Starting up again

[Geoff S]

Coming back to brewing after being out of the loop for a long while,  have just put down a Cooper's brew kit 23l. with a Larger to see how it turns out, it's now sitting in a tub of water with a wet towel & fan on it, I have the Cooper's craft kit coming with a Mr Beer Amber Ale & would like to get some tips on improvements that I could do to jazz it up a bit, any ideas?? Thanks.

[The Captain!!]

Welcome to the forum Geoff.

All I can say is temp control temp control temp control. 
 

Doing this will make your beer go from ok and inconsistent to great and consistent fermentation’s. 
 

As for tips to jazz up a amber, there’s a promenant person on this forum that swears by a mosaic amber. So possibly steeping some mosaic hops.
 

im sure some of the others guys will chime in here and help out more though 

[Shamus O'Sean]

6 hours ago, Geoff S said:

Coming back to brewing after being out of the loop for a long while,  have just put down a Cooper's brew kit 23l. with a Larger to see how it turns out, it's now sitting in a tub of water with a wet towel & fan on it, I have the Cooper's craft kit coming with a Mr Beer Amber Ale & would like to get some tips on improvements that I could do to jazz it up a bit, any ideas?? Thanks.

Hi Geoff

Have a look at the Coopers Recipe Database

Filter on Bewitched Amber Ale and get some inspiration. 

I want to try the Abbey Dubbel soon.

[Geoff S]

Thanks Captain, I do understand why temp control is so important from my brewing in the mid 70's, so I'm attempting to sort it out with a triangle box lined with a silver windscreen sun protector, a tub of water & a water cooler evaporator thingy, work in progress, I'm behind the 8 ball as I live remote with solar or generator for power, that's life I'll get around it. Will look into the mosaic hops. 

Thanks Shamus, will look into the data base, the equipment is still the same, but the terminology might be a bit different than what I'm used to "filter on Bewitched Amber Ale"???

[The Captain!!]

44 minutes ago, Geoff S said:

Thanks Captain, I do understand why temp control is so important from my brewing in the mid 70's, so I'm attempting to sort it out with a triangle box lined with a silver windscreen sun protector, a tub of water & a water cooler evaporator thingy, work in progress, I'm behind the 8 ball as I live remote with solar or generator for power, that's life I'll get around it. Will look into the mosaic hops. 

Thanks Shamus, will look into the data base, the equipment is still the same, but the terminology might be a bit different than what I'm used to "filter on Bewitched Amber Ale"???

Living remote on solar......... man I’m envious. 
Lots of people use water baths for temp control and that’s a great option for people as is your idea. 
Best of luck with the next brew and keep us posted on the temp control device

[Norris!]

@Geoff S

The season is past for planting them but look into getting some hop rhizomes so you can keep a supply of hops in a year or 2. That might help being so remote.

If temp control will be an issue may be also get some kveik yeast as it can handle higher temps, like 30c+

[Geoff S]

That Kveik yeast sound the go, with all the different yeasts around now there's so many choices, I'm expecting a 40 deg day Tue's or Wed so will be interesting to see what happens, I have a few more hare brained scheme's to try.

Edited December 7, 2019 by Geoff S

[Lab Cat]

I brewed for 6 months without a fridge, but it's a pain. You have to babysit the FV to keep it within ranges. Is a fridge not doable?

I read you're on solar and a generator, but the fridge will barely use any power when paired with a inkbird controller. It will only turn on when your FV goes outside the set range. So it's probably only running maybe 10m per day? The rest of the time your fridge is off and just an insulated box.

[Geoff S]

3 minutes ago, Lab Rat said:

I brewed for 6 months without a fridge, but it's a pain. You have to babysit the FV to keep it within ranges. Is a fridge not doable?

I read you're on solar and a generator, but the fridge will barely use any power when paired with a inkbird controller. It will only turn on when your FV goes outside the set range. So it's probably only running maybe 10m per day? The rest of the time your fridge is off and just an insulated box.

I,m on a gas fridge, the solar system would need updating from 12V to 24V to handle the start up surge which can stress the battery's & warp the plates(not good) this is the list of "things to do" so baby sitting it is, so far I'm maintaining 20 deg on out side of fermenter,  probably a deg or more inside, it'll have to do at this stage.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Brew fridges run more than 10 minutes a day, more like 10-15 minutes per hour.  

I've actually noticed some differences between my two brew fridges and how quickly the brew warms up between cooling cycles. It could be a difference between the controllers and the probes and how well insulated they are against the ambient, but I find my original one with the STC takes around 15 minutes to rise 0.3 degrees and about 6-7 minutes to chill down again. The second one with the inkbird takes around an hour to rise 0.3 degrees and about 15 minutes to chill down again. 

We also have solar but being in the city it's just on normal 240v, and draws from the grid when required, like today since it's overcast and at night since we don't have a battery. It's just like normal, other than heavily reduced costs. In 15 days of the current bill cycle we're at about $23 cost, without it would be about $100 more. 

Edited December 8, 2019 by Otto Von Blotto

[Lab Cat]

59 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Brew fridges run more than 10 minutes a day, more like 10-15 minutes per hour. 

 

I guess that depends on the fridge, where it it, the ambient temp, the temp required and how efficient it and insulates. I don't watch mine all the time obviously, but the times it's off are far more numerous than it being on, so I guess I'm extrapolating that

[Otto Von Blotto]

It also depends on what stage the fermentation is at. Active fermentation will certainly cause it to warm up fractions of a degree in much quicker time than 23 hours and 50 minutes no matter how good the fridge insulation is. 

Outside ambient would play a part as well as the required temp etc. but not to that extreme unless the outside temperature is the same or lower than the intended temperature of the brew. If it's 5 degrees outside and the brew is finished fermenting then it would probably take quite a while to warm up if it does at all (I usually need a heat source to keep it from dropping for instance), but that's only one situation and highly unlikely to be applicable at this time of year. 

Mine is off most times I look at it as well, but I have actually sat and watched it in the past just to see how often it does come on. With the inkbird I just go off the temp trend diagram. 

Edited December 8, 2019 by Otto Von Blotto

[King Ruddager]

2 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

... but I have actually sat and watched it in the past ...

There ain’t no party like an OVB party!!

[Red devil 44]

My 2 fermenting fridges are going steady, one at 14 degrees the other at 18 degrees, keezer sitting steady on 2 degrees,  a little bit of fluctuation but given the 42 degree days we’ve had in my neck of the woods they are going great. Best $150 for 2 ( all fridges ) I’ve ever spent.

The solar figures you quote Otto are certainly food for thought that’s for sure, will look further into it come the new yr.

cheers

[Otto Von Blotto]

I was gonna wait too but the rebate drops in January so I decided to install it before then, ended up getting it for almost 40% off the actual cost, $3800 off. 

They took a month to replace the meter, so in the meantime the feed in was spinning the wheel backwards on the old meter, which dropped that bill by about $300. Current period started on Nov 23. 

Started with an 18% discount on usage cost and 7c/kWh feed in tariff, but I switched to no discount and 15c feed in tariff which actually works out cheaper. In Feb it switches to a better plan on a different retailer. Probably won't have a quarterly bill over $100 again, most of them probably under $50, may even get money back. 

Anyway way off topic

[Red devil 44]

4 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

I was gonna wait too but the rebate drops in January so I decided to install it before then, ended up getting it for almost 40% off the actual cost, $3800 off. 

They took a month to replace the meter, so in the meantime the feed in was spinning the wheel backwards on the old meter, which dropped that bill by about $300. Current period started on Nov 23. 

Started with an 18% discount on usage cost and 7c/kWh feed in tariff, but I switched to no discount and 15c feed in tariff which actually works out cheaper. In Feb it switches to a better plan on a different retailer. Probably won't have a quarterly bill over $100 again, most of them probably under $50, may even get money back. 

Anyway way off topic

Cheers for the heads up on solar mate, anyway back on topic

[Navigator]

22 hours ago, Geoff S said:

Thanks Captain, I do understand why temp control is so important from my brewing in the mid 70's, so I'm attempting to sort it out with a triangle box lined with a silver windscreen sun protector, a tub of water & a water cooler evaporator thingy, work in progress, I'm behind the 8 ball as I live remote with solar or generator for power, that's life I'll get around it. Will look into the mosaic hops. 

Thanks Shamus, will look into the data base, the equipment is still the same, but the terminology might be a bit different than what I'm used to "filter on Bewitched Amber Ale"???

Your living my dream I want to be totally self reliant   if you need any info please ask, but if your on solar panels and have an ink bird it can make you good beer.

[Shamus O'Sean]

On 12/7/2019 at 9:00 PM, Geoff S said:

Thanks Shamus, will look into the data base, the equipment is still the same, but the terminology might be a bit different than what I'm used to "filter on Bewitched Amber Ale"???

Hi Geoff

In the Coopers Recipe Spreadsheet you can "filter" the list to just show the recipes with certain ingredient cans.  This is helpful when you have a particular can, but want to get some ideas on what recipes you can brew with it.  The Coopers Recipes on the website cannot be sorted this way (yet).

Some instructions on doing this "filtering" are shown below:

1.  Firstly click on the small downward facing arrow in the "Can 1" column

 

2.  Then de-select the list by clicking on the "Select All" box to clear the little tick.  This will clear all of the ticks on the rest of the list.

 

3.  Next select the can type you want to see by clicking on the box beside the brew can name.  You can select more than one.  Then click on OK.

 

4.  The spreadsheet should not only list the recipes with the Bewitched Amber can.

 

5.  You can scroll across the spreadsheet to see more detail about each recipe, such as other fermentables...

 

6.  ...and Hops with their respective weights and addition method(s)...

 

7.  ...and what Grains are used including the weight required and the recipe's steeping method for the grains...

 

8.  ...and Specialised ingredients with a brief description of how they are added, Yeast type to use and the fermentation temperature.

 

9.  When you are done, when you close the spreadsheet, when it asks you to save the changes you have made I recommend you select NO.  That way the spreadsheet stays the same as when you opened it. 

You can also return it to its original state by going back to step 1 and 2 and selecting "Select All" so all the boxes are ticked again, then ticking OK.

OR, just come back to the Coopers Community website and re-download the Coopers Recipe Spreadsheet.

[Geoff S]

Thanks Shamus that'll make it a bit easier, did get it downloaded but got confused when I pressed buttons.