 UPGRADING
BREWING EQUIPMENT
Every first
time brewer will find their thoughts quickly turning to bigger brew
pots. While using a pot large enough to boil all five gallons of wort
will improve your beer, there are two major drawbacks that must be addressed
before you invest your money in that 10 gallon stainless steel copper bottom
hinged lid dual purpose home brewing caldron. How will you heat it and
how will you cool it? |
| Unless you
have a restaurant grade stove in your kitchen or one of those propane burners
used at clam bakes, you probably don't have a heat source that can efficiently
bring five gallons of water to a boil in less than a few hours. It is even
possible to damage your conventional stove in trying. |
| The propane
burner is your best option, but it also poses some problems. You should
never use propane in your house. Propane gas is heavier than air and if
you have a leak in the gas line you may not know it until it is to late.
This means that you will be brewing in the garage or outdoors. If your
garage is like mine, it is not the most sanitary place on earth. You will
need to take exceptional measures to prevent contamination. Outdoor brewing
can be fun and will always attract curious neighbors, but it to has certain
problems too. The brew pot will be open, or partially covered most of the
time. A canapé, or porch roof is a must, especially in areas populated
by birds. Keeping the pot hot on very cold or windy days will be difficult
so a wind break may also be needed. |
| Regardless
of where you brew, or how you brew, always make safety your first concern.
Boiling wort is nothing to take chances with. If you have ever had a boil
over, you know the wort has a mind of it's own and it will stick like super
glue. A five gallon batch can weigh as much as 60 pounds. Make sure that
your stove or burner can support the weight. Be sure that there are no
fire hazards in your brewing area and make sure that everyone around you
knows that you are the only one who should approach the brew kettle. |
| If you have
brewed a batch of beer you can appreciate the time it takes to cool the
wort down to pitching temperature. In partial boil brewing you have the
benefit of adding chilled water to the primary fermenter to aid in cooling.
Full wort boils still need to be cooled as quickly as possible to reduce
the chances of contamination. This requires a wort
chiller. The most practical wort chiller for the home brewer is an
immersion type. This is a 25 to 50 foot copper coil which is boiled along
with the wort and then attached to a cold water supply which travels through
the coil and extracts the heat. The discharge from the chiller coil is
boiling hot water so safety must come first. Commercial breweries actually
use the heated discharge water to start the next batch of beer or for cleaning
the brewery. |
| You can reclaim
it's energy too. I've even heard of homebrewers using the discharge to
fill the washing machine. Where ever you direct the boiling discharge,
be sure that the outlet hose is secured and will not spray. My first experience
with a wort chiller killed most of the grass around my patio. |
| Now that I've
taken all the steam out of your brewing enthusiasm, how do I get you back?
I know you want to make better beer, so here's the next logical upgrade
to your brewing system. If you are using single stage fermentation, the
best investment you can make is to add a secondary fermenter. All you will
need is a five gallon glass carboy, a drilled rubber stopper, and an airlock.
The investment is less than $20, and your beer will improve greatly. Secondary
fermentation provides many advantages, not the least of which is flexibility
in bottling. Single stage fermentation requires that you bottle your beer
within 7 days of brewing to avoid yeast bite. By transferring (racking)
the beer to a secondary fermenter you can hold off the bottling for as
long as two weeks. The time your beer spends in the secondary fermenter
allows it to mellow and clear. Hops can be added to the secondary fermenter
(dry hopping) to enhance the aroma and flavor of the finished beer. The
advantages and options go on and on. You don't have to buy the brewery
to make better beer. |
TWO
HANDED BOTTLING
I can't count
the number of bottles I've filled in my time as a home brewer. I have even
less recollection of how many I've emptied. My memory banks are reserved
for those exceptional brew I want to drink again. Every one of my bottling
experiences has been the same and they have all been plagued with the same
problem. What to do when I have to use two hands while one of them is trying
to control the bottling wand. |
| I have always
connected the bottling wand to
the spigot on my bottling bucket with a 2 or 3 foot siphon
hose. My left hand pulls bottles from the bottling draining tree and
my right hand pokes the wand into the bottle. When the bottle is full the
left hand moves it along and places a cap on it. This method works just
fine up to the point that I have to move any greater distance than my leash
to the bottling bucket. All of this is being done while fending off my
two brewery cats, Babs and Nuisance. They can't stand to see any human
engaged in any productive or efficient endeavor. |
| Well, here's
the answer to my bottling blues. It's a tip I learned from one of our wine
making customers and it makes so much sense that some of you may have figured
it out already. Place the bottling bucket high
enough so that the spigot is at about eye level. Attach a three inch piece
of siphon hose to the spigot. Push the bottling wand into the other end
of the hose until it touches the end of the spigot. Now, by lifting a bottle
over the stationary wand, the bottle can be filled and you can move anywhere
you are needed. I have found that the Fermtech gravity valve bottle filler
works a little better that the spring loaded red tip type. |
