What I did for beer today

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Another day, another step closer. The size and weight of those burners caught me off guard! Last pic is old my old system is one new burner. 1x5" vs 3x10". Whew.

Any calculator to determine if it'll be top heavy? Now that I'm playing with it, I'm either going to mount the wheels inside and pray, or add a 'shelf' to make it deeper.
 

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Tasted both the lager brewed 13 days ago and the APA brewed last weekend. The lager had acetaldehyde that finally went away and is ready to keg this weekend if the water issue gets fixed. The APA (first beer fermented in the new fermentation chamber) will get kegged Sunday (again pending water issue getting fixed). Now just sitting drinking the Bastard kegged last weekend. And hoping I remember to take the co2 tank with me to work tomorrow to get exchanged after work as it's about to be done.
 
Picked up ingredients for 3 batches at the LHBS. Had a fun experience in the process.

The store is pretty much self service. There's a small room behind the main retail space which has plastic bins of malt stacked to the ceiling, a table with a scale, and a MM3 in one corner. Weigh the grain, mill the grain, write the type and amount on the bag with a Sharpie, take it up front to pay. Just outside the door of this room is a 6 or 7 tap kegerator, and across from that is a desk where the owner's home-schooled son does his schoolwork. The boy is about 8, maybe 9, and always comes in to ask if you need any help and show you the spot on the side of the hopper where you tap if the mill doesn't want to feed.

Today, I had just finished milling some 2-row and was weighing some white wheat malt when the kid stuck his head in the door and asked "Ya want a beer, or something?" I went over to the kegerator and he starts describing each brew that was on tap. He recommended the Barleywine, which the tag above the tap handle indicated was 9.8%. I told him I had to drive across town and maybe should have something a little lighter. The boy pointed to the Altbier tap and said "this is a little sweeter and maltier than a true Altbier but Dad says it's pretty good". I told him the Altbier would be fine. Junior gets a plastic cup and carefully starts to pour. He says "the first pour of the day is always a little foamy. Sorry about that" and hands me my cup of half foam, half Altbier.

The beer was pretty good and I smiled all the way home.
 
I had to bottle 2 batches, because my keezer finally died. I'm going to go get another one tomorrow, because I forgot how much I hated bottling until today! On a side note, tomorrow is also a double brew day; an oatmeal brown and a Czech pilsner...
 
I was given long hefty bamboo, so I constructed a hop trellis. I still have some adjustments like leveling and a couple guides as it is top heavy. Then weed and feed. Some bines are about 8ft already.
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Dumped two fermentors full of beer and one full of wine down the toilet because life happened and somehow five months managed to sneak by mostly unnoticed... To my surprise the beers didn't smell too bad at all but since they were just bag-end KSA:s and nothing special I decided to rather play it safe, not that I would have had enough clean bottles anyway, that s**tshow is coming next...

Slowly getting back on the wagon though as I bought two cans of LME today, I do have a 20kg bag of pale malt stashed away but I'm out of gas and the whole garage is one big house fire waiting to happen if I so much than think of lighting anything there before a well and proper floor to ceiling cleanup.
 
gicts said:
Another day, another step closer. The size and weight of those burners caught me off guard! Last pic is old my old system is one new burner. 1x5" vs 3x10". Whew.

Any calculator to determine if it'll be top heavy? Now that I'm playing with it, I'm either going to mount the wheels inside and pray, or add a 'shelf' to make it deeper.
Click to expand...
Top heavy really isn't the issue, stability is. As long as the center of gravity stays between the wheels, it could be 100 feet tall and still be stable. Picture a triangle, with the casters at the bottom and cg at the peak. If you tilt it a bit, it will fall back on the base. If you tilt it so far that one of the sloped sides is past vertical, over she goes.

So spread the wheel base as much as you can, keep the load centered as much as possible, don't try to move it fully loaded with liquids, and you'll be quite safe. Looking good, btw.
 
Just got the first paycheck from new second job, so just ordered 4lbs of hops from Hops Direct...Chinook, Amarillo, Cascade in pellets, and a pound of Mosaic leaf to do the House IPA again. These will last me for a lot of brews. Still don't have the water leak fixed, plumber is coming Monday.

Next purchase will be a dual-stage temperature controller and a brew belt to complete the fermentation chamber. I love my Ranco single stage but I need to get it back on the kegerator to prevent my lines from freezing.
 
Drinking beer.
6 days to bottling a Belgian wheat.
3 weeks to bottling an English Mild brewed yesterday.
Better get to drinking so I have a place to put it all.
Oh, and I gave the wife permission to buy some Summer shandy...
 
Started crashing the APA this morning. Have to work tonight, might just get it kegged up before I go to bed. Cleaned kegs and have them in the kegerator chilling up on co2 for this one and the lager I'll keg on Wednesday.

Just took another taste of the APA. Got exactly the hop nose I was going for, and the flavor is good. A bit more bitterness than I wanted but carbonation will change the flavor again. Can't wait for this one. And spent some time today creating the schedule for brewing the beers I want to enter in the Washington State Fair in August.
 
Figured out the wiring and connected the Inkbird ITC1000 to my window ac unit.
Did a couple of function checks to make sure starts and stops match the settings, it worked. Wooohooo.
Now to adapt the 48 qt cooler and piece the whole chiller together.

Picked up rigid foam insulation for the keezer collar.
 
Kegged my speights old dark porter clone. The gass post oring didn't want to seal until i added some food grade lube to it but sorted.

Then worked out what money i need to finish my current renovation and get it signed off. Its close but due to my injory the other year i havent really been saving enough so worked out what i need to ask the bank for so i can finish it this year.
Now I need to ring the bank tomorrow and beg... i dont think it will be too hard to convince the bank as my house has gone up in estimated value by 130k nzd since i brought it plus its now insulated and double glazed apart from a small section of wall and a door. Hopefully they dont need a valuation for the amount I'm asking for as thats just more cost and hassel.

I want this done then i can pay it off over a year or two then get a double garage with internal access and a room on the back built that will definitly benefit brewing so longer term brewing setup planning.

Sitting back with one of my belgium tripels. 4 day work week since today (monday) was a public holiday.


3 day weekend with mo brewing is sad but my knee was too bad to agrevate with a brew day.
 
Cleaned up my brewing supplies shelf, and added 3 pounds of berries (blackberries and raspberries) to an oatmeal brown. Having a sample bottle of my oatmeal, chocolate, coffee stout (with 1lb each of local honey, and black strap molasses). It's excellent!
 
Finally getting around to kegging the two I had in fermenters. Tasted both, not thrilled with 1) the lager that got a bit warmer than intended, and 2) the first beer ever fermented in my new chamber that sat cold crashing for a few days longer than intended. Both will be drunk and will probably improve on carbonation (and chilling with the lager). Damn water leak and 2nd job getting in the way.
 
It's day ten of primary fermentation for my Belgian golden strong ale and I am adding the final amount of fermentables in the form of 1# Simplicity sugar. Hoping to get a kickstart of a day or two more vigorous activity from those amazing Westmalle kids!
 
I'd get it one piece at a time
And it wouldn't cost me a dime
(lmao at least that's what I tell the wife)
You'll know it's me when I come through your town
I'm going to ride around in style
I'm going to drive everybody wild
Because I'll have the only one there is a round
 

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I ordered a Heady Topper clone kit. I haven't had that beer in several years and finally decided to brew it, especially since I can't get it here in Oklahoma. I also washed a batch of London ale yeast, and cleaned about a case of bottles.
 
Kegged my scottish ale (2nd half of a parti-gyle). The gravity sample was pretty tasty and I got crazy good attenuation. Also transferred my doppelbock to secondary for an extended lagering. Definitely on the right track taste-wise despite just ok attenuation at this point. Had a massive amount of trub, so final volume will be a bit low compared to what I planned.
 
Guess it's my month for equipment upgrades...husband bought a new house fridge from offerup yesterday, which means our old one (only issue is freezer side ices up) is now the NEW fermentation chamber in the garage with huge cold glass & hop storage. It's a big side-by-side Samsung, can fit my big 7.5g glass carboy and either the 6g plastic carboy or a 6.5g bucket at the same time. Come my birthday in July will get a couple of brewbelts and a 2-stage Inkbird to replace my single stage Ranco, and I'm gonna be in homebrewer heaven. After I tear apart the garage tomorrow to make room for it I get to go shopping for grain & yeast for a nice double brewday on Sunday, will do House IPA and another lager to replace the one I kegged the other day that tastes funny. Movin on up!!
 
1bottlerocket said:
I have been reading, How to Brew, by John Palmer. I purchased extract today to make my first batch, which I am hoping to do soon. Beer brewing is fascinating having come from cider making. I have really immersed myself into it. I can hardly wait to make my first all grain batch.
Click to expand...

Starting out the right way, congratulations! All-grain is easy, and it gives you way more options for different flavors and styles. I keep my copy of Palmer in my brewery and there's so many pages folder over it's funny. Welcome to the obsession!
 
Think I'm ready to do my first AG batch.
Test run of my glycol chiller for the counterflow chiller had no leaks and was properly controlled by the Inkbird ITC1000.
Fermentation chamber had the collar insulated today, heating pad put in and it all connected to an Inkbird 308.

Now to find a straight forward IPA recipe. West Coast or NE work.
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County_Brewer said:
Think I'm ready to do my first AG batch.
Test run of my glycol chiller for the counterflow chiller had no leaks and was properly controlled by the Inkbird ITC1000.
Fermentation chamber had the collar insulated today, heating pad put in and it all connected to an Inkbird 308.

Now to find a straight forward IPA recipe. West Coast or NE work.View attachment 574266
Click to expand...

With that setup?! You are ready for your first pro batch!! Rock on sir.
 

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