Random small questions

[Andreas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Andreas]

depends on area and the water you have.
If you start with RO water from shop it is the easiest to adjust the water to what you want. That and it isn't always easy to find out what water profile is for the town you are in.
That said, you can brew good beer with plain normal tap water, it just improves if you know what the composition is and how to adjust your brewing to the water or the water to your brewing.

Do you guys use normal tap water or prepared water from water shops?

[Mouter Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mouter]

Should I filter out too much sediment?

I brewed my second all-grain (a 20 l batch of pale ale) on Saturday using BIAB. OG 1.049 and when I dry-hopped today the SG was down to 1.012. So far so good, but there is a very large amount of sediment in the bottom of my carboy (3 - 4 cm thick layer). I think the grain may have been milled too fine. The sample I drew for the SG today had a centimeter thick layer of sediment after only sitting a few minutes. My tap has a sediment reducer on the inside, but if I bottle from the carboy I'm bound to reduce my beer volume per bottle a fair bit with all that sediment. I'm not keen on racking to a secondary because I don't know how to attempt that without oxidizing the beer. I use a bottling wand to bottle, so filtering isn't an option there. Can I decant to a bottling bucket through a filter and then bottle from there without fear of screwing up my beer?

[jannieverjaar Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jannieverjaar]

If you can cool it to under 5c for a cold crush that trub settles firmly and almost non makes it out to your bottles. I always have this layer. I just call the first 2 bottles "tasters" in case they get trub. But they never do..

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[Mouter Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mouter]

If you can cool it to under 5c for a cold crush that trub settles firmly and almost non makes it out to your bottles. I always have this layer. I just call the first 2 bottles "tasters" in case they get trub. But they never do..

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Thanks for the advice. For how long do I need to cold crash?

[jannieverjaar Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jannieverjaar]

If you only have nature assisting one night will already help but 2 to 3 days is where I'm usually at

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[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Oh yes, and RIGHT before you bottle, just open the tap to get the fist shotglass or two of beer out of the tap. There is some sediment that gets stuck in the sediment reducer (as it's open on top) and makes a very cloudy first shot. Once that's out, you should be fine.

[Mouter Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mouter]

Oh yes, and RIGHT before you bottle, just open the tap to get the fist shotglass or two of beer out of the tap. There is some sediment that gets stuck in the sediment reducer (as it's open on top) and makes a very cloudy first shot. Once that's out, you should be fine.

If you only have nature assisting one night will already help but 2 to 3 days is where I'm usually at

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Thanks for the advice!

[FriedPiggy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close FriedPiggy]

Alternative to an immersion chiller

Since I am not overly keen on dropping close to 2k on an immersion chiller, I was wondering if those blue ice brick things would work? Put say 6 of them in the freezer. Drop them in some sanitizer for 10 minutes and then into the hot wort. Not all at the same time. do 3 batches of 2 at a time.

It should lower the temp pretty quickly. Would this work?

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

I wouldn't. It's going to be a mess. Also, 6 won't cool down 20l of boiling wort NEARLY as fast as you think.

Look up no-chill cubes.

[BeerHolic Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BeerHolic]

I had a friend that was a plumber and he helped me to make my own. Much cheaper
Roll copper tubing around a paint tin or corny keg. He had a special tool to make the 90 degree bends, so not sure how you would do it withoutnb tool.

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

Should be easy to build a counter flow chiller.

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[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

Since I am not overly keen on dropping close to 2k on an immersion chiller, I was wondering if those blue ice brick things would work? Put say 6 of them in the freezer. Drop them in some sanitizer for 10 minutes and then into the hot wort. Not all at the same time. do 3 batches of 2 at a time.

It should lower the temp pretty quickly. Would this work?

A DIY one could be had for under R500 ... Plenty of YouTube videos available on how to go about this

Was going to go this route myself, but at the moment Im a big No-Chill fanboy

[johncoram89 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close johncoram89]

Iv got an immersion chiller I would be willing to part with to help fund my grain basket! If you are in CPT you are welcome to PM me

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[camsaway Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close camsaway]

I think if you look on the SouthYeasters page you'll find a video on how to make a CFC from our meeting in Feb. It not, email committee@southyeasters.co.za and I'm sure someone will send you a link and the list of parts you need.

[Langchop Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Langchop]

At one stage I just coughed up and paid for a proper IC, but I have always wondered about the option of a straight 'there and back' jacket CF cooler from 15mm and 22mm cu tube. IE counterflow chiller without the b*** ache of coiling and trying to slide hose over it. Especially with issues of water usage and immersion chillers not being super efficient.

So after discovering the joys of Leroy Merlin, and that they readiliy stock bendy cu tube, and not being shnaaied by Builders Whorehouse, the following interesting cost comparison:

A. 15m of easy bending 3/8 tube to make an immersion chiller: R479 [The ballpark figure Jigsaw mentioned]
{equivalent to 9.5mm, could go bigger pipe diameter but next size up jumps to a whopping R749 for 12.7mm)

B. 5.5m of 15 & 22mm copper pipes and all fittings for a straight 'there and back' counterflow chiller: R585

So both options are kind of there and thereabout really.