What I did for beer today

It's been 5 days since the 2nd Pliny dry hop.
So that bad boy went in a keg, in the keezer and on the gas.

Fixed up a bigger cooler for my MLT.
Made a 50' immersion chiller for $55.
Went through all my supplies and made sure I had enough to brew two batches.

Picked up a 1/2 barrel keg that my buddy has had for many years. Planning on converting it into my MLT over the next couple of days.

Cleaned a dozen kegs
Kegged off 3bbl of hefe
Cleaned fermenter
Prepped grain for brew tomorrow
Updated brewlog, grain inventory and schedule.

winvarin said:

Ordered the parts to make my single pressure regulator a dual pressure regulator. If SWMBO complains, I can tell her the alternative is that I stop brewing all those fizzy lagers she likes.

It's become a PITA to serve her lagers and my bitters with the same regulator. I spend as much time adjusting pressure as I do pouring beer.

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And today I opened the package

Got my fancy kegging setup and can't find a place to fill my damn CO2 bottle.

Move the last of my brewing paraphernalia from the Yellow Room into the garage. The room will be a place for my GF's little girl to sleep when they are over. Will still keep the name 'Yellow Room Brewery' as that is the room it all started.

Bottled two batches of Berliner Weisse last night, wild blackberry and white peach. Folks say the flip top bottles save time, but I don't know. I take all the gaskets off to sanitize before sanitizing bottles and it doesn't seem faster than caps. Still more fun to open!

uatuba said:

Got my fancy kegging setup and can't find a place to fill my damn CO2 bottle.

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Welding supply companies? Or maybe talk with the owner of a local food place with a soda fountain find out where they get theirs?

uatuba said:

Got my fancy kegging setup and can't find a place to fill my damn CO2 bottle.

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Do you have a brew shop in your area? Mine fills tanks, they just don't test/certify them. Welding supply companies. And you can also look in the phone book for gas or carbonic supplies.

There is a place in the industrial area of my city that does CO2, O2, nitrogen, air tanks for firefighters and divers, etc. a place like that will usually also test your tank and give you the certification stamp you need every few years.

So I store bottles all rinsed out in totes separated by style. I'm bottling a sour saison today so I went for my tote of cork and cageable Belgian 750s. To find that something got in there and infected the whole batch with a filmy white mold. I've been up to my elbows in pbw all morning. I remember now why I started storing them clean and organized.

Channel66 said:

So I store bottles all rinsed out in totes separated by style. I'm bottling a sour saison today so I went for my tote of cork and cageable Belgian 750s. To find that something got in there and infected the whole batch with a filmy white mold. I've been up to my elbows in pbw all morning. I remember now why I started storing them clean and organized.

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I need to make crates or something. I'm up to nearly 20 dozen cases of 750s, but have far fewer boxes.

TNGabe said:

I need to make crates or something. I'm up to nearly 20 dozen cases of 750s, but have far fewer boxes.

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That's a lot of bottles. I think I've got somewhere around 300 caged 750s. A lot less 350s (wish I had more). I have 4 extra large totes of regular bombers, and too many 12ozers to count.

I'm going to be working in repurposing some old wooden pallets into crates with dividers for full bottles. Trying to clean up my storage options for the new house. New house new system etc. I'll take pics when I have one built up.

Channel66 said:

So I store bottles all rinsed out in totes separated by style. I'm bottling a sour saison today so I went for my tote of cork and cageable Belgian 750s. To find that something got in there and infected the whole batch with a filmy white mold. I've been up to my elbows in pbw all morning. I remember now why I started storing them clean and organized.

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That sucks the big one. Sorry to hear that. Sour saison. Some extra funk on top of the funk eh? Machine gun funk. Nice

Channel66 said:

I'm bottling a sour saison today...

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Yum. We put a Rye Saison on a 2nd gen Roesarle cake about two months ago. Hope yours tastes as good as I hope ours does.

Yesterday I laid down a thin coat of mortar. This morning, grouted them with a dark grey grout. Not as easy to get clean as level tile but it should finish up nicely. Later today, finish cleaning up the haze. Tomorrow, epoxy top coat.

$20 CL buy


Also checked gravity on pumpkin. Coming along nicely. Thinking I should drop some more spices in some absolut vanilla and toss that in.

Stocked up on some New Glarus - 3x wild sour 4-packs, 2xberliner weiss 4-packs, 3 bottles of strawberry rhubarb and a bottle of serendipity.

Kegged my Pale Ale last night. Realized my other keg is almost empty

Was yesterday, but I racked half my double batch of coopers ale onto pasteurized watermelon juice. The other half is going to go onto cooked down apricot. And tonight I plan on drinking some pumpkin ale. Gotta get through it!

Channel66 said:

That's a lot of bottles. I think I've got somewhere around 300 caged 750s. A lot less 350s (wish I had more). I have 4 extra large totes of regular bombers, and too many 12ozers to count.

I'm going to be working in repurposing some old wooden pallets into crates with dividers for full bottles. Trying to clean up my storage options for the new house. New house new system etc. I'll take pics when I have one built up.

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Whoops, i do not in fact have 2880 750ml bottles. I put both 'dozen' and 'cases' where i should have used only one.

Finished up my keg to mash tun conversion. Letting it sit for an extended leak test while I take the family to the fair.

False bottom, thermometer, valves, and other shiny accessories courtesy of Brewhardware.com aka BobbyM.

Now to work on the pump project, which coincides with the RIMS project.......

TNGabe said:

Whoops, i do not in fact have 2880 750ml bottles. I put both 'dozen' and 'cases' where i should have used only one.

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Hahaha, I wasnt going to doubt you, but I did consider breaking in to your house to return the bottles here in Maine for 5 cents each.

kscarrington said:

Finished up my keg to mash tun conversion. Letting it sit for an extended leak test while I take the family to the fair.

False bottom, thermometer, valves, and other shiny accessories courtesy of Brewhardware.com aka BobbyM.

Now to work on the pump project, which coincides with the RIMS project.......

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Looks great! Polish that sucker up and it'd be straight up balling

Went to a BPCR competition today. Did not place with my 1874 Sharps. Me and a few fellas then went to my place to compare notes.
I shared home brew + tips and they unknowingly gave up some key competitive shooting tips

Haha that's great. Technically I drank beer today for beer, since it wandered on past midnight and into the wee hours (gotta have some bottles ready soon) but so far today nothing. Maybe I'll soak some of the bottles I do have. I think I'm up to 7 flats of 341's. I'm trying to convert over to them instead of the 650s.

I, while talking to my neighbor all 'Home Improvement' style over the fence, clarified that I was indeed building a kegerator and not a grow house in the shed.

Oh, and poured the epoxy today

Half done polishing a very abused keg (which is kind of cool, the deep cuts and other dings make it have a feeling of renewed life).

Ordered $180 worth of parts for the conversion to kettle with whirlpool from Brewers Hardware, going cam lock!

I picked some cascade hops, off of my plant.

I sampled my last extract recipe, an ESB from NB. It was very good, as was the cream of three crops ale that was my first AG brew. It was better than I could have hoped for!

Cleaned a keg of Cottage House Saison that kicked Thursday night, set up the connectors on my pump, CFC, & whirlpool for my new brew stand.
Tomorrow I'll brew a Ninkasi Believer clone plus attach the switch box to my brew stand for the pump system.

Bottled my Manuka Saison on friday night and brewed Beirmunchers Nerra Sevada last night.

Finally bottled my 5 1/2 month-old RIS; weighed out and milled grains for a batch of ESB I hope to brew tomorrow; weighed out the hops for the same.

Made a starter of WLP099 early this morning (late last night) to dry out my English Barleywine. This just hit high krausen, so I just pitched it.

Drained a growler of Greenbush Closure with my brother in law and sister in law, while playing Settlers of Catan in a cottage a few miles away from the brewery. Hey, I'm on vacation!

Got a text from my father-in-law who works for coca-cola. The owner of the restaurant he was working at told him to either throw them away or recycle them or do whatever it was they do with the old syrup kegs... Gotta love 2 free kegs!

Popped the caps off a couple of cold ones, then poured them into a glass.

smccarter said:

Popped the caps off a couple of cold ones, then poured them into a glass.

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Thanks for reminding me! I almost forgot....

Went to Dick's while I watched helplessly as the guy hooked up my CO2 tank to refill it (to the out, instead of the other side) and blew it off the table.

So I still can't find a place to refill my tank. And I'm starting to get impatient.

uatuba said:

Went to Dick's while I watched helplessly as the guy hooked up my CO2 tank to refill it (to the out, instead of the other side) and blew it off the table.

So I still can't find a place to refill my tank. And I'm starting to get impatient.

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Seriously, if you have checked all of the welding shops, fire extinguisher shops, hydroponic shops, scuba shops (yeah, i saw you were in Alabama) and compressed gas companies, go to 7-11 and ask who services their tanks. Somebody has to do it near you.

allenH said:

Seriously, if you have checked all of the welding shops, fire extinguisher shops, hydroponic shops, scuba shops (yeah, i saw you were in Alabama) and compressed gas companies, go to 7-11 and ask who services their tanks. Somebody has to do it near you.

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No 7-11 around here, lol. Seriously though, I've checked those places and they only want to swap, not refill. The convenience store owner I asked said they fill theirs through an inlet that is on an outside wall (which I actually saw, and which takes a different fitting). I did find it odd that the fire extinguisher places didn't want to refill either since they are supposed to do that for fire extinguishers...but maybe they swap those, too.