Micro Brewery on Board ?

[hummingway]

Sodium hypochlorite NaOCl. Sodium hypochlorite in solution is commonly known as bleach!

[denverd0n]

Originally Posted by billgow

I'm not worried about a beer getting skunky from a 5 gallon batch, it doesn't last that long...

Beer can get skunked with only an hour or two of exposure to sunlight. You drink five gallons that quickly?

[billgow]

Originally Posted by denverd0n

Beer can get skunked with only an hour or two of exposure to sunlight. You drink five gallons that quickly?

I've never known beer to turn that fast. Of course almost all mine went into 5-gallon soda kegs.

The only solution is to drink it faster!

[Khagan1227]

Good to see some fellow brewers here and the topic gaining steam.

To answer Minggat, a friend of mine buys his water in the big 40l (5 gallon) bottles. He still sanitizes the bottles using B-brite or other sanitizer. He pours a little in swishes it around then dumps it out. After her finishes brewing in his brew pot, he uses the empty and sanitized water bottle for his fermenter with an air lock.

Mark probably has the right idea to brew in his head, it is probably darker and he can blame his "odours" on the fermenting gases. I'm guessing he is brewing ales in there, since a lager requires lower temperatures. A few brewers I know leave a wet towel wrapped around their brew to keep the temperatures colder and the brew darker.

5 gallons is about 2 slabs of beer, how long is that going tolast a thirsty sailor?

[Pyrate]

As an avid homebrewer, it's not a matter of cost effectiveness. It's a hobby. My wife and I both brew 5-6 gallon batches, and quite a few batches a year (we just entered 15 different beers in our local homebrew competition). Anyone who owns a sailboat can understand the appeal. Why not have a motor boat that can get you farther, faster, and even more cost effective (of course, depending on the boat) than a sailboat. But, it's just not as fun. Sure, I can get cheap beer at the store for much less than I can brew it, especially with the equipment costs that we endure. I can probably even get a decent beer for the same price. However, we brew great beer and have fun doing it. Then we share great beer and can tell people that we made it. It's pride, and its fun. I don't know about brewing on my 30 footer, but I might take a carboy down there to lager this winter. Maybe make an eisbock once it starts freezing?

Pyrate

[hummingway]

Boy, beer must be cheap in Alaska. It sure isn't here. Home brewing is way more cost effective. I buy my grains and hops in bulk which makes it really cheap. It's hard to get the raw materials otherwise anyway.

[Khagan1227]

Pyrate - pure genius! I can brew lager if I sail north.

Winter in the islands, Summer in the north.
Ale in the winter, Lager in the summer.

I can brew 6 gallons for about $10 a slab. I don't know of any beer that can be had here for that. For some reason, my beer tastes better anyway.

My oldest son is a fan of Hard Cider, so he decided to brew his own. 5 gallons of apple cider, yeast, 5 pounds of sugar and he made a great Reisling Wine.

[Pyrate]

Well it's not that beer's cheap in Alaska (though it's not necessarily more expensive than elsewhere), but ingredients are. So, combine the cost of propane for the crab cooker burner, 10-15 lbs of grain per batch (including some specialty grains that are more expensive), most stores not shipping for free to Alaska, and enjoying good ingredients (Marris Otter is usually my base malt, instead of American 2-row), then it definitely gets a bit pricier. And that's before the stainless steel boil kettle, mash tun, wort chiller (needed even in winter in Alaska-trust me), refractometer, stir plate for yeast starters, etc. Sure, not all of the equipment is completely necessary, but as I said, my wife and I brew great beer. Of those 15 we entered in the competition, we received medals for 11 of them and two received best of division awards. So we probably do brew for much less than we could get beer in the store, if you're looking at only the batch cost, but ultimately that's not why we brew. We brew because we love the process, have a great homebrew club with monthly "meetings" (i.e. parties) during the winters, and enjoy the occasional competition. I once made a comment that brewing beer for competition was a lot like being in 4H, but tastier.

Pyrate

[lancelots]

I used to home brew in the Tropics

60lt fermenter

4 tins of home brew mix (instead of three)
Double the yeast (and use the good stuff not the stuff that comes with the brew tins) and it will brew faster and remove all the sugar

18lt second hand softdrink kegs
add extra water to the kegs and you get four from a brew

no waiting for secondary fermentation in the bottles just attach the gas and roll the keg back and forth on the floor for about twenty minutes, I used to put mine in the deep freeze and it was ready to drink in a couple of hours.

[Nateman]

Good to see another homebrew thread! Brew on guys!

[JanetGroene]

Then there was the time my father's family "put up" a shipload of homemade root beer in the cellar and every bottle exploded, most of them on the same day.