I just joined the forum after about 16 years away from brewing, so I have a lot of dumb questions.
When I quit brewing, people were pretty excited about brew sculptures made from angle iron. Now I see the world is full of self-contained Buck Rogers contraptions that sit on a countertop. I am curious about them.
I used to brew with a 10-gallon pot on a turkey burner, a stand-up beverage cooler for sparging, and buckets for fermentation. I cooled my beer by throwing the buckets in the pool; my tap water temperature was very high, so using the copper-tubing chiller I made didn't pay off all that well. The pool got the job done.
I still have the pot and cooler. A lot of other things were disposed of.
The process was not terribly hard, but anything that would make it easier and use less junk is worth looking into.
I see a company called Speidel makes fancy machines, and it appears it's not too hard to buy them used. Maybe they work so well, guys start getting ultimatums from their doctors.
Do these things really save substantial work, or should I just get me a new cooler and false bottom and go back to what I know? I would like to make 20L batches. I like ales, but I also make a lager I am crazy about.
Info that could be helpful:
Location: FL, so brewing outdoors not a problem.
Plenty of space on porch and in laundry room.
Lots of 220 outlets in shop, plus dryer outlet in house.
Handy utility sink for cleanup.
When I quit brewing, people were pretty excited about brew sculptures made from angle iron. Now I see the world is full of self-contained Buck Rogers contraptions that sit on a countertop. I am curious about them.
I used to brew with a 10-gallon pot on a turkey burner, a stand-up beverage cooler for sparging, and buckets for fermentation. I cooled my beer by throwing the buckets in the pool; my tap water temperature was very high, so using the copper-tubing chiller I made didn't pay off all that well. The pool got the job done.
I still have the pot and cooler. A lot of other things were disposed of.
The process was not terribly hard, but anything that would make it easier and use less junk is worth looking into.
I see a company called Speidel makes fancy machines, and it appears it's not too hard to buy them used. Maybe they work so well, guys start getting ultimatums from their doctors.
Do these things really save substantial work, or should I just get me a new cooler and false bottom and go back to what I know? I would like to make 20L batches. I like ales, but I also make a lager I am crazy about.
Info that could be helpful:
Location: FL, so brewing outdoors not a problem.
Plenty of space on porch and in laundry room.
Lots of 220 outlets in shop, plus dryer outlet in house.
Handy utility sink for cleanup.