Membership questions? Log in issues? Email info@brewersassociation.org

Author Topic: Easing the physical process  (Read 10221 times)

Offline Hokerer

  • I spend way too much time on the AHA forum
  • ********
  • Posts: 2654
  • Manassas, VA
Re: Easing the physical process
« Reply #15 on: May 11, 2010, 07:24:30 pm »
Maybe a lever or balance beam system to raise the boil kettle a couple of feet so the wort can flow into a bucket.  (This seemed more far fetched as I typed it.)

Not so far fetched after all...

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=19.0
Joe

Offline kgs

  • Senior Brewmaster
  • ******
  • Posts: 1068
  • Sonoma County, CA
Re: Easing the physical process
« Reply #16 on: May 13, 2010, 08:36:37 am »
Yes, not far-fetched. I realized after I bought a propane burner that moving from waist-height to knee-height would bring its own complex issues. Still working that out. The batch I made last week I did as a split boil on the stove.

For around the main level of the apartment we live in (part of a house), I've considered something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Radio-Flyer-Classic-Red-Wagon/dp/B00000IS6G/

But it won't go down stairs, and the best fermentation spot is a cool, dark closet in the garage below us. My current answer is to make smaller batches, which is easy to do with brewing software. I could also split the fermentation across two small carboys. I own two 3-gallon Better Bottles which I bought for $30 for the pair when Amazon briefly carried them.

I agree that focusing on affordable, entry-level solutions is the right approach. I do like the trebucket though :)
K.G. Schneider
AHA Member

Offline euge

  • I must live here
  • **********
  • Posts: 8017
  • Ego ceruisam ad bibere cervisiam
Re: Easing the physical process
« Reply #17 on: May 13, 2010, 12:27:39 pm »
I think many get into brewing with little idea about what it entails- especially doing all grain and larger batches. We all find an approach and equipment that suits our abilities. Or not.

Gravity or a pump will be a good friend. However, I've brewed for years by just transferring the cooled wort in a gallon pitcher to the fermenters. Also I use furniture dollies to move the fermenters around. Still, I have to lift the fermenters to the counter to drain them. :(

Know one's limitations and plan accordingly. Not easy, I discovered early on dead-lifting 12 gallons of hot wort up onto the stove was a bad idea... :-\

Wish I had bought a pump back then...


The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. -Richard P. Feynman

Laws are spider-webs, which catch the little flies, but cannot hold the big ones. -Anacharsis

Offline kgs

  • Senior Brewmaster
  • ******
  • Posts: 1068
  • Sonoma County, CA
Re: Easing the physical process
« Reply #18 on: May 18, 2010, 10:26:41 am »
Know one's limitations and plan accordingly. Not easy, I discovered early on dead-lifting 12 gallons of hot wort up onto the stove was a bad idea... :-\

I think of it more as "know the brewing environment and creatively address challenges."  ;)

Sometimes a limitation becomes a strength... brewing half-batches has meant that I've brewed more frequently and felt more emboldened to experiment and push my knowledge.

But same-same! When you're facing a brewpot you can't lift, whether it's a limitation or a challenge is immaterial at the moment ;)
K.G. Schneider
AHA Member

Offline richardt

  • Senior Brewmaster
  • ******
  • Posts: 1227
Re: Easing the physical process
« Reply #19 on: May 18, 2010, 12:37:15 pm »
I wonder what our ancestors did before spigots and pumps and plastic/silicone tubing?
How did they ever fill up those 20,000+ gallon barrels the old fashioned way?
World Record, by the way, for the largest beer vat in the world, goes to Meux Brewery, London, UK, in 1795.  It was made with wood and enormous cast iron hoops and held 860,000 gallons of porter.

Bucket Brigade?  Siphons?

Offline kgs

  • Senior Brewmaster
  • ******
  • Posts: 1068
  • Sonoma County, CA
Re: Easing the physical process
« Reply #20 on: May 18, 2010, 02:06:56 pm »
For that matter, what about the alewife of yore? What equipment did she use? What quantities did she brew? I'm guessing she didn't have an aquarium pump...
K.G. Schneider
AHA Member

Offline dean

  • Brewmaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 922
  • Me and Hayden, my newest grandson.
Re: Easing the physical process
« Reply #21 on: May 21, 2010, 07:28:15 am »
Way back when, some farmers used streams themselves to lift, move or perform other work.  There are still some old watermills around the countryside if you look, probably how alewives and yores did it back then especially doing large batches?  Old windmills too, but none of those would help for this subject. 

Interesting topic and idea. 

Offline a10t2

  • Official Poobah of No Life. (I Got Ban Hammered by Drew)
  • *********
  • Posts: 4696
  • Ask me why I don't like Chico!
    • SeanTerrill.com
Re: Easing the physical process
« Reply #22 on: May 21, 2010, 07:41:20 am »
I wonder what our ancestors did before spigots and pumps and plastic/silicone tubing?

I'm not saying I have a definitive answer or anything, but pumps have been around much longer than the brewing industry.
Sent from my Microsoft Bob

Beer is like porn. You can buy it, but it's more fun to make your own.
Refractometer Calculator | Batch Sparging Calculator | Two Mile Brewing Co.

Offline kgs

  • Senior Brewmaster
  • ******
  • Posts: 1068
  • Sonoma County, CA
Re: Easing the physical process
« Reply #23 on: May 23, 2010, 09:08:44 am »
I wonder what our ancestors did before spigots and pumps and plastic/silicone tubing?

I'm not saying I have a definitive answer or anything, but pumps have been around much longer than the brewing industry.

However, beer has been around a lot longer than many technologies, including pumps (and has been attributed with fostering the creation of new technologies and processes--even agriculture). I wasn't sure about water wheels, but from what I'm reading, beer goes back to the 6th millennium BC, while water wheels are just barely pre-BC. 
K.G. Schneider
AHA Member

Offline dean

  • Brewmaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 922
  • Me and Hayden, my newest grandson.
Re: Easing the physical process
« Reply #24 on: May 24, 2010, 07:53:18 am »

However, beer has been around a lot longer than many technologies, including pumps (and has been attributed with fostering the creation of new technologies and processes--even agriculture). I wasn't sure about water wheels, but from what I'm reading, beer goes back to the 6th millennium BC, while water wheels are just barely pre-BC. 


True, even today some places still practice methods to make beer that we would probably be a bit squeamish trying.... using spit versus yeast to ferment with.  I would assume that is a bacterial fermentation rather than yeast fermentation?  Uughhh!... we would call it an infection.   :o  :D

Offline dean

  • Brewmaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 922
  • Me and Hayden, my newest grandson.
Re: Easing the physical process
« Reply #25 on: May 27, 2010, 06:31:08 am »
CP wrote an article about the changes in brewing a few months back, the one about personalizing a brew really got me... now after reading my previous post... I think the spit would pretty much do it.   ;D :D