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Posted: Sunday Oct 01, 2006 4:41 pm
by Boonie
lethaldog wrote:Was just wondering if anyone knows if the vinyl tubing that you get from bunnings is ok to use to drain the tun and to use as a syphon, its got a fairly strong plastic odour to it which could just be because its new but thought i would ask anyway to make sure
On the cost thing i just bought these items to setup the shed for all grain:
Round 20l esky ( willow ) $60
Malt mill from the US $220 oz dollars and that included postage.
18 metre coil of 1/2 inch copper $100
Tap for the drain hose ( like a t intersection) $2
Vinyl tubing 3 metres at 10mm $4
couple of hose clamps $2
40litre ally pot $105
1 rubber bung $2
and a few hacksaw blades cos i snapped mine and the neighbours making the manifold
Total expense to setup so far $503
Add in that i may need a better burner ( not sure yet) $100
and the ingredients for the first batch were about $25 cos i brought in 1 kg lots and hops in small lots aswell
so not overly cheap so far but i think it will pay for itself fairly quickly in this house, ive seen shop bought setups that are in the thousands to so im pretty happy with the cost in that respect
Cheers
Leigh
G'day Lethal, I use that tubing for my racking with no worries at all.
Boonie
PS Still cant find the "water kegs " with taps at Big W or Bunnings......bugger
Posted: Sunday Oct 01, 2006 5:04 pm
by OldBugman
I found it differs from bunnings to bunnings.
I tried one in western sydney and it had heaps of options, mean while a one near ryde had next to nothing
Posted: Sunday Oct 01, 2006 6:10 pm
by lethaldog
Hey boonie the water containers are in the camping section down at my local Big W
Posted: Sunday Oct 01, 2006 9:29 pm
by Dogger Dan
Thats a pile of cake for the mill and some copper Lethal
Dogger
Posted: Sunday Oct 01, 2006 9:41 pm
by lethaldog
Yeah i gotta admit that i was a bit lazy when it came to looking for a mill, i just got online and ordered the best i could find which was the schmidling malt mill but unfortunately the postage was nearly as much as the mill, the mill was i think $114 US and the postage to oz was $49 US, actually got the copper really cheap in comparison to normal prices of $9+ per metre, i got the whole 18 metre roll for $100 cos my brother in law is a plumber, i figure it will pay for itself over time
Posted: Sunday Oct 01, 2006 9:56 pm
by nicko
I know it's a bit off topic now, but to get back to the start of the thread, how's this for a cheapie brew. It might just taste alright too.
Budget Blueberry Belgian
2 cans 'Farmland' Lager concentrate $16
500 gm dark brown sugar $1.25
425 gm can of blueberries $3.50
14gm hallartau $2
WLP500 trappist ale culture $2.50
Total $25.25
Boil can and sugar for an hour, hops 10 mins while heating blueberries for 45 mins at approx 60 degrees. Crush bluebberies, combine with wort through a strainer, cool, pour into fermenter, add filtered water up to 18L and pitch.
Hopefully i've boiled all the farmland out of it.
Posted: Sunday Oct 01, 2006 10:13 pm
by Beerdrinker32
do the grain guys crack it cheap or do i have to get me a schmidling
was thinking of cutting the top off one of those wider beer kegs you see outside the pub and putting a tap in it?
Posted: Sunday Oct 01, 2006 10:14 pm
by Boonie
lethaldog wrote:Hey boonie the water containers are in the camping section down at my local Big W
My local Big W has only esky brand @ 50 bucks a pop
.
Just have to keep lookin
Cheers
Boonie
Posted: Sunday Oct 01, 2006 10:16 pm
by lethaldog
Just go to a good camping store and they should have them
Posted: Sunday Oct 01, 2006 10:17 pm
by lethaldog
Beerdrinker32 wrote:do the grain guys crack it cheap or do i have to get me a schmidling
was thinking of cutting the top off one of those wider beer kegs you see outside the pub and putting a tap in it?
The grain guys do crack but if you want to order bulk grain then its better to keep them uncracked untill you want to use them as they dont stay fresh for long once they are cracked
Posted: Sunday Oct 01, 2006 10:19 pm
by Beerdrinker32
thats a lot of copper! would i need that much to cool a 20L wort?
Posted: Sunday Oct 01, 2006 10:23 pm
by Beerdrinker32
The grain guys do crack
didnt think about the freshness issue,how do you store it?does it stay fresh long un cracked? cheers
Posted: Sunday Oct 01, 2006 11:17 pm
by lethaldog
i used a little extra copper just to be on the safe side, in the end i used about 13 metres off the roll for the chiller and about 400mm for the manifold, you could probably get away with less, the grain stays fresh for a while uncracked, ive had crystal grains in the fridge for months and they still seem ok to me, they are in sealed bags though and im not sure how long they keep out of the fridge
Posted: Monday Oct 02, 2006 1:31 am
by Dogger Dan
Lethal,
Cracked grains have a minimum shelf life of 6 months, You can go as long as a year if you look after them.
I was discussing with someone in the tropic areas that it may be shorter because of the humidity but yeh, for the most part you can blow through a 25 kg bag of grains before they are done.
I have my my 25 kg bag cracked at the alarming price of 5 dollars a bag, Hell of a deal I think
Dogger
Posted: Monday Oct 02, 2006 2:32 pm
by Ed
lethaldog wrote:
Round 20l esky ( willow ) $60
Malt mill from the US $220 oz dollars and that included postage.
18 metre coil of 1/2 inch copper $100
Tap for the drain hose ( like a t intersection) $2
Vinyl tubing 3 metres at 10mm $4
couple of hose clamps $2
40litre ally pot $105
1 rubber bung $2
and a few hacksaw blades cos i snapped mine and the neighbours making the manifold
Total expense to setup so far $503
Add in that i may need a better burner ( not sure yet) $100
Cheers
Leigh
Lethal, you'll also have to be able to bring about 35 litres or more up to temp and hold it for use in the mash & sparge. I use a second 50 litre pot for this, but prior to that was using 2 x 15 litre pots which was a bit of a pain because they needed refilling and heating again to get the volume.
You could use your 40 litre for the initial mash water, but then need something for the sparge water as the kettle will of course have wort flowing in.
Cheers, Ed
Posted: Monday Oct 02, 2006 2:56 pm
by AlcoMoo
Oooh, this cracking grain thing has me thinking. We buy whole grain and can crack it ourselves in our own mill when needed for cow feed. We run a dairy farm. So we're talking BIG lots of grain (more than 25kg anyways!!! LOL
)
Posted: Monday Oct 02, 2006 3:09 pm
by Emo
If you're after water containers, check out Rays Tent City.
Posted: Monday Oct 02, 2006 3:22 pm
by Beerdrinker32
what do you guys think about the plastic pails with the element in them? am becoming obsessed with this ag thing
hope the beers are tasty
Posted: Monday Oct 02, 2006 4:17 pm
by lethaldog
Ed wrote:lethaldog wrote:
Round 20l esky ( willow ) $60
Malt mill from the US $220 oz dollars and that included postage.
18 metre coil of 1/2 inch copper $100
Tap for the drain hose ( like a t intersection) $2
Vinyl tubing 3 metres at 10mm $4
couple of hose clamps $2
40litre ally pot $105
1 rubber bung $2
and a few hacksaw blades cos i snapped mine and the neighbours making the manifold
Total expense to setup so far $503
Add in that i may need a better burner ( not sure yet) $100
Cheers
Leigh
Lethal, you'll also have to be able to bring about 35 litres or more up to temp and hold it for use in the mash & sparge. I use a second 50 litre pot for this, but prior to that was using 2 x 15 litre pots which was a bit of a pain because they needed refilling and heating again to get the volume.
You could use your 40 litre for the initial mash water, but then need something for the sparge water as the kettle will of course have wort flowing in.
Cheers, Ed
Cheers Ed, i think i have this one sussed as i to have a couple of 15 litre pots that i could heat on the stove and like you say, use the 40 litre for the initial mash water, although it would be a pain i was also thinking that i could use 1 of the 15 litre pots to collect the first lot of wort and use the 40 litre for both the mash and sparge water, then once i have collected the first lot, whack in the sparge water and transfer the first lot into the big pot as well, would this work or is it a bit dodgy
Posted: Monday Oct 02, 2006 5:26 pm
by Boonie
Emo wrote:If you're after water containers, check out Rays Tent City.
Thanks Emo and Lethal.
Went to bunnings today and decided to actually ask instead of mindlessly wandering and finding other powertools to buy.
They had 15 Litre ones and the 20L will be by Wednesday.
Their taps were only 1.50
Interested to see if they actually fit the brew keg (fermenter) + if I can fit a sediment reducer to it.
Thanks again guys.....as my wife said to me, I had a mans look
Boonie