Homebrew Equipment (extract) - where to get?

kenmc

Right, I'm going to start with extract brewing, hoping to get to grain brewing by the end of the year. I've all the stuff for kit brew, none of the extract.
What do I need to buy and/or make, and more importantly where the hell to get it cheaply/locally. I live in Dublin. I know I need a big pot - but big ass pots cost a fortune in shops - is there some way of getting a cheap one somewhere? Also how to make sure that the water stays the right temperature for the right duration.... Hmmmm.
Any advice would be appreciated
Cheers
Kenmc

beardybrewer

Quality catering pots are simply expensive. You can look on e-bay or go to baggot st to find a cheap one, not all of them bad. The more practical method available is a boiler. If you're reading US books/forums they don't mention them. A proper pot and burner will cost you a small fortune, but you can get it fitted with a thermometer and SS ball-valve at the US shops below.

For those with a small fortune to spare:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/
http://morebeer.com/index.html

For a UK boiler:
http://www.art-of-brewing.co.uk/ -- good description on boiler
http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/home.htm -- check the H&G brand boiler
http://www.leylandhomebrew.com/cat37_1.htm --

Regarding temp, these shops offer a variety of digital thermometers. I got a nice french one with an alarm so, say when I'm cooling the wort, it goes off when it reached pitching temp. Its just a simple kitchen temp with probe. Regarding the thermostats on boilers, the consensus is don't bother and save your money.

eLpOULpO

A friend of mine bought a lobster pan large enough for brewing from Woodie's for about €30.

You can get a limited selection of extracts from TheHomeBrewCentre, they have a fixed rate of €10 for delivery anywhere in Ireland. i ordered a few times with them and was always pleased with the service.

A good tip to get cheap containers is to ask a canteen for empty mayonnaise pots. They are food-grade (obviously) plastic bucket of 10L, and ... they can be free. you can they drill them as you like without fearing to lose a dear bucket.

Enjoy !

guildofevil

If you are in Dublin, Grape N Grain are your best bet. They will deliver to your door for €5.

They don't list them on their website, but they can get you the following Dry Malt Extract, in 500g bags, for €5.50 each: Muntons foil pack spraymalt: light, medium, dark, hopped, light, extra dark, wheat, extra light.

They also do liquid malt extract and have started stocking vacuum packed hops and Danstar yeast.

You don't really need to be all that accurate when it comes to temperature, for extract brewing. A mercury thermometer will do the job nicely. Now that I think about it, I have produced most of my all grain batches with nothing more than a mercury thermometer.

How large a pot are you looking for? If you want to do full boils, I would say that your best bet is to go for a boiler, which is just a plastic bucket with a kettle element inside.

Grape n Grain sell 25l boilers for about €90, I think. I have one, and it does the job, but I would prefer if it were a little bigger. If I were to buy a new one I think I would probably go for this one: http://www.leylandhomebrew.com/item586.htm from Leyland Homebrew, in the UK. It's 33 litres and a very reasonable price.

If you just want a reasonably large pot, all rooms, on liffey street do large posts for about €25. They look about 15 litres.

Dopey

Sounds interesting. What sort of beer do you make?

I've been making homemade wine over the past 18 months. We're making wine from blackcurrenct and blackberry. We picked the blackberrys last September.

I prefer beer to wine. I'd love to try it but would prefer to use mostly non-processed ingredients if that's possible.

noby

Not sure of your defenition of processed, but perhaps what you're looking for is 'all grain'.
You can buy malt, hops and yeast from GnGDublin, amongst other places. This is using the same ingredients as the 'big boys'. The only processing that has been done is the malting/cracking of the grain.
You can brew pretty much any style, but ales/stouts are often easier to control than lagers.

guildofevil

I make all sorts of beer. For example, at the moment I have a blonde, a blended old ale, a wheat beer and a porter on tap, while I have a mild and a strong ale fermenting. I have also made everything from fruit beer to barley wine.

I find it a very interesting hobby, which, to be honest, I am taking to the level of obsession.

I do not use processed ingredients in my beer. I buy malted barely, hops and yeast. The only harsh chemicals I use are the likes of bleach, which I use for sanitisation and rinse off thoroughly.

I do use water treatment salts like Calcium Chloride or Calcium Sulphate, but they are just minerals which are found in water naturally, in varying levels and I use them to adjust my water to the mineral levels found in other parts of the world, where a particular style of beer is brewed.

You don't really have to go to the lengths I do to make good beer though. The dry malt extract I mentioned earlier is actually very good. It may seem highly processed, but it really is just barley malt which has been dehydrated. When used with quality hops and a good yeast, it can result in a very nice beer.

Some other brewers and (from this forum www.irishcraftbrewer.com) I met up to taste each others beers recently and I tasted some very high quality beers made with dry malt extract.

Oh and I should probably have mentioned that you can order stuff from grape n grain by emailing Linda here: grapengrainhomebrew@yahoo.co.uk