TOPIC:

Thanks very much to everyone for the sage advise. The event organizers have been in touch w relevant authorities and feel they have this issue fairly under wraps. The homebrew will be gratis for the bands and crews, neither of which will have paid for admission. Tasters for patrons would have been free also, but since they will have paid for entry, I can see how even a free sip might be construed as 'included' in the ticket price. So, will hopefully steer clear of that complication by making it available only to performers and crews, everyone else BYO.

Yes, 10 hl is right - two 40 litre extract batches per day for ten days, boiled a bit over gravity then topped up to 50 l with sterile water as we go into fermenters. It is a much shorter time frame than typical, so will only be making session-strength recipes, fermenting toward the warm end of the range with a high-floc yeast, and forced carbo.

I can see how this might work in some places in America. Aren't there big homebrew clubs with a shed filled with fermenters and gas cookers and all sorts of kit? I remember Ramfan describing his club in the states as something like this. I don't think most of the breweries here have as good a bottling system as the one your looking for.

Unfortunately there are no such clubs here and no one with access to that many fermenters and other brewing kit. The well equiped people on this site have a 40 liter system with two cornies. There might be 40 people like that in Ireland but getting around to borrow their system off every serious homebrewer in the country might not be practical.

The other option I can think of are Allpack[/url:2rukq3e6] in Sandyford to buy foodgrade buckets to use as fermenters. Or you could cost one of the small commercial breweries. Making that much extract can't be cheap so it is possible one of the micros can supply you with casks cheaper and for far less work than making it yourself.

My club in the states has one keggle system for loan to members, with most including myself using the std 25/33 l tubs and demijohns. I just recently made the jump to cornies after yrs of washing bottles and priming sugar - the quality of carbo isn't quite as good, but the time saved is huge. I normally brew all-grain and allow plenty of time for settling and maturation, so am not expecting the fast track approach to yield the finest results.

Thx for the Allpack lead, will save a third on fermenters.

Best price I've found for DME is a 25 kg bag at €5/kg:
homebrewwest.ie/muntons-spraymalt-light-a-25-kg-box-292-p.asp

might be at this, my old band are playing at it!!!

"alphadog":l6ru5wly wrote: My club in the states has one keggle system for loan to members, with most including myself using the std 25/33 l tubs and demijohns. I just recently made the jump to cornies after yrs of washing bottles and priming sugar - the quality of carbo isn't quite as good, but the time saved is huge. I normally brew all-grain and allow plenty of time for settling and maturation, so am not expecting the fast track approach to yield the finest results.

Thx for the Allpack lead, will save a third on fermenters.

Best price I've found for DME is a 25 kg bag at €5/kg:
homebrewwest.ie/muntons-spraymalt-light-a-25-kg-box-292-p.asp[/quote:l6ru5wly]

That is the best you will get.

It has been advertised on the radio that there will be a homebrew workshop at the festival I noticed.