Hello from Aberdeen.

[Richie_asg1]

Hi folks.
Complete novice at Beer but have made good wine in the past, including some mead which underwent a secondary ferment and ended up like sherry.

I'm a great experimenter and reasonable cook/ engineer/ chemist/ plumber/ electrician so this could be fun.

I prefer dark brews so am aiming towards a Hobgoblin style but starting easy on the Coopers kits to get a few under my belt first. I go for quality over quantity and am a bit of a perfectionist being quite happy to stick at something till I get it right.

Richard.

 

[wfr42]

Welcome.

Sounds like you're enjoying what you've done so far.

All the best for your future brews.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Welcome to the forum :

 

[Crawfordid]

Hiya mate! Good luck with the brew! If you need a hand or advice on where to pick stuff up let me know as based in Aberdeen as well!

 

[MyQul]

Welcome to the forum

I think Coopers do a Dark Ale kit. With a couple of tweeks you couple probalbly turn it into a hobgobbo clone - in fact coopers have a hobgobbo like clone reciepe in there recipe section

http://store.coopers.com.au/recipes/index/view/id/37/

 

[jayjt29]

Welcome to the forum Richie :) I like my dark ales too :)

 

[Richie_asg1]

Thanks for the welcome folks.

First brew - first problem, well second; (First was keeping the temperature up. Two 12v motorbike hand heaters bungeed on worked for that one)
Getting close to bottling I thought I would try out my new capper..... Doesn't fit my Hobgoblin bottles. I read this is a common problem but some cappers manage it.
Thinking of converting a heavy drill press I have into a bench type one if I can find a flogger type capper to make the crimp.

I have an old Rotokeg as back-up... but no gas yet. Reminds me of Dounreay that one.

...and so the fun begins.

 

[LarryF]

Welcome aboard Richie, quite partial to a dark ale or four myself.

 

[Steviewell]

Thanks for the welcome folks.

First brew - first problem, well second; (First was keeping the temperature up. Two 12v motorbike hand heaters bungeed on worked for that one)
Getting close to bottling I thought I would try out my new capper..... Doesn't fit my Hobgoblin bottles. I read this is a common problem but some cappers manage it.
Thinking of converting a heavy drill press I have into a bench type one if I can find a flogger type capper to make the crimp.

I have an old Rotokeg as back-up... but no gas yet. Reminds me of Dounreay that one.

...and so the fun begins.

Welcome to the forum Richie! You an Engineer that's came down from Dounreay to work in Aberdeen? Dont suppose you were on the instrument side at all?? I manage to borrow a few PT100s from work now and again, got to have the best temperature control in the homebrew game! :lol:

 

[BeerCat]

Welcome to the forum Richie. Its a great hobby. :)

 

[Richie_asg1]

Welcome to the forum Richie! You an Engineer that's came down from Dounreay to work in Aberdeen? Dont suppose you were on the instrument side at all?? I manage to borrow a few PT100s from work now and again, got to have the best temperature control in the homebrew game! :lol:

No, actually the other way I was in Lincoln for a bit before heading North. Dounreay was a mention as my Rotokeg looks scarily similar

Not been much on the instrumentation side other than being chief inspector for a bit after working my way up at a plant making aircraft bits. Then into oilfield stuff up here back on the CNC machines.

I've got a PID controller and just bought a 25L tea urn with a broken element as a project for when I get going. Still accumulating bits for that.

 

[Steviewell]

What's your PID controller? That sounds like a nice project!

 

[Richie_asg1]

What's your PID controller? That sounds like a nice project!

I'll post it up when I get around to making it. 2x 1Kw bottom fit elements, 12" bazooka filter and 20A changeover switch bought so far. In theory running the elements in series should give me a large 500W element or a large 2kW element in parallel or a single 1kW element. As we have the benefit of solar we can have free use up to 1.4kW on a good day so it is going to be used for hot water when I'm not brewing with it. A type of heat store.
Not sure if the controller likes to switch or chop at the moment as I haven't looked at it for ages. May need a beefy SCR if it chops using PWM.

Visited my local brewshop today in Aberdeen. Very helpful nice people. Bought a lot of stuff and they even gave me a broken bench capper for free - result!