hammis

Recipes 

Thanks for the compliment mccuckerson, though I can't take credit since it was someone else's idea. As for the JB weld, none of it touches my wort, the locknut which was JB welded on initially has now been replaced with a coupler fully welded.

hammis

Recipes 

did a little work last weekend, cut down my old false bottom to replace the stainless braid i had in my MLT (it got crushed during the last brew). I havent decided yet if i want to remove my HERMS coil from my HLT, i had played around with the idea since i wasnt getting good flow from the braid, but now with the false bottom it might be a different story, so we'll see. I ordered a couple panel tags to spruce up the control panel, still working on a design for the main tag and label, but that should be done shortly.

On another note we had great success with the first batch of the Belgian IPA that we decided to brew another during the Thanksgiving day weekend (canadian), i'll be filtering it off the yeast today and then letting it age for a few more weeks.

hammis

Recipes 

ok so the second batch of Belgian IPA turned out a bit different than the first, more hoppy less spicy, i'm thinking the yeast was "traumatized" during shipping and didnt perform the same way as the first go around. Its still a mighty tasty beer, just with fewer spicy notes.

since my last post i also figured out how i can set myself up in the kitchen (with SWMBO's approval, well actually her recommendation) so that i can keep brewing during the winter months (it snowed 8 inches yesterday alone). Last weekend we brewed a small batch of a harvest ale and i'm thinking of doing a snow day or jubelale clone this weekend.

hammis

Recipes 

POW! i entered the Belgian IPA in the Canadian Amateur Brewers All About Ales competition and it won 1st in the Belgian category, soooooo pumped right now

hammis

Recipes 

ok guys so the latest update:

brewed a Belgian cherry Dubbel in late November. Brewday went well and ended up bottling it last weekend while hungover on newyears day, lol. Tasted it 2 days ago and it turned out pretty good, though a strong taste of alcohol. This was to be expected since i used T-58 yeast, all the reviews say it takes a few months for it to mellow, which is fine.

As for some new brewing toys here's what i've got. Finally going to start work on the conical i've been talking about. Ordered a TIG welder and all relevent supplies last week and will have our senior welder at work teach me how to weld (pretty pumped!). Also changing up the hosing on the rig to thermoplastic, getting tired of the kinks in the silicone stuff. Since we started brewing in the kitchen we've had a problem with chilling the beer post boil (too many hoses to bring inside to use the CFC) so i'll be building a small immersion chiller this week sometime (bought all the parts at HD this weekend). But the most exciting news is that SWMBO has given the go-ahead on getting/building a kegerator, so right now i'm trying to figure out which route to go, build or buy.

hammis

Recipes 

so here's the new immersion chiller i quickly made up for use while im brewing inside (pic 1) and my new TIG welder (pic 2). I started learning to TIG weld today, pretty pumped. Its going to take some practice before i can weld some stuff for a fermenter, but it'll be fun practicing

i think we're going to brew this weekend. a snow day clone perhaps, that beer is mighty tasty.

hammis

Recipes 

Alright, so some bad news, last weekend (2:30am saturday morning) we had a sewer back up in our apt (i guess i know how John Beere feels now, though his flood was just a "little" more intense). We live in a townhouse style apt, 2 floors, living/dining/half bath/office upstairs and 3 bedrooms/main bath/laundry and brewery storage downstairs. So 4-5 inches of raw sewage came up through the laundry room drain because the city utility services are retarded and the plumber who did all the work at our apt installed the backflow preventer in the wrong spot (seriously its not that hard). So pretty much everything downstairs was covered in 4-5 inches of poop, including my brewing set-up. Everything will have to be tossed, brewery included, i guess i could try and clean it all but i dont know how i would feel about consuming a product which had been made in a vessel which was covered in poop. Thankfully we have insurance and most stuff will be covered, its a HUGE pain in the A$$ but at the same time i guess i get to build a new brewery.

IrregularPulse

Recipes 

I know it'd be hard to get over brewing with poop, but it's Stainless. Put on a charcoal filter mask, disassemble everything, and clean. First step would be hosing it off from a distance of course

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DustBow

Recipes 

Yeah, it might be more mentally than chemically problematic for the stuff that is stainless....could give them some serious cleaning like BKF and other acids as opposed to the normal oxy/PBW soak.

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hammis

Recipes 

Only problem is two of the keggles have a 4 inch rubber coating on the bottom and are wrapped with foam pipe wrap insulation. Im not sure if that can be properly cleaned.