Hi everyone, this is my first time joining a brewing forum, mostly I just lurk in the background Thought I’d better say hello!
I love ales first and foremost, but have been known to quaff a lager or two. I’ve been brewing for nearly 3 years, my first ever brew was a Coopers extract kit, didn’t go well. I decided then and there to go straight to all-grain and haven’t looked back.
I live in Australia, the town I live in caters only to extract brewers so I took matters into my own hands and built a HERMS rig (pics attached). Took me probably 8 months to put it together and I’ve just recently finished it, so far used it 3 times. For the first 2 years I had a homemade esky (cooler) type setup and made some nice beer, but wanted to take it a bit further.
My first 2 brews on the HERMS were a bit low on efficiency, approx 55%, however I’ve sorted the issues with my equipment setup (beersmith) and hit 91% on my 3rd brew. Obviously there’s still some fine tuning but I reckon it’s good fun from here on in.
Have blacked out the commercial brewery names on my kegs as I don’t wish to give publicity to such mediocrity
Anyway looking forward to learning as much as I can and chatting with fellow brewers/beer lovers, it’s my understanding that the American Craft Brew scene is the place to be
Hello from across the pond!
What a nice looking electro-brewery!
Were you able to source alot of the parts locally, is there equipment suppliers down there to get that neat stuff?
Or did you have to search up and get everything shipped in?
Looks like it will brew for a lifetime. Nice!
In regards to the equipment most of it came from out of town, I think I purchased the copper heat exchange, RHS, mini-coro, timber top and kegs locally.
The March pump, temp controllers, sensors, switches, sight glasses, dial thermometers, grain mill and heaters came from the US. The rest - taps, hoses, chiller, mash tun screen and control box were sourced interstate in OZ.
I did a lot of research and am a big believer in value for money, unfortunately VFM is hard to come by here. Seems a lot of Oz retailers double/triple the price for importing an item and hope the consumers aren’t as clever.
Believe it or not it was cheaper to get the items from the US delivered to my door, than it was to buy them in Oz.
@ yugamrap - The hoses are Vacuum resistant, food grade PVC with wire core to prevent collapse under pumping and hot liquid use. So far, so good although I lose about 2 deg C through them on the recirc so set my temp higher to compensate. I guess the option is there to insulate…
Thought I’d better say hello!
