Make or Buy ... homebrewing equipment

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Make or Buy ... homebrewing equipment
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Guest

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 05 9:04 pm Post subject: Make or Buy ... homebrewing equipment

I've moved this to a new thread because I thought it was worthy of splitting the topic...

Gervase wrote:

If you are going down the whole-grain route, good sparging with hot enough liquor is essential. For a few quid you can buy a very good rotating sparging arm which sits on top of your tun/bucket (on the floor) connected to a tube attached to the tap of a fermenting bin of hot water (on a worktop) and sprinkles a nice even spray over the mash.
It's worthwhile investing in a cooling coil as well (or finding a friendly plumber to make one up for you out of a couple of yards of copper pipe). Submerge that in a bucket of cold water and run the finished wort through it before pitching the yeast and the temperature will drop dramatically.

A lot of people prefer to make their own homebrewing equipment and in my opinion the equipment is usually better than the stuff sold in UK homebrew shops.

For a sparge arm I use two pieces of 22mm copper pipe, a t piece, two end caps, and a little plastic tubing connected to the hot liquor tank. I think it probably cost me about two pounds maximum. I'm not how much homebrew shops charge for sparge arms. The last homebrew shop owner I spoke to (and he's been in business for about twenty five years) said the sparge arms were complete cr*p !

Regarding a cooling coil, if you buy an immersion chiller from a homebrew shop it costs around �25, however, if you make one yourself it will cost you about a tenner. You need some flexible copper coil which will cost you about eight quid from a good plumber's merchant (it will cost you around double that if you buy it from a place like B&Q or other DIY chain stores). Wrap the coil around a large tin of paint. It takes around five minutes. Attach some hose pipe to either end of the copper coil and tighten each hose with a jubilee clip.

Re. John Seymour's Self Sufficiency book, yes, I totally agree with you, his book obviously contains many errors, but it is a very inspirational (and influential) book nonetheless.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 05 9:10 pm Post subject:
Very, very interesting topic, Guest - welcome to the site. I'm more of an onlooker and Chief Tester on the home brew front, so excuse my ignorance! Is there any problem with using copper pipe etc from the DIY place for food use, or is there no difference in quality?

Guest

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 05 9:17 pm Post subject:

Bugs wrote:

I'm more of an onlooker and Chief Tester on the home brew front, so excuse my ignorance! Is there any problem with using copper pipe etc from the DIY place for food use, or is there no difference in quality?

Ah, the Chief Tester role is highly sought after

Copper piping from plumber's merchants is used to transport water to household taps, so it is 'food grade'.

The vessel used by the brewer to boil the wort is often called a 'copper' because for so many years it was made of copper. Even when the kettle is made of stainless steel, brewers will still often refer to it as the copper.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 05 5:54 am Post subject:

This is something I would be instersted in doing if my first few batches of beer from crushed malt go ok. I've probably got most of the copper parts around the house.

Do you know of any available plans? I've probably got the odd rough details in some of the books but as I've not done this sort of thing before more detailed plans would be idea. Oh yes, and I'd also need more room to store the equipment in when I'm done.

Gervase

Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 8655

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 05 8:33 am Post subject:
Dunno about plans, but I'll take some pix of various bits and bobs and post them here when I can find the camera charger. As for storage, everything I've got fits into the mash tun - which is the size of a small dustbin.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 05 11:21 am Post subject:

I'd be interested in any pics, maybe not immediately but in time I can see myself brewing from scratch. (Hop vines already growing).

As for the storage it's where do we keep the bins? We already have one for the chicken feed, we've just started ordering sacks of flour so I think we'll need a bin for that. If I find the malted grain makes a good bitter I'd be tempted to buy that in bulk and would need a bin for that!

Once we get our next place a large barn will be required.

DavidW

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 31
Location: South Wales

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 05 2:13 pm Post subject:
I�ve attached a photo of a chiller you could buy or make . The immersion chiller can be made from wrapping a length of 10mm copper tubing around a demi john and attaching two snap-on connectors to the ends for the water in and out. Let me know if you require any addition al info David

Guest

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 05 6:29 pm Post subject:

DavidW wrote:

I�ve attached a photo of a chiller you could buy or make .
The immersion chiller can be made from wrapping a length of 10mm copper tubing around a demi john and attaching two snap-on connectors to the ends for the water in and out.

Let me know if you require any addition al info

David

Can you post a close-up and more details on the snap-on connectors ?

ross

Joined: 07 Mar 2005
Posts: 123

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 05 7:44 pm Post subject:
even better, could you please write a whole step by step article to making your own home brew equipment......please?! ross.

Blue Sky

Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 05 8:24 pm Post subject: Re: Make or Buy ... homebrewing equipment

Anonymous wrote:

Re. John Seymour's Self Sufficiency book, yes, I totally agree with you, his book obviously contains many errors, but it is a very inspirational (and influential) book nonetheless.

Please dont knock him ... after all he IS the father of self sufficiency! Without John alot of us would be struggling along right now (not least myself).

DavidW .... nice photo ... I also would like close-ups

Here here, Ross. A step by step article by David would be most appreciated here also.

Eagerly awaiting .... S

Guest

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 05 9:25 pm Post subject: Re: Make or Buy ... homebrewing equipment

simon wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Re. John Seymour's Self Sufficiency book, yes, I totally agree with you, his book obviously contains many errors, but it is a very inspirational (and influential) book nonetheless.

Please dont knock him ... after all he IS the father of self sufficiency! Without John alot of us would be struggling along right now (not least myself).

I really admire Seymour's work but he wasn't the father of self sufficiency by a long shot.

Ralph Borsodi was writing about self sufficiency in the 1920s.

Thoreau was writing about growing beans near Walden Pond decades before that.

Blue Sky

Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 05 9:53 pm Post subject: Re: Make or Buy ... homebrewing equipment

Anonymous wrote:

Yes and I admire Thoreau and Borsodi (not that I have read up on him) and also Mr W Cobbett ... but these are all the "Grandfathers" of self-sufficiency! The main fore-runner in our time is most surely "The late John Seymour" who has come up with more ideas for a self sufficient life than anyone in his class - if indeed there is anyone in his class - Will Sutherland excepted as I have not read up on him either yet or at least that which I have read I have not been impressed with!

More like Mr J Seymour ... that is what I ask for!

Guest

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 05 10:15 pm Post subject: Re: Make or Buy ... homebrewing equipment

simon wrote:

The main fore-runner in our time is most surely "The late John Seymour" who has come up with more ideas for a self sufficient life than anyone in his class

Scott and Helen Nearing ?

Blue Sky

Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France

Posted: Sun May 01, 05 9:11 am Post subject: Re: Make or Buy ... homebrewing equipment

Anonymous wrote:

Scott and Helen Nearing ?

Thanks for that. Hadn't heard of them to be honest but have now ordered their "60 years" book on Amazon and will look forward to a good read

DavidW

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 31
Location: South Wales

Posted: Wed May 04, 05 6:47 pm Post subject: Immersion Chiller Construction

I've attched a photo of the snap-on connectors i use below.

Also

Construction of an Immersion Chiller
An immersion chiller is easy to construct. Simply coil about 30 feet of 10mm soft copper tubing around a demijohn or paint tin. Spring-like tube benders can be used to prevent kinks from bending during forming. Be sure to bring both ends of the tube up high enough to clear the top of your boiler. Attach compression fittings to the both ends of the tube and then attach� snap-on connectors to these so that you can easily place your water in and out pipes on. This is the easiest way to run water through the chiller without leaking. The cold water IN fitting should connect to the top coil and the hot water OUT should be coming from the bottom coil for best chilling performance.

The advantages of an immersion chiller are that it is easily sanitised by placing it in wort about 20 mins from the end of the boil. (make sure the outlet pipe has not been shut off and is open) When the boil time has been reached, turn the water in valve on slowly This will then cool the wort before it is poured into the fermenter (8 gallons takes approx 35 mins to cool to 25oC. Make sure the chiller is clean before you put it into the wort.

The copper tube and the snap on connectors can be purchased from the RS catalogue.

Hope this is of some help.

David

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