My Home-Brew Beer Is Ready

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by SabreKai

would need to anchor or stay someplace where the must wouldn't be sloshing around all the time.


Sabre

The sloshing might do it good. Remember Maderia! Or at least it might not do harm.

We have found some excellent local bottles for $4! But very hard to find. The supermarkets wont sell it, nor most of the local grocery shops. They prefer to sell the $10 to $20 plonk.

[Springbok]

Congrad's Mark but you need to test it if its your own brew.
This means opening EVERY bottle and drinking the contents
Thus you will know all is ok for the next brew. Pretend you are celebrating Jessica Watson's home-coming
Re the sloshing this could aid the fermenting and cause the bottles to explode Better that you empty the contents pronto
Clyde

[TrevC]

I was involved with brewing before we moved on to our boat. Made the beer from grain and hops (no extracts!). The Coopers kits are great, but it's like comparing orange juice from concentrate to orange juice squeezed from fresh oranges. I would highly recommend that anyone with a lot of space get in to brewing from grain, which is referred to as all-grain brewing. With a bit of reading, you can produce beer as good as (or better than) anything you buy, regardless of variety or country, etc.

If anyone has questions or wants tips for brewing better beer, just let me know. The temperatures during fermentation would be the biggest issue on a boat (higher is bad, resulting in poor "home-brew" flavour and headaches). The correct fermentation temps and proper sanitation can make a huge difference.

YouTube - Brew-day!

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by TrevC

The correct fermentation temps and proper sanitation can make a huge difference.

Pitty the (democratic) country I am in has banned YouTube because some of the lads from the country close to it made some videos disparaging this countries first President.


With beer on boat the Coopers system is very easy and non messy, sure its not the full 'go grow your own hopps'.
The plastic container isn't too bad to store.
The temperature doesn't seem to be overly sensitive as I made brews in the tropics where I was lucky to get the temp below 28 deg C!
Sanatation: I am very careful and always sanatize well. However I bumped into a cruisner who said he just rinses his beer barrel and bottles in sea water!

Its funny because I always thought I didn't have the space when at home living in ahouse. Now it all fits in a boat.

Its fun and doesn't take much time at all. It certainly is a help when a high cost alcohol country is entered. You just brew up

Mark

[donradcliffe]

Mark,
You can look forward to Brindisi, Italy, where I found a Ipermarket with a wine filling station--three nozzles, just like the ones for the petrol, with red, white, and rose. The price was 85 cents a liter, which was quite a bit cheaper than the petrol. The filling station included a jug washer for cleaning your old container, and of course they would sell you the jugs if you were just starting out. The red was very drinkable...

[TrevC]

Sanatation: I am very careful and always sanatize well. However I bumped into a cruisner who said he just rinses his beer barrel and bottles in sea water!

Yeah, I've tasted home-brew from boats like that. It was... "unique". Lets just say that the brew was along the same lines as their algae tainted dirty tank water. It all had that special taste happening. Gross. It won't kill you, but is far from civilised when the good stuff doesn't take much more effort!

Hydrogen peroxide is the best (and cheapest) sanitizer, in my opinion. Dilute it yourself and fill a plant-sprayer with it.

Coopers wants to make things really easy for everyone, but fermenting at 28C is never a great idea. Do whatever it takes to get that fermenter colder! The main reason I don't brew aboard is lack of temperature control. Keep in mind that many lagers etc will ferment best at around 12-15C (the Coopers kits are never a lager yeast, even if it's the lager kit, exactly for this reason). Ale yeasts can ferment much warmer with less side-effects to flavour and what's produced.

There's some Belgian yeasts that will ferment nicely at higher temperatures, and they're also more alcohol tolerant. I still have bottles here ageing from a Belgian golden Ale batch that's around 13%. It gets better every year.

When you're using Coopers extract cans, always make sure you buy the freshest possible. It makes a noticeable difference. They have a poor shelf life. Grocery stores often stock very old cans. You could also try using higher-end yeasts for better results. Anything form Wyeast is fantastic, and many small to medium sized breweries use them.

You can also "steal" (harvest) yeast from commercial bottles like Coopers or other beers. However, that's a topic in itself.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by TrevC

The main reason I don't brew aboard is lack of temperature control.

Aye! one gets what one gets in the tropics!

Originally Posted by TrevC

When you're using Coopers extract cans, always make sure you buy the freshest possible.

Aye! One gets what they gets 10,000 miles from 'ome!


Good advice, Trev

I could never let one mature for as long as you do! Theres a compelling thirst!

Letr me try some of that Beligian muck



Mark

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

Brindisi, Italy, ... 85 cents a liter, The red was very drinkable...

Well?!

Whats the Lat & Lon of this navarna???????????????????????????

GIMMEE the GPS Waypoint!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHATS THE LAT & LON????????

I can set the course right now! Just GIVE it to me!

[denverd0n]

Don't you have Google Earth?

40° 39' 16.39" N, 17° 59' 43.74" E

[hummingway]

Australians will drink anything. At the moment I have my complete beer making kit in the back of my pick-up in the marina parking lot. Grain mill, wort chiller, mash and lauter tuns, 6 sanka kegs and two co2 bottles with regulators (and I'm not kidding). Even a couple of buckets of malted grains. In a perfect world I would convert my guest cabin into a brewery since who needs guests when you've good beer? Actually when you've got good beer you get guests willing to sleep on the cabin sole. Instead I'm moving it into a friends place on an island where my studio is also moving which should work as second best as long as I don't stray too far from the salish sea. Once you've put it in kegs you can't go back to bottles - think of all the time you lose to unscrewing those PET bottles!

[fishwife]

When it's in a keg, how long is the life when you've broached it? One of my crew has been reading this thread and is getting all starry eyed. I've tried telling her that a pina colada has much more style but she's not buying it.
If we have to start a brewery then I'd think the PET bottles mean that you don't have the problem of finishing the whole keg within a week or whatever the life is.

MarkJ, you've got a lot to answer for
P.

[hummingway]

Depends on the beer. Higher alpha acids (from the hops) and alcohol act as preservatives. A good, bold beer will last a year in the keg. Most beers improve over a minimum of 2 months aging. Once they reach their peak they slowly go down hill. I've made strong beers that improved for 18 months and were still good after 3 years. India Pale Ale was originally made very strong to last the long voyage from England to India. Sanka kegs are what was used for soda pop and as you draw beer it is replaced with CO2. It keeps the beer from going off. If O2 gets at beer it does go off fairly quickly which is why keeping "real" ale in gravity feed hogsheads is an art and the keg must be consumed before going off. I'm pretty sure making beer from scratch would be a PITA on anything but a very large (very) boat but Chichester had a keg of beer on board when he set the solo round the world record in the 60's. My kninda guy!

[Stillraining]

That's the reason for the CO2.


Hum we need to talk...any cabin sole space available?..

[hummingway]

I keep thinking that freezer on the couter is an inconvenient place for food but as a keg cooler with a tap out the top and bob's your uncle (actually he's not much of an uncle ... a few pints of homebrew and out come the high heels and dress and bob's your aunt but that's another story).

[MarkJ]

The kegs keep fine, as mentioned, for 1 year. But the problem I see is the temprite to make it cool. Any Poms on here would want it tropical but real drinkers like it 4 degrees C

The PET bottles are small and can stow anywhere and I can just have a few in the fridge at a time. The do dissappear from the fridge. I dunno why

Do NOT leave them in the guest cabin when your friends aboard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!