Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Non alco only imy not

Your concept intrigues me... how do you make said 'non-alco-only-NOT' moonshine?

I make a pretty mean Home brew, took a bit of practice to get the taste I like.
I now put it in to kegs and have a tap on the fridge.
The biggest problem I have is getting ahead on supplies, 1 party and there goes the stockpile.
Tempeture control while fermenting is the most critical element to make a consistant nice ale.
All you really need to make beer is a 30l vessel to hold the beer in (the Fermenter) you can by these for about $25, a big pot to heat the ingredients in 7l pot will be fine and a lots of containers to put the beer in when it's ready. ( Thirty long necks, or about 60 stubbies will do 1 batch) remembering that not all the bottles will be empty when you make your next batch.
Some people use a Airlock, I just cover the fermenter with glad wrap using the the seal in the lid of the fermenter to hold the gladwrap in place. I do this so I can see how the beer is going.
It takes about 2 weeks to brew in the fermenter and then the beers needs to matured, 2 weeks minimum but 2 months or longer would be better.
To get a clearer beer you may want to buy a 25l water container and carefully syphon the beer from fermentor into the 2nd container and let sit in that for another week before bottling.

I was mainly a VB drinker and thought the home brew didn't taste to good, but now I relize that the home brew taste great and the VB is not so good. ( don't get the hangovers as bad on a HB session either).

I did spend some time to try duplicate the VB flavour and tried most of the recipes I could find but none ever did or even got close so I wouldn't expect trying to duplicate a Carlton draught be any easier.

Some home brewers i have met really go all out making beer from scratch, ( grains and all) I still use the Cooper's kits and add bittering and flavouring hops. I do hope that next year I can grow my own hops.

I haven't tried brewing spirits yet but that and wine are on the agenda for the future, part of my 5 year plan for self suffientcy.

The wife does the preserving and drying although we don't have a lot of produce to preserve.

I have divided up the property and been planting it out as I get the spare cash/ plant cuttings.

I have only designed the AP system and marked the area for it, the $1000 required for the pond liner is a major hold up, along with shading and cooling the water in during the summer months.
I have swam in some of the pools in the community and based on that their pools are deeper than the pond I will be building, the water would be to warm for fish that would survive the cold winters here.

cheers
Ron

We have been doing some drying and freezing. I hope to get some canning equipment soon to try my hand at that. We just got a smoker but that is more for cooking and eating rather than preserving.
Since we are not in a climate where root cellaring is an option I might try lacto-fermenting some stuff but I need appropriate containers to do that and we are short on space.

Aha, interesting. Home brew is definitely on the agenda!

I printed out some DIY plans for a cabinet style smoker and left them on the bench for my other half to see... now he's getting ideas I hope its done by the time my cures come and I get my hands on a meat grinder with a sausage attachment! I'll also do some shoulder bacon in it maybe.

Hi VB .....if you want to make wine......I'll send you enough - say for a gallon - to try out.

Hi imy....one of my boys makes spirits. He has got the distilling kit etc. available from brewing/winemaking shops. Kit is made in New Zealand - its all quite legal - but you are not allowed to sell the finished product

LOL... It'd never get NEAR being sold

Are the stills expensive? Is it tricky?

I understand that you can make spirits using really inexpensive equipment, little more than a few buckets, containers and tubing.

imy .........I would have to check & let you know how much the still costs.

The whole process is rather simple.
Needed: Concentrated Apple juice or other juice(you could use and crush your own apples etc; you just need more)
lots of sugar ( good idea to have shares in Bundaberg Sugar Mills or CSR, pardon the pun!) and yeast,
a 5 ltr fermenter > put all of the above into it > close lid, put airlock > let it bubble/ferment for nearly 2 weeks.
Yeast will split up sugar into CO2 & alcohol. CO2 passes out through airlock. The liquid remaining is put into the Still in smallish batches about 1 - 1 1/4 lts >The Still > a stainless steel pot (like a pressure cooker) with the condensing pipe etc. coming out of it. Heat up the liquid to the correct temperature and the alco will evaporate & condense as it is cooled and comes out (into a jar) in drops alco!
What concernes me is the Condenser Pipe is cooled by running cold (tap)water through it. Uses a helluva lot af water (about 50 - 60 lts.) but we catch it and use for watering.
So there you are - - - be careful it's 80%.

TCL...... I did make a Distiller using a pressure cooker and copper tubing - - - but then found out that the copper tubing and the solder used to solder etc. does leech out
That Still I mentioned above does not cost "an arm & a leg".

I'm going to be using a wheelie bin full of water and an aquarium pump to keep the water recycling. I will monitor the temp level in the bin tho just to make sure it doesn't get to warm.

A wheelie bin? Please tell me thats just for the running water! LOL

Hi Imy,
I've been using a smoker for a couple of years now,
It is hard to describe just how good the meat really is!

Most of what I know, I learnt from this site:

http://www.kickassbbq.com/

Just remember the Temps they quote are in Fahrenheit!
The real trick is to use the poorer quality or fattier cuts of meat like brisket or ribs.
The gristle and fat just turns to jelly (& Flavour) and the meat becomes unbelievably tender.

I cook the meat at about 80 Deg. Celsius and it generally takes about 12-14 hours to reach temp.
(Sausages I cook for about 4-5 hours)
I baste it regularly using a spray bottle with apple juice and a little bit of whiskey.

For the Smoke wood I use mainly Red gum, But there are lots of other timbers around,
Just don't use Pine, It will make you quite sick apparently,
and the residue is nearly impossible to remove from the inside of the smoker

It's a long day when you smoke a roast, but the results are to die for

Happy smoking!

Thanks Dicko.

We built one on the weekend from a dryer cabinet we got from a friend. Problem is, we're about 20deg off what I feel is safe for hot smoking sausages etc so we need to find ourselves a gas burner jet from somewhere.

Anyone got an old BBQ they feel like pulling apart?

We have a little round BBQ but that jet wasn't enough to get the temp up either. SO, I'm doomed to prowl eBay until someone sells one