Hello to everyone on HBT! I am a graduate student in Houston, TX hoping to start brewing again soon. I have brewed five times with the first being an unmitigated disaster, then next three being solid, and the last one being somewhat disappointing. I use a 7-gallon plastic bucket as a primary bottle condition. I have only brewed extract w/ specialty grain kits so far. I look forward to learning more and becoming a better brewer in the years to come.
My current issues:
- I have been told that plastic buckets need to be replaced after several brews as cleaning and sanitization become increasingly difficult due to the microporous nature of the plastic. I am not sure how to know when the bucket is no longer usable and am torn between switching to a glass carboy to avoid this problem. I have also heard that food-grade liners can be used but have not seen them at the LHBS.
- I just moved to a new apartment where heating and cooling are now paid for by me, as a result the heating and cooling is left off. I have been taking temperature readings three times a day for five days and the variance is 27.1 C to 17.9 C, that is huge. I need to find a way to control the temperature as I have read that is a huge issue. I was thinking large tub filled with water and an aquarium heater.
- I have a small electric stove that i doubt can heat up 5 gallons of wort to a rolling boil, so my plan is to buy a propane burner, just waiting for a good deal to pop up.
- I am also planning on building a wort-chiller from copper tubing, should be fairly straightforward. My thought is that I will have a closed loop system with a cooler filled with ice and water and a sump-pump cycling through the copper tubing.
- I would like to use an aquarium air-pump for aeration, but I have read that the air must be filtered, not sure how to do that, maybe if I bubble the air through sanitized solution en-route to the fermenter?
- I am not sure about the quality of my water, it has that city-water taste that I find repulsive, I grew up in New Hampshire on well water... I was reading that I should be able to find my water-report on the city website but also that it is not always very reliable. Personal testing kits are expensive but I could send a sample to Texas A&M for $35. I also have access to deionized water, but I would have to add some salts to this to make brew-quality water from what I can tell through researching the subject.
I have probably said way too much for the introductory thread but I thought I could get all this out there and maybe some thread has already been created addressing most of my issues. Would very much appreciate any guidance the community can give me!
Thank you in advance,
Rahmdog
My current issues:
- I have been told that plastic buckets need to be replaced after several brews as cleaning and sanitization become increasingly difficult due to the microporous nature of the plastic. I am not sure how to know when the bucket is no longer usable and am torn between switching to a glass carboy to avoid this problem. I have also heard that food-grade liners can be used but have not seen them at the LHBS.
- I just moved to a new apartment where heating and cooling are now paid for by me, as a result the heating and cooling is left off. I have been taking temperature readings three times a day for five days and the variance is 27.1 C to 17.9 C, that is huge. I need to find a way to control the temperature as I have read that is a huge issue. I was thinking large tub filled with water and an aquarium heater.
- I have a small electric stove that i doubt can heat up 5 gallons of wort to a rolling boil, so my plan is to buy a propane burner, just waiting for a good deal to pop up.
- I am also planning on building a wort-chiller from copper tubing, should be fairly straightforward. My thought is that I will have a closed loop system with a cooler filled with ice and water and a sump-pump cycling through the copper tubing.
- I would like to use an aquarium air-pump for aeration, but I have read that the air must be filtered, not sure how to do that, maybe if I bubble the air through sanitized solution en-route to the fermenter?
- I am not sure about the quality of my water, it has that city-water taste that I find repulsive, I grew up in New Hampshire on well water... I was reading that I should be able to find my water-report on the city website but also that it is not always very reliable. Personal testing kits are expensive but I could send a sample to Texas A&M for $35. I also have access to deionized water, but I would have to add some salts to this to make brew-quality water from what I can tell through researching the subject.
I have probably said way too much for the introductory thread but I thought I could get all this out there and maybe some thread has already been created addressing most of my issues. Would very much appreciate any guidance the community can give me!
Thank you in advance,
Rahmdog