Pogierob's brewery.

by **Pogierob** » Saturday Sep 28, 2013 7:14 pm

Unfortunately I haven't had the time (possibly the energy) to set up a permanent brewing station under the house so I convert my kitchen into a brewery when necessary.

beersmith is my current brewing program choice.

Basic equipment.
Brewing paddle bought today as
I couldn't give the element in my urn a good scrub with my old spoon.
Refractometer. (Love this little puppy. Makes me feel all sciency and shit)
Hydrometer (number 5)
Scales
Thermometer

I use a 40lt concealed element crown urn with an upgraded boil over switch to allow for a rolling boil.
Also a custom made insulation out of the finest quality products I could find -see pic.

I am currently using to no chill method as this suits my current setup. For this I use a 20lt water drum from Bunnings and as Oliver mentioned it takes more than 20lt. Might upgrade this soon if I can find something suitable as this one is a bit hard to squeeze to the point of no air.

For draining after mash out I simply use a rack from the oven. Sorry oven you can't have it back right now.

I have a large chest freezer downstairs and a little bar fridge which will become a fermentation fridge and a multi keg beer fridge once I get off my ass. Pictures to follow once I do.
But for now I have a small fridge which almost fits two cornies in it
Counter pressure bottle filler mounted on the side.

Currently the tap is straight onto the keg, this is to stop the two rug rats from playing around and emptying my keg while I'm not looking

At this time of year with the central heater still kicking I ferment out in the kitchen bench.

I think that covers the basics. Ultimately i would like a permanent set up but that will just have to wait.

by **Pogierob** » Saturday Dec 28, 2013 10:39 am

Finally got around to setting up the chest freezer with the stc-1000

by **Pogierob** » Sunday Feb 16, 2014 2:32 pm

Slowly getting organised!!

by **Pogierob** » Wednesday Mar 12, 2014 3:53 pm

Upgraded the fridge today.

by **CrookedFingers** » Wednesday Mar 12, 2014 5:25 pm

Noâ€¦..not jealousâ€¦â€¦..

â€¦.much.

Looks sweet dude.

by **Tipsy** » Wednesday Mar 12, 2014 6:04 pm

Nice taps......I take it you don't have coils of beer line getting in the way in the fridge?

by **Pogierob** » Wednesday Mar 12, 2014 6:13 pm

2 meters per keg, which is enough to connect and allow the door to swing open. Just waiting for a couple of batches to ferment out so I can give them a run.

by **Pogierob** » Friday Mar 14, 2014 8:19 pm

Whatever, I'm excited!!

by **CrookedFingers** » Friday Mar 14, 2014 8:30 pm

Sweet.

With mad blackboard writing skillz like that, you could get a job writing breakfast menus at hipster cafes !!!

by **weizgei** » Friday Mar 14, 2014 8:58 pm

Hey how come your beers are both mid strength??

by **Pogierob** » Saturday Mar 15, 2014 7:51 am

They are actually still fermenting, I just put that up for the photo to tell the truth.

by **Pogierob** » Sunday Mar 16, 2014 6:39 pm

Citra pale 4.7
Pale wheat 4.9

by **weizgei** » Monday Mar 17, 2014 4:30 pm

What, no starsan foam snake hanging out of your keg? That's my favourite part. Must film that next time I keg a beer.

by **Pogierob** » Monday Mar 17, 2014 5:32 pm

Ha! If you had seen the clean I gave my brewery last weekend, even starsan would have been scared to come near it. But yes starsan is on the list of shit to get.

by **Pogierob** » Thursday Apr 24, 2014 9:46 pm

Went glamping over Easter so I had to make a single kegerator.

Yes that is a coffee machine on top and yes we went through two kegs in two nights between 4 blokes. Then turned to the commercial beers for Sunday

by **CrookedFingers** » Thursday Apr 24, 2014 9:49 pm

Nice work !

GLAMPING !! Hahahahahaa

by **Guru** » Friday Apr 25, 2014 9:21 am

Nice one. Gotta get into kegging I think, much better than carting all those bottles down the river every Easter when we camp. Should impress my mates too I reckon, "beer on tap" down the river.

by **Pogierob** » Saturday Apr 26, 2014 11:58 am

Guru wrote:Nice one. Gotta get into kegging I think, much better than carting all those bottles down the river every Easter when we camp. Should impress my mates too I reckon, "beer on tap" down the river.

I must admit we were lucky to have 240v available however I do have a 50lt olive drum I could ice up and use instead of a fridge. I'm used to roughing it style camping so it was a bit of a laugh to be waking up to latte's and then pouring myself a pint around the camp fire.

I am one of those blokes that doesn't mind the bottling ritual but I was lucky enough to be given a couple of kegs and a tap off my cousin, so naturally I bounced straight into kegging.

I definitely recommend kegging as I believe you get two different beers from keg and bottle (even from the same batch).
I just have to create the time to fill the kegs and then fill the 500 odd long necks I have under the house.

by **weizgei** » Saturday Apr 26, 2014 12:33 pm

Couldn't agree more on that, I've brewed almost identical American Pale Ale recipes back to back, one bottled, one kegged, and they're distinctly different beers.

by **CrookedFingers** » Saturday Apr 26, 2014 3:13 pm

Why do you think that is ?
Is it because if the extra sugar added to carbonate in bottles ?
Maybe it conditions better in bulk rather than bottle amounts ?
I have no idea and have never really looked into it.
It is interesting.
If this is known by most and I am a fool for not knowing, sorry.

I have plans to move into kegging soon, looking forward to it.

CF