In the interest of sharing new toys, check out the latest addition to my family. Not sure if anyone else here is into homebrewing, but I special ordered a new temperature controlled stainless conical fermenter today. Has a chiller and a heater, the chiller can pull up to a 30 degree (F) temp differential. They custom build them, so it'll be about a month before I get it. Woo hoo no more siphoning and no more carboy cleaning for me!



I feel like a proud new papa

-- Gary F.

That's gorgeous! Where'd you order it from?

Since I moved into my new place (almost two years ago), I haven't been able to brew up a batch due to not having a constant temperature place out of the way (a closet in the old house was perfect). A built-in cooler would be exactly what I need.

- Tim

Beer, beer and more beer in Concord, CA. They have an entire range, from just bare s/s conicals to the full nine yards. They have them with just chillers, chillers and heaters, and double chillers (also internal and external). The double chillers are capable of around a 50 degree differential, so you can basically lager in place, just dump the trub and leave it alone (not that I'd want to tie my fermenter up for that long, but hey... I'm mostly an ale and porter man anyway).

This one is the 7.1 gallon external chiller and heater, got them to make the legs a hair longer on it also. I also don't have room for a beer fridge and I don't have A/C or a basement, so temp control is rather challenging. This was pretty expensive, but definitely fits exactly what I need.

Of course, my girlfriend's response was something along the lines of "well, move in with me and we can build a full wetbar and a brew kitchen in the garage and you can have plenty of room!" lol.

Now I just need a nice small space-saving kegging option. I *refuse* to bottle (except for the occasional six-pack for gifts) again.

-- Gary F.

She say: "Thanks for the help! "

I say: "Grr, thaaaanks for the 'help' "

I'll put up some more pics in a month or so on brewday when it comes in.

-- Gary F.

Sweeeeet!

I've only been home brewing for a few months, I think it is batch #5 I'll be bottling soon, but I've really been enjoying the fruits of my labour.
Equipment like that is well out of my price range, but I can defnitly see the value in it. Will this not be tied up for long lenghts of time though? Or will you be using a keg as a secondary fermentor?

I generally brew ales, not lagers (I'm just really not into lagers, there's not enough flavor in them for me). Ales generally clear within a week or two, so I average 3-4 weeks for a batch. That's a week or so in primary, 2 weeks to clear and secondary, then a week to carbonate (I natural carbonate instead of forced).

Now on the rare occasion when I make mead, barleywine, etc (any high gravity brew) and it's going to take a good long time (3-6 months) to condition I'll most definitely rack off to a secondary in a carboy or keg. I don't need the fermenter constantly (I generally brew 5-6 times a year) but I won't tie it up for 6 months at a time.

-- Gary F.

I learned the hard way that it takes longer for things to clear at warmer tempratures. My summer ale had alot of gunk in the bottom of each bottle but it was tasty clear beer at the end of the day.

How long have you been brewing Gary?

Oh, let's see... about 14 or 15 years now. I took a several year hiatus and am just getting back into it though. I used to run a national homebrewing forum on the old WWIV BBS network (one of the competitors to Fidonet). Brewed in some competitions, did fair to middlin (best was 7th place in one of the custom categories, man the competition was tough and the field was pretty big). Quit brewing several years ago when money was tight and I had a lot of other worries to deal with. My life's no longer a trainwreck though, and money isn't quite so tight so I can afford to relax and enjoy my hobbies again.

I actually found one of my simpler extract competition recipes ("cinnamon honey ale") that I tweaked and perfected splattered all over the internet, even found one chick that was posting it to boards and claiming it was one of her "old family recipes" lol. She didn't even bother changing any of the recipe text (like my part about skimming the bee eyeballs out) but she did manage to remove my name from the attribution

Go figure heh. It's one of my favorite brews though, and what I generally brew for a "house" brew. If you're looking for a simpler brew that's clean, very drinkable and has a lot of flavor you might try it out. I'll share it with ya if you want or you can always google it, I guess.

Even after all these years I still don't do all grain, though. I do some partial and mini mashes occasionally and use a lot of specialty grains on occasion, but have never had the space to build out a full all grain rig. Eventually I will, though...

-- Gary F.