JetSmooth
Well-Known Member
If there are good, definitive (ha!) threads that can guide me, please point me at them. I'm happy to do more research, but I hope this thread can be used to refine and validate my current plan.
I brewed extract beers (about four of them) back in the late 90's. Now that I have a house of my own (townhouse with no garage and the "laundry room" is strictly off limits. ), I feel it's time to get back into things.
I still have my 5gal glass carboy and a (just checked) four gallon SS brewpot. It's been relegated to chili for the past ten years, but I'm willing to scrub the heck out of it and get it back into pristine brewing condition. I also have my old two-handled capper. That's about it.
I just cleared out the area under the stairs where the sump is and think that may be my Ølkjeller (Google tells me this is Norwegian for beer cellar). It looks as if there's plenty of room down there. I am planning on getting a wireless weather thermometer and placing it down there to monitor temps.
Photos at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thefly/sets/72157623390370464/
I also have a 1952 Coldspot refrigerator that I got from my wife's grandfather before he passed. The thing is rusted and I made the mistake of spraying it with Rostoleum. But one of these summer days, I'm going to sand it off and get it properly restored. It will be a great kegerator or conditioning chamber. When I got it from him, it had been plugged in for about 20 years without ever being defrosted. The freezer was a solid block of lice so the compressor apparently worked. When I unplugged it, the cord insulation fell apart in my hand (!!!) so it's going to need to be rewired before I can safely plug it back in. We also found the original bill of sale and warranty from 1952 while going through some of his paperwork. (Coldspot was sold to Sunbeam, which was sold to Kenmore. Think I can get Sears to fix it?)
Anyhow, on to my expected brew procedure and setup. Please give me your input. I plan on doing partial mash for my first go.
Since I already have the carboy and 4gal brewpot, I'm going to start with those. My neighbor delivers beer and tells me he has a Yuengling keg with a damaged bung he was going to cut in half for scrap. He's offered it to me. So I will eventually have one of those to incorporate and play with.
I plan on doing a partial volume boil of 3 gallons, which will be added to 2 gallons of boiled (and cooled) water in the carboy. I may be boiling on my stovetop for the time being so I don't want to do a full volume. Though I'd like to convert the kettle to electric, hence my questions.
QUESTION ONE: I would like to eventually turn the 4Gal kettle into an electric kettle. Since I'll only be doing three gallons at one, can I do that with a smaller 120v element? I saw them at HD and wondered if one would carry three gallons to the appropriate temp. Is there a 120v wiring diagram that can guide the hookup and temp control? I'm a neophyte when it comes to electrical. (I'm not opposed to wiring up a rheostat inside a project enclosure, as long as someone has outlined the procedure clearly and their house is still standing).
QUESTION TWO: I would be doing this in my basement bathroom (closer to the Ølkjeller) in a vinyl walk-in shower stall; probably on a steel stand I would fab out of angle members and bolts. Would that radiate a dangerous amount of heat do you think? (Bonus to doing this in the bathroom is the GFI outlet in there)
I plan on adding a ball valve to the brew kettle and first boiling two gallons of water and running it through a converted cooler wort chiller. Probably run half of the water through hot to sanitize the line and then the other gallon through ice water to bring the temp down. In this way, I hope to have a closed transfer of the eventual wort.
For the boil, typical grains-in-bag, hops yadda yadda. Refresh the ice in the wort cooler and run it into the carboy to make my five gallon batch. I will be installing shelves in the Ølkjeller to place all my equipment such as hydrometer, etc.
Once fermentation is complete and a steady gravity is met, it's back into the bathroom with the carboy. Place it on a stand and siphon transfer to a bottling bucket. I'll be bottling for now, until the kegerator is ready. The bottles will go back into the Ølkjeller for bottle conditioning.
I have a spreadsheet of equipment I would LOVE to add as time and money permit. But for now, my main plan is to add a ball valve and electrify the brewpot. Also will be converting a cooler I have with copper coil to cool the wort.
Any advice, encouragement is much appreciated!
I brewed extract beers (about four of them) back in the late 90's. Now that I have a house of my own (townhouse with no garage and the "laundry room" is strictly off limits. ), I feel it's time to get back into things.
I still have my 5gal glass carboy and a (just checked) four gallon SS brewpot. It's been relegated to chili for the past ten years, but I'm willing to scrub the heck out of it and get it back into pristine brewing condition. I also have my old two-handled capper. That's about it.
I just cleared out the area under the stairs where the sump is and think that may be my Ølkjeller (Google tells me this is Norwegian for beer cellar). It looks as if there's plenty of room down there. I am planning on getting a wireless weather thermometer and placing it down there to monitor temps.
Photos at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thefly/sets/72157623390370464/
I also have a 1952 Coldspot refrigerator that I got from my wife's grandfather before he passed. The thing is rusted and I made the mistake of spraying it with Rostoleum. But one of these summer days, I'm going to sand it off and get it properly restored. It will be a great kegerator or conditioning chamber. When I got it from him, it had been plugged in for about 20 years without ever being defrosted. The freezer was a solid block of lice so the compressor apparently worked. When I unplugged it, the cord insulation fell apart in my hand (!!!) so it's going to need to be rewired before I can safely plug it back in. We also found the original bill of sale and warranty from 1952 while going through some of his paperwork. (Coldspot was sold to Sunbeam, which was sold to Kenmore. Think I can get Sears to fix it?)
Anyhow, on to my expected brew procedure and setup. Please give me your input. I plan on doing partial mash for my first go.
Since I already have the carboy and 4gal brewpot, I'm going to start with those. My neighbor delivers beer and tells me he has a Yuengling keg with a damaged bung he was going to cut in half for scrap. He's offered it to me. So I will eventually have one of those to incorporate and play with.
I plan on doing a partial volume boil of 3 gallons, which will be added to 2 gallons of boiled (and cooled) water in the carboy. I may be boiling on my stovetop for the time being so I don't want to do a full volume. Though I'd like to convert the kettle to electric, hence my questions.
QUESTION ONE: I would like to eventually turn the 4Gal kettle into an electric kettle. Since I'll only be doing three gallons at one, can I do that with a smaller 120v element? I saw them at HD and wondered if one would carry three gallons to the appropriate temp. Is there a 120v wiring diagram that can guide the hookup and temp control? I'm a neophyte when it comes to electrical. (I'm not opposed to wiring up a rheostat inside a project enclosure, as long as someone has outlined the procedure clearly and their house is still standing).
QUESTION TWO: I would be doing this in my basement bathroom (closer to the Ølkjeller) in a vinyl walk-in shower stall; probably on a steel stand I would fab out of angle members and bolts. Would that radiate a dangerous amount of heat do you think? (Bonus to doing this in the bathroom is the GFI outlet in there)
I plan on adding a ball valve to the brew kettle and first boiling two gallons of water and running it through a converted cooler wort chiller. Probably run half of the water through hot to sanitize the line and then the other gallon through ice water to bring the temp down. In this way, I hope to have a closed transfer of the eventual wort.
For the boil, typical grains-in-bag, hops yadda yadda. Refresh the ice in the wort cooler and run it into the carboy to make my five gallon batch. I will be installing shelves in the Ølkjeller to place all my equipment such as hydrometer, etc.
Once fermentation is complete and a steady gravity is met, it's back into the bathroom with the carboy. Place it on a stand and siphon transfer to a bottling bucket. I'll be bottling for now, until the kegerator is ready. The bottles will go back into the Ølkjeller for bottle conditioning.
I have a spreadsheet of equipment I would LOVE to add as time and money permit. But for now, my main plan is to add a ball valve and electrify the brewpot. Also will be converting a cooler I have with copper coil to cool the wort.
Any advice, encouragement is much appreciated!