4X4 Brewing

I combined my two favorite hobbies last weekend. I packed up my brewing equipment in my Jeep and went to a buddies' cabin in the woods to brew him a batch for deer season this fall. The best part is he doesn't even know there is five gallons of Old Ale fermenting in the basement of his cabin. I'm going to secondary it and bottle it and leave it there until opening day in November. The part of remote brewing that could have been tricky was chilling the wort. What we did was put the hot wort in a sanke keg and dropped it in the creek. The water was 58 degrees and with the rapid movement of the creek, the wort cooled to 65 degrees in 30 minutes.



I'll post more photos later.

Wildwood said:

I combined my two favorite hobbies last weekend. I packed up my brewing equipment in my Jeep and went to a buddies' cabin in the woods to brew him a batch for deer season this fall. The best part is he doesn't even know there is five gallons of Old Ale fermenting in the basement of his cabin. I'm going to secondary it and bottle it and leave it there until opening day in November. The part of remote brewing that could have been tricky was chilling the wort. What we did was put the hot wort in a sanke keg and dropped it in the creek. The water was 58 degrees and with the rapid movement of the creek, the wort cooled to 65 degrees in 30 minutes.

I'll post more photos later.

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That's awesome, you will have to let us know how it turned out. Using the creek is pretty clever I am sure that water is pretty cold year round.

Here is my buddy stirring the mash creekside.




Here is my check list and initial sketch of the label.

Awesome Idea, that had to be a good time. Looks very peaceful.

Way to be innovative. Hope it comes out well

Yankeehillbrewer said:

Awesome Idea, that had to be a good time. Looks very peaceful.

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Not only was it a blast, it was one of my fastest brew days yet. A little less than 5 hours.
I'm thinking about brewing again on opening day in the morning and then handing out the six-month old bottles when the guys get back from hunting just to blow their minds. They know nothing about fermentation or aging beer so they would think that the beer I brewed in the morning was ready in the afternoon.

You're a good friend; your friend will thank you.

Wildwood said:

I'll post more photos later.

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please do!

Awesome.
But I know if I tried to brew in the woods here, The mosquito per gallon ratio would be quite high.

Fantastic Idea and great post!

eelpout said:

Awesome.
But I know if I tried to brew in the woods here, The mosquito per gallon ratio would be quite high.

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We got really lucky and had a light rain on and off all day and that kept the mosquitoes down. And being on the creek side we didn't even get any ticks. I'm going back on Friday to rack it to secondary and take a gravity reading.

Yankeehillbrewer said:

Awesome Idea, that had to be a good time. Looks very peaceful.

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I must add coming from the S.F. bay area (Alameda), Belden's WPRR line cabin was my stomping grounds plus anything within a 50 mile radius has been my favorite motorcycle riding area since 1968. This includes riding Western Pacific's Feather River Route by way of freight train in the engine compartment to the "crummies" and piggy backs. William's Loop (a hoot out of east Quincy) to Chicago, Keddie "Y" split heading north to Oregon.
Friend in Paradise, 'ex neighbor in Magaila (Oakland PD retired Narcotics), a BMW riding friend spends summer months in Chester then Cambria in the winter.
Sorry to have butted in and way off topic I must apologize to the thread starter for going off on a special area to me in my life. Take care brew on. Carl.....=o&o>.......The lake must be low.

What a pretty spot! How is the water chemistry in that creek for brewing? I go fishing on a limestone trout stream every June with my father and brother. Maybe we should use that hard water to brew a good hoppy ale.

Did you use creekw ater? I'm assuming you took water? Best Chiller ever btw. that's about as green as you can get for waste water!

This is something I'll never get to do myself, but I'm very happy to live vicariously through this thread. Looks very peaceful!!

You are my freakin hero!
Only way this coulda been any better is if you took a real 4x4. LOL
Seriously though, I'm trying to get my rig offroadworthy again. The ocotillos are blooming and I wanna brew a traditional ocotillo wine.

IrregularPulse said:

Did you use creekw ater? I'm assuming you took water? Best Chiller ever btw. that's about as green as you can get for waste water!

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Yeah, I used creek water for the brew. I boiled the crap out of it to kill the swimmers. The creek is high in the headwaters with nothing upstream but national forest so it is not polluted with farm waste or anything.
I was amazed that the wort chilled as fast as it did. I budgeted an hour for chilling. I probably could have pitched earlier, but I didn't even check it for 30 minutes.

skadalajara said:

You are my freakin hero!
Only way this coulda been any better is if you took a real 4x4. LOL
Seriously though, I'm trying to get my rig offroadworthy again. The ocotillos are blooming and I wanna brew a traditional ocotillo wine.

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That's funny. There is a couple of spots on the road in that are so tight only a Jeep can make it comfortably. My friend parks and rides his horses in when he and his family go. It's a badass spot surrounded on four sides by national forest.

What part of the ocotillo do you use to make wine?

Wildwood said:

That's funny. There is a couple of spots on the road in that are so tight only a Jeep can make it comfortably. My friend parks and rides his horses in when he and his family go. It's a badass spot surrounded on four sides by national forest.

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I don't need comfortable. That's what I'm building sliders and bumpers for.

Wildwood said:

What part of the ocotillo do you use to make wine?

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Don't know for sure, but I believe it's the flowers. Press the nectar out and ferment like wine or mead.

BrewBeemer said:

I must add coming from the S.F. bay area (Alameda), Belden's WPRR line cabin was my stomping grounds plus anything within a 50 mile radius has been my favorite motorcycle riding area since 1968. This includes riding Western Pacific's Feather River Route by way of freight train in the engine compartment to the "crummies" and piggy backs. William's Loop (a hoot out of east Quincy) to Chicago, Keddie "Y" split heading north to Oregon.
Friend in Paradise, 'ex neighbor in Magaila (Oakland PD retired Narcotics), a BMW riding friend spends summer months in Chester then Cambria in the winter.
Sorry to have butted in and way off topic I must apologize to the thread starter for going off on a special area to me in my life. Take care brew on. Carl.....=o&o>.......The lake must be low.

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It's beautiful up here right now, and the lake is low, but it's way up from what it was a couple months ago. I live on the Concow side of Yankee Hill, if you've ever been over on this side you probably cruised right by my house.

back to our regularly scheduled programming. I'm curious to see how this brew turned out with creek water. It will probably be beer.

That sure looks like fun.

Yankeehillbrewer said:

I'm curious to see how this brew turned out with creek water. It will probably be beer.

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That's what I figured too. I'm hoping the 2 oz of bourbon soaked oak cubes will cover any weird taste from the creek water. The wort tasted yummy.

More pics.
Here is the setup creek side.


Here is the pack up leaving room for the sanke keg fermentor.

I can't see the pics right now becuase I am at work but this sounds awesome.

I went back Friday to rack to secondary. Here is the airlock with Wild Turkey 101.



Here is my buddy tasting the hydrometer sample. It's at ~6%. It's going to secondary for at least 2-3 weeks.



Gratuitous Jeep porn.

How about an update?

I hope you dont mind, but im going to have to steal this idea. I love it, 4x4 and brewing, my two favorite things. If only I could figure out a way to do a brew while we are snowmobiling, now that would be amazing!

I'm going this weekend to bottle. It's had a nice long secondary to clear. I can't wait to see my buddy's face when he hears what we did.
There will be more photos this weekend.

As promised, here are a couple of bottling pics.
Here is a friend bottling.


We got an even two cases. You can see the Jeep out of the door in this one.



The final ABV is 6% with a hint of bourbon in the finish. It's real clear too.

that place looks awsome. cabin is sweet.

Very cool indeed. I like those crates to carry the bottles in. And +1 on cool cabin. Great getaway.

Yeah it's a great cabin. I feel lucky he let me have a key.
Two problems presented themselves during the bottling run.
First I forgot the auto siphon and hose, so I had to pour the beer into the bottling bucket out of the pony keg very carefully to keep the splashing down.
Second, I forgot the chainsaw and a tree had fallen across the road. We cleared what we could by hand, then hooked a tow strap up to it and jerked the main trunk out of the way.
Four months and one day until we crack the first beer. I'll have the final installment then.

Yankeehillbrewer said:

Very cool indeed. I like those crates to carry the bottles in. And +1 on cool cabin. Great getaway.

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Those crates are cool. My buddy made them for me. It cost me $50 for ten crates.

this might be one of the best things I've seen in a while!

sethful said:

this might be one of the best things I've seen in a while!

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Better yet, tonight we break the beer out after five months in the bottle. I can't wait to see my buddies' face when he finds out what we did.
I'll post up some more pics after the weekend.

Well, the wait was worth it.
Friday night before opening day, I steered the conversation to the cellar and my interest in seeing it. My buddy obliged, even leading the way with flashlight in hand. When he saw the two cases of beer his exact words were " Holy ****! What the **** is that?"
Here he is pulling a case out of the cellar.



The old ale is really good. Dark and malty with just a hint of oak and bourbon. Here is my buddy washing down Sunday morning's aspirin with it.



All in all a successful plot with a great outcome. My friend likes the beer and it was fun to pull off. I brewed another one while I was out there for next year's deer season. It will be in the bottle 10 months instead of 5 so it should be even better.



The surprise was half of the fun of this batch. This will be a deer camp story for years to come.

dude.

you are the best hunting buddy ever. not only is that an awesome story, but it's a new tradition!

Awesome, Glad to hear it turned out well after the long wait. It's nice to have friends that appreciate what goes into our hobby.