The weather is cooling off and I have brewing on my mind again! Early summer was too busy with the new job to even consider spending my free time brewing. Who wants to boil wort in a 40C kitchen anyway when you just want to cool down?
My equipment has changed up since my last brew, so I am going through the items and cleaning and prepping it for return to service.
Things I changed:
Mpearce hooked me up with a Igloo-type round mash tun (Thanks!) - this replaced my rectangular cooler mash tun, with a loss of volume but the benefit of a better drainage system and probably less loss to deadspace.
I cut my copper immersion chiller coil in half and made two smaller length coils out of it. Each coil receives fresh, cool water so the overall flow-rate is doubled. My coil was thin (refrigerator cooling coil sized) and the slow speed of chilling was a time-consuming part of my brew day. Chilling should be done quickly to reduce contamination risk and to reduce any DMS buildup that might occur when the wort drops below (80?).
Added a bulkhead thermometer to the brewkettle so I don't need to scald my hand with steam-heat.
Coming up soon: I will be picking up a one-way pub-keg from work. The empty bottle will be used for a fermenter, with an airlock. It is brown PET with a gas-barrier coating. I will not be pressurizing or using this for kegging, and the rubber stopper that currently holds my airlock fits perfectly. I may use these for long term storage during the winter... Anyway it is a 20L fermenter that costs me nothing and may be better than my current rectangular fermenters, less corners to clean...
I picked up a CO2 tank at the neighbourhood Sake-ya so I will have gas for purging O2 from conditioning tanks. This should help with quality.
I have cleaned up my 4 corny kegs, and now with the gas, I will be able to keg and serve on my single faucet at home. Looking forward to that! Currently my kegs are being used for making original sodas and serving them on tap at work, so they are def in working condition and ready to go.
Picked up a couple stainless ball lock bottle tops so I can force carb some beers in soda bottles. Perfect for "to go" containers without worrying about spending so much time bottling.
I will be getting rid of most of my 330ml bottles if anyone wants them and can pick up in Oppama let me know! Most have had the labels removed so that is a benefit. You can have a free hand-capper with the bottles if you can pick them up!
Happy brewing!!!