What I did for beer today

johnmac22 said:

Realized I left my fermenting buckets in the garage with water in them...it's been about 20* outside for the better part of the month. Said screw it and ordered a stainless fermenter from SS Brewtech. Oops...

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Well that's going to get expensive fast when you forget water in that one..

Today I made a Whirlpool arm for my chiller. This was my first time soldering copper pipes.

Checked on yesterday's Witbier. Active and temp is good (68 and free rising, check).

Got the weekend's 3522 Ardennes starter in the fridge first thing this AM for Blond brewday tomorrow.

Made 4 pounds of #4 invert sugar.

Making another 4 pounds of #1 invert now.

Hooked up the nitrogen regulator that came in the mail today to a coffee stout I have kegged up and installed my new SS stout faucet in keezer. Drinking at home is about to get a whole lot better!

Installed a stricker on my burner.

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Bumped temp up on fermentators 3 degrees to finish out last Sunday's brew.

Popped a cap on my 3 batches ago Black Butte Porter clone test...Best one yet but you have to bottle age it 2 months minimum. And it uses some DME which I want to get away from completely.

Kegged my Zombie Dust Clone

Buried my sage saison in a snowbank for coldcrash, took the first SG reading for my Irish Red Ale in primary, and refrigerated my first few bottles of conditioned porter.

Soaking bottles in Starsan for bottling of Zombiedust clone tomorrow.

Cleaned an empty keg, racked a 6% Winter Warmer into it, and decided to go ahead and fine with gelatin while force carbing to see how it works. I used 1028 and got a fast start, ~80% attenuation, but definitely did not floc
out. The hydro sample is so hazy I can't see thru it.

Currently brewing what is basically a SMaSH APA with amarillo and MO. Using S04 to see how quickly I can turn this beer around.

Got the boil started on my IPA saison split batch.

Today I placed my first order with Austin Homebrew supply (my first online homebrew purchase). AHB has good reviews here from other members so I thought I would give them a shot.

Saved $19 compared to what I would pay at my LHBS for a similar purchase!

Hopefully it arrives this week and I can have the first brewday of 2016 next weekend.

Made my first yeast starter using my DIY stirplate. Looking forward to saving some money by reusing yeast and buying bulk.

Bottled 3 batches in a little over 2.5 hours (yes, I'm slow) using my Bottling Gun - without any significant mishaps!Last time I tried to bottle carbonated beer and it was a bit of a disaster, this time I added priming sugar to the kegs that I've been aging in - and then bottled.

Mosaic and Maris Otter SMaSH
Leffe Brun Clone (un-freaking-believably amazing at 2.5 months)
Golden strong ale (also good)

brewbama said:

Cleaned an empty keg, racked a 6% Winter Warmer into it, and decided to go ahead and fine with gelatin while force carbing to see how it works. I used 1028 and got a fast start, ~80% attenuation, but definitely did not floc
out. The hydro sample is so hazy I can't see thru it.

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Nice! hope this works out for you! I used gelatin in the keg while force carbing on my last batch and it worked wonders!
Only downside is I had to move the keg once before it had kicked (redoing the garage right now), and there's a lot of sediment in the bottom that got stirred up. but a couple days later it was pouring clear once again and tasting amazing!

Finally getting around to cleaning bottles emptied during the holidays. I'm starting to get tired of all the bottle cleaning, even though I sort of like bottling the beers. And seeing all those stacks of bottled/boxed beers conditioning under the bottling table to my right is still cool. The sun finally came out today, so while a batch of bottles are soaking, I'll try to get that comparison video of mine & Barley_Bob's kotbussers going.

Over the weekend, I had to run a few blocks down to the brewery to check on my yeast starters im doing for them for this collaboration. I was in the middle of making a saison.

Anyway, in the middle of talking to the brewers I get a call from SWMBO. On their end they hear:
"It's counting down from 15?"
"OK take the smaller cup of the things that look like rabbit food and toss it into the kettle"
"No, just toss it in anywhere in the kettle. Is it still boiling? OK good"
"Once the 15min are up, itll ask you to hit a button, make sure it proceeds to the next step and the heater meter thing says 0%. Then add the last of the rabbit food and put the lid on it."
"Yeah just stick the lid on and step away."
"No, dont touch that. Be back soon, love you"

I look up and they are staring at me in disbelief that i'd leave it up to her

unionrdr said:

Finally getting around to cleaning bottles emptied during the holidays. I'm starting to get tired of all the bottle cleaning, even though I sort of like bottling the beers. And seeing all those stacks of bottled/boxed beers conditioning under the bottling table to my right is still cool. The sun finally came out today, so while a batch of bottles are soaking, I'll try to get that comparison video of mine & Barley_Bob's kotbussers going.

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It is easier rinsing them with hot water right after they're poured out. No gunk sticks and they are ready to be sanitized whenever.

brewcat said:

It is easier rinsing them with hot water right after they're poured out. No gunk sticks and they are ready to be sanitized whenever.

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I do this too. Just rinse the sediment out right after drinking and store upside down to drain. Saves a lot of effort down the road.

m00ps said:

I look up and they are staring at me in disbelief that i'd leave it up to her

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Keeper. :fro:

Cleaning bottles from parties this weekend, doing gravity samples on my latest brews.

Ordered 5 more pounds of hops. Just cleaned out my freezer yesterday and figured I needed something to fill it back up.

I converted a pasta machine into a grain mill. I just need to make a hopper for it now.

I drove to Publix and picked up a few specialty craft brews for about $20

Kegged the ESB that I made on new years eve.

Bought my co2 tank on lunch today. Boy did I sure get some weird looks when I came back to work.

I got my chugger pump, QDs, and tubing in the mail to complete my whirlpool arm for my immersion chiller.

brewcat said:

It is easier rinsing them with hot water right after they're poured out. No gunk sticks and they are ready to be sanitized whenever.

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i do this, and i try and keep the caps. Put the cap back on during storage, it keeps dust and dirt out. I live in the country, so dust is a big problem. Mainly in the fall when the combines are running

Gotta soldier on with these bottles. It's that time again to dump dregs, rinse soak in PBW an hour, then scrub, rinse & onto the bottle tree. Over the course of a year, it seems I've been getting more gushers, so I then know it's time to clean'em up good again.

unionrdr said:

Gotta soldier on with these bottles. It's that time again to dump dregs, rinse soak in PBW an hour, then scrub, rinse & onto the bottle tree. Over the course of a year, it seems I've been getting more gushers, so I then know it's time to clean'em up good again.

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Why do you let the bottles sit around to accumulate god-knows-what with the dregs sitting in there?

Doesn't that just make the whole process that much more difficult? How long do they sit with the dregs in there?

I mean, even within an hour of pouring... if you just rinsed them out and put on the bottle tree, all you'd have to do is sanitize, unless you had a really stubborn cake on the bottom from months of sitting in the fridge.

I don't even bother to really clean my bottles any more. Quick rinse, dry upside down, sanitize when I want to bottle some off the keg and I'm in business. I would hate to lose partial batches to gushers when I know it could be avoided, just too much hard work and cost goes into it.

unionrdr said:

Gotta soldier on with these bottles. It's that time again to dump dregs, rinse soak in PBW an hour, then scrub, rinse & onto the bottle tree. Over the course of a year, it seems I've been getting more gushers, so I then know it's time to clean'em up good again.

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What do you do with each bottle after you drink it? If you leave the sediment in the bottom and let it sit for days or weeks, then yeah, you're going to have a hell of a time cleaning it out down the road (not to mention drastically upping your chances of mold or other funk in each bottle). Prompt rinsing and good storage practices will help you out tons in the long run.

A stitch in time, and all that...

unionrdr said:

Gotta soldier on with these bottles. It's that time again to dump dregs, rinse soak in PBW an hour, then scrub, rinse & onto the bottle tree. Over the course of a year, it seems I've been getting more gushers, so I then know it's time to clean'em up good again.

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I agree with the others. Why not just give the bottles a good rinse when you pour them and not let them sit around to let the gunk in the bottom solidify and do stuff like grow mold.

No wonder you are getting gushers.

Yeah, you guys are right, of course. Darn bad hips & back, not to mention only drinking in the evenings, makes me lazy. I gotta get back to rinsing them before toddling off to bed every time. That way, I'd only have a few to do. But I am getting my left hip replaced 2/8, so hopefully that'll make motivating around to do various things a heck of a lot easier? Too much pain atm to wanna. This aging thing definitely works...

Tasted my bo pils that was full of acetaldehyde a week ago. After a week at d-rest temps, it's gone completely, so I started the cold crash in preparation for lagering. I'll hit it with gelatin later tonight.

Tried to find the leak in my kegerator gas system. Had my tank, manifold, lines, and ball lock gas comnectors out of the kegerator. Dipped em all in water and looked for bubbles. Nothing. I had already rechecked my corny lids and re keg lubed errythang. Time to maybe check posts and gas check valves. Ugh....

.

NewJersey said:

Tried to find the leak in my kegerator gas system. Had my tank, manifold, lines, and ball lock gas comnectors out of the kegerator. Dipped em all in water and looked for bubbles. Nothing. I had already rechecked my corny lids and re keg lubed errythang. Time to maybe check posts and gas check valves. Ugh....

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Don't forget the regulator fittings and diaphragm. I had one start a very slow leak at the threads where a nipple was screwed in from the factory.

That got dipped too (was reluctant to, but oh well)

unionrdr said:

Yeah, you guys are right, of course. Darn bad hips & back, not to mention only drinking in the evenings, makes me lazy. I gotta get back to rinsing them before toddling off to bed every time. That way, I'd only have a few to do. But I am getting my left hip replaced 2/8, so hopefully that'll make motivating around to do various things a heck of a lot easier? Too much pain atm to wanna. This aging thing definitely works...

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What about using one of those jet bottle washers? That would be very minimal effort. Blast it and put on bottle tree. I'm thinking I should get one.

brewcat said:

What about using one of those jet bottle washers? That would be very minimal effort. Blast it and put on bottle tree. I'm thinking I should get one.

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Well.... a quick trip to the sink and rinse with anything would be better than nothing. Not sure the jet washer would help anything at this point.