Toast Beer / Homebrew Thread

Player most likely to be a beer snob

  • Sam Butler

    Votes: 2 20.0%

  • Andrew Gaff

    Votes: 2 20.0%

  • Jack Watts

    Votes: 3 30.0%

  • Brant Colledge

    Votes: 1 10.0%

  • Jonathan Giles

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • Total voters
    10
  • Poll closed .

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Hahaha..3 taps but working hard on staying a size 34...so I can at least see my old fella when taking a p***. Yep, that is my highly cerebral health KPI.

Helps (hinders???) when you have mates that love a beer and drop around as they like. Also I have three daughters whose boyfriends and friends don't mind a beer off tap too. Especially since it's free. Bloody cheap ass students!!

I've got a good setup out the back. My lovely wife really has allowed me to indulge myself. Friday arvos can look like a beer garden at a pub at my place.

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Update on the Sleepy Cerveza.

Did what Dan suggested and gave it a good swirl without splashing yesterday. Turned up the temp a few degrees to 22 as well. Hydro reading today showed no joy. Still at 1.020.

Given I had another sachet of the EC1118, I got it and a Coopers kit yeast going concurrently. Definitely a dud batch. No activity whatsover in EC1118 starter but the Cooper's was going. Pitched it to the Fermenter. Checked on it 15 minutes later. Halle-f***ing-lujah!! Bubbling away like a mofo.

Can't imagine it's going to be a festival winner with all the dicking arounf with temps and the different strains of yeast in it...but it'll keep the cheap ass students happy.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Much appreciated.

While all that was going on I got started on that Euro Lager too. Thanks for the suggestion on reducing the DME in the boil SpaceClef. I didn't realise the boil caused the darker colour. Had wondered why my Lager Styles didn't have that straw colour about them. Learn something new everyday.

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KamakazeSalami said:
While all that was going on I got started on that Euro Lager too. Thanks for the suggestion on reducing the DME in the boil SpaceClef. I didn't realise the boil caused the darker colour. Had wondered why my Lager Styles didn't have that straw colour about them. Learn something new everyday.

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Yeah I'm just basing that on what some forums have said. I think it affects the amount of bitterness you get out of the hops if you have less malt in the boil - really not sure how - but apparently it prevents too much caramelising and therefore getting darker.

See how you go, I haven't done a comparison
 
SpaceClef said:
Yeah I'm just basing that on what some forums have said. I think it affects the amount of bitterness you get out of the hops if you have less malt in the boil - really not sure how - but apparently it prevents too much caramelising and therefore getting darker.

See how you go, I haven't done a comparison
Click to expand...

Cooking any sugar gives you caramelising do more dry malt/time being cooked gives you a darker wort.
Look up decoction mash. It explains everything and how to create layers in a malt profile by boiling some or all of the mash.

The lupins from the hops which give you the bitterness are less soluble in a higher gravity wort. Less malt more bitterness from the same amount of hops in the same volume wort.

Hope that makes sense. I need a beer.
 
Here2tellyouwhy said:
Cooking any sugar gives you caramelising do more dry malt/time being cooked gives you a darker wort.
Look up decoction mash. It explains everything and how to create layers in a malt profile by boiling some or all of the mash.

The lupins from the hops which give you the bitterness are less soluble in a higher gravity wort. Less malt more bitterness from the same amount of hops in the same volume wort.

Hope that makes sense. I need a beer.
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Woah!

Learnt two new things today. That makes heaps of sense. So if you wanna keep your hop bill down (and have a lighter looking beer) less malt in the boil.

Oila!
 
KamakazeSalami said:
Woah!

Learnt two new things today. That makes heaps of sense. So if you wanna keep your hop bill down (and have a lighter looking beer) less malt in the boil.

Oila!
Click to expand...

Yep or if doing an all grain beer, less grain in the mash/less dark grain in the mash.
Boil a light beer grain bill long enough and you'll get a darker beer with less volume.

A lot more control with mash brewing. With extract the goop in the tin is the grain bill mashed, hopped and boiled already.

If you guys are ever in Adelaide for a game, book ahead a month for the Coopers tour.
They are the world's biggest producer of homebrew extract. The tour is outstanding!
And at the end they feed you beer :D
 
Damnit, just spent an hour looking up Brew In A Bag methods and cheap 50L stockpots and now i'm super excited to start all-grain brewin!
 

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SpaceClef said:
Damnit, just spent an hour looking up Brew In A Bag methods and cheap 50L stockpots and now i'm super excited to start all-grain brewin!
Click to expand...

You should man. If you can find a local homebrew store who will mill your grain up then it saves investment of a mill.

I cleaned up my two empty kegs yesterday and purged them with co2 ready to rack beer into them then noticed my gas bottle was empty. Spewin! Just got back from a site visit so popped into my mates shop and swapped out bottles so I can tackle it tonight.

Hope I dont have a leak somewhere as that bottle seems to have gone fairly quick
 
DanWCE said:
You should man. If you can find a local homebrew store who will mill your grain up then it saves investment of a mill.

I cleaned up my two empty kegs yesterday and purged them with co2 ready to rack beer into them then noticed my gas bottle was empty. Spewin! Just got back from a site visit so popped into my mates shop and swapped out bottles so I can tackle it tonight.

Hope I dont have a leak somewhere as that bottle seems to have gone fairly quick
Click to expand...
C02 leaks are such a pain in the arse. I had my keg system setup by my local HB supplier. Guy made it way more complicated than he needed to, with more connections etc, increasing risk of leaks. I'm sure I've got a small one in my system. I always turn off at the bottle, even though it is a massive pain in the arse.

Was lucky enough that a mate I was helping setup a system for had a 10kg bottle which he couldn't get filled as it is one of those that have to go back to the provider. He bought a new one and gave it to me. My LHB guy took it out the back to 'have a look at it' and amazingly it had 'plenty' of gas in it.

So much easier to do carbing. Now my little 2.6kg sits in the kegetator and is for pouring only.

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Just checked on my Sleep Cerveza. That yeast addition must've smashed through what was left. No bubbling in over a minute. Gravity at 1.012. still a bit higher than I would've expected, but better than 1.020. Will give it another week or so to settle before racking it off to a keg. Should be drinking it in a couple of weeks hopefully.

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KamakazeSalami said:
C02 leaks are such a pain in the arse. I had my keg system setup by my local HB supplier. Guy made it way more complicated than he needed to, with more connections etc, increasing risk of leaks. I'm sure I've got a small one in my system. I always turn off at the bottle, even though it is a massive pain in the arse.

Was lucky enough that a mate I was helping setup a system for had a 10kg bottle which he couldn't get filled as it is one of those that have to go back to the provider. He bought a new one and gave it to me. My LHB guy took it out the back to 'have a look at it' and amazingly it had 'plenty' of gas in it.

So much easier to do carbing. Now my little 2.6kg sits in the kegetator and is for pouring only.

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Click to expand...

10kg is boss! Im going to start turning my bottle off each night, or rather only turning on when using. My bottle sits in a holder on the back of the kegerator where I have no access to even adjust pressure so Ill have to move it beside the fridge I guess
 
DanWCE said:
10kg is boss! Im going to start turning my bottle off each night, or rather only turning on when using. My bottle sits in a holder on the back of the kegerator where I have no access to even adjust pressure so Ill have to move it beside the fridge I guess
Click to expand...
Yep, my LHB guy when advising me at handover just said always turn off gas even in between pours, so it's become a bit of a habit now. Mine sits in the fridge, behind three kegs and all the lines, so getting to it can be a pain, but I figure I'd rather go through that find I've lost a bottle of gas overnight.

I'd love to be able to re-do my lines and connections but because I've built my bar around and above the kegetator making any changes means having to f*** around and disassemble everything.

The other alternative for you is to install a manifold suited to however many lines you need.

www.ebay.com.au/itm/291818357153

I'd love to have one of these set up. Much easier to isolate your kegs and lines and added bonus is you can run different carb pressures on your kegs with no risk of them losing pressure through equalising (if your system is set up like mine, where the three gas lines come back to one primary and back to the regulator). I just don't have the room inside the kegerator, which is where I'd have to install it.

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KamakazeSalami said:
Yep, my LHB guy when advising me at handover just said always turn off gas even in between pours, so it's become a bit of a habit now. Mine sits in the fridge, behind three kegs and all the lines, so getting to it can be a pain, but I figure I'd rather go through that find I've lost a bottle of gas overnight.

I'd love to be able to re-do my lines and connections but because I've built my bar around and above the kegetator making any changes means having to f*** around and disassemble everything.

The other alternative for you is to install a manifold suited to however many lines you need.

www.ebay.com.au/itm/291818357153

I'd love to have one of these set up. Much easier to isolate your kegs and lines and added bonus is you can run different carb pressures on your kegs with no risk of them losing pressure through equalising (if your system is set up like mine, where the three gas lines come back to one primary and back to the regulator). I just don't have the room inside the kegerator, which is where I'd have to install it.

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Ive got one. Has no check valves built in. Bought one just like that link on ebay and the check valves are rooted, I could blow air back thru it. Sent it back and yet to find a viable solution. I was going to go 4 tap manifold and convert one line to a bulkhead for force carbing but I dont do much of that anymore.

You cant regulate pressure through those manifolds though. Each line on the manifold would need to have its own regulator and gauge. Its either on or off, and if you half crack open a line the gas will eventually get through to the pressure set by the reg.

Problem with current setup is it equalizes pressure in the manifold and I lose aroma on my hoppy beers. It definitely needs addressing
 
DanWCE said:
Ive got one. Has no check valves built in. Bought one just like that link on ebay and the check valves are rooted, I could blow air back thru it. Sent it back and yet to find a viable solution. I was going to go 4 tap manifold and convert one line to a bulkhead for force carbing but I dont do much of that anymore.

You cant regulate pressure through those manifolds though. Each line on the manifold would need to have its own regulator and gauge. Its either on or off, and if you half crack open a line the gas will eventually get through to the pressure set by the reg.

Problem with current setup is it equalizes pressure in the manifold and I lose aroma on my hoppy beers. It definitely needs addressing
Click to expand...

Ah f*** it i didn't realise it didn't have a check Valve. They do seem a bit on the cheap side.

I thought the advantage of the manifold would be that you could carb a keg at whatever pressure and once on the manifold so long as you had it turned off, the keg pressure would remain. You'd just open the valve up to give the lines enough pouring pressure and then shut it off. Or am I missing something?

Under my setup now, I've even got to the point of unhooking the gas lines off the keg. I just found I had the same issue with losing hop aroma and depending on how full other kegs were it could screw around with the pour as well.

I've only ever forced carbed my kegs. I'm still finding it a bit hit and miss after a two years. Have seen a few people talk about just hooking it up to gas at serving pressure and leaving it for 3 or 4 days to carbonate. Will have to look into that a bit more I think.

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KamakazeSalami said:
Ah f*** it i didn't realise it didn't have a check Valve. They do seem a bit on the cheap side.

I thought the advantage of the manifold would be that you could carb a keg at whatever pressure and once on the manifold so long as you had it turned off, the keg pressure would remain. You'd just open the valve up to give the lines enough pouring pressure and then shut it off. Or am I missing something?

Under my setup now, I've even got to the point of unhooking the gas lines off the keg. I just found I had the same issue with losing hop aroma and depending on how full other kegs were it could screw around with the pour as well.

I've only ever forced carbed my kegs. I'm still finding it a bit hit and miss after a two years. Have seen a few people talk about just hooking it up to gas at serving pressure and leaving it for 3 or 4 days to carbonate. Will have to look into that a bit more I think.

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Click to expand...

The manifold in that link you posted does have check valves. Looks identical to the one I ordered to replace my current one. But when I tested the valves they were broken, so I got a refund for it. Ill either try again or install individual check valves plus one before the reg.

I have a manifold predominately so I can gas 3 kegs from one reg and also shut lines off when kegs are empty. You could shut the lines down when not using. That would be a quick way to isolate a leak if your beer goes flat in the days its not getting used
 
I've got a 4 way manifold just like that one crazy fermented meat posted.
But you guys are gonna hate me.

I don't use it. My C02 bottle is an old fire extinguisher so it's always off and I just give the trigger a quick squeeze when I want to top up a keg with some gas.
As the serving pressure drops I turn up my flow adjuster perlick taps.

You can hate on me now :p
 
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