Improvisation tips

[Malter White]

I bought this 60 litre FV to double my production of beer. It was fine when I brewed at ambient temperatures in the kitchen but when I got a fermenting fridge it was too heavy and cumbersome to be able to use it effectively. It needed to be lifted out of the fridge on bottling day which was a high risk practice. I ended up buying a second Coopers FV and now run two of those at a time usually.

I thought I'd wasted my money on the big unit because it had become somewhat obsolete. That is until it became my new bottle soaking device. I usually only do about 30 bottles at a time in it but it could easily fit 40 or more.

What improvisation tips do other brewers have?

[Malter White]

This is another tip I've shared before but I'm sharing again for the benefit of those new to the forum. Instead of buying an expensive bottle tree to dry bottles on I had a few of these baskets at home which are a great substitute.

[amberfiend]

1 hour ago, MUZZY said:

I bought this 60 litre FV to double my production of beer. It was fine when I brewed at ambient temperatures in the kitchen but when I got a fermenting fridge it was too heavy and cumbersome to be able to use it effectively. It needed to be lifted out of the fridge on bottling day which was a high risk practice. I ended up buying a second Coopers FV and now run two of those at a time usually.

I thought I'd wasted my money on the big unit because it had become somewhat obsolete. That is until it became my new bottle soaking device. I usually only do about 30 bottles at a time in it but it could easily fit 40 or more.

What improvisation tips do other brewers have?

i ended up buying a 60 litre as a secondary fermentation vessel only because nobody near me had the 30 litres in stock lol, well one place did but their price was ridiculous so i just grabbed a cheap 60 litre from kegland which had all the extra bits included. i definitely agree with you that you wouldnt want to be moving this around too much if you had 50 litres in it. that being said ive only used it the once at this early stage in my brewing and im starting to think about what kind of brew will ferment well in a room where the temp lately has been fluctuating between 22 ambient and then  26 degrees if i put the heater on for a few hours. would probably be practical for something i was eager to drink a lot of often yeah.

Edited September 22, 2020 by amberfiend

[Malter White]

1 minute ago, amberfiend said:

i ended up buying a 60 litre as a secondary fermentation vessel only because nobody near me had the 30 litres in stock lol, well one place did but their price was ridiculous so i just grabbed a cheap 60 litre from kegland which had all the extra bits included. i definitely agree with you that you wouldnt want to be moving this around too much if you had 50 litres in it. that being said ive only used it the once at this early stage in my brewing and im starting to think about what will ferment well in a room where the temp lately has been fluctuating between 22 ambient and then  26 degrees if i put the heater on for a few hours. would probably be practical for something i was eager to drink a lot of often yeah.

Hi AF.
I still use the big boy for fermenting occasionally but usually only for ales in the winter time. When I can use it on top of the kitchen bench, where it's already at bottling height and the indoors temperature at home won't get too high.
Using it as a cleaning vessel has two advantages: I'm only using about 50 litres of water rather than a bath tub full which I imagine is markedly more and the vessel is also being soaked in sodium perc ensuring satisfactory cleanliness for when it's used to ferment next.

[Journeyman]

I posted a few of mine - My heating unit is a 45W bulb in a can and my shelf is just a 2nd fridge shelf shoved into the same track as the one that is already there in the FV fridge. I also use a garden sprayer bottle - 5 litres I think) with a piece of gas line (8mm OD) which fits perfectly in the sprayer nozzle, as my sod perc pump for the beer taps. Oh, and some spare lumps of 2x4 for tilting FV's,  and a double electric blanket in the cupboard on a cheapo STC-1000 to keep things at ferment temps - bottles, primed kegs or the 3rd FV.

[Malter White]

@Journeyman in the words of Shane Crawford, "That's what I'm talkin' about!"

[Tricky Micky]

Great thread here especially for people like me just starting out - so thanks heaps.

Has anyone here used Pope flexi viny tubing from Bunnings attached to the wand for bottling the brew from the FV?  They sell a food grade product but all of Pope's measurements are inside not outside diameters.

I need an 8mm OD size tube to insert into the wand and into the tap on the FV.  I'm tipping I'd need something like a 5mm ID for the job. I can't find or confirm the OD measurements for Pope's product anywhere.  Any assistance much appreciated.

[Journeyman]

1 hour ago, Mickep said:

I need an 8mm OD size tube to insert into the wand and into the tap on the FV

I have some silicon tube (from B's) that has (I think) 10mm ID - the wand fits straight INSIDE that. So I have a piece of wand in the tap & the silicon tubing - I can either use the wand at the end for bottles or just use the silicon into the keg.

[Tricky Micky]

35 minutes ago, Journeyman said:

I have some silicon tube (from B's) that has (I think) 10mm ID - the wand fits straight INSIDE that. So I have a piece of wand in the tap & the silicon tubing - I can either use the wand at the end for bottles or just use the silicon into the keg.

Brilliant Thanks JM. just to be clear the 10mm ID from B's (Popes PVC/Vinyl) will allow the wand to be inserted into it. It's the same same as the 8mm OD tube inserted into the inside of the wand. Yes?

[Journeyman]

@Mickep

No idea who makes it. But it's definitely silicon, not PVC or vinyl. 

 This is my beer tube - sanitise and plug wand bit into other end - guarantees no bugs.

 

Edited September 22, 2020 by Journeyman

[amberfiend]

4 hours ago, Mickep said:

Great thread here especially for people like me just starting out - so thanks heaps.

Has anyone here used Pope flexi viny tubing from Bunnings attached to the wand for bottling the brew from the FV?  They sell a food grade product but all of Pope's measurements are inside not outside diameters.

I need an 8mm OD size tube to insert into the wand and into the tap on the FV.  I'm tipping I'd need something like a 5mm ID for the job. I can't find or confirm the OD measurements for Pope's product anywhere.  Any assistance much appreciated.

i was going to buy the 5metre 10mm pope vinyl tube for about $16 but due to time constraints etc i just ended up spending $10 at kegland to get one of their 1 metre vinyl tube of the same diameter with the siphon stick on it, i wanted the siphon stick so i could cut an inch of the end of it to create a joiner piece for the hose to connect to the fv tap, then pissed off the siphon tube so i could use it and gravity to transfer wort from an elevated FV into a secondary FV placed below it, i guess i could put a pouring wand on the end of the hose for bottling but its probably more hassle then just connecting the pouring want straight to the FV when bottling directly from FV

[Shamus O'Sean]

5 hours ago, Mickep said:

I'm tipping I'd need something like a 5mm ID for the job. I can't find or confirm the OD measurements for Pope's product anywhere.  Any assistance much appreciated.

I cannot remember for sure but ages ago when you could walk into a Bunnings, I took the wand with me and tried the 5mm ID and the 3mm ID vinyl tube.  I think that the 5mm ID's OD was too fat to fit inside the wand and the 3mm ID's OD was too loose.

[Journeyman]

14 hours ago, amberfiend said:

i guess i could put a pouring wand on the end of the hose for bottling but its probably more hassle then just connecting the pouring want straight to the FV when bottling directly from FV

The advantage of having the hose as well is you can set a swag of bottles in a container and just fill from bottle to bottle rather than having to bring each bottle to the tap.

[Tricky Micky]

Thanks Muzzy for putting this thread up, much appreciated!

[Malter White]

2 minutes ago, Mickep said:

Thanks Muzzy for putting this thread up, much appreciated!

It's a pleasure, Mick. While we've had some appreciated input from others, I was hoping there'd be a few more tips though.
Knowledge is power.  
 

[Malter White]

TIP for brewing with extract tins:
There is no need to soak tins in hot water to soften the extract before use. A waste of time and water.
You are going to use hot water to mix your ingredients together anyway. After scooping the extract from the tin to the FV, pour hot water into the tin and swish it out.
Be sure to use a towel or gloves before picking up the tin with hot water. It conducts a lot of heat.
Depending on the time of year the water doesn't have to be boiling either. In the hotter months you only need it hot enough to dissolve your ingredients. Using less hot water makes it easier to achieve your yeast pitching temperature.

[thebeerpig]

Some years ago I scored a few giant rubber bands that were holding together a parts delivery to my workplace. After scavenging them I started wondering what I could use them for. Came up with a cunning plan to use them to hold the STC-1000 temperature probe to my 5 gallon fermenter. I mounted the probe into a groove on a piece of polystyrene foam and then encased the foam in duct tape. Put the rubber bands around my fermenter and mounted the probe under them. The duct tape stops the polystyrene falling apart, and with the rubber bands permanently on the fv, it now takes only seconds to easily attach or remove the probe from my fermenter. Found the rubber bands also fitted around my 10 gallon fermenter so I’ve put the same setup on that one too.
Shall add some pics below, including which rubber bands to acquire, for anyone that would like to give it a try.

[Malter White]

This tip is hot off the presses, as I only thought of it minutes ago. After washing PET bottles and lids draining the bottles was simple enough but the lids needed to shaken, towel dried etc to remove excess water in them. In this photo, if you're unfamiliar, is a lettuce spinner. I think it was a couple of bucks from IKEA. It also spins bottle tops fairly well too.

[Malter White]

Another tip and I've forgotten who alerted me to this one but thanks to that person.

COFFEE PLUNGER to do a hop steep in. Great for small quantities of hops. 

[Journeyman]

12 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

Another tip and I've forgotten who alerted me to this one but thanks to that person.

COFFEE PLUNGER to do a hop steep in. Great for small quantities of hops. 

If it was recent, ME...

I started doing it a few months back when I found out about hops tea - seemed a good way to do it without having to worry about chux or socks etc. And I got a plunger fo $3 at the Salvos shop.

[thebeerpig]

A hint for anybody that is still using one of the old school fermenters that were very popular when the Coopers homebrew kits were introduced in the late seventies. If you need an easy way to tighten the lid for a good seal or loosen a tight lid, a garden stake or similar can be fitted into the lids slots and used to give that extra leverage to get the job done.

[Stickers]

crack grain in sandwich bag technique with rolling pin jar of pasta sauce

[Malter White]

@Journeyman It disappoints me to deflate your tyres a little because you're such a valuable contributor to these pages but I have just remembered it was @Hairy who put me on to coffee plunger hop steeps. Credit where credit is due.
I still look forward to more tips.  

[Hairy]

I got the idea from someone else too. I’m not smart enough to come up with ideas on my own.

[AlbertP1525230127]

I use this tea ball for my hops pellets, keeps my brew clear.

Search: Avanti Sphere Stainless Steel Tea Ball, Silver,  on Amazon.