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Hi there,

This is my first post. I'm based in Dublin and recently brewed my first extract batch. I used to help my Dad bottle his homebrew kits in the 80's in exchange for 50p <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->

Anyway, I've been reading quite a bit about homebrew on US sites and have a couple of local questions.

1) I think I know the answer but are there any homebrew stores in Ireland ? I have ordered ingredients from the Homebrew company which is really good but it would be handy to know of any B&M suppliers for emergency supplies.

2) What products do you guys use for cleaning ? I can't find unscented detergent. The guys on the US sites rave about Oxiclean. I have found a powedered cleaning product in Lidl that seems to be the same/similar to Oxiclean. It certainly made short work of removing labels and grime from bottles. However, it did leave a little bit of white residue around the neck of the bottle which I was able to remove with secondary rinsing.

3) Once bottles have been used do you think it's ok to give them a good rinse straight away and then just sanitise next time ? I found that cleaning and rinsing bottles was the worst part of making my first batch.

Cheers!

Hi Welcome to the site

the Homebrew Company are definitely the best in ireland in my opinion,

the cleaner you found should be fine but i would recommend a rinse after use,

rinsing is fine after cleaning as long as you sanitise before bottling,

and yesh the cleaning is a balls, i have got to clean something like 40 bottles tonight, luckily enough they have had a pre soak and so should be easy enough to clean,

hope your beer turns out good keep us posted on how it turns out and if you have any more Q's just ask, any members will be happy to help.

Yes, welcome!

SOme additional commenrs:

1. No, no B&M left any more, although there were rumours of something starting up

2. For heavy cleaning of gunk from demijohns or hard to reach places, I use the Oxi cleaner sold by Brouwland.com and Hop & Grape in the UK. For sanitising I use StarSan (available from the Homebrew Company) which is a great no-rinse sanitiser. A cheaper alternative for sanitising is taking 19 litres of water and [b:2zy3m1b7]adding [/b:2zy3m1b7]30ml each of thin, unscented bleach and white vinegar. Do a search on the forum and the extract brewing items in the Knowledge Base for more info on that one.

3. I do exactly that. After a few beers I rinse out the bottles with hot water, let them drain upside down in a crate. When using them I then usually just sanitise. I do check them before, just in case someone gave me a bottle and didn't rinse it well, and I dump anything that looks like there's crap at the end. I hate scrubbing bottles...

&amp;quot;Adeptus&amp;quot;:3lh6hjcv wrote: A cheaper alternative for sanitising is taking 19 litres of water and [b:3lh6hjcv]adding [/b:3lh6hjcv]30ml each of thin, unscented bleach and white vinegar. Do a search on the forum and the extract brewing items in the Knowledge Base for more info on that one.[/quote:3lh6hjcv]

But don't add the bleach directly to the vinegar or vice versa or some nasty blinding burn-your-eyes noxious vapour will emerge! mix the bleach in to the water, run a bit more water and then mix the vinegar in as you're filling your demijon or whatever. (adeptus I know you said do more research on the knowledge base, but I also know if someone on the forum had told me about this mixture I just would have probably done it and not bothered finding out more, being an impatient idiot)

I use this method all the time because starsan is expensive, though it looks magic.

Cool thanks.

I'll probably invest in the Starsan for the equipment...I seem to use tons of rinse water when brewing. I sanitised the bottles using the dishwasher at highest temp and bottled on the dishwasher door. I thought it worked really well.

Also I use a 15L stock pot for boiling. My electric hob isn't very good at keeping it boiling unless it's covered. Has anyone tried insulating the side of the pot to improve performance and if so how ?

non-flamable insulation would be tricky as most are foam based. people definitely insulate their boilers but usually only when they have one with an electric element inside like a converted bucket or some such. I would be wary of any insulation being near a hot stove top. I sanitise with the dishwasher too. I'm not sure if the temp of the actual wash matters, because the drying phase is usually enough to sanitise, and at least on mine that's the same temp regardless. I may be wrong and you're safer with the hotter temp, but my fastest cycle is also one of the cooler ones. I have never had any problems with that.

If your pot is wide enough you can sit it over two rings. Also you can try using some 'boil concentrators' , that is, chuck 2 or 3 copper coins in the boil.

The cheapest option for a better boiler is to get one of the fermenting buckets from the homebrewco, and add the element from a cheap 7.50 argos kettle. would cost you not much more than 20 euro, and should boil 20 litres well enough. you could even add 2, or go for the larger fermenter (33l), or even get a 60l boiler from hop and grape and add a burco element, or , or, or...

deciding the right system gets seriously obsessive!