Homebrew Setup

Environment

My brewing environment is a large underground garage which gets no natural light. The temperature remains fairly constant although varies with the seasons.

Fermenter

I use a standard 23 litre fermenter from a Coopers homebrew kit. I generally sterilise with half a cup of unscented bleach, left to cure for at least 15 minutes. I then rinse thoroughly and mix up the brew.

Heating

Although the room has a fairly constant temperature, most of the year it is just a bit too cold for good brewing. I use a fish tank heater (purchased from an aquarium store for ~$30AU) place in the brew to keep it at a constant temperature around 25^oC.

The photo below was a fresh brew that I had just started. I don't worry too much about getting the temperature exactly right at the start as the fish tank heater quickly brings it to a constant temperature.

Airlock

Rather than use the standard bubbler style air lock that comes with the kit I use a cling-wrap covering held in place by the rubber sealing ring from the standard lid.

I first read about this method in Understanding Beer Making by Grant Sampson (ISBN: 0 7316 02002 1). It makes sense for my setup for a number of reasons

• As I use a fish tank heater in the brew to keep it warm, I would have to find some way to get the power cord into the brew through the lid whilst keeping the seal tight so the bubbler would work.
• The stages of brewing are easily identifiable by sight, and a clear cling-wrap lid makes it easier to see inside (though condensation does build up obscuring view). By confirming that the specific gravity does not change over a day or so you can confirm fermentation has stopped.
• The carbon dioxide that the yeast puts out is heavier than the surrounding air, so it creates a natural seal. The main purpose of the cling wrap is to keep out external contamination.
• Understanding Beer Making suggests that you can leave the hydrometer in the brew and view it through the cling wrap. I found this doesn't work for a number of reasons; mostly that the foamy yeast at the top of the brew obscures a good view, and the condensation does not help either.

Filling

I have found a good way to fill the brew is to use a easily available tap-shower attachment. It makes it easy to bring the brew into the house for filling on a trolley, as there is no water available in the garage.

Bottling

Filling

I use the standard filler that comes with most kits.

Priming

I like to use the Coopers priming sugars, as they come in easy to administer pre-sized drops.

Bottles

I use PET Coopers bottles. Again these have a number of advantages in that they are incredibly easy to seal, having only a twist top lid, and there is no chance they will shatter (I imagine they would simply bulge if it came to that). They are easy to sterilise with alkaline salts.

Secondary Fermentation

Often I will fill an esky with water and place the bottles in there for secondary fermentation with the fish tank heater. This keeps the bottles at a constant temperature. I keep them in there for 2-3 weeks, and probably generally wait another week before opening.

Beer Blog

Future Beer Ideas

• To make a stout, use two Black stump stout packs with no extra sugars (Kim Lawson)
• Add ~ 0.5kg extra sugars into a apple cider/ginger beer for a very creamy drink (Kim Lawson)