Some validation of my forray back into brewing.

[JetSmooth]

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!

 

[NYCHomebrewer]

1. I would just make a heatstick. Do a search on this site for links to a plan that is easy and works great. 1500 Watts at 120V is enough to boil 3 gallons of water, but if you are making one, you might as well make two. 3000 Watts at 120v a piece will heat your water that much faster and make your brew day that much shorter.

2. I'm not sure what you are asking here... If you are asking whether it will be too hot for the shower stall? I don't think so, but a small room is going to get very steamy and unpleasant from the boil.

The nice thing about the heatsticks is that, combined with your stove top, they make full volume boils pretty easy with an electric stove.

I think you will be fine for partial mashes and could pretty easily make the jump to an all grain BIAB system.

Your "closed transfer" of wort seems overly complicated to me and something that basic sanitation measures (which you should be doing anyways) should obviate the need for (something non grammatical here, but who cares...). But then again, maybe I'm picturing something in my mind completely different from what you are really proposing. Just remember to review the basic procedure.

1. Mash in
2. Mash out
3. Boil wort, add hops (without grains or else get astringent tannins)
4. Chill wort as quickly as possible
5. add yeast etc.

I only say that because you said "For the boil, typical grains-in-bag, hops yadda yadda." I'm pretty sure that even in BIAB you don't boil the grains.

Finally, as to your 1952 refrigerator. I don't want to rain on your parade. A free refrigerator/freezer often sounds like an awsome deal. But I have some experience in this area and it isn't always true. I inherited a chest freezer from the same basic era that you are describing. It was massive, heavy and it looked like you could store about 6 deer carcasses in it with room to spare. This is in fact what it had been used for from about 1964-1975 before being forgotten under a tarp in my grandfather's garage for 20 years.

I found it after he died and managed to get it home. I cleaned it and converted it to a lagering chamber for pilsners and the second half (with the addition of a couple of light bulbs) to a kegerator. Two cornies, but better than nothing.

Two months later I got my electric bill. My electricity expenses didn't just double, nor did they triple. They almost quadrupled! I did some math and discovered that, not counting the costs of conversion, with the added electricity costs from this extraordinarily inefficient 1960 freezer a new energy efficient freezer would pay for itself in energy savings in less than a year. I did the right thing; ripped the additions out of it, hauled it to the dump and just bought a new freezer.

Then I moved to NY and had to leave lagers behind, but that is another story.

 

[JetSmooth]

Thanks for the reply. I hadn't considered heatsticks, though I have seen them mentioned in here. I was thinking of mounting the element(s) in the kettle for obvious reasons; cleaner look, less chance of pulling the heatstick out or bumping it. Also, the operation of a heatstick is PLUGGED = ON, correct?

If I have two heatsticks going, won't that require two outlets on separate circuits? There's only one GFI near where I would be brewing.

Not discounting the heatstick because it's definitely an interesting option. For some reason, it just freaks me out. I guess putting the element in a kettle isn't much different. Haha.

My second question was really about how much heat would be radiated. Didn't think about the steam. Though this is a bathroom with an exhaust fan. I saw another post somewhere where they wrapped the kettle in "Reflectix" to hold the heat in. That may help somewhat also.

I wasn't meaning "closed transfer" as in strictly sanitary. I definitely plan on sanitizing the proper way. (Something I wasn't always too careful about when I was brewing in college) I was thinking about spillage. But then again, if I'm doing this in a shower, what do I care? Haha.

I rushed the yadda yadda part. I'm pretty comfortable with the actual boil. My questions are really about the setup. I know the temp control at different stages are very precise. (Trying to use that as an excuse to get the Brewmometer and install it as well )

I hear what you're saying about the old fridge. You're probably right, but it breaks my heart to think it wouldn't work out. I should get one of those kill-a-watt things that sits between an appliance and outlet and monitors efficiency. Also, since this is in the basement, which is already usually very cold, I wouldn't think the compressor would need to cycle on very frequently to maintain a comfortable temp. Lagering, on the other hand would be pricey.