Poor students currently brewing 2 batches... tell me where we've screwed up!

[breakfast]

Being another poor student in Alberta I'll add a few comments from a local perspective:

1. Brewing beer is going to be A LOT cheaper in the short and long run then buying it. Many Americans don't realize that our taxes are so insane we're paying around $18-20 for a 12-pack of Canadian or Bud and the prices are even higher for drinkable stuff, a kit is $40 for 5 gallons, allgrain can be done for $20-25.
2. Your sanitization needs improvement greatly its the one hard and fast rule of brewing. Starsan is $20 a bottle but it lasts forever, fill a $1 spray bottle and dilute and it will last for years.
3. Bottling- I had a hard time trying to find pry-off bottles on the cheap, at first I went to a few bottle depots but it was impossible to get enough pryoffs. I then went and got a good bench capper ($40) and now I bottle almost exclusively twist-off bottles I've never had an issue with bottle bombs or not carbing bottles, it takes more pressure but it's not impossible. I'm sure as students you can get many twistoffs from friends if not several recycle depots in Edmonton sell them for $2.50 for 24 and they come in these handy 24 bottle cardboard holders.

I'm in Edmonton by the way so if you wanna hang-out during a brewday and swap recipes and ideas or whatever shoot me a PM.

Yeah I think we're gonna grab some StarSan for bottling... I have no idea how we would be using the stuff we already have in a timely manner.

We went to a bottle depot yesterday and the guy sold us bottles for $0.20 each which we were ok with because none of us really drink bottles usually so we don't have any saved up and don't want to spend the $200+ bucks for 11 dozen beer to drink and then keep bottles after haha

I'm in Edmonton as well (St. Albert).

 

[Veinman]

Yeah it's still pretty cheap and after each batch you won't need to buy a few more if any, just make sure you get a bench capper not a winged one.

Don't know what you've found for supplies stores thus far. Winning Wines is really good and I know they stock Star-san and the bench capper I go to the one on the southside but goggle tells me their are 3 in the city.

 

[breakfast]

Alrighty so I checked both brews with a hydrometer on Tuesday and today (Thursday).

The IPA hasn't moved from 1.015 and the Pil hasn't moved from 1.020... We're going to bottle on Monday...

We're gonna clean the crap out of the bottles we got from the depot... half are dirty or full of mold so we rinsed them out yesterday and today are soaking them overnight in bleach and water.

On bottling day we're gonna do soap and water again followed by a mild bleach and water bath followed by a thorough hot water rinse.... WOO

 

[dgooden]

Good luck on bottling day! If you haven't seen it yet, check out this thread :

Bottling Tips for the Homebrewer

So many helpful tips, it made my first bottling day painless.

 

[DeNomad]

Just a word of advice on hot water, don't use boiling water on room temp (or colder) bottles. They can and will crack.

Maybe if you did mild bleach and water soak, then rinsed them in a dishwasher with no soap set to "hot rinse" or similar that would work a bit easier. Maybe do one empty rinse cycle with no soap to ensure it's all gone.

I'd double check for mold in the bottom... sometimes it can be stubborn. If you find one like that then I recommend hitting that bottle with a little undiluted bleach from the container.

 

[Justibone]

Take it very easy on the soap b/c some types of soap will spoil your beer's ability to form a nice head.

When you drink your homebrews you will be pouring them into a glass, leaving the last little bit in the bottom of the bottle. I immediately rinse that out using hot tap water and then put foil over the top of the bottle. Next time I'm ready to brew I use my vinator to sanitize them and then they are good to go.

 

[NCBeernut]

From one poor student to another, don't waste money on an auto siphon.

Really? An autosiphon is like 10 bucks. Here are the directions:

1. Sanitize autosiphon.
2. Put in beer, pump a few times.

Here are your directions:

1. When you are sanitizing everything, put a gallon or two in your fermenting bucket and dump everything that need sanitized in there (by a gallon or two i mean of water mixed with the proper amount of starsan)
2. Find another large container to hold the sanitizing solution if you don't need to sanatize the primary fermenter or it is in use (example: at bottling time, use a bottling bucket or something that large like a brewpot, water cooler, etc)
3. Santize the siphon tubing. Dunk the whole length of tube under water and allow it to fill.
4. Keep one end of the tubing high and your thumb over the other end so it remains filled with fluid. Place the end for the beer in the beer and place a small bowl, pot, etc on the floor.
5. Remove your thumb from the other end of the tube to let the water run out. When beer starts coming out move the hose to the bottles or secondary fermenter.

Not worth it? Plus grabbing the end of the autosiphon with your hand isn't exactly sanitary.

 

[SoonerDoc]

Autosiphons are pretty awesome if you ask me.
Absolutely necessary? No.
Worth their price? Definitely.