jbenguinn
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- Oct 5, 2016
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Cheers friends,
Pleasant day to you all. I want to share some images and processes from my fermentation chamber build and first brew (completed this morning at 1am :|)
The fermentation chamber was inspired by this great build:
http://imgur.com/a/oRRv1
I'm super happy with the way mine turned out:
Pretty much an exact replica aside from the cooling unit. I built a double insulated ice chamber beneath the main ferm chamber and embedded a CPU fan into the ferm chamber floor to pull the cold air up. Won't be any ice in there for a while though as my garage is sitting at 60 degrees.
It's got it sitting pretty at 73 degrees right now. The fan and the light for the heater are tied to a little InkBird dual controller that works like a charm.
The chamber is just tall enough for a 6.5 (or maybe 7) gallon carboy with an airlock on it. Could easily get three in there.
As for my first foray into brewing, I decided to tackle a nut brown ale extract kit I got from Northern Brewer. It's one of three that I scored on their Columbus Day sale. Each was priced at $14.92
My setup isn't picturesque (yet), but it got the job done.
The only real issue I had was getting my water up to temp initially. I used unfiltered water from my hose. I wanted to get it to a boil and then drop it down to 155ish to steep the specialty grains. However, after 90mins, the water wasn't getting above 160 degrees.
I decided to just go ahead and steep the grains (for 30mins) and diagnose the issue during that half-hour.
I discovered a thread about flooding your gas regulator and realized that's what I did wrong. In other words, I hooked the gas line up to my tank and then opened the line/regulator valve before opening the tank valve. So after the steep, I shut everything down and then relit the fire; this time by opening the tank and then opening the regulator (#noobie amiright?). Once I did this, the thing fired up beautifully.
I reach my boil in 20ish minutes and then pulled it off the flame to stir in my LME. I then put it back on the flame to get back to a boil. When it hit a boil, I added the 1oz of Fuggle hops and let her roll for 60 mins.
I added a Whrilfloc tablet with 15mins left. I set it in an ice bath right after the hour was up and began rehydrating the Fermentis Safale S-04 yeast. Again I found a great thread here for rehydrating yeast.
It pretty much timed out perfectly to my surprise, and I was able to pitch the yeast within 20mins of rehydrating.
I think I messed up by pitching the yeast before filling the carboy to the 5 gallon line with distilled water. Hopefully it won't have any effect, but I would have rather filled it then pitched.
Now it's working in the ferm chamber, and I'm hoping it'll be ready to bottle before I head out of town in 16 days. Cutting it close I know.
That's it. If you've made it this far, I'd especially love some comments on the process I've outlined. Aside from the problem with the burner, I was very happy with this first execution.
Cheers and happy brewing, y'all!
Pleasant day to you all. I want to share some images and processes from my fermentation chamber build and first brew (completed this morning at 1am :|)
The fermentation chamber was inspired by this great build:
http://imgur.com/a/oRRv1
I'm super happy with the way mine turned out:
Pretty much an exact replica aside from the cooling unit. I built a double insulated ice chamber beneath the main ferm chamber and embedded a CPU fan into the ferm chamber floor to pull the cold air up. Won't be any ice in there for a while though as my garage is sitting at 60 degrees.
It's got it sitting pretty at 73 degrees right now. The fan and the light for the heater are tied to a little InkBird dual controller that works like a charm.
The chamber is just tall enough for a 6.5 (or maybe 7) gallon carboy with an airlock on it. Could easily get three in there.
As for my first foray into brewing, I decided to tackle a nut brown ale extract kit I got from Northern Brewer. It's one of three that I scored on their Columbus Day sale. Each was priced at $14.92
My setup isn't picturesque (yet), but it got the job done.
The only real issue I had was getting my water up to temp initially. I used unfiltered water from my hose. I wanted to get it to a boil and then drop it down to 155ish to steep the specialty grains. However, after 90mins, the water wasn't getting above 160 degrees.
I decided to just go ahead and steep the grains (for 30mins) and diagnose the issue during that half-hour.
I discovered a thread about flooding your gas regulator and realized that's what I did wrong. In other words, I hooked the gas line up to my tank and then opened the line/regulator valve before opening the tank valve. So after the steep, I shut everything down and then relit the fire; this time by opening the tank and then opening the regulator (#noobie amiright?). Once I did this, the thing fired up beautifully.
I reach my boil in 20ish minutes and then pulled it off the flame to stir in my LME. I then put it back on the flame to get back to a boil. When it hit a boil, I added the 1oz of Fuggle hops and let her roll for 60 mins.
I added a Whrilfloc tablet with 15mins left. I set it in an ice bath right after the hour was up and began rehydrating the Fermentis Safale S-04 yeast. Again I found a great thread here for rehydrating yeast.
It pretty much timed out perfectly to my surprise, and I was able to pitch the yeast within 20mins of rehydrating.
I think I messed up by pitching the yeast before filling the carboy to the 5 gallon line with distilled water. Hopefully it won't have any effect, but I would have rather filled it then pitched.
Now it's working in the ferm chamber, and I'm hoping it'll be ready to bottle before I head out of town in 16 days. Cutting it close I know.
That's it. If you've made it this far, I'd especially love some comments on the process I've outlined. Aside from the problem with the burner, I was very happy with this first execution.
Cheers and happy brewing, y'all!
