50l Brewery Build

[LeeH]

Is the 80L size future proofing?

[Kyle_T]

Sort of mate, but it's also cost vs capacity and including shipping it's a pretty good bargain for 80L, we will brew twice in one day for a total 68L of 3.8% - 5.0% ale. Enough for roughly 2 x 20l polypins (filled to 23l) and 44 x 500ml bottles to split between us.

Not bad eh? Will keep the stocks ticking over at least.

[LeeH]

That's great, wish I had a brewing buddy to spit the cost. Just as easy to make a big batch I guess then a small one.

[Kyle_T]

Aye it certainly has helped. It just means I get some to put on draught and some bottles in reserve to be left to mature for longer or get sent to waiting hopefuls for evaluation. Lined up the next 5 brews so will look at doing a large grain order.

[Kyle_T]

I just did a very silly thing and decided to add up an approximate running total, the cost of the build so far has reached £680.83 not including 3 beer engines at £101, 4 x 23 litre fermenting buckets, 2 x 25 litre wine fermenters, 2 x 23 litre pressure barrels, 45 bottle bottling tree, bottle rinser, bench capper, 2 x 20 litre polypins and assorted taps, bungs washers and such forth, that comes to another £342.35 approx and still not including the money spent on bottles! Again probably another £150...

So the cost so far is a grand total of: £1,173.18 and they said this hobby was cheap lol!

[LeeH]

I'm not even going down that road!

[Kyle_T]

I know right! I even told SWMBO and bear in mind I nearly lost me testicles last time I spent this much on something...she just simply said "well, it's an investment"...whaaaaa

[john luc]

There Is such a thing as being too honest with SWMBO. If you must discuss spending you first need to do your homework on what she likes to spend on. Hair,handbags come to mind and don't get me talking about shoes.

[Kyle_T]

I think it is more a case of...already spent it lol, too big to ship back.

[Fil]

so your first 1000 pints out will carry a £1 premium or thereabouts..
still damn good vfm tho i would say that hehe

[LeeH]

But the 1001st pint will be cheap!

[Kyle_T]

Brewed 280 pints on the old gear that I can remember, just another 721 to go!

[Kyle_T]

Hello to all,

Once again it is time for a little update, no pictures yet as I only got back from the Bovington Tankfest weekend late last night, Had word from my mates old man that the garage has now been refitted with a new ring mains in the garage to give us a complete electrical supply, haven't seen where the sockets are located yet but apparently it is strong enough to run 3 boilers at the same time without blowing everything to buggery.

The shelf has yet to be done but we have been looking at a temporary way of standing the boiler for gravity feeding using an old boots medical crate and some wood, Should take the weight if its supported properly and its thick plastic that is rated above 80 degrees, good enough for us to give it a go.

Still need to plug the leak on the sight glass, whether using a metal washer or another silicone or rubber O ring has yet to be decided and we may look at recalibrating the glass as I'm not overly happy with my original job. One minor thing to look at will be the pump by buying a new power supply and trying again, if it's broken I will look at one of those mag pumps from Angel Homebrew and they supply the fittings we need for our Camlock disconnects.

Other than that we are ready, 3 lots of grain ready to be used and I have cleaned out my old pressure barrels to use as secondary fermenters so I can use my wine fermenters as primaries. Will also clean my polypins and pump tomorrow and may look at stripping the pump apart to actually assess its working condition, it works like a charm but its overdue a clean.

The first brew with be either a Black IPA or a Traditional Mild. After that I have an American Pale Ale and will buy the grain for another English Pale Ale. Not long to go now!

Cheers.

[DethApostle]

I just did a very silly thing and decided to add up an approximate running total, the cost of the build so far has reached £680.83 not including 3 beer engines at £101, 4 x 23 litre fermenting buckets, 2 x 25 litre wine fermenters, 2 x 23 litre pressure barrels, 45 bottle bottling tree, bottle rinser, bench capper, 2 x 20 litre polypins and assorted taps, bungs washers and such forth, that comes to another £342.35 approx and still not including the money spent on bottles! Again probably another £150...
So the cost so far is a grand total of: £1,173.18 and they said this hobby was cheap lol!

I did exactly this last week!
On my setup I have spent just under £750 so far (including wood to build the brew bench and other sundries, but not including new cornies or my kegerator as they aren't finished yet!)
To help justify it though I worked out i've brewed 19 batches, so roughly 798 bottles of beer, which if i'd bought it at our local beer shop would have cost me nearly £2400!
Even taking into account ingredients i'm still c. £1500 better off!
DA

[Kyle_T]

I know the feeling. I always work mine out on an average £3.00 per pint minus the cost of ingredients and see what I have ended up with. After the next few beers I will be increasing to 34 litres and buying grain by the sack. Should give me a little more for a little less.