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Midwest Brewing Starers Kit walkthrough
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QT19Z75BTo
I'm planing to use a bottling bucket from KoB #5 on.
I'm trying to make one of those bottling wands on the end of a hose. Much easier.
The spigot I have is not ideal for this. The ID is the same as the OD of the wand because wand fits in spigot. I need hose to go in spigot and in wand or over wand. Can't find hoses OD/ID combo for this. Spigot is not standard screw fitting but push in. Standard ID? I don't know.
I'd try getting the hose as hot/soft as possible by putting the end in boiling water for a couple mins, I'd also put a little vegetable oil on the end of the wand. The same would apply to the spigot.
I had a pot of boiled water and a pot of chilled water. The hose in hot and the wand in cold but it just wouldn't stretch enough. So so close. I didn't want to break it. I'll ask at the LHBS next time I'm there BUT soon I will be bottling from a 2nd bucket with a different spigot so hopefully that will work better.
The next thing I'd try is going to the hardware store, to the tubing/hoses and find a piece that acts as a coupler, stepping up or down as needed. Or a new piece of tubing that works.
yes I went on Sunday and spent some time trying to get this to fit in that. I grabbed some joiner piece and some worm clamps but I still can't get a combo that works. ID's and OD's don't line up in a way I can fit one inside the other. So for the messing about and $$ spent on bits I'm going to ask at the LHBS if they have a bottling wand on a length of hose.
I did find a whole range of PVC connectors, pipe lengths and elbows/T junctions which were pretty good pricing. I have not seen these before. Thinking the bottle sanitizer. Did not see any snap T's and they look extra useful. Good idea IMO.
Sorry to hear you're having such a hard time with the tubing, what a PITA.
When it comes to the sanitizer, I'll have a complete parts list when it's finished. 2 of these parts are special order, everything else is available at the local big box store.
Here's a link for the snap tees, just to give you a better idea. http://flexpvc.com/cart/agora.cgi?product=PVC-Tees-Snap
Here's the tubes I'm using. http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/ite...5800&catid=554
If you really want to build one I'll ship you the needed parts if you can't find them. Of course after I've tested it etc...
its no biggie on the tubing. A younger me would have forced something into something else and ended up with broken bits and a swearing session. Now days I just put it to the side. I know from experience the solution to the issue is somewhere, it just isn't with me right here, right now BUT it will be eventually if I just let it go for now.
The discovery of the pipe bits was cool, because I was digging around the gardening reticulation section and had not seen these items before. Smaller lengths of PVC that were just about the right size to fit in the crate without cutting. Joiners, reducers etc that I had not seen before. Anyway. I file that away for later.
Seems pretty straight forward process using Oxi Clean to clean and de-label glass bottles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8P7RratUq8
This brand is not available in Oz. There are a couple of equivalent cleaning products here. 1 I won't buy and the other I could not find. I did find some PBW which is Powdered Brewery Wash. This is basically Oxi Clean but much more expensive. I paid $14 for a regular size container which is probably 500gms. Maybe 1 pounds worth.
I let the bottles soak for up to 2 hours each batch. 30gms PBW per gallon of water. I did 1 case of bottles in 2.5 Gals. I have maybe 1.5 cases still to do. After soaking, the labels slide right off. Most of the bottle came out without the labels on them or glue. They were also squeaky clean. I soaked them in clean water for about the same amount of time. Dumped that water and soaked them again before storing. The cleaner gets nearly everything out. I noticed one bottle had 2 spots of mould. Bottle brush time. Otherwise all good. All bottles were rinsed right after the beer was gone so no junk in them.
I would not soak for too long in this stuff. I've heard it can etch the bottles. It does work very well. Makes easy work. Does have problems with Foil labels. Some of my bottles have this kind of label and I gave up cleaning on those. They will just go to the bin. Hopefully the other batch has none of these labels.
First meeting of the American Home Brewers union
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INrh_GhL6oo
Hop Profiles.
As I mentioned in the KoB #7 thread I've been reading up on the various hops to try and get an idea of what they can do.
Here's a reference page on Beer Advocate
Here's a wiki on hop varieties