Glass V Plastic

Which is better?

In terms of cleaning, buckets are a breeze to clean. Except they seem to hold the smell of the previous batch once used many times. It can also get small scratches in the surface from cleaning which can harbor germs and can also make discoloration over time.

Carboys are more work to get clean on the inside compared to buckets. Glass can handle more use and don't have any smells seep into its surface. And will last forever with proper care. They are also clear, which allows you to see what is going on inside (If you care?)

I avoid using plastic as a secondary fermenter because of the head space. And really I just use the plastic Ale Pale in the Primary fermenter... I get less blow offs because of the head space and don't have to spend so much time cleaning the sucker. 

Canonical/Stainless Steel

Commercial breweries use giant stainless steel fermenters. As for the regular home brewer, canonical stainless steel fermenters are really expensive, I hope get one someday. In the mean time, there is a simple and affordable third option for fermenting. Use a corny keg. Attach a blow off tube to one of the outlets and close the other by screwing on the quick disconnect. Pour the beer into the corny keg and seal the lid. Its ideal for lagering.

Refractometer Ease

Well I figured I'd write a little something about using my refractometer for the first time. I got this Auto Temperature Compensation refractometer on ebay for around $20 total. So first don't let anyone scare you with how outrageous the prices are, these things have been going on the bay at a fair price.

This thing is awesome, it allows me to take gravity readings at any point during the boil.  If I need to measure the gravity to calculate my efficiency out of the mash tun, no problem.   If I need to measure the gravity late in the boil, you can with ease. This thing ONLY takes a few drops of wort on the lens and it will measure the degrees Brix of your sample. It sure beats using almost a pint of wort with your hydrometer to get a reading everytime you want to check your OG/FG.

When you look through your refractometer you get a number. Mine this week from the nut brown ale was 13.4 lets go with 13. Take the Brix reading, multiply by 4 and this  gives you specific gravity in “gravity points.” For example,13 Brix, multiply that by 4 yields 52, which corresponds to a specific gravity of 1.052. I'm going to take another reading this Saturday to see what my OG is. Then I will either leave it in the secondary or leave for a few more days.

While this thing is in the Primary, I'm putting together a few recipes. As always the hardest part for me is picking what I want to drink... I should have something together this week to brew for next weekend.

Getting Everything Together

Well recently I just upgraded my equipment in order to make all grain beer. I made a homemade mash tun-$15. Maybe less since I already had most of the parts. Bought a 60qt brew pot(Academy Sports)-$30!-Got it on sale plus had a 20% added discount. Figured I would buy it this big so if I wanted to expand and make larger batches I wouldn't have to buy another pot. I recently put together a kegerator--$185-200(This is a old picture, I got away with the towers and put in faucets on the door)Actually made some money back from selling the towers for shanks 02/02/09). I found alot of the parts from ebay and other brewing stores. I'm in the process of getting a wort chiller since I moved, I no longer can use my friends and will have to get my own :/ I'm also getting other little nic nac's together for the first all grain brew.