Home Brew Forum

Last week I stayed at an off grid campsite near Canterbury with the whole family, very large tent lots of camping equipment. This week I returned with just my son to brew a beer of grid, no electricity or running water, smaller tent and general camping gear being replaced with brewing equipment.

I have had a lot of brewing equipment pass through my hands over the many years but had enough old style equipment to get a 3V brew on, not a BM or GF in site just pots and fuel.

The equipment, an old 50l keg boiler complete with coil spring filter & tap. 50l converted thermo pot complete with Blichmann button filter and Valentine arm. I invented a Jugomatic sparge system and finally a 25l stainless pot.

Recipe as shown in the photo's was Canterbury Campsite Tales Oatmeal Stout complete with Dorothy's (bushel of hops) Hops.

Water was taken with me / pre-treated for the brew.

There are various firepits located around the site & I found an old car wheel. Decided to use the car wheel first to see if I could heat the mash liquor, this took some time as the air flow wasn't that great, so after the mash had finished I dumped the wheel idea in favour of a pit fire, this worked much better and a rolling boil was achieved without problem and maintained for the hours boil.

As there is no running water on the actual camping bit, a no chill AU option was chosen, this time using a 20l Sankey keg rather than a cube.

The spring filter and syphon effect worked flawlessly .

Start of brew 7am to 1.30pm including a rinse of the equipment.

Keg bought home the following day, still at 25c, this was cooled in the FV to 18c before the yeast was added, yeast became active later that day.

IMG_9582.JPG (2.84 MiB) Viewed 19659 times

IMG_9583.JPG (2.91 MiB) Viewed 19659 times

IMG_9590.JPG (165.13 KiB) Viewed 19659 times

IMG_9591.JPG (2.1 MiB) Viewed 19659 times

IMG_9595.JPG (173.73 KiB) Viewed 19658 times

IMG_9593.JPG (213.26 KiB) Viewed 19658 times

IMG_9606.JPG (2.4 MiB) Viewed 19658 times

IMG_9555.JPG (2.21 MiB) Viewed 19658 times

IMG_9599.JPG (169.37 KiB) Viewed 19655 times

IMG_9605.JPG (182.92 KiB) Viewed 19658 times

IMG_9606.JPG (104.34 KiB) Viewed 19658 times

IMG_9607.JPG (121.58 KiB) Viewed 19658 times

IMG_9608.JPG (179.29 KiB) Viewed 19658 times

IMG_9611.JPG (2.16 MiB) Viewed 19658 times

That looks awesome, love the photos

Is that coal you're using?

I assume there was no lake nearby either you could place it in?

I'd like to try the hot rocks brewing method some time, I'm not sure how safe that is though heh.

The camp site is surrounded by loads of wheat fields which are either surrounded by hedgerow or agricultural ditches / streams. The ditches /streams this time of year aren’t exactly fast flowing and a little bit stagnant. So at other times of year it would have been possible to tie a rope around the keg handle and lower it into the water either from the bank or many of the wooden footpath bridges. The problem then becomes of controlling fav temps. Although a Kreik yeast would overcome that problem.

And yes I thought I would try both charcoal and fruit wood as fuel as an experiment. The best solution was a mixture of the 2 on the metal fire pit.

Awesome!

Nice to see Graham's calculator still getting used.

yep Graham’s calculator is still one of the best out there, gives everything you need without being overly complicated.

For my next campsite brew, I was thinking about going a little more old school and use copper instead of stainless.

Not only do I have a copper wood clad MT in my "brewing equipment" collection but I do also have this monster of a pot, would need to check on the joints on the pot first though.

IMG_9678.JPG (212.07 KiB) Viewed 19616 times

What a cool thing to do. The perfect chill out camping activity!

floydmeddler wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 28, 2021 5:55 pm

What a cool thing to do. The perfect chill out camping activity!

I must admit I was a little bit apprehensive at the beginning of the day not knowing if it would be possible to hit the temps / rolling boil but whats the worse that would happen, a failed brewday. Yes now I have a campsite brew under my belt it would be a perfect campsite activity combined with whittling a new mash paddle.

I will have to brew again in such a manner.

It was also nice to finally go back to a more traditional 3V system brewing approach, I still have lots of 3V pots / systems but in recent years have predominately used either the GF or BM.

Epic!

As mentioned I will probably do a few more campsite brews in the future, (with all the forum chatter relating to using green hops) the ultimate might be to go the extra mile and find a campsite that had some local wild hops growing nearby and brew a green hop beer. Unfortunately despite going on a few hikes the week before with the family I couldn't find any wild hops growing, plenty of blackberries and wheat but no hops.

A few years ago I did grow my own barley with mixed results whilst the quality of grain was good the quantity wasn't enough to even consider home malting so just saved the seed for another year.

The other problem with camp brewing might be finding a site that would allow such an activity, I was very fortunate that the owner Mat was very accommodating and open minded about the idea. The campsite I used is a jewel of a campsite, the first week I was there 30 odd Christian choir members pitching up (nice to hear songs being sung when it got dark + they fed quite a few people around the site) over the bank holiday weekend I believe it was host to a group of 30 odd bikers other times in the Summers its more family orientated & more off season, couples.

I have sent the owner Mat a link to this thread should he wish to promote the site.

Fermentation, I used a packet of Crossmyloof "Four" yeast (I had a packet handy) couldn't be bothered to mess around with growing up a wet yeast that might have been more suited. The yeast was pitched on the Thursday, the main ferment was soon over early the following week. I kegged yesterday (the only real time I had available), a few points over to finish and condition in the keg. Initial taste out of the FV was a little bitter (no off flavours of any kind) so may/ maynot have to adjust the amount of hops if I were to brew again / use a non chill method / use hop again (if ever available).

Will try the beer again in another month.