No Brews

Haven't brewed because the last 3 were not so special. I can drink them but its not pleasant to differing degrees. Can't offer it to anyone.

I have a some left of:
blonde - twangy, toughest to drink
ipa - twangy but the strength of the beer gets you through, the hops are lost as it is. Very bitter.
dark choc ale - I know its good under there but a bit medicinal

So figured I would:

1. chuck it in
2. try and go kegs
3. go to all grain
4. think on it a while

I'd like to do 2 and 3 but I'm going to need to spend what I don't have right now.

So I did # 4

I'm putting the issues down to oxidizing. I'm syphoning the beer twice. I don't think it's infection but I don't have an expert opinion.

Thinking on it I'm looking to do a reset and then another kit brew.
New fermenter
New hoses
New airlock

Not so much spend. Maybe $50.

Also
No racking to secondary for dry hoppage. Do it in primary.
Or don't do dry hop

Kegs I don't have to prime (as well as bottle) so it's a one and final moving of the beer. But if the problem is not oxidization the beer will still be rubbish.

I think I've scored a fridge. Just happened to see online. great price for 500L. Big. Older design. Good brand like my last one, which was brilliant until I stuck a screwdriver through the freezer wall and let all the cfc goodness out. Screw drivers are not the ideal way to defrost.

anyway, brew fridge.

My Son In Law has been kegging for quite awhile now. Much less hassle than bottling after a bit of upfront costs for the equipment.

yes I think kegging has a lot of potential. My main concern is the gas. I find the industrial CO2 burns my throat and stomach. I'm just dubious about the quality of it, age of tanks being used etc. I don't really want to spend the dough if I'm going to have problems with the gas.

I think it's possible to condition/carbonate naturally in a keg, but you still need a feed of gas to get to pouring pressure.

I guess I can always sell it if it doesn't work for me.

Anyway I picked up the fridge. It seems to be working well. Turns on and off ok. Light does not work. I didn't actually get the selller to turn it on or anything. I was going to transport it in an incorrect way so I figured, as it was off a couple days already the gas would be nicely settled. Best not stir it up just before transport. take a gamble.

Anyway shipped it on it's side and the tail gate down. Heavily strapped and not too far to travel but did have to detour when I looked to be catching up to the po po down the road a bit.

It is a beerhemouth of a fridge. Old school, made from METAL. anyone remember that stuff? Metal. Is good. Has a little odour but just food, nothing offensive. Not sure what country the seller was from. The food smell is not familiar to me. Maybe south american or mediteranean. Portugese. IO don't know. Nice enough guy. I think he sold this a bit cheaper than he could have. I think he realised that morning. He had a lot of calls before I got there. I'll see how it goes. I might flick him an extra bill for it.

I might have bought some kegs and some disconnects and a tap. Also a regulator. hmmm.

Kegs are a bit dirty on the outside. Nothing a bit of elbow greace won't sort out. I've seen some people get sander and polishing pads as well as some compound and give them a going over. The results are blidingly shiny. I could do that. I will see.

On the inside the kegs are petty good shape. They had a bit of gunk in them. one has 2 small metal grazes inside plus a bit of a gouge in the metal. Not sure if this will be an issue. The surface of those areas seems to have the same coating of the rest of the keg so it might be from manufacture. It looks like a weld was redone to me and some one might have take a ball peen to part of the metal or something.

2 are coke corny's with the auto PRV on them. I don't think one of them has ever been used for beer. It clearly had some syrup still in it. Kegs are ball lock type. I don't see why people prefer them over pin locks. Looking at pin lock kegs it makes more sense to me AND they are usually about $10 cheaper than ball lock.

I might replace the lids with ones that have manual PRV's. They are $20 - $25. So $15 - $20 for USD. You can get them with little hanger loops for hop bags. I might go one of those.

One keg is a chinese one. Not sure about those kind. I'm worried how clean the metal might be. Could be made from Twin Towers steel for all I know. It also has what look like some pumkin seeds in it. So its either been used for a pumpkin brew or someone has puked in it. Can't see any carrot bits. It's a spare but I might polish it up and sell it. Will see.

The regulator is an older Harris 601. I was not sure about it, because the metal disk (with measurements on it) in the high pressure guage is bent. The needle won't be able to move properly. Seems this is damage that might come from a fall. Looks like the gas bottle & Reg fell over at some point.

High pressure guage replacement video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X30wYAypj-o

I will probably service this before use. The kegs will get a seal overhall as well. There was a 3 x keg seal kit included but I think they are 3 or 4 years old so will probably score new seals/o-rings.

Taps is a fridge door type. An EK type. Probably wont use straight away. Needs a service and something to mount on. I am going to buy a cheap gun and use that to begin.

Disconnects are average shape but only $6-7 for new ones. The guy showed me the disconnect still work but he has put a gas one on the wrong post and now I can't get it off. I'll hit it with some hot air and see if that gets it off.

1 x post needs replacing as it has some surface rust on it. I will probably replace in pairs. But I will also overhaul the others, replace the poppets etc.

So i need gas now. I spoke to the LHBS and they want $200 for a 2.6kg cylinder. then it's $35 per exchange or if I want to wait, for a refill of my bottle. Otherwise it gets swapped with any handy bottle. Not sure how that works when they hit the replacement age, which I think is 5 years here.

I found someone who sells 2.2kg (4pound) disposable co2. $60 + I need a different regulator. $45. I think it works out at $110. with a throw away bottle. I'll do that for starters. Should pick that up tomorrow. Will pressure test the kegs and if all good I'll do a brew this weekend.

Thinking I might do a straight kit, no dryhopping to get some beer happening. Then later brews back to dry hopping. I will also try and condition in the keg and see how that goes, but not immediately.