Kickin off a brew weekend with tired start.

[bigken462]

I worked off yesterday morning at 8AM, came home and grabbed a few hours of nappy. I was hoping to get some house chores done so I could get started on a clean slate later, and then make the 65 mile drive south to the HBS to pick up supplies. I overslept and ended up hitting Birmingham rush hour traffic at it's worst time imaginable then was tangled up behind a accident for a hour before making it to the shop.

How come you never have to piss till traffic comes to a stop? lol I grabbed supplies and 4 cases of bottles and after making small talk started the drive home where it rained on me all the way back.

Once I got home I was still greeted with a kitchen that needed cleaned, dishes that needed washed and items to clean before I could demolish it again with beer stuff. I quickly policed the place up then racked 5 gallons of Cream of Three Crops over to secondary. Not too sure what to think of that one just yet:\)

Moved those items out of the way then primed 5 gallons of SNPA to start bottling. Washed and sanitized the bottles and mushed my way through 51 12 ounce bottles.

Washed the sticky overfill off the bottles then boxed them back up and put them in the closet.

It was disheartening to see the kitchen the shape it was and my feet and back were already saying it's time to hit the sack. I pushed on and cleaned up the mess and scrubbed the dirty carboy, then moved all the supplies for easy transfer to the garage tomorrow to brew up a Fat Tire.

I'm beat and still have to plug these ingredients into Brew Smith. Normally I like to set up the night before but it just didn't work out tonight. As I was cleaning up tonight, I got to wondering where the fun went. Heck, I've only brewed 7 batches and I've quickly summarized that what I once thought to be a fun job now sucks arse. I am getting already tired of bottling. The mess it makes in my kitchen is for the birds.

No way I can justify the expense kegging, but I keep thinking on how long it would take to clean one container, fill it, hook the hose up and walk away. lol I think after this one tomorrow, I'm going to chill out for a month or so. I've got enough to last one person 10 years. Time to relax. lol

Hope you guys have a good weekend, it's almost two Am and I've yet to open Brewsmith.

Later,

 

[fartinmartin]

You had a very productive session, but you must organise yourself better or your hobby will get spoilt.
Racking for instance is a quicky, can be delayed for several days to become a little chore on any day.
You can make arrangements for the kitchen to be ready for bottling.
If you raise your bottling bucket higher you will be more comfortable, you have some bad ergonomics there.
Don't let poor planning spoil your hobby.

 

[TimmyWit]

If you're driving 65 miles to buy 4 cases of bottles, you can justify the kegging expense IMO. Try to find a used freezer or keep your eye on homebrewfinds.com for deals. They had one posted at wal-mart for ~$150 last week. You'll also need a temp controller and of course the kegs and Co2. You can search the brew stores for a complete keg system. You can start with picnic taps if you want to keep the cost down. You should be able to find a 2 tap setup for ~$300. All in all, total cost will be around $500 to get started. I'm guessing you spent $100 on gas and bottles yesterday alone.

 

[bigken462]

Lol, still here at 0300. Oh well, good intentions.

I usually don't do anything on my first days off. The night shift zaps me. Normally I mail order, but my buddies have been kinda lax on getting me bottles so I knew I need to get some and just decided to make the drive yesterday.

I might lean toward a keg someday, but for now I gotta focus on getting a fermenting chamber. I prefer having a variety of types of beers for my friends to choose from, but eventually as the new wears off, I'll more than likely limit myself to a few types and do the kegging. We'll see what the future brings. lol

I'm headed to bed. I give up on this recipe instructions. It's designed for standard mash tun/sparge etc. and I'm doing BIAB. The OG is close to what is listed on the instructions, but the IBU's is less than half. Supposed to be 21 IBU's and Beersmith is showing 9.3 IBU

I went in and changed the Alpha units to match what was listed in the info section of the LHBS where I purchased.

Kit comes with these hops:

.4ounces/10 grams of Warrior for bittering (5aau) 5% Alpha
.5ounces/15 grams of Hallertau for flavor 3% Alpha
.3ounces/9grams of Willamette for Aroma 4.2% Alpha



New Belgium Fat Tire Amber Ale

Belgian Dubbel (18 B)



Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 7.22 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 5.72 gal
Final Bottling Vol: 5.00 gal
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage


Date: 15 Feb 2014
Brewer: Kenny Taylor
Asst Brewer:
Equipment: 15 Gallon Pot
Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Taste Rating: 30.0



◯ Total Water Needed: 8.52 gal



9 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 87.8 %
8.0 oz Crystal Dark - 77L (Crisp) (75.0 SRM) Grain 2 4.6 %
6.1 oz Munich (Dingemans) (5.5 SRM) Grain 3 3.5 %
4.0 oz Victory Malt (biscuit) (Briess) (28.0 SRM) Grain 4 2.3 %
3.0 oz Caraamber (Weyermann) (30.0 SRM) Grain 5 1.8 %

Mash In Add 13.53 qt of water at 167.1 F 155.0 F 60 min
◯ Batch sparge with 2 steps (1.53gal, 3.61gal) of 168.0 F water

◯ Add water to achieve boil volume of 7.22 gal
◯ Estimated pre-boil gravity is 1.039 SG

Boil Ingredients



0.35 oz Warrior [5.00 %] - Boil 45.0 min Hop 6 6.1 IBUs
1.10 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 7 -
0.53 oz Hallertau [3.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 2.2 IBUs
0.32 oz Willamette [4.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 9 1.0 IBUs
◯ Estimated Post Boil Vol: 5.72 gal and Est Post Boil Gravity: 1.051 SG


Fermentation Ingredients


1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 10 -
◯ Measure Actual Original Gravity _______ (Target: 1.051 SG)
◯ Measure Actual Batch Volume _______ (Target: 5.50 gal)
◯ Add water if needed to achieve final volume of 5.50 gal

Fermentation
Primary Fermentation (14.00 days at 67.0 F ending at 67.0 F)



No since in chasing numbers this late. It's time for me to hit the sack.

You guys brewing this weekend?