sw michigan utopia brewday

Yakima 728
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Couple other last minute requests. These things are not necessary but if someone could bring them it would be nice. First, I've been looking at my LHBSs for Fermcap but haven't been able to find it. They even look at me funny when I ask for it. Last year we had a slight boilover and moving around a nearly full keggle is not much fun. The second thing is propane. I'll have 2 1/2 tanks and that SHOULD be enough but some insurance would be nice. We'll get by without either of these things but if someone has them and could toss them in their car I'd appreciate it. Other than that I think we're all systems go!
 
I can bring fermcap. It wouldn't be a bad idea if someone else can too in case I forget but its on my list. I'd feel more comfortable if someone else could bring propane due to the distance I have to go, but I can if we don't get other offers.

During this summer I was doing some price shopping to buy another bottle of Fermcap. My first one was a 4 oz bottle from NB at a reasonable price, which for some reason is in their printed catalog but the website has a smaller bottle. Here is what I came up with at the time (and ordered from williams:)

ahs: fivestar defoamer 2oz $5.99
b3: 1oz fermcap-s $5.95
wil: 2oz fermcap-s 11.50
reb: 2oz fermcap-s $5.95
bmw: 1oz fermcap-s 5.99
wil: 4oz fermcap-s 9.90
 
We'd like to start heating strike water around 10:00 so shortly after that if possible. If that's too early that's alright just let us know when you can make it.
 
Fercap is : dimethylpolysiloxane

Gas Drops : Simethicone

So maybe not the same thing, but it does work. And you can feed your beer to a colicky baby.

EDIT: Wiki says that Simethicone is a mixture of dimethylpolysiloxane and Silica Gel... Both are used as an anti-foaming agent.
 
Interesting. As a side note, the wiki article also says that Simethicone is also sometimes used in fermentation to prevent the shearing of proteins during agitations...
 
the 1st last yr were at @32srm and if i had to guess the 2nd's were @20srm as the color bleeds from the high roasted grains pretty quick so a guess would be in the 15srm range.


troy, is your tun fitted with a disconnect or a barb? what size barb if so. if a QD then could you bring one of your lines so we can match it up to my pump set-up.
 
eriktlupus said:
the 1st last yr were at @32srm and if i had to guess the 2nd's were @20srm as the color bleeds from the high roasted grains pretty quick so a guess would be in the 15srm range.


troy, is your tun fitted with a disconnect or a barb? what size barb if so. if a QD then could you bring one of your lines so we can match it up to my pump set-up.
Click to expand...

Yes I do have QD's and they are not the same as yours. It may just be better if I bring my pump also.

I'm thinking of doing a BIPA with the 3rd runnings. I have a 1/2 pound of Carafa III that I could steep to make it black and some DME to up the SG a bit. Maybe hop the crap out of it with a mix of what I have in the freezer.
 
Well I'm going to take the 3rd runnings and add DME (if I have to) to hit a pre-boil gravity of 13 brix. then I'll step .5 pounds of Carafa III and add hops to the boil like this.


2.00 oz Amarillo Gold pellet 8.2 AAU [8.20 %] (60 min) Hops 51.2 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial pellet - 8.0 AAU [8.00 %] (40 min) Hops 21.9 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial pellet - 8.0 AAU [8.00 %] (30 min) Hops 19.2 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial pellet - 8.0 AAU [8.00 %] (20 min) Hops 15.1 IBU
2.00 oz Amarillo Gold pellet 8.2 AAU [8.20 %] (5 min) Hops 10.2 IBU
2.50 oz Centennial pellet - 8.0 AAU [8.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold pellet 8.2 AAU [8.20 %] (0 min) Hops -
2 Pkgs SafAle American Ale (DCL Yeast #S-05) Yeast-Ale

Note: all subject to change without notice....


Oh and I need to stop by the LHBS to get the yeast, any of you need anything?
 
Alright I've got webcam stuff, fermcap, homebrew, and propane in the trunk. I'm a bit behind as usual... Google says 1.5 hours once I hit the road if the roads cooperate.
 
eriktlupus said:
homer.....where you at man?
Click to expand...

Oh sht! I forgot to tell you yesterday that I wasn't coming after all. With wife being sick and after school stuff with kid I didn't have time to get ready.

Sucks when you have a whole weekend with nothing planned and still can't make a brewday. I'll make it up to you guys next time somehow.:eek:
 
I've got the ugliest **** of a fermenter sitting in my closet. She clogged disconnects, chillers, and totally wasted a whole day of my life. She's thick as snot and about 1.200 OG


Thanks to Erik, FSR, and BSDX. One hell of a brewday. We got three beers from the mash and if I hadn't brewed with pusscakes we'd probably have gotten a forth. The only complaint I have is the damn crosses in Erik's QDs. They totally screwed the chilling. Oh that and the fact Homer bailed on us :p. Maybe next year......

Now the fun starts.....
 
paulthenurse said:
Logged on to see you guys in action. Where's the beef?

PTN
Click to expand...

If you were looking for doom and gloom I'm sorry to report we had none. The brewday went unbelievably smooth so I guess the pain is coming during the ferment. BSDX streamed the brewday but I don't understand all of that techie stuff so maybe you saw it maybe not. It was cold as the tit on that biker chick cape used to have as an avatar. -1F an hour before we started and we had to thaw some hardware more than once. Gravities, volumes all exceeded expectations. Good beer, good food, no one tied up in the corner, what more to say?

Good luck next month PTN
 
oh so now it's my fault that you dumped all them pellets in the beer without a hopbag? i probably pulled an ounce of hop crap from my pump during cleanup. it woulda been easier if you'd had a second bloody hose to use for the outflow from the cfc instead of running into a cooler/buckets.

i gotta say though that its a good brewday when you have to dilute your runnings 50/50 with water to get a reading from the hydrometer. :drunk:


and everything flipping froze at some point yesterday. cfc 2x, main hose, starsan bottles, airlocks, toes, etc. we wouldn't have needed ice for your avatar's nipples that's for sure:D
 
eriktlupus said:
oh so now it's my fault that you dumped all them pellets in the beer without a hopbag? i probably pulled an ounce of hop crap from my pump during cleanup. it woulda been easier if you'd had a second bloody hose to use for the outflow from the cfc instead of running into a cooler/buckets.

i gotta say though that its a good brewday when you have to dilute your runnings 50/50 with water to get a reading from the hydrometer. :drunk:


and everything flipping froze at some point yesterday. cfc 2x, main hose, starsan bottles, airlocks, toes, etc. we wouldn't have needed ice for your avatar's nipples that's for sure:D
Click to expand...

So now it's all about easier? And warmer?

And about hoses, it's probably best that BSDX shut down the webcast before the world got to see you massage your hose. Not a pretty sight!

When I woke up this morning I had a cloudy soupy mess in the carboy with about an inch of clear dark liquid on top. That's now disappeared as the fermentation of all fermentations is beginning. I've got the blowoff tube but have yet to work up the ambition to affix it to the carboy. The garage still looks the same as I left it too, including the sludge filled kettle and sea of empty bottles.

The Insanity and Heresy from Weyerbacher were both very very good beers though. But I think it was past your bedtime by the time I broke those out.
 
i did try the weyerbacher beers... just not that into the whiskeys soaked beers really, might have something to do with all the wisskey i've drank (a trip to the jimmy beam distillery in the middle of summer might mean something to)in my youth. warmer in the garage would've been nice, we might as well as been outside for the brewday for all the good the open garage doors did us.

hopefully it doesn't blowoff for more than 1 wk:D
it definitely needs to work faster than last years version though.
 
It's gonna sit in the closet for a week at 64 ambient unless it goes completely ape**** and then it may get knocked down a few degrees. I'll fit the airlock before I leave and then probably when I get back take it out, warm it up, and add some energizer. That's really all I'm equipped to do so after that it's in the yeast's hands to get us where we need to be. Anything under 1.050 with just those steps will make me a happy camper. So now the question is: To syrup or not to syrup? BS tells me we extracted 56% for this beer this year, not too shabby. If it eventually gets to 1.020 that'll be ~24%ABV and I'm good with that but some simple sugars to wake up the yeast may be needed. White Labs does claim up to 25% for 099 though........

Have you heard from Adam or Troy? Just wondering if I'm a worthy host and if they liked it enough to be around next year. I was telling Shannon that I'm cool with hosting if no one else wanted to but having never been to a gathering I was just wondering if my setup is up to snuff, lack of ONE fricken garden notwithstanding. And don't even think of complaining about *sniff* how cold it was again.
 
I had a great time! Thanks for having us. Various webcam viewers were happy to have viewed it and I got and answered several questions the next day. Also out of the blue on HBT chat I got a:

<Saccharomyces> 1.200?
<Saccharomyces> WTF

He wondered if any yeast would touch it :)

Is there a thread for last year's work?

Erik did you drill out the crosses yet? Haha.

Its hard to imagine that anything that thick would have ever gotten through fully if we were only using gravity and the rest was the same. I was impressed that all the issues were resolved promptly without much workarounds.
 
bsdx said:
I had a great time! Thanks for having us. Various webcam viewers were happy to have viewed it and I got and answered several questions the next day. Also out of the blue on HBT chat I got a:

<Saccharomyces> 1.200?
<Saccharomyces> WTF

He wondered if any yeast would touch it :)

Is there a thread for last year's work?

Erik did you drill out the crosses yet? Haha.

Its hard to imagine that anything that thick would have ever gotten through fully if we were only using gravity and the rest was the same. I was impressed that all the issues were resolved promptly without much workarounds.
Click to expand...

Well I must admit I'm wondering WTF myself but we had a healthy dose of WLP099 which, occording to White Labs, will handle up to 25%. You tasted the results from last year. Patience is my friend.

There is no thread from last year as we were kind of hanging on the coattails of the group from the east coast and Erik just kind of updated there. The "Way way way over the top Utopias" thread. Erik led that beer which was brewed and fermented at someone else's house. I thought it came out good but had enough ideas and enjoyed that brewday enough that I wanted to tackle it this year.

I agree that the few issues were handled so readily. SWMBO commented how impressed she was that everyone just kept helping each other, usually without much talking. Kinda like we knew what were doing sorta eh?

Now, on to next year. Hey, PTN, you got the plans for that mash tun:tank:?
 
paulthenurse said:
I'm going to talk to Jaybird about having him build me one of his false bottoms for the Mega Mash Tun. If I can swing it I'll go that route.

You are welcome to come out and use it any time you want.

PTN
Click to expand...

I giggle when you capitalize the MMT:mug:. Will we have some sort of access to your brewday via pics or a cast?

Don't know if I can make it out there. I'm saving my shillings to see Snooki drop next New Year's Eve. Are all of the short fat women on the east coast that stupid? Really, seriously I need to know, especially if the good looking ones are.
 
I'm proud to say that I've never wasted a moment of my time watching any of that crap. I'm actually pretty embarassed that I even know what and whom you are talking about, but I work with all woman and I can't escape hearing the chatter late at night.

As far as the MMT goes, just you wait till you see this biatch in action. You will get down on your hands and knees and thank the good Lord above for creating Al Gore and thru him the Internet just so that you could have such a third party brush with greatness. You can thank me later.

PTN
 
I will be taking pics of that day. If I can talk Cape or Yeager into setting up a broadcast of the festivities I will. I haven't the faintest idea of how to do that. Yeagers broadcast of Masstoberfest was pretty weak, we need to do better. I tried to interest the Discovery Channel but they said something about competing intrests.

PTN
 
Pics are just fine with me I'm just wondering if the mass of brewing equipment humanity goes on there like it did here. We were lucky that BSDX is savvy to that and was willing to cast the brewday. I guess 10 of the 12 hours is bascially watching MLTs and kettles boiling but we were swarming around for more than that. There was no hockey only because SWMBO made me put in a utility sink inside so that I didn't build a rink when I brewed.
 
It was a good brew day and I had a great time. Only "problem" we had was the lack of a hose and those F**king crosses in Eric's QC's..

I can really tell I have a desk job though. After being on my feet that long I was beat Sunday. Took two naps in fact.. :D
But at least I was not like Eric.....

IMAG0004.jpg
 
Sshhhhhhh! You're gonna wake him! Don't you know after the corn dogs and pudding cups it's quiet time. The nursing home only called the house looking for him three times Saturday. Seems it isn't the first time he's wandered off.
 
Thought I'd throw a few pics up since I like beer porn. Yah, I know they're huge. No, I don't care.
DSC01581.jpg

This is her. She's been steadily increasing in activity since mid-afternoon yesterday.

DSC01582.jpg

This is after the first oxy-clean soak and scrub. I think we got our caramelization Erik:D

DSC01583.jpg

Anddd the brewcave. Unimpressive I know. BUT! Brew for three years without a utility sink and you'll know how proud I am to have put that bad boy in! At the old house it was all tucked into a little coat closet. I'm spoiled.......
 
that was the result of working tilll 1230 am going to bed @2am and getting up at 730 to go get the damn water for the brewday. right after that he was kicking me awake also.

mines sitting in the brewery rolling like a bad storm on the horizon. next time troy bring mike down and the 1bbl system then we can put them pansies on the east coast to shame:D


this yrs version is definitely a lot lighter in color from leaving out the darker roasted grains.


don't be suprised if i am off the site for a couple days as i attempt to switch from vista to windows 7. not looking forward to moving all my beer files thats for sure.
 
Erick, you wanted my Pulled Pork Recipe.

1 - 30 pounds of pork butt (shoulder)
-clean and trim extra fat off.
-rub down with yellow mustard
-cover as well as you can with dry rub.
-let sit in fridge over night.
-remove from fridge and let warm up to to room temp (I just let it sit out until the smoker is ready, 1-2 hours).
-inject pork with injection mix
-place in smoker with fruit wood (I use apple) and smoke at 220* until pork reaches an internal temp of 200*.
_remove and place in a cooler to rest until temp comes down to where you can handle it. (1-2 hours)
-shred pork and serve with or without the finishing sauce. (you can even use the nasty store bought BBQ sauce if that's what you're into)..


The injection mix
3/4 cup apple juice
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup kosher salt finely ground
2 tablespoons Worcestershire
____________________________________________________________________________

PORK SHOULDER RUB
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
1 cup paprika
1/4 cup garlic powder
4 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons dried oregano Or Italian seasion
2 teaspoons cumin
1 tablespoon Mustard Power
Lots of Yellow mustard to rub on the shoulder to hold the rub


_________________________________________________________________________________
Eastern Carolina Vinegar Sauce
2 Cups Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Coarse Salt [I like Sea Salt]
1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon coarse Black Pepper
1 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
1 Fat Dash of Sriracha sauce (the red pepper sauce with the roster on the bottle) [to taste]
 

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