Flatlands

Totally agree about the bottles, but honestly I still use the bottle filler and capper from the original northern brewer kit I got 5 years ago or something. Am I missing out on some magic filling method? It always seemed to work really well for me, but perhaps there's a better way!

Yeah, just one of those under counter fridges. Check you can remove all the shelves and fit the bucket first is my top tip, not all of them fit. Then a heat belt and a couple of temperature triggered plugs (they've got a proper name, but dammed if I can remember it), and every brew is fermented to within a degree or so of perfect!

Congratulations, looks great! That's exactly how I started out. It makes a good first beer.

Best thing I ever upgraded was to get a fridge in freecycle and use it to control the temperature for fermenting. Made everything better :)

Enjoy!

I'm sure someone with better skills and knowledge will answer, but to me I'm afraid that looks like the veneer has gotten wet and come away from the substrate (and split into the bargain) You could try glue and pressure to get it back down, but otherwise I think you'd have to put on a whole new veneer. I don't believe it really 'fixes' very well.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news :(

Yeah, I spend enough money on my other hobbies, this is supposed to be the cheap one!

Thanks for the tip!

I bought a 3d printer (Sidewinder X1) based on it's capacity to print up a 100mm cyclone for chip separation. Making that, and some dust collection fittings for my Kity 636 planer thicknesser (both .stl files available through thingiverse) have easily repaid the c.£150 I paid for the printer.

There are also loads of options for magnetic dust collection fittings, which make an amazing difference when you have one extractor and many machines.

Thanks! Definitely one to bookmark.

I totally get that an AI1 system would be faster and easier, but for me it just defeats the fun of the hobby! I like the random variation because my temperatures are a bit off, or I forgot to add the hops at the right time. Don't get me wrong, I'm always trying to get it 'right' but I like the manual bits. I also do a lot of woodwork by hand for the same reasons, so I think it's very much a personal preference thing.

It would be lovely to get some nice glass carboys, but they're expensive here (Scotland), and the plastic bucket fermenters are just so easy to clean, it's hard to see past them. There's also the bonus that a 5 gallon bucket fits perfectly in the fridge I use for fermenting!

"...but I’ve been itching to get back into it."

No time like the present! :)

Ha! I can imagine it's a common experience.

Thanks for the tips, and a good shout about the hops, I'll bear it in mind. Amber ales tend to be my go to session beer, so we could definitely cope with making a few of those!

I'm genuinely not sure if the couple of hours saved will make it realistic, but it was the only way of significantly cutting the time down we could think of.

Good luck yourself. I'm really in my fatherhood journey, but enjoying it so far!