What to buy?

Beach Bum · Post by **Beach Bum** » Tuesday Sep 13, 2005 8:49 am

How's it going guys?

I'm just about to get back into the Homebrewing scene after a long hiatus and aside from the standard Coopers brewkit which I bought the other day (for $55 brand new - bargain, but that's another story), I don't have any other equipment - I already have quite a few longnecks.

Basically I'm after some some advice on what my money would be best spent on. I'm looking at splurging about $100- $150.

Cheers.

BB

undercover1 · Post by **undercover1** » Tuesday Sep 13, 2005 8:57 am

Hmmm.
Extra fermenter
Bench capper
Good ingredients- malts, hops & yeasts
Siphon or racking tube

What not to buy-
PET bottles, or any bottles actually
Heat belt
Stick on thermometer
Fancy taps

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tuesday Sep 13, 2005 9:17 am

apart from what uc1 has already said, i'd suggest a cheap 15litre stock pot (i picked mine up from kmart for $20)... one of the best investments i've made

Beach Bum · Post by **Beach Bum** » Tuesday Sep 13, 2005 10:41 am

Undercover1,

Just wondering why you don't rate the heating belts?

I'll be brewing under the house at home with temps in the low teens....unless I want to brew only lagers, I'll need something to warm things up a tad.

BB

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Tuesday Sep 13, 2005 10:43 am

A 7.5 gallon can be purchased for 60 or so dollars, allbeit aluminium. a 5 gallon stainless I picked up for 20 bucks on sale which would be cats for kit or partial mashes.

Hydrometer would be nice, forget the PET bottles and stick with glass, you will be happier. Extra fermentor (glass) absolutely, capper (I like the butterfly style myself), syphon and bottle filler, best 5 bucks I ever spent. A jet bottle washer, a thief if you can find one, they make them for wine and can serve duel purpose (only if you don't have a tap at the bottom of the fermentor.

A couple of cases for the brew, always a necessity. Hmmm

Will keep thinking

Dogger

undercover1 · Post by **undercover1** » Tuesday Sep 13, 2005 10:50 am

Beach Bum wrote: Just wondering why you don't rate the heating belts? BB

Heat pads, yes, heat belts, no.

The belts do not seem throw out much heat, what they do put out is localised in a narrow band around the fermenter, and half of it goes out the back side to the surrounding air, not onto the fermenter.
If you had 4 wired together and spaced up the keg at intervals then maybe I'd change my mind.

Heat pads sit underneath, pretty much all the heat they put out goes straight to the brew, and it hits the bottom first, where it can act best on the dormant/settled yeasties. No contest.

Jury is still out on aquarium heaters.

undercover1 · Post by **undercover1** » Tuesday Sep 13, 2005 12:41 pm

BB,
Don't know if you are an eBayer- but have a look at this
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/HOME-BREW-KIT-WI ... dZViewItem
and also this from the same seller
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/HOME-BREW-BEER-C ... dZViewItem

Both in Melbourne, both cheap.

Shaun · Post by **Shaun** » Tuesday Sep 13, 2005 5:09 pm

undercover with the heat belts if you warp the fermenter in a towel or blanket all the heat is then contained around the fermenter!

r.magnay · Post by **r.magnay** » Tuesday Sep 13, 2005 9:12 pm

I use heat belts and have no problem, and just to be a pain in the arse, though it took me a long time to do and probably none of you blokes have the same concerns as me with where and when you take your beer, some of my best beers are out of pet bottles! Yes it is true, because of the places I go, it was take cans or nothing, I opted to try the pet bottles and as I said, some of my best beers have been conditioned in plastic! I still use glass for anything that is to be aged for any length of time, but for my normal two months and into it beer , pet works as well as anything! I havn't ever used the coke bottles, I refer only to the dark beer specific type.

Beach Bum · Post by **Beach Bum** » Wednesday Sep 14, 2005 10:05 pm

Thanks Guys, some good ideas there.....and some conflicting ones!!

Undercover, the ebay idea is a great one, I do some browsing on there from time to time. Have you ever bought anything this way?

The Coopers kit comes with 30 PET bottles, so why not give it a whirl?

Plastic for the lagers, glass for everything else perhaps?

BB

undercover1 · Post by **undercover1** » Friday Sep 16, 2005 2:04 pm

BB,
I have bought many many things on eBay, from a Lego Darth Vader to a SuperAutomatica bench capper. No problems.
No one has bid on these as yet, with just over a day to go. Seize the moment.

Johno · Post by **Johno** » Friday Sep 16, 2005 2:34 pm

Hi All

Anyone got a good recipies for this?

Aussie Claret · Post by **Aussie Claret** » Friday Sep 16, 2005 2:34 pm

Just regarding the botton item on ebay, I'd steer clear of that one as the top is very small and would make it difficult to clean inside.

I went to Bunnings earlier in the week and picked up 2 plastic 25l water cylinders with large screw off lids (seals included) and screw thread tap which was additional but the containers are about $18.00 and the plastic tap was $1.50 pretty good value compared to $38 from HBS. These are suitable for racking but you may find them limiting for primaries due to most kits make up 23l and you may require more head space to prevent blow offs through the air lock.

I simply drilled a small hole in each lid from those that I bought and got two grommets from Bilo $1.50 and two new airlocks from the HBS. Saved at least $30.

Cheers
AC

Ilike'emfizzy · Post by **Ilike'emfizzy** » Friday Sep 16, 2005 4:02 pm

I think you will find that the lagers take longer to condition in the bottles.
whereas ales only take a few weeks.
And i have heard that the plastic bottles do leak out air very slowly ( apparently over 6 months will be too long in plastic )
So I have been using the PET bottles for ales, and glass for the lagers.

db · Post by db » Friday Sep 16, 2005 6:49 pm

r.magnay wrote:I use heat belts and have no problem, and just to be a pain in the arse, though it took me a long time to do and probably none of you blokes have the same concerns as me with where and when you take your beer, some of my best beers are out of pet bottles! Yes it is true, because of the places I go, it was take cans or nothing, I opted to try the pet bottles and as I said, some of my best beers have been conditioned in plastic! I still use glass for anything that is to be aged for any length of time, but for my normal two months and into it beer , pet works as well as anything! I havn't ever used the coke bottles, I refer only to the dark beer specific type.

Ross, i thought the last thing you'd need in the territory would be a heat belt!.. excuse the ignorance i guess

- i'm guessing your overnight temps must get pretty low? how low?

Post by **Oliver** » Monday Sep 19, 2005 12:40 pm

Johno wrote:Hi All

Anyone got a good recipies for this?

Johno,

You might try posting this as a separate topic, rather than as part of an existing thread about something totally unrelated!

Cheers,

Oliver

r.magnay · Post by **r.magnay** » Monday Sep 19, 2005 4:23 pm

Bloody low db, in the winter we can have down to 7-8 below, and we could get a couple of weeks like that,..............however, generally by smoko you are back to shirt sleeves or at worst a jumper or jacket, remember, we live in the desert here, and as most people know, the desert is a climate of extremes not just hot! I love it though, the little bit of cold is a pain in the bum, but for the amount of good dry heat we get I love it. Just picture yourself sitting on my back verandah with a"Dogger" cold hb, looking up at the Mac Donnell ranges,..... about 500m from my back door, sitting in a pair of stubbies and a T shirt, dribbling a bit of shit with a couple of mates! way to go!

Tyberious Funk · Post by **Tyberious Funk** » Monday Sep 19, 2005 4:59 pm

Aussie Claret wrote:Just regarding the botton item on ebay, I'd steer clear of that one as the top is very small and would make it difficult to clean inside.

I actually use a couple of 15 litre versions of these sorts of jerry cans... well, with the exception that mine are blue. Yes, the small lid makes it a little bit more difficult to clean... but a combination of neo pink and a bottle brush with an extra long handle takes care of cleaning. I wouldn't buy one on ebay though, given that they can be purchased pretty cheaply new (and clean) from Kmart and Bunnings.

I went to Bunnings earlier in the week and picked up 2 plastic 25l water cylinders with large screw off lids (seals included) and screw thread tap which was additional but the containers are about $18.00 and the plastic tap was $1.50 pretty good value compared to $38 from HBS. These are suitable for racking but you may find them limiting for primaries due to most kits make up 23l and you may require more head space to prevent blow offs through the air lock.

I've got one of these as well... although, I seem to recall that mine came with a screw thread tap. Having said that, the Little Bottler that you can buy in BigW comes with a tap with the same thread...

I simply drilled a small hole in each lid from those that I bought and got two grommets from Bilo $1.50 and two new airlocks from the HBS. Saved at least $30.

For anyone that is interested, trial and error has taught me that you need a 13mm drill bit to make a hole the adequate size.

homebrewandbeer.com

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