The Beer Brewing Thread.

[phishfood]

If you want to, go ahead. I wish that I had that, but I have made many batches of good beer without.

 

[Chris]

Problem here is that it is well over 100 in the summer and maybe 80 inside. Can you brew in a fridge that is set to the warmer side or is that still to cool.

 

[phishfood]

The temp controller needs to be sampling the temperature of the fermenting beer, not the air temp. You can't just put a carboy in a 60 degree (or what have you) air enviroment and be good. In the beginning, before the yeast really takes off, it will be at or near 60, too cold for most yeasts/recipes. Once it gets going, it will be much more than 60, potentially bad as well. So the controller needs to read the actual fermentation temperature, to keep that in your ideal range.

That is why you need to have the fridge controlled by a separate temperature controller, not the one that is systemic to the fridge.

 

[Chris]

All this technology needed to brew beer when it has been done for centuries with an old wooden spoon and whatever they had laying around.

 

[Chris]

Hey Phish, what temp should I be keeping my brew at? My recipe called for 65-75 but that seems like a wide spread. It has been at 65-66 since I started. I have not put it in a barrel yet to keep it cooler, figured I would try and wait til it went to secondary and do it then unless I needed to earlier. so far it is still looking good. Bubbling away.

 

[phishfood]

Depends on the yeast and the style of beer it is. I tend to ferment a little "low and slow", so if the recipe is calling for 65-75, I would want to be just about where you are.

That is a stick on carboy thermometer I see in your picture, right? Stuck to the side like that, they are usually pretty acurate. I am surprised that the temperature is staying that low, without a method for keeping it cooled down. You might check the stick on's accuracy against a known good therm when this batch is done.

 

[Admin]

It only uses technology if you want it to.

I've seen some really cool electric setups and some really cool old fashioned ones too.

It's a good hobby to be a part of.

 

[Chris]

I'm gonna brew my next batch in an old wooden box using an old wooden spoon. No lid on the box. You want to sample some?

 

[phishfood]

Gonna make a sour, huh?

 

[Chris]

Thinking I will brew another batch immediately after bottling. It won't make any beer sitting there empty.

 

[phishfood]

That's what I'm talking about!

And if you get an excess built up, you can always ship me some.

 

[Chris]

I think I will start kegging it, cheaper faster and easier. That and it's a good excuse to buy a kegorater.

 

[Chris]

So I stole the burner from my fish fryer. and then bought a SS 7.5 gallon pot. tomorrow i will get the parts to tap it and have a drain valve with strainer.

 

[phishfood]

That and a cooler, you can do all grain batches. I have been using an 8 gallon pot. PITA, but doable.

 

[Chris]

I am building a wort chiller out of an old cooler and 25' of 3/8 copper. What else might I need.

 

[phishfood]

Going to use ice water in the cooler, I am guessing? Then pump the wort through it? What will you use for a pump?

 

[Chris]

I was planning on using gravity from my pot to bucket or Carboy. I don't know how well it will work, it is either that or I can build a cooler to run water through that fits in my brew pot?

 

[Chris]

I have watched a couple videos on the chiller in the cooler and it seems to work well, the ones where you put it in the pot seems like it would waste a lot of water and take more time to chill the wort. I have seen the other type where you have the copper inside a hose with water flowing in the opposite direction which seem to work well to. My goal was to not have water just running somewhere which I guess is not the end of the world.

BTW I am going to move these brewing posts to the other thread you started in case we want to access them later.

 

[Chris]

I tried to merge this one with your 3000 post thread Phish but they got all out of order and i couldn't figure out how to fix it so we get two threads

 

[Chris]

Picked up a few more items today, got the parts for my pot to do full grain and have a drain. Also picked up a keg. I also decided to go with the cooler style wort chiller gravity feed after talking to my local brewing supply guys. will post pics of that in another post.

Also tested my beer and it is about ready to bottle and tasted pretty good for being flat beer.