Planning My First Brew
I have read John Palmer's book twice and feel I am ready to start organizing my "Brewery" I want to make sure my I am not making any major mistakes.
Do not want to mess with a fermentor in the bathtub with wet towels and a fan, so I want to purchase a used refridgerator or freezer with a controller. I would like it to hold at least a 6.5 gallon carboy and a corny keg with CO2 tank. Which would be better, a fridge or freezer?
Thinking about using a copper immersion cooler with gravity fed ice water from an Igloo.
I do not want to clean and fill bottles, so I feel I will go with a 5 gallon corny keg.
Do I need to use a secondary fermentor if I am extract brewing?
Thinking about making a yeast starter the night before, important step or not?
As far as what kind of beer, I have never met an IPA I didn't like or possibly a hefeweizen.
I would appreciate any insight.
Replies to This Discussion
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Competition CommitteePermalink Reply by Barry Weeg on -
Fridges and freezers both have pros and cons. A front loading freezer is easier than lifting a full carboy over the edge of a chest freezer (almost all standing freezers have the coils running through the shelves, so they cannot be moved and are not spaced far enough apart to accommodate a carboy), but the shelves on the fridge are not strong enough to hold a carboy so you will have to build a bottom shelf (usually out of wood) while a chest freezer is ready to go. Freezers are usually better insulated than fridges with stronger motors, so they are more energy efficient and faster to respond at fermenting temperatures. If you get a big enough chest freezer, it will easily hold 2-3 6.5 gallon carboys. Chances are you will only get one, maybe two, into a fridge. I use two large and one small chest freezers all dedicated to brewing.
While I have never tried gravity feeding ice water through an immersion chiller, I would guess that the long length and small diameter of the tube will provide too much resistance to get enough water flow for an efficient cooling. It might be an interesting experiment, but make sure you have a way to plug in tap water as a backup. Tap water at this time of year should be plenty cold enough to chill.
Cleaning bottles sucks! Kegging is the only way to go.
Secondary is usually a good idea, especially if you are looking for a clean beer without filtering. By the time you have waited long enough for a beer to clarify in the primary, you run the risk of yeast autolysis creating meaty or sulphery off flavors. If you don't care about a clear beer, no need for a secondary; you can go directly from primary into the keg.
If you are using liquid yeast, starters are essential! There are only about half the number of cells in a tube of White Labs or smack-pack of WYeast to do the job, especially for higher gravity beers. Having said that, you can always use two tubes or packs (they're not THAT expensive). But if you are going to do a starter, you will need more like two days. Starting it the night before will probably not be quite enough time for sufficient cell growth. However, there are 2-3 times more cells in a pack of dry yeast. Just rehydrate it with about a cup of warm water when you start your brewing session and pitch from there.
IPAs and hefeweizens are perfect first time beers. Both have enough distinctive flavors to cover any potential off-flavors. Hefeweizens in particular use a very forgiving yeast so perfect temperature control is not essential.
Good luck and let us know how it turns out, especially if you try the gravity fed chilling.
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Permalink Reply by Lawrence Irene on -
Thanks for the insight. I was wondering if gravity feed would provide enough "force" to get the water through the coils. Will have to do a trial run first!
Barry Weeg said:Fridges and freezers both have pros and cons. A front loading freezer is easier than lifting a full carboy over the edge of a chest freezer (almost all standing freezers have the coils running through the shelves, so they cannot be moved and are not spaced far enough apart to accommodate a carboy), but the shelves on the fridge are not strong enough to hold a carboy so you will have to build a bottom shelf (usually out of wood) while a chest freezer is ready to go. Freezers are usually better insulated than fridges with stronger motors, so they are more energy efficient and faster to respond at fermenting temperatures. If you get a big enough chest freezer, it will easily hold 2-3 6.5 gallon carboys. Chances are you will only get one, maybe two, into a fridge. I use two large and one small chest freezers all dedicated to brewing.
While I have never tried gravity feeding ice water through an immersion chiller, I would guess that the long length and small diameter of the tube will provide too much resistance to get enough water flow for an efficient cooling. It might be an interesting experiment, but make sure you have a way to plug in tap water as a backup. Tap water at this time of year should be plenty cold enough to chill.
Cleaning bottles sucks! Kegging is the only way to go.
Secondary is usually a good idea, especially if you are looking for a clean beer without filtering. By the time you have waited long enough for a beer to clarify in the primary, you run the risk of yeast autolysis creating meaty or sulphery off flavors. If you don't care about a clear beer, no need for a secondary; you can go directly from primary into the keg.
If you are using liquid yeast, starters are essential! There are only about half the number of cells in a tube of White Labs or smack-pack of WYeast to do the job, especially for higher gravity beers. Having said that, you can always use two tubes or packs (they're not THAT expensive). But if you are going to do a starter, you will need more like two days. Starting it the night before will probably not be quite enough time for sufficient cell growth. However, there are 2-3 times more cells in a pack of dry yeast. Just rehydrate it with about a cup of warm water when you start your brewing session and pitch from there.
IPAs and hefeweizens are perfect first time beers. Both have enough distinctive flavors to cover any potential off-flavors. Hefeweizens in particular use a very forgiving yeast so perfect temperature control is not essential.
Good luck and let us know how it turns out, especially if you try the gravity fed chilling.
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Permalink Reply by Lawrence Irene on
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Barry:Thanks for all the useful information. One subject I forgot to talk about was any water treatment. I live in Chandler and have a RO filter system. Do I need to add anything to the water before i begin?
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