What should Kostas do with your $350?

Post #1 made 13 years ago
Several generous members of the forum responded to a donation drive we had buried away in this thread.

The aim of the donation drive was to reward Kostas who joined the BIABacus development team several months ago. Like all the other BIABAcus 'victims' he has put in hundreds of hours work for no reward. Kostas is a little different from previous or existing victims though. He lives in Greece where times are very hard. Finding full-time work is almost impossible whereas the rest of us 'developers' have had the advantage of a reliable income.

He was pretty shocked when I told him today that members had donated $350 for him to spend :). He's already arguing with me saying, "That is way too much money." I have told him to shut up, accept it and work out the best way he can spend it :lol:.

My original plan was for us to get him a 40 litre urn and a nice bag as he currently brews in a 10 litre pot on his stove with four bags. (He used to do it in a 5 litre pot!!). However, in my conversations with him over the last months I think I have been a bit presumptuous in how the $350 could be best spent.

Maybe we can help Kostas get better value out of these member's generosity?

So, please post any good ideas on how Kostas could get more value out of the $350?

Here's what I do know...

1. Gas is not an option.
2. It's heading into summer so he generally doesn't brew in summer as fermentation temps are too high. (PP will have some thoughts on this.)
3. Not sure of whether space is available for another fridge. For example, he might be able to get one for free.

Thanks to all of you who contribute so much quality here,
Pat
Last edited by Pat on 22 Mar 2012, 00:40, edited 3 times in total.
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Post #3 made 13 years ago
(Lylo, I reckon the length of my posts would beat Pat's skypes :lol:)

Great job guys :thumbs:. I've seen the work Kostas has been doing and also had the pleasure of communicating with him several times. Seeing such a thread makes my day :salute:.
Pat wrote:It's heading into summer so he generally doesn't brew in summer as fermentation temps are too high. (PP will have some thoughts on this.)
:lol:.

We all 'know' that fermenting at high temperatures is not the right thing to do but...

I have only tasted three excellent kit beers (those made from tins of extract) in my life. All the others had extract twang. The only common ground I found amongst these beers was that the yeast supplied with the kit was used and there was no temperature control at all. All these beers were fermented at a temperature that was probably around 30 C.

Yes, I know, shoot me down but seriously, these were great beers.

The funniest thing was that one of them was brewed from a kit that was meant to make an IPA. It was one of the best lagers I have ever tasted :).

Obviously I don't like stating such heresy publicly but the above beers are one of the biggest mysteries I'd like to see solved. (In fact, I'd put that "IPA" as the second best lager I have ever tasted.)

So Kostas, one thing I would suggest is to find a yeast that gives a clean brew at high temps. Try it once. If it works, maybe you can brew the whole year instead of half a year?

Keep up the great work,
PP

P.S. If you can find space for a fridge other than your food one, I'll post what I used to do to get the best value out of that fridge.
Last edited by PistolPatch on 22 Mar 2012, 01:21, edited 3 times in total.
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Post #4 made 13 years ago
Kostas,a tub of water,an old cotton shirt over the carboy and hanging into the water,and a fan blowing on it evaporating the water as it wicks up the shirt,can reduce temps considerably.
AWOL

Post #5 made 13 years ago
Lylo wrote:Kostas,a tub of water,an old cotton shirt over the carboy and hanging into the water,and a fan blowing on it evaporating the water as it wicks up the shirt,can reduce temps considerably.
This advice comes from Lylo's wife. Lylo is now using a dating service.

:lol:
Last edited by PistolPatch on 22 Mar 2012, 01:30, edited 3 times in total.
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Post #6 made 13 years ago
I have brewed Saisons using yeast cultured from a bottle of Saison Dupont. This yeast works best at fermentation temps of 85-90F (30-33C). Might be worth looking into.

My feeling is that our Greek friend needs an urn and a bag. Multiple bags in a 10L pot on the stove does the job but not like a decent size urn and a quality bag would. Even if he cannot resolve his fermentation temp problem he could always just brew a hell of a lot more beer with a proper urn during the "cool" season to get him through the hot weather!
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Post #7 made 13 years ago
I am still hungover from my brew club meeting last night so I can't think of any clever and witty remarks? I would like all of you to forgive me as I am expected to get my two cents in! I would feel better if you just gave me the money instead of Kostas because Greece is getting a bailout anyway. I am sure his share will be plenty!
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Post #8 made 13 years ago
Good Day, Now it is Spring in MY part of the world, meaning Daytime temps are 80F/26C, it is time to remember to the Tune....."Ice,Ice,Baby,Ice". Get a large vessel/Tub 2 or 3 times the size of your fermenter.
Place the fermenter in it and fill it with water until the fermenter starts to float, add a thermometer. When it warms to the temps. above your Fermentation Temps., add Ice.
If you got a lot of money, insulate the vessel. Like you did your Kettle.

If you got LOTS of Money, Get a few blue Ice bottles.

-------------------------------------------------------
"I believe in one thing.....I believe, I will have another homebrew!"
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Post #9 made 13 years ago
LOL Bob!

thughes, I know nothing about urns but is an urn better than a pot with a hand-held immersion element?

Practically, I can see lots of advantages and the disadvantages I can visualise would be easily overcome.

I know Kostas brews on his electric stove. Would putting his pot on the stove plus using a hand-held element be a good idea? (After writing this, I think it was Kostas that actually mentioned this idea to me. Good on him!)

Anyway, why don't electric guys all use hand-held stuff?

Good idea or bad idea?
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Post #10 made 13 years ago
Good Day PP, the problem for Americans is, We forget to turn off the Hand Held Immesion heaters when we remove them from the kettle, We burn out the element or something valuable.
We even have troubles with exposed electrical elements on a stove or an urn. I won't mention what happens with open Flames!!!

But, don't be concerned America has a lot of people, for replacments!
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Post #11 made 13 years ago
Lets get Kostas a Greek urn. What's a Greek urn? About $7.00 dollars an hour!
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Post #12 made 13 years ago
PP,

I have no experience with urns either (we don't have them here in the States), we build our own!

As to the stove top + immersion heater: This is an excellent idea. I use an immersion heater and a 7.5 gallon pot on my electric stove to do 3 gallon batches when I am feeling too lazy to fire up the "big" rig. I think a large pot and an immersion heater or two plus an appropriate bag would provide the best "bang for the buck" for our friend. Perhaps there would be enough $$ left over for some ingredients to brew with?

---Todd
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Post #13 made 13 years ago
Good Day BobBrews, should we send him a "Henway" or 4 pounds
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Post #14 made 13 years ago
Does Kostas have some suggestions of what he would like?
Surely there is something he needs that the money could provide. I think Kostas would be the best judge of what the gift provides. :P

OK
Posted before reading the other post.
Get him a pot then give him the rest to do with whatever( there are a lot of ways to enjoy this ). :drink:
Fermenting:

Bottle Conditioning

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Post #15 made 13 years ago
Urns are good in that they already have a tap and element fitted.
You could do the same thing with a big pot, a stick element, a ball valve and weldless bulkhead but you would have to drill a couple of holes in the pot.
Guess it depends what he can get his hands on locally? I would think postage to Greece would use up a lot of the money if you tried to get something big sent over?

Post #16 made 13 years ago
deebo wrote:Urns are good in that they already have a tap and element fitted.
You could do the same thing with a big pot, a stick element, a ball valve and weldless bulkhead but you would have to drill a couple of holes in the pot.
Guess it depends what he can get his hands on locally? I would think postage to Greece would use up a lot of the money if you tried to get something big sent over?
There is a French ebay seller that does big pots and a couple of German sites so I don't think delivery will be a big issue apart from eating into his reward. (well deserved by the way :clap: )
Last edited by Yeasty on 22 Mar 2012, 16:33, edited 3 times in total.
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Post #18 made 13 years ago
I've been laughing with the stuff you have written here but seriously guys, I really can't
find the words about what you did. Anything I would say would be too little, really, and
considering the situation that most of the people in the world are now, this is a huge thing!
I've tried everything but I guess I can't get around this, but at least hear me out for a bit.

I've told Pat too about that, this is a LOT of money. It's not only me working on BIABacus,
Stux, PistolPatch, Sig and all the guys from the betas have given much of their time in this!
I find it ungrateful to spend so much money because much of it could be saved at least for future
expenses that BIABacus development might have.

Specifically, an electric urn is too expensive and I hate wasting money. As it was mentioned before
I use an electric stove with a 10lt pot that I'm lucky to borrow from a grandma next door. I used to
mash in a 5lt pot! Yeah I really love brewing... :)

So I could accept a big pot with an extra heating element(if this is suggested by you) and one proper bag
(or maybe just bag material which costs less) which will be much much less expensive. I could reuse the pot
to make cheese(if I find proper unpasteurized milk) or I could cook a very big traditional Greek bean soup
and invite you over all for summer vacations in Greece!!!
Ok the bean soup is debatable :) But I don't need any posh and expensive equipment I would hate something like that!
Lylo wrote:Kostas,a tub of water,an old cotton shirt over the carboy and hanging into the water,and a fan blowing on it evaporating the water as it wicks up the shirt,can reduce temps considerably.
First time I did that, the plastic fermentor got like 1 million fly-worms on the edge of the lid and when I opened the lid they started crawling toward the beer... :whistle: I have a friend that has finished uni and I might get lucky ant get his old fridge for free, I cross my fingers for that! It's very small though, I can't fit a 30lt fermentor so I would need something like a smaller carboy but carboys are a bit expensive...I'll see what I'd do when the time comes!

I really would love to thank you all in person but I guess it will be some time before I can get a proper job here,
and much more time(if ever) before I save some money to travel to another country! I really felt very bad when
I heard about this the first time, I wanted to kill Pat(was he the one?) who suggested something like that!

*If anyone uses facebook I would love at least to add them there, so we can see each other that way :)
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=809710052" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Last edited by kostass on 22 Mar 2012, 17:04, edited 3 times in total.

Post #19 made 13 years ago
Hey Kostas

Don't give up on the bean soup I love Bean soup :yum: :yum:

Seriously Kostas don't feel bad. If Pat and the admin team say you deserve it then you do.

:peace:

Yeasty
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Post #20 made 13 years ago
Fly worms? :argh: :shock:
Kostas just think of this as a token of our appreciation as you sweat the detail of the Biabacus while we take some time off our jobs and brew in our big pots with immersion chillers and fermerntation chambers.
Thank you. :champ: :champ:
AWOL

Post #21 made 13 years ago
Kostas,
I heard about this the first time, I wanted to kill Pat (was he the one?) who suggested something like that!
A lot of us feel the same way some of the time! Join the club!
Last edited by BobBrews on 22 Mar 2012, 20:27, edited 3 times in total.
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Post #22 made 13 years ago
My 2 cents on Kostas .I know him somehow better than you guys(from our local homebrewforums) and I can guarantie that he is a trustworthy and solid character .What ever you decide for him be sure that it will not be a waste of money .
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Post #23 made 13 years ago
Just a quick €0.02 on value for money. I brew on an electrical stovetop in a 30 liter pot, which was a pain until I bought this piece of kit. It's a 2000W immersion element on a stick, and as long as you keep it submerged while it's plugged in you're good. Best value pice of kit I have.

If anything, the boil can get a bit too vigorous at times.
Last edited by pernod on 23 Mar 2012, 04:18, edited 3 times in total.

Post #24 made 13 years ago
Just so that everyone knows, Kostas is free to spend the money as he sees fit or wants as long as it is brewing or BIABacus-related. It ended up being too hard, transport and logistics-wise, to organise a surprise to show up on Kostas door so we will now just be sending him the money. But, not until he tells us his plan otherwise he will keep putting it off :dunno:. (I'm hoping he spends some of the money on a wireless headset so that he can stretch and walk around during our marathon skype sessions :)).

So if you have any more ideas on the brewing side of things that might help him get more, "bang for his buck," please post them here.

That's a great link you posted Pernod. Thank you. I wonder if you could attach something like a light switch dimmer to the element so as you could adjust the boil?

And Nik, Kostas passed on to me the link you sent him. That site looks full of possibilities. Your thread here is also an excellent read for anyone wanting to build their own urn etc. Nik was also the one to introduce me to Kostas so if you are ever in Greece please buy Nik a beer on my behalf ;).

Looking forward to seeing some more ideas and links here.

Cheers,
Pat
Last edited by Pat on 23 Mar 2012, 20:12, edited 3 times in total.
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Post #25 made 13 years ago
Don't forget that Greek electrical equipment and Aussie electrical equipment may not be compatible - different plugs, perhaps different voltages, different Amperage circuits in the house and some of our stuff might even be illegal over there. For example as Bob will confirm in the USA they still run their electricity on Imperial in horsepower - maybe the Greeks still run theirs on Drachmas or something.



:whistle: :whistle:

Point is, rather than decide for him, let him spend the cash as he sees fit - maybe his greatest desire is to import a couple of sacks of Weyermann malts over T'Balkans, whatever. Also I didn't know there was a fund, where can I put in a Euro or two?
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