Suburban Brewing

I posted this question in the AlEiens forum last month and received a lot of excellent feedback. Here is my original question:

I’m thinking of getting an Igloo cooler and fitting it with 50 feet of 1/2 copper pipe, dump ice in it and run my tap water through it before it goes into my wort chiller (another 50 feet of copper pipe)

I’ve been reading alot of complaints from people that unless you’re using a counterflow chiller, whirlpool chiller or a Therminator type of chiller it will take along time to cool down 5-10 gal batches.

Since I’m putting my first all grain setup I’m thinking what would be the best way to cool my wort and maybe an iced pre-chiller could be an affordable alternative to the above solutions.

My other concern is sanitizing of a counterflow chiller. I think it is too much of a headache to make sure it is in fact clean in all the bends and that it is fully dried before next use. With a standard wort chiller cleaning the inside of it is not an issue. I’d rather be brewing than spending my time cleaning inside of a chiller!

So after getting feedback from couple experienced homebrewers I decided to go with a pre-chiller. I found a great deal on a 1/2 inch heavy duty pre-chiller on… Ebay! It is sold by a guy in New York.

I emailed the seller (Jeff) and asked if he could make a custom 66 ft pre-chiller and a 50 ft chiller for me. The 66 ft one would fit in my Rubbermaid 10 gallon cooler and the 55 footer would go in the boil pot. Sure enough he was able to make a custom chiller for me within a weekend. I paid for it on Friday, he shipped it on Monday and I had it in my hands on Tuesday. How is that for a quick turnaround time.

The chillers are of excellent quality, they’re made from 1/2 copper tubing and both of them contained heavy duty garden hose adapters welded directly into the copper pipe. Everything looks solid like a rock. I highly recommend these chillers. I believe Jeff is about to open an online shop for homebrewers called NY Brew Supply. There is a web site located here nybrewsupply.com (currently under construction but his Ebay store is fully operational).

I’ve used the chiller and pre-chiller combination during both of my brewing sessions. The 2nd time I used this combination I chilled my wort to 65 degrees in under 30 minutes. The pre-chiller itself was submerged in 45 pounds of ice which melted in about 25 minutes. I realize getting ice is an additional expense but it gives me a peace of mind knowing that my wort is exposed to bacteria for the shortest possible time.

In the end I would highly recommend a chiller and pre-chiller type of setup or some sort of combination similar to it. To me one of the most important factors is what I mentioned earlier; the cleanup. There is no need to clean the inside of the piping since no worth goes through it.

Pictures of the chillers to follow shortly…

As reported by the Brew Lounge there is a new homebrew shop set to open soon in the Downingtown area. Since I work near Exton this place will be just a short drive away. Nice to see a shop finally opening in this part of Chester County. I’ll post the address and web url once available, for now we know the place will be called: Artisan Homebrew.

While on the topic of homebrewing shops… I had the pleasure of visiting Brew Your Own Beer (no web site as of yet) located in Havertown which is about 5 minutes from my house in Drexel Hill. I planned on stopping over there few times but due to long work hours I could never make it before closing time. Recently I acquired two 1/2 barrel kegs (legally of course). Both of them still had some PBR in it so I needed to open each keg to get it cleaned. Both kegs have the Miller Brewing Company logos on them and are stamped with PBR July 2009 production dates. Anyhow, I had trouble opening one of the kegs as it had the “Miller Style” valve which has a release spring under the steel ball to prevent gas pressure from blowing up in your face. This valve is alot different than the standard spring type found in most kegs and it was a bitch to open. Needless to say I ended up wrecking the valve and the dipping tube while trying to take it out. Okay so what does this have to do with Brew Your Own Beer? While there I bumped into Dave, who is one of the brewers at Victory Brewing Company. Apparently he visits BYOB often to pickup hop bags and other brewing gear. I figured he’ll know how to open a keg so I asked him what is the best way of opening one that has the standard spring valve (at the time I had no idea my other keg had the Miller valve, otherwise I would asked him about it as well). Dave was nice enough to give me the scoop on how to get it open:

1. release the pressure
2. use a sharpened screwdriver and press down the indentation in the valve to release the spring
3. once the spring lifts a bit use pliers  to gently pry it away
4. remove the dipping tube
5. done!

sure enough it took me a minute to open it once I got home. I wish someone made a tool to get the Miller style valve removal easier, or I’m just going to avoid getting Miller kegs like the fire!

Since I’ll be using a steel pot for my mashtun as opposed to an igloo cooler that most homebrewers use it will be important for me to control the mash temperature when and if needed. I realize without insulation my temp could drop quickly and drastically so to combat that I’ve purchased a 1500 watt professional electric burner for my mashtun. This is not a heating element that is typically inserted into the mashtun, this one will sit under the pot. I’m certain it will take a while for me to tweak its power output to a point where temp loss is negligible. Yes, 1500 watts is not much but I’ll be brewing 5 gallon batches and the goal of this burner is to keep things “warm”. My propane burners will be used for boiling. Okay so why not use an insulated cooler? This is just a personal preference really. I’m not a big fan of plastic and would like to avoid using it during brewing at all costs.

After short break things started to move along, most importantly in the forward direction!  The guys at Northern Brewer came through and replaced my broken pot. The whole process was very smooth, no questions asked. They even emailed me a pre-paid UPS label to send the pot back and within 10 days I received a brand new replacement pot. Kudos to them for providing outstanding customer service. Yesterday I picked up a 33 lbs propane tank from a guy in Media for $5.00, yup. FIVE DOLLARS! Craigstlist is wonderful. I figured my high pressure propane burners will “burn” through propane pretty quickly so I’d like to get another 30 lb or 40lb tank.

After doing some homework I’ve decided to go with a three tiered gravity flow system for my setup. Initially I thought about building shelves utilizing steel builder’s squares from Home Depot but I found nice steel shelves online that can hold up to 800 lbs and are modular. The plan was to buy 3 sets of shelves in different height levels then attach them together so it created a 3 tiered/step system. After measuring my garage I found that my ceiling is 85 inches from the floor while the brewing system including pots, burners and shelves exceeded that by 12+ inches. So… I had to modify my plans and instead go with 2 sets of shelves and low-profile propane burners. The bottom tier will stand on the floor instead of being elevated. I’m okay with that type of a compromise, besides it will save a bit of money as well since I don’t have to buy shelves for the 3rd level (bottom).

I’ve decided to get a 10 gallon Polar Ware pot (with false bottom, 1/2 ball valve and thermometer port) as my mash tun. I know size is always an issue but since I will be brewing alot of batches I don’t want to waste too many ingredients if a batch turns out undesirable. Utilizing a 10 gallon pot will be perfect for 5 gallon batches and should give me enough room to prevent boil-overs. I’d hate to sound negative but I’ve become disappointed a bit with my local Home Brewing Stores. I called 4 stores today and none stock the type of pot I described above. Now I would really like to support my LHBS but if they don’t stock merchandise what else can I do? With some online retailers offering $7.99 flat shipping and no tax plus stock  availability how can you go wrong? It looks like my 10 gallon mash tun will be coming from Texas.

4 x 6.5 gallon Carboys

We left Drexel Hill at 6:30pm today and drove to Columbus, NJ to buy these jugs at Rubino’s. They advertised Italian carboys for $35 per bottle on their website, which is a heck of a deal. Knowing how expensive shipping would be I figured it would be cheaper to take a ride to Columbus and pick them up. I remember seeing carboys for $60+ when the only manufacturer of them in North America shut down few months ago. Since then a new supplier was found in Italy and prices have been dropping steadily.

Rubino’s was the only place relatively close to me that had 6.5 gallon glass carboys in stock and they were willing to stay open past their 7:30pm closing time while I was en route to their shop.

So why did I buy 4 of them? I’d like to brew and ferment 3-4 batches at a time. Doing this will also allow me to make slight variations or alterations in the recipe and see which one produced the best results. Depending on how things progress I may buy 2 more carboys in the near future and brew 5-6 batches at a time.