what extra equiptment do I need?

[BeerSlinger]

It is expensive if you try and get every last piece of kit that you think will make your brewing easier in one go - It's better if you take your time.

Well, to be frank……I’m the type of person that would rather be tortured by being put on the rack vs the Chinese water torture………I see your point though…..

It's a real pain to wash and drain bottles but is a bottle tree really essential right now?

No, I admit, I have about 12 items on my list but only three of them amount to $260 and they are the most essential components. To me, if I need that much anyway, I may as well and bite the whole bullet now VS later because with the non-essential items taken off but it really don’t make that big of a dent in the base price…

As far as wort is concerned you can make your own immersion chiller for a lot less than you can buy one - I did (but this is the wrong forum for that discussion! ).

Actually, I know enough about this subject to know that I neither have the talent nor the equipment to complete this task. I use to help put in Air-Conditioners and so I’m quite familiar with working with copper tube.

Have you tried moving your carboy to a different room in the house that's more temp stable (if you don't have young children or pets to worry about) or considered insulating your carboy rather than getting a carboy heater (that you'll have to buy and then also spend electric on running)?

In the winter, I let our house get as low as 45 degrees….most comfortable for me is 60 or below. In the summer I can’t stand to have it above 75. My environment is not the most conducive to brewing since I tend never to turn the furnace on in the winter and turn the air on in the summer to function. So when I found out the ferment temperatures on ale I had to turn the heat on…now I can’t wait for that batch to get done…

One of the first lessons that I learned was that in the winter, my house is built for Lagers….

Plastic buckets are very cheap but I use the same plastic brew buckets for my beer, cider and wine primary fermentations. I've never had a problem with 'cross flavours' - My buckets get well washed with hot soapy water within 5 minutes of it's contents being moved to glass secondary. They're then dried and stored without being 'sealed'. The faint smell of the 'last brew' is there until I sanitize them for use again, however the flavour/smell never makes their way into the next brew.

This was brought up on this bored and I did my first post and someone suggested this. It solidified in my mind when I cleaned my first bucket after my first ale and even after….I could still smell the LME. I know that I’ve heard for years that plastics are notorious for holding in chemicals so I’m doing this just to be safe

Some things that seem 'essential' to home brewing wine/beer etc are in reality just superfluous. Spend your spare money on good quality wine kits, utilize free seasonal fruits/flowers etc for 'country wines' like the dandelion and then save for/build the rest of the equipment over time.

Actually, this is what I have done….first I bought the Samual Adams Kit from www.beer-wine.com and then I bought a kegging system from http://www.leeners.com/ and finally a 9 gallon boiling pot from www.more-beer.com and now its time to round it out with a higher compacity, a chiller and a kettle that’s just meant for straight boiling (the one that I did order was more of a masher…).

BTW BeerSlinger I used to use a similar water filter using activated carbon when bred fish. It worked great!

Well, I did my research and I found out that 90 percent of them that are available for the general public are just fiber filters. The only charcoal was meant for commercial use. I actually found the diagram from a kid that did a science project at a university. I found the one with the charcoal, sock and pop bottle one from a retired army ranger that puts out just basic survival stuff on the web…..I was convinced when he took the filter out the nearest mud puddle and demonstrated it…..I was quite convinced…..

He also made a BBQ Grill out of a spare ammo box…..I found that quite entertaining……his site is like History Channels Mail Call on Crack……

 

[docbee1]

Carboys???

I am also looking into wine making after getting comfortable with beer making. One store informed me that i would need 6 gal carboys and not to use the 6.5 gal carboys because too much head space for the wine and O2. Since I have kegs and CO2 could I not just fill my 6.5 gal carboys with CO2 prior to transferring from the primary to the carboy and thus avoid the oxidation worries?

 

[Caplan]

I am also looking into wine making after getting comfortable with beer making. One store informed me that i would need 6 gal carboys and not to use the 6.5 gal carboys because too much head space for the wine and O2. Since I have kegs and CO2 could I not just fill my 6.5 gal carboys with CO2 prior to transferring from the primary to the carboy and thus avoid the oxidation worries?

If you move a wine off primary to a glass secondary and degas it I wouldn't worry about using a 6.5 Gal Carboy - it's still going to release more CO2.

The problem would be if you tried 'long term storage'. When your wine is clear simply bottle it - no oxidation worries!

 

[smurfe]

When you add CO2 to a carboy, does it absorb into the wine? If so, won't that defeat the purpose of de-gassing? After you de-gas and have the wine stabilized, you want all of the CO2 out of the wine and topped off to prevent oxidation during the clearing stage as the CO2 is no longer blanketing the wine. Tell me more about the addition of CO2.

Smurfe

 

[docbee1]

I see your point and have thought of that too. In beer making I just let CO2 under low flow to "air out" the carboy to replace air with CO2 so when racking to the carboy i don't have to worry much about splashing ie introducing O2 into the beer. Was thinking that the CO2 blanket above the wine would protect against oxidation, but yeah some CO2 would be absorbed. After reading your picture tutorial (love the PJs) I figured that I would just go ahead and get 6 Gal carboys and use them specifically for wine making and not have to worry about oxidation. Few more sheckles, but less worries for the best product possible.

 

[smurfe]

I know there are those that do use CO2 in wine making but to me it just seems like it defeats the purpose of de-gassing the wine. Speaking from experience by not de-gassing a kit completely (my very first kit) I can say that CO2 in the wine is mildly unpleasant. It creates an off odor and creates a fizzy feeling in the mouth feel. I can tolerate the slight "fizzyness" but the mild off odor from the CO2 is unpleasant toward the wine experience. I had to pop all of the corks and degass and re-bottle this wine to get it right. At first I would decant it to eliminate the odor but that got old.

Smurfe

 

[Caplan]

I see your point and have thought of that too. In beer making I just let CO2 under low flow to "air out" the carboy to replace air with CO2 so when racking to the carboy i don't have to worry much about splashing ie introducing O2 into the beer. Was thinking that the CO2 blanket above the wine would protect against oxidation, but yeah some CO2 would be absorbed.

De-gas your wine first. then rack to your carboy. If you added CO2 in it won't be 're absorbed' into your wine - to do that you'd need to put your wine under pressure in a keg with CO2 like beer. Adding a 'blanket' CO2 into the carboy is a 'belt and suspenders' way of ensuring the air is out. The slowly racked wine filling the bottom of a carboy (a dense Liquid) will push the CO2 (a light gas) out of the easiest hole - The carboy neck.

 

[Norma]

Brew Infuser (stainless steel)

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Great for elderflowers, berries, oakchips, etc. Takes the hassle out of cleaning the carboys. I'm a lot more brave in experimenting with "flavourings" now because its so easy to just dip/infuse for a couple of days, then taste and continue. The alternative was using cheese cloth in the primary only and not being able to sanitize properly.