Home brewing beer? anyone? (1 Viewer)

[thangbom4321]

I'm getting ready to step into another hobby, Micro-brewing beer. I just bought me a big freezer and conversion kit to turn into a keezer. Now I need to know how. I have read plenty of forums and stuff on brewing, but i would like to see or get guidance from a person. Anyone brew or is brewing? Can I come over and drink/chitchat? =^)

 

[J Ard]

Hey Thang,

I could personally help you convert the freezer if you let me know how and where you want everything to look. I worked for a distribution company and did installs from 20-30 taps to 1 tap. As far as the brewing process goes, I haven't attempted it quite some time because I haven't really had the drive to do it anymore. If you need and or have any specific details you need answered let me know and I an walk you through it just about. I still have all of the tools to do it and some spare parts.

 

[thangbom4321]

So far i have:

-3 kegco faucets/shank combo coming in
-3 ball lock corny kegs
-duel gauge regulator and co2 tank
-some 5' lengths of tubing (they came with keg conversion kit)
-new 14 cu ft chest freezer

Things I need: 2x4 to make the collar, foam insulation, more wood, fermentor (thinking 5 gal water jugs as carboys or maybe buckets), air lock, beer kits, anything else?

I have most of the plan for the keezer down. I already have a lot of the stuff. The current plan is to have the freezer in the garage and then plumb the faucets (3 total) so that they stick out form the wall. I just have to come up with an effective and simple way to insulate the lines so that they stay cold. I'm thinking of using an insulated box to enclose the lines. This box will connect to a collar that I will build onto the lip of my keezer. The supply lines will share some of the cold air an not skunk from being warmed after chilled. The other problem is to figure out now to adjust the freezer to 36F w/o an external adjuster. I searched online that most feezer have some kind of adjuster to fine tune it (not the obvious one to adjust temp, the not obvious one to adjust the freon, kinda hard to explain).

 

[Pure Magic]

Man this thread is making me thirsty thinking about making cold beer....... Please post pics of your set up once you get it up and going. This is too cool.

 

[thangbom4321]

I will. Its costing me a lot more than i though it would. freezer $385; faucet and shank $75; freezer conversion kit was free, my bro gave it to me. My list is still incomplete. I think it will cost me another $50 in building material, and $50 in brewing material not including beer kits. I may be more depending on how fancy I want to make it.

 

[J Ard]

To run the lines, I would definitely use insulated something. Round pipe is usually the easiest thing to get and insulate. Pending on how far you have to run it, I would stick a small fan in the base of the pipe also to really push some of the cool air up the pipe - pending on how far you are wanting to run it of course.

 

[thangbom4321]

Why I they recommend the fermentation vessel to be larger than the batch? IE using a 6.5 gallon fermentation vessel when only brewing 5 gallons? I was planning to use those 5gal plastic jugs as my fermentation vessel. I want to maximize my brew volume with as little loss I can get away with. Less loss = more beer in my tummy.

 

[Reefer Ard]

A lot of it has to do with the gases that the enzymes put off when the brew is going through the fermentation process. You usually end up with more than 5 gallons by the time you mix everything and after the process is done, you end up with a little less than or right under that.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

 

[thangbom4321]

yeah, I did a little research and found out that the yeast builds a good foam head type thing and can clog the airtrap if it reaches it. When the airtrap gets clogged, the co2 buildup can cause the lid to blow open and ruin your beer batch. So the added size is to give the yeast and brew some headroom so to minimize the potential of clogging the airtrap.

 

[thangbom4321]

yeah, I did a little research and found out that the yeast builds a good foam head type thing and can clog the airtrap if it reaches it. When the airtrap gets clogged, the co2 buildup can cause the lid to blow open and ruin your beer batch. So the added size is to give the yeast and brew some headroom so to minimize the potential of clogging the airtrap.

My posted journey here will be a copy and paste from my post in Rcentral.

So my journey starts. Most of my supplies came in. It turns out, this hobby is expensive too. so far I spent $385 for the freezer (14 cu ft), $186.xx for the stuff from Midwest pictured below, and $35 on the 6 gal buckets and extra lids (I wanted to keep some lids drilled free to store/ save stuff like cleaning solution). The Cheap Kegco taps and shank combo were $75 total (that's dirt cheap, hope they are okay quality). The turkey fryer I already had so that's going to by my brew kettle/wort pot.

Picture time!!

YESS YESS YESSSSSS!!!!

 

[neopterygii]

This was an interesting idea:
Brewing Beer using the Neptune Jr

 

[Reefer Ard]

Looks like you are making some great progress. Instead of the turkey fryer, I had an old keg I "found" sitting around and cut it open and used that. If I can find it and willing to dig it out, I will take a picture of it. I need to get around to selling all the crap I have. I have been busy with everything else going on around the house that I don't have time to even attempt making beer anymore. Hope everything turns out really well for you and if you need help, please feel free to ask me.

 

[thangbom4321]

heck yeah.. Thanks for offering a helping hand reefer Ard. I know almost sure that I will like the brewing hobby. To tell you the truth, I don't even plan to drink too much of it, just enough as I am trying to get into shape or at least change my shape (round to muscles). I'm still looking to find me a steal of a deal on a classical guitar too. I will probably start my first (maybe 1st and 2nd) brew in a day or two. I just need to find me a cleaner so I can clean my brewing stuff. The Starsan finally came in yesterday.

 

[thangbom4321]

I started my first brew a few days ago on my day off. The process takes a lot longer than I thought it would have. All the washing, sanitizing, boiling, cooling, stirring and transferring takes some work. I may have to go to HD or Lowes and make me a cooling coil thing. It just take so darn long to cool. I really don't want to spend $40 for it though.

anyhoo, pic!

 

[thangbom4321]

Update time! Once again it's a copy and paste from my post on RC.

I been busy yesterday and today. I forgot to take build pics as I was in the zone! Anyhow, it's just about done. I just need to drill the hole in the 2x4 collar, run and connect the CO2 and beer lines. It come out nice. I just hope those PEX ear crimp rings for lines I bought form HD fit well enough. I bout 3/8" and 1/2" rings. I also hope I have enough lines as HD and Lowes don't carry anything that fits the size of the barb in this keezer kit.

Anyhow, here are the pics!!

This the the hole in the garage I cut out as I scout out the area for the taps.

This inside the house. Blue tape marks where I made two small hole to show where the studs are.

 

[thangbom4321]

I wanted to make something simple but looks nice to mount the taps on the wall. At first I was thinking of just hanging a nice piece of wood with trim. This plan was too simple to be true, it was. As i held a beer tap on the wall to see where I should drill and mount this board/trim, The thought came to me that I had no place to put my beer mugs if I only mounted the taps into the wall. FAIL!!! I can't have that. So I had to come up with a was to integrate a shelf/drip tray that did not just stick out of the wall. I thought long and hard on multiple designs that were simple and did not require a bunch of hardware, cables, hinges and those hard to keep clean things. This is what I came up with.

Yupper, I came up this simple folding tray.

This is it on its back so you can see how the bottom trim becomes a stopper for the tray.

two small hinges

It mounted on the wall. The masking tape is for the making where I would predrill and put the screw. I didn't want to draw on the wood and then have a hard time cleaning it up.

Testing it out really quick.

Taps installed!!

This is the garage side of the taps shank.

 

[thangbom4321]

Simple 2"x4" collar on freezer so I may fit the kegs.

Test fitting he stuff inside. I wont be able to use both blue thingies if I put a 1/2 keg inside.

And It's just about finish. I just need to calk the collar inside and out onto the freezer to seal it. Then run the co2/beer lines.

 

[Reefer Ard]

How has the brewing coming along? Haven't heard much about it a while.

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[Clifton]

FWIW, on the cooling the wort, I bought at lowes a long piece of copper tubing, wrapped it around a 2inch PVC Pipe and then removed the pipe. When transferring from the pot the coil is in cool to cold water (don't usually use ice) and then runs to the primary fermenter, I watch temp in the fermenter and can adjust flow or temp of water bath to get 100 degree after transfer. Pretty simple and cheap and once transferred your ready for the yeast! To clean I just run Iodine/water through it, drain and cap both ends so its ready for next time.

 

[thangbom4321]

I tasted the first brew about 3 weeks ago. It's not bad. It wasn't exactly what I wanted but very drinkable. I tasted my second batch about 2 weeks ago. Again, it was drinkable. I got plenty drunk of them but it buzz don't last too long. I'll take a pic or two when I transfer my 3rd batch into the corny keg.