BEEEEERR!

[ash]

Whats my largest Saucepan.... hahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaa

I have cereal bowls bigger than my largest saucepan. Will need to buy one!
I do have an esky somewhere but I not sure where it is. I'll just buy me a new one if I can not find it.

[alex]

I think I bought my esky from coles for about $15, its the one in the photos.
This is what is called the "mash tun", which means the place where the mash happens.
Mashing is combing hot water and grain, it turns the grain into delicious beery malty soup, yum.
You use an esky because it needs to sit at the same temperature for an hour and a half. Usually abotu 65 degrees.
So see if you can find it, or keep an eye out for them on special.

Ok, so now we have a hot malty soup of grain and water in the esky. Now you have to filter the liquid out of the mess of grain (you don't want to be drinking grain husks believe me!
There are two ways to do this, firstly like I've just done you can put a tap on your esky, and a little filter and slowly pour the liquid out.
Alternatively what I used to do is use two buckets sitting one inside the other, the inside one has lots of holes drilled in it and acts like a filter. The bottom one has a tap fitted, lets see if I've got a pic...

just dump the esky contents into the top bucket and turn the tap on to start collecting. Now that I've modded my esky I don't need this anymore either, you can have it so you don't have to spend money modding your esky. I'd prolly be happy to be rid of it for $10-20 if my new system holds up under the next couple of brews this week (i'm not 100% confident with it yet.

you collect the liquid from the esky or buckets in a pot ready to boil.

So you collect the first 10 litres or so in a big pot and put it on the stove or a gas burner, BBQ side burner etc. having a gas stove is awesome, but electric works too.


Meanwhile you run about another 10litres of hot water (70degrees give or take) through the esky/buckets again to rinse out more malty sugar and you can boil this too when the first potfull is finished. (Two lots of about 10 litres equals a full 20ish litre batch, ie 2.5 cartons of beer.)

There are two reasons why you boil, firstly it kills the bacteria, secondly when you add hops to the boil you get that trademark bitterness that all beers have. A 60+ minute boil is recomended, but 30-40 will do for starters.

When its boiled you pour it all into a plastic jerry can like in my pictures and seal it up. You're done.



Next day when its cooled you put it with some yeast into your fermenter. Which as you probably know is the thing in the top left of the photo above.



So keep your eye out for a pot. If you are only planning on getting started at xmas you can probably have the stainless steel one you see in the picture up the page (the bigger of the two) for not much money, think I bought it for about $70 or less
That will do you fine for your first few years.

you can get some pretty good stuff at places like this, but you won't need anything that expensive yet. This is what I'll be upgrading to I think aroudn kmas time.

have you got a thermometer?

[majordodo]

Id probably be lookin at a $100 - $500 setup, so i can brew large quantities of mead.
Beers i drink are Tooheys Extra Dry and Carlton Draught.

[alex]

well then, just drink your on urine and you'll be set.

[majordodo]

Hey theyre better than that american piss that ash drinks. Miller indeed.

[ash]

hahahahaha......

[alex]

time for another brew to go on tomorrow
will be a european style straw coloured ale, nice and summery.

later in the week I'll be trying a half batch of Pilsner, my first time brewing a lager.
I won't even be using a fermenter for this one,
just mix grain and hot water in the esky,
let it rest for 90 minutes,
strain in to a stock pot,
boil it with some hops,
into a 10L jerry can and into the fridge for that cold temperature lager fermentation.
should be a great summer brew.

[majordodo]

Nice. Well things are looking up about me moving out. so brewing may be closer than i thought. Seeing my mate's boss about a traineeship i applyed for a while ago but i think ill turn it down cus its for 3yrs and i dont want to be tied down to mildura for that long. Plus security will earn me more. Just sorting it out soon cus the place i want, the tennant in there atm wants it for another 12 months but ill get it if i can sort myself out soon. If i get it = heaps of room for brewing.

[alex]

if anyone wants to take part tomorrow and see how its done let me know, we'll put the brew on and fire up the barbie or something and set about making room in some of the kegs,,,

[majordodo]

Dam i wish i could get to renmark lmao

[alex]

renmark schmenmark, I'm actually in Berri.


update:
the hot water and grain have been mixed in the esky,
the enzymes in the grain are turning the starch into sugars and the whole house smells like malt, like the inside of a fling chocolate bar, yum!
my GF says its a horrible waste that i let the yeast eat all the delicious sugars and all i get out of it at the end is a bitter beer, lol.
Fresh beer brewing smell sso gooood!

more update:
everythigns going great, last pot is on to boil so I poured myself a homebrew and its the last of the keg, the last Pumpkin Porter. Now that was a cool brewing day. I roasted a pumpkin in the oven, and boiled it in the beer to extract the flavour and the sugars. It took quite a while to clear but by the time I put it in the keg it was bloody marvelous. Actually most people can't actually tell there is pumpkin in it, they jus tlike the rich malty goodness, for those who don't know a porter is a bit like a stout, only not as bitter.

[alex]

and the danger of only having one keg left with beer in is that the one that is left is an english barleywine I did, its really strong, 9% alcohol, which is heaps for a beer and its bloody rich delicious and velvety soft. One of these badboys effects you about the same as a 6-pack almost.

[majordodo]

Is that a challenge? Sounds like a challenge. I think thats a challenge. GIMME!

[alex]

Ohhh please, you drink TED one sip of this and you'd be drunk for a month!

[majordodo]

See previous post.

[alex]

Bring it on Donkey Kong!
Next time you're going to find yourself in Berri drop me a line.

I was back in my house in adelaide on the weekend and found some old stuff in my shed,
a spare fermenter and an esky. So ash when you are ready to get going I can probably sell you a full setup* with everything except bottles for about half or quater what it would pay you to put it together yourself, and since its all ready to go and proven it will mean you won't have to learn all about the process inorder to get it together right.
If you aren't interested I'll sell it on one of my brewing forums for non-mates rates

*lets see it would include a fermenter and tap, a bottling 'wand', 15L stainless steel pot for the boils, 25 l jerry can, the esky with filter manifold for mashing and sparging, a spare hydrometer

so brew would go like this:
heat water in pot (75 deg)
pour into esky
pour in the cracked grain
leave for an hour and a half
heat more water and gently pour into the top
turn the tap on the esky and collect liquid in the pot.
add some hops and when full boil on the stove
when boiled pour it into jerry can
collect more liquid form the esky if there's some more left
boil this and add to the jerry can
close it up and leave it to the next day
pour into fermenter and add yeast.

[ash]

hmmm...... PM me a price...

[alex]

went through all the items you'd need and those I had on hand spare, its all in the PM.
We'll have you brewing a nice simple all grain aussie pale ale in no time.