Moved to equipment forum - Admin
What equipment have you got? And what are you avoiding?
This comment ended up longer than I thought but the more I typed the more that I started to realise that I haven't actually discussed this with folk who know about this topic intimately, it's just been with friends and family who aren't as interested in it at this level so apologies for the length of this but also thank you for allowing me a platform to share my thoughts and ideas on this new personal venture properly.
The easiest question for me to answer right now is I'm trying to avoid clutter. I want my space to be as efficient as possible with the equipment I have complimenting each other as much as possible to avoid gathering a lot of specific tools for specific purposes.
I know that I will gather these specific purpose tools but I want to minimise it as much as possible.
Current Equipment:
All Grain Brewing Equipment
- 35L Brewzilla Gen3.1.1
- Immersion Chiller
- Hop Spider
- 30L Fermzilla All Rounder with pressure kit including 80 mesh filter
- 20L, 8L & 4L PET Oxebar Kegs
- Kegland Mk4 CO2 reg with deluxe SodaStream adapter
- RAPT Pill
- Ball lock Spunding Valve G2
Wine/Cider Equipment
- 2×5L demijohns with multiple Airlocks
- 30L plastic bucket
- probably getting rid for a new one or just use the All rounder for everything moving forward
Other Equipment
- 2×25L HDPE Jerry Cans primarily used for RO water
- Likely to invest in some smaller ones for waste transport.
- Auto syphons of two sizes (1 for 5L demijohns and 1 I used for buckets that I waaaaaay oversized and could be used for 23L carboys)
- Beer bottling gun
- Pluto Dispense gun
- Manual Hydrometer (will always check manually against the Pill for peace of mind)
- Manual Thermometer
- Bottling wand
- Corker
- Capper
The plan moving forward in order of investment is going to be:
- DIY Fermentation Chamber using a RAPT Temp Controller
- Stainless Steel Two Tier workbench
- Extraction setup to pull boiling wort vapor out the existing Velux window in the room and prevent build up and condensing on internal surfaces
- made a mess on the walls and ceiling the first time and it's why I've been banished to the room I use as an office space by my housemates, I'm just glad they are still letting me do it in the house so need to suss that one out.
- Bucket Blaster for cleaning fermenters, demijohns, kegs, bottles etc.
- Upgrading to 2KG CO2 tank as main source and only have SodaStreams to use for dispense purposes.
- Upgrading to Corny Kegs
- Upgrade to Wine/Cider Equipment
- This will probably need a section of it's own so will break away and put down some initial thoughts under a new header.
My overall goal for my setup is that all of my brewing will be happening in the one room. It's a shared space I use as an office area so when on meetings, having it in the background makes for some fun chat with colleagues.
The only things I want to be taking into the room are Beer/Wine Kits and 25L Jerry Cans of RO water (I know nothing about water chemistry right now but I can use RO water for cleaning).
The only things I want to be taking out of the room are finished products to finish or drink and Jerry cans/bags of waste to dispose of.
I'll be buying whatever premade/custom grain kits as per requirement to avoid containers of raw ingredients sitting around due to space limitations.
I will also be looking to learn about water chemistry and using RO water to build my own water profiles for my beers and looking into how they affect my wines too but it is handy for cleaning as I live in a moderately hard water area and hate looking at chalky water marks after I've finished my cleaning routine.
Upgrade to Wine/Cider Equipment
This is likely where a lot of my daft questions are going to come from, not so much from the perspective of cider but definitely from the wine making side.
I want to gather winemaking equipment to compliment the existing equipment.
I want to be able to make filtered wines for myself and others to enjoy.
The filtration is a personal preference, I've seen a lot of back and forward about it stripping flavour and aroma etc but I'm set on filtering things. I'll be getting an inline filter for my beers too.
I was looking at the idea of closed transfer wine making but this raises more issues such as stabiliser and fining addition as well as degassing methods. I also don't know how consistent exposure of CO2 to wine affects it and I'm unsure of the availability of things like nitrogen or argon to the public in NI. All things that my curious mind would love to try to overcome but the more I think about it the more items I need to gather for it and that bill shoots up even higher and the space required expands which negates my goal.
So not going to over complicate it and stick to the tried and tested methods.
I'm likely going to purchase:
- 2 23L Carboys (PET for ease and cost)
- Degassing wand
- Vinbrite Filter and pads
I feel like I'm forgetting a lot of stuff though by trying to keep it compact.
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