Staten Island Homebrewers Thread

[Airborneguy]

I'm fairly simple too. I use a single burner and a cooler mash tun. I batch sparge and do 5.5 gallon batches. I use a piece of wooden furniture than I took from someone's trash to elevate whatever needs to be elevated for running off or siphoning.

My "extravagance" is my fridges. I have two of them. My father's rich friend went through a divorce and had to downsize, so I picked up both for $500. One is my kegerator/beer fridge, the other is my temperature controlled lager chamber.

 

[Airborneguy]

I HAD a habit of buying things that I saw cheap even though I didn't need them, so I also have a min-brew conical that I've never used ($80) and a 15gal stainless brew pot with a faucet ($100), also never used. I alway toy with the idea of selling them, but never do.

 

[sublimnl]

I need to get me a refractometer very soon - I'm completely clueless and not using a hydrometer since it would basically make my 1 gallon batches 0.5 gallons in no time... So my first batches are complete shots in the dark and hoping for the best... Either need to upgrade to bigger batches or get the refractometer.

 

[mikeysab]

I HAD a habit of buying things that I saw cheap even though I didn't need them, so I also have a min-brew conical that I've never used ($80) and a 15gal stainless brew pot with a faucet ($100), also never used. I alway toy with the idea of selling them, but never do.

I'm first on the list for both of those. If you wanna bring that 15g for our brew day next week, we could put it to use.

Elliot, I woulda lent you my refracto. Its not too late, if you wanna stop by before you brew tomorrow. Its good for og, but you need to do some calculating for fg, and I don't know how to do it, so I use my hydrometer for fg

 

[thedude00]

I brew with a simple system. Actually, I have two systems, sorta. If I need to bang out a 5g batch, and can't get outdoors, i'll use my 5g round cooler to do a biab, boil in my 30 qt turkey fryer pot and chill with my IC, but pumping ice water through it with a tile saw pump. If I get outdoors, I use my 20g bk, 52 qt coleman extreme (copper manifold), ic with hose, two burners, and pure oxygen. I've been doing double brew days. My ferm chamber holds 3 buckets, so I normally do a ten and a five gallon batch, unless its a saison, and I dont temp control, then i'll do two ten g batches. No stand, just a table, but i'm in the process of building two seperate wood stands to make gravity work for me

Dam 15 gallon brew days nice. I bet its nice to have a 20g bk to be able to do that.

 

[SeanGC]

Me and phil "co-brew" and built an electric system similar to theelectricbrewery.com. I'm not comfortable with using propane, especially inside (with adequate ventilation). The electric system has been very effective.

Id love to get 15gal fermenters next. But, DEM ****S ARE EXPENSIVE. lol

 

[thedude00]

I working on building my brewing set up back again. When i moved back to SI from LV i sold my hole set up. When i moved back all i came back with was 2 suitcases my BK wouldnt fit lol. Right now i have a 20g cooler for a mash tun plan old 10g pot for a BK, IC chiller one burner. All i would really like to add is two kegs to make a BK and HLT one at a time and add a burner and a pump

 

[mikeysab]

Its nice cuz I get a lot of beer brewed while I have all my equipment out. I don't brew very often, so I like to do as much as I can on a brew day. I'm actually trying to move my 20 g bk to hlt duty and acquire a 15 g pot to use as my bk. That way, if I wanna do a 15 g batch, I can still use the 20g to boil in. I bought it for less than a hundred bucks and added a ball valve. At the time, my thinking was to do 10 or 15 g batches. I'm trying to work on a house recipe to always have on hand. My serving options are pretty diverse with bottles, 7 5g kegs, 2 3g kegs, 7 TAD bottles, and a carbonator cap. So if anybody ever needs to borrow anything like the bk, or a keg, feel free to ask.

 

[thedude00]

Me and phil "co-brew" and built an electric system similar to theelectricbrewery.com. I'm not comfortable with using propane, especially inside (with adequate ventilation). The electric system has been very effective.

Id love to get 15gal fermenters next. But, DEM ****S ARE EXPENSIVE. lol

I was just going to ask if anyone brew on a electric system i would love to built one once i get the space. For now i been thinking about adding a 240 or 120w heat stick or build one in when i make a keggle so i could brew in side on my electric stove when i dont want to brew in the cold. Cant now my stove would take 3 hour to bring 5 gallon to boil.

 

[SeanGC]

If ur doing 5 gallons, the heat sticks are pretty effective. B&E uses one for small batches.

 

[sublimnl]

Elliot, I woulda lent you my refracto. Its not too late, if you wanna stop by before you brew tomorrow. Its good for og, but you need to do some calculating for fg, and I don't know how to do it, so I use my hydrometer for fg

If I can just borrow it for OG tomorrow that would be cool - can pick it up tomorrow since I know you live close now, and can bring it to Killmeyers on Monday.

 

[Airborneguy]

I want to go electric eventually also, but probably not until I move. Mike, you can borrow the 15g almost indefinitely. I don't want to let it go, but you can definitely use it for now. I'll probably end up selling the conical honestly, I need the space.

 

[mikeysab]

I was just going to ask if anyone brew on a electric system i would love to built one once i get the space. For now i been thinking about adding a 240 or 120w heat stick or build one in when i make a keggle so i could brew in side on my electric stove when i dont want to brew in the cold. Cant now my stove would take 3 hour to bring 5 gallon to boil.

I have two 5500w heat sticks, so don't buy one all willy nilly. I might use one, or both, but not sure yet. Just keep in mind theyre here if you want one

 

[SeanGC]

U get them from rons online, mike?

 

[thedude00]

I have two 5500w heat sticks, so don't buy one all willy nilly. I might use one, or both, but not sure yet. Just keep in mind theyre here if you want one

Thanks 5500w i think would work well for me .I like to brew 5 gallon batches so with a 5500w heat stick and my stove i think i should be able to bring 5.5G to a boil pretty fast.Ill let you know been throwing that idea around

 

[mikeysab]

U get them from rons online, mike?

Got em from the classifieds section of hbt. I went on a drunken buying spree a few months back, and wound up with,a lot of stuff, some that I don't really need

 

[SeanGC]

Lol i do that too. I get into these buying sprees when i buy a bunch of things im not ready to use yet. I have a few items that are waiting to be used lol.

 

[sublimnl]

If any of you have items you have grown out of, I would be interested in buying hand-me-downs

 

[SeanGC]

I might, actually. I was thinking abit buying a different grain mill (hAve jsp malt mill barebones). Also have a 7 gallon pot with brewmometer and valve.

 

[Airborneguy]

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna sell this conical. I paid $80 stripped and bought all of the fixtures for it. I'm a freak about temperature control and can't figure out how to control this to my ideal, so I've never used it.

 

[SeanGC]

7 gal conical?

 

[mikeysab]

Use it, you have two huge fridges. As long as you have all the fittings, and a yeast dump, use that mamma jamma.

 

[thedude00]

Let me know if you do want to sell that conical interested for sure..

 

[thedude00]

7 gal conical?

it a stainless steel fermenter

 

[SeanGC]

Sorry, i should have clarified. Is it a 7 gal conical? Or a bigger conical.

 

[Airborneguy]

Mike, it doesn't fit in the freezer. I already cut one rack out (they were not removable) and don't want to cut the other because I use it.

Sean, it's the 8 gal mini-brew plastic conical. Stainless conicals are MUCH more.

 

[SeanGC]

oh sweet. I want a 15g one bad, but I haven't found one that is financially friendly yet lol.

EDIT: 15 Gallon, not a $15,000 conical lol.

 

[sublimnl]

15 Gallon, not a $15,000 conical lol.

That would be one hell of a setup...

 

[SeanGC]

haha yeah, might take a few yrs savings up my allowance for something like that.

 

[Airborneguy]

I'd have to cut out the floor of my kitchen to fit it in my beer room.