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Priest Brews in Washing Machine
An anonymous writer sends in this story about a priest who has made a brewery out of his washing machine. See his website for recipes and pictures.
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It makes a lot of sense, that's how a lot of commercial beer is made: in vats with heating coils and stirrers. The article doesn't say, but I am sure his beer is fermented in a conventional way, the washing machine is just to prepare the wort. And the washing machine is set up for exactly this, better than most homebrewers' stovetop setups. I wonder what his wife thinks about having to do laundry in a pail, but with so much homebrew around, once you get a little tipsy, such concerns are just not as pressing!
Can *you* prove that *you* don't have weapons of mass destruction?
For those of you who read German-English machine translations better than I do,
I've pasted one below. Maybe it's just that I'm too lazy to read
closely... but can anyone figure out how the heck this guy cranks enough heat
out of the machine to achieve a rolling boil?
Beer brow with PC and washing machine - we came a report through Jean Pütz and the "Hobbythek" on the idea to brew even once beer. The first attempt took place as INDUSTRIAL TRADE UNION in a vacations warehouse: the groups leaders got given a bottle apiece of "Hankenberger-Lager-Bier of the participants to the end of the warehouse". Did after the Verkostung the question stand: "and when we brew the next time?"
In the following 3 years, there was a row of brow trial with different persons circle. Again and again the problem stood to find a suitable brow container and a suitable Heizquelle.
Three years ago, we had the idea, an old washing machine (Toplader) for brewing umzubauen. Following reasons spoke for that:
Large Edelstahlgefäß with incorporated Heizquelle motor to the stirring and pump to the Umfüllen incorporated are easy and wassersparende cleaning possibility accidentally saw I some days later a suitable washing machine in a colleague stand. It was defective (like itself later laid out, must only the condenser renewed become), and I was able to take it directly with home. So that the geschrotene malt did not fix itself on the Heizstäben and the pump did not clog, a type of giant tea bag was sewed out of material diaper. So the drum in the machine was able to remain and used become the motor stirring.
In a sample conduit - the machine naturally before was cleaned and the flow tube replaced become - was tested, theoretically reasoned functioned should be washed out whether that principle, for the contents materials yes out of the malt into the brow water. When this attempt was arrive, I went at the reconstruction of the machine.
Certainly it would be also possible to serve motor and heating per hand, but I searched for an automatic solution: the brow process should be driven over time sections to be selected freely and temperatures, and also the drum rotations should be freely eligible.
Therefore I removed the electromechanical control and replaced it through a row of relay, that individually can be addressed and drive water and flow, heating as well as motor to the left and/or to the right. The temperature measurement takes place via an electronic building block, that changes the temperature into digital impulses, that delivers water level measurement over a building block, that according to water pressure (=Füllstandshöhe) a corresponding tension, that is changed into digital signals.
The parallel interface of the PC gives the relatively simple possibility to address single tax directions and data directions. Through a C program, the beer brow washing machine is driven now.
A brow process looks now so:
The machine is connected to the water direction, that flow tubes hung out of security reason into the Spülbecken. The computer is connected and the program started. If the temperature is reached to the Einmaischen, the computer gives a signal and holds the machine on. Now the well locked bag with the malt on abundance and the cover is closed. The machine heats now up to the different Rastzeiten, the drum revolves in the intervals determined before. If the purification phase is terminated, bag and drum can be removed. For a better Ergiebigkeit, it is however meaningful let run the Sud in an external Läutergefäß once again through the Maische.
The Sud is heated now on 100 degrees and the hops in a little bag admitted. After an hour, the Sud is finished and can become into the Gärgefäß umgefüllt. If he cooled off himself on 20 degrees, the beer yeast in addition gift prepared before becomes.
The beer later is drawn-off some days of the yeast and in bottles umgefüllt where now the remainder fermentation worries for the necessary carbon dioxide pressure. Some weeks the beer is later finished.
Continuing literature:
Wolfgang left, fairs - taxes - rules over the parallel interface of the PC, Franzis publishing house Munich 1994
Based on an older idea? http://chattanooga.net/~cdp/wrims/wrims.htm
No, that's an urban legend. Fermentation is a natural process; distillation just speeds that process up. If this is badly done, it will give people a stomachache and/or headache (which may be a typical reaction anyway), but the only way it will cause people to go blind is if there are impurities (read: poisons) in it. Things like methanol (wood alcohol) or solvents like turpentine, will cause blindness, and some people put those.
Now, there's a good probability bleach was in that washing machine at some point, and that is a poison, so it's possible he'll go blind from the bleach, but not from the alcohol component; i.e., what he's trying to make.
Sigs are like bumper stickers.
In himmel das ist keine beir
Ja ja wir trinken hier
Und wann wer sind nicht hier
Unsere freundinen trinken alles bier
or
In heaven there is no beer
That's why we drink it here
And when we are gone from here
All our friends will be drinking all the beer
the no
http://www.beermachine.com/
I'm skeptical, though...
S
& you can then set the machine to do cold, warm or hot washes.
But many machines, such as quite a few European frontloaders, also have their own instantaneous line heating elements in them (the opposite of a draught beer cooler). These are often 3 phase & consist OF 3 rods in a tube in which the water runs past. So if you only a cold water tap in the laundry you can still do a warm or hot water wash. Some also have heating elements for the tub, so if you're soaking stuff overnight in a outhouse laundry in rural Bavaria, you washing won't end up frozen.
You can recirculate the wort during the mash, and I believe most commericial breweries stir the grain and recirculate water during mashing.
This will help keep the temperature more or less constant throughout the grain instead of having hot and cold spots.
German lagers often use a complicated temperature cycle, starting at cool temperatures and having a rest at various different temperatures on the way up, to allow different enzymes to do their work.
This is very difficult to do using some other home brewing methods, and require adding measured amounts of hot water and restirring at various times, or mashing in a mash tun with a thermostatic heater control.
The washing machine would also have the benefit of the drum acting as a grain filter, so just run a controlled rinse cycle to do a good sparge.
I copied this sig from someone else (but where did they get it from?)
Washing machines in Europe have their own heating element in them. They have no hot water tap.
They have different cycles that heat the water to 30 deg celcius, 45, 60 etc.
This guy seems to have taken control of one of the crazy top loading washing machines cycle controller and used it to heat a mass of liquid for specific lengths of time. Pretty cool.
Scott
No it isn't, but it is an issue when you're distilling, not brewing beer. (Other replies already explain the methanol issue.)
Fermentation is a natural process; distillation just speeds that process up.
Fermentation is the conversion of sugar to alcohol.
Distilation is the processes of concencentrating the alcohol. (Or more generally the process of separating volitile fractions based on differences in boiling point.)
Bah, find a local homebrew supply store and walk in and pick up a copy of "The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing," it's really the only book you need. Then you need 1 plastic bucket with an airlock, 1 bottling bucket and a few other misc. items. You may need to pick up a big pot to cook it all in. (Stainless steel is the best)
The beer machine will make beer but if you want high quality beer for just a little more of an investment go to the homebrew supply store. Instead of plastic bottles, you can reuse your other beer bottles. It's fun to do and really isn't that hard. The hardest part is the wait.
I got started brewing my freshman year of college. Mainly because I couldn't bring beer into the dorm room so I decided to bring the ingredients in and make it. Now that I'm out of the dorms, I'm still brewing because I like the taste of homebrew and it's not that expensive.
-Chris
ps. I've got 10 gallons (2 batches ~4 cases) fermenting right now for st. patty's day. (I'm gonna dye it green)
First, IANARC (Roman Catholic) and I'm not sure this priest is a Roman Catholic. (My German is practically non-existent)
Anyway, Catholics are imbibers. They are typically not contaminated by American Calvinistic teotalitarianism. (This is equally true for Lutherans)
The key is moderation, which can be a huge problem for many people, priests or not.
Yes, it's a blog. Sorry if that offends you.
I have one of those Beer Machines. It ferments at room temperature (65F to 72F or 20C to 23C) for about four or five days, then you move it into the fridge for another four or five days for clarification and conditioning. It has a built-in CO2 dispenser using food-grade CO2 bulbs that you can use to increase effervescence after conditioning, not to mention making monster beer heads with the spigot, lol.
The main selling point of The Beer Machine is ease-of-use. To brew more beer, just open the top and pour in a beer mix and water, then close the top and wait. You can do this about three or four times before having to drain some of the sediment, and it makes about 10 litres (2.6 gallons) per brewing. There's also a bottling kit available, which lets you quickly bottle your beer so you can get another brew started.
I wrote (sarcastically) about doing this in the Home Brew Digest (HBD) back in 1992. Still tempted to give it a try: a clothes washer does almost all the stuff you need except throw away the spent grain. Check the article in the HBD Archives.