I was wondering if anyone had any experience brewing overseas. I am moving to Hungary in 2 month. I am planning on taking all of my equipment over there. So far I have found they have a store in budapest which is about an hour or so away. I know I will have to buy a new burner because I can’t get get my propane tank filled there. My biggest issue is the kegging. I am not sure if they even use the same type of co2 bottles over there. They do sell the co2 cartridges. I could naturally carb my cornies then use the co2 cartridge to dispense. Or I could buy their 5l kegging system. Any input would be appreciated.
Hi, I went through the same thing when I moved to Europe 4 years ago. My advice is to bring as much stuff as you can, because much of what you will want for equipment won’t be available. As for the specific kegs question, you are right. The threads on the CO2 tanks are different, so unless you get an adapter your existing regulator won’t work. I purchased my entire kegging set-up over here, but if I ever move back I’ll need a new regulator. The kegs themselves are the same, and in fact the ones I bought were imported used from the US as everyone who used to use kegs for soda scrapped those many years ago locally.
You may be able to bring your burner over, if you can attach a new hose and regulator to it. Burners are very hard to get (at least in Finland) as almost everyone who brews does stove-top concentrated boils, or if they do AG they will go for the very expensive electric brew systems.
Are you moving for work, school or love? Seems like everyone I know who has moved here has done so for one of those three reasons.
it probably wouldn’t hurt to call or email that store you found over there. The cost of a 1/2 long distance phone call might be money well saved.
I am moving over there for work. As far as the burner I could have my propane tank filled in aviano AB Italy which is 4 hours away but I did see that they sell burners at the homebrew shop. I most likely will go with the co2 chragers and just naturally carbonate the kegs. They sell the 16 gram chargers. I will bring everything over and just see. Thanx for the info.
Wow, what a nightmare scenario: moving and not being able to brew. :shock:
Wake up bob, it’s only a bad dream.
cheers and good luck with move.
One thing that you are going to run into that will drive you crazy: thread incompatibility. If you want to be able to hook up a chiller from the US, make sure you bring a hose repair kit so you can make one end of a hose screw onto your chiller. You can easily buy 3/4" (sometimes labelled as 19 mm) garden hoses, but the thread size is different. And if you need to get plumbing fittings for your mash tun or kettle pick-up or whatever, don’t count on being able to find what you need at the hardware store.
Other than the garden hoses, all other hoses are metric only, and there are not exact matches for 3/8 or 1/2" hoses that will fit on things like you are used to.
But if you have a home brew store over there that sells things like burners, they may have specialty items like fittings and hose to fit on home-brew equipment, most of which comes from the US. Good luck.
Thanx for the tip about the hose for my wort chiller that is something I didn’t think about. I will just have to see how much of a pain it when I get there. Its hard to get info since I don’t know the language. I translated a few words like beer, yeast, brewing, brewery, home and googled it to see what I can find. Some people might think its pathetic that I am concerned about continuing my hobby.
Pathetic?? Obviously those people have never brewed before.
Pathetic?? Obviously those people have never brewed before.[/quote]
Agree ^^^.
“Some people” would be the uninformed and ignorant. Brew-on!
:cheers:
Save yourself some worry and pick up the hose connectors at least. I brewed for 6 months with very leaky connections before I was able to get someone who was visiting to bring some connectors to me. Here is what I’m talking about:
http://www.lrnelson.com/products/hose-r ... rassmetal/Whichever ones you need to screw onto your chiller. Any store with garden supplies should stock something similar.
