page12.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/p368808941) it's as big as my brew kettle so I'm going to use it instead of the bag- we'll see how that goes- probably more trub, but easier to handle and keep clean and no worries about split bags.

For anyone interested in brewing with electricity my local home center has an immersion heater 1200watts that you can drop into your brew kettle. The heater is used mainly by builders to heat water, but it's made of 304 stainless which is food grade. I washed mine really, really well first.

I needed it because my stove was not capable of boiling 35 liters of wort.

I'm now starting to move to a dedicated electric brew kettle. I looked at ordering standard water heater elements from the states but the shipping made them pretty expensive. So I looked on Yahoo Auction and found there are a lot of old industrial coffee makers for sale- some pretty cheap. I picked up a huge coffee maker for 500 yen plus shipping and was able to salvage a super heavy duty heating element, a suitable cord, switches, three sight glasses, a thermo-well and thermometer (but I'll need to calibrate it as it only calibrated for "brew"), 3 potentially good valves for brew kettles and fermenters, a bunch of other parts. I then took the remaining metal shell (which was stainless) down to the local scrap yard and got 2,500 for it.

I brewed my last beer on it and it worked well. I still need to find a suitable ground fault breaker to make it super safe- right now I don't touch it if it's plugged in.

Anyone else brewing with electricity?

Been brewing electric for a year now. I may be the first here in Japan. At least, I like to think so.
Easier and cheapest way is to order a water heater element from Amazon using the international shipping section as your search area. I think I ordered a 4500 watt one which arrived for a reasonable amount. With the 200 volt available, it delivers about 3800 I think, giving me a perfect rolling boil in my 36 liter pot (20 liter batches finished).
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006JLVC6/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
I also snagged a 20 liter heater water off Yahoo auction last year for my HLT. That was a great score as it will heat water up to about 90c and is thermostatically controlled.
I love not having to deal propane.

saintjondoe said:

I'm posting because I couldn't see the option to subscribe to this thread, and I'm assuming that I'll be subscribed after I post. Greetings from Fukuoka!

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Welcome!

Guzzibrew- Your resourcefulness is pretty awesome, you turned that coffeemaker over for profit AND got all the parts you wanted and more!:rockin:

If anyone is in Yokohama tonight, Me and Drifting79 are going to be having a few beers at Antenna America from around 6pm.

Hey Shizuokabrad,
I just found a supermarket in Toyosu called "Food Store Aoki" that carries a ton of craft and imported beer. It's the only one in Tokyo, but apparently it's all over Shizuoka. Do you know it?

Yep. There is one near my house actually. They usually have a dozen or so craft beers and about half are switched out every once in a while. The imported beer is pretty sweet too. It's a bit pricey but good for a go when I want something different.