Almost eREADY

[l3asturd]

Day 6 of fermentation. I dumped trub, which turned out to be more than my yeast catcher could hold again. I'm debating on making it bigger.

Hydrometer reading: 1.015 pretty good for day 6, but I also had a rush start because of high initial temps.

Taste test: Good?!?! I was surprised it wasn't repulsive. It's has a slight banana (fruit) aroma but I expected that, as my first 48 hours of fermenting were out of control unfortunately. It was anywhere from 70 degrees to 79 because of my freezer crash. New freezer doing a great job holding it at 65ish. We'll see how the taste holds up after being carbed in a week.

 

[passedpawn]

keep posting. thanks.

 

[l3asturd]

Well I've learned a lesson.....

Yesterday was a buddy's birthday and he came over and we started drinking the Belgian Pale, which turned out pretty good! We were probably about a gallon in to it when my buddy yells my name. I slowly walk over to the freezer and hear a hissing noise. I realize it's CO2, coming out of the picnic tap! Huh? Then I see the really bad news. When my buddy last got a glass he must have flipped the picnic tap up (in the locked on position). There were about 4 gallons of beer in the bottom of the freezer, and the CO2 caused everything to freeze solid in a matter of 20 minutes. It was a mess, a huge pain to clean up, and now I was missing 4 gallons of beer. Needless to say I was not happy, if it wasn't his birthday I would have been scolding him. He was pretty drunk and kept saying how lucky he was the CO2 didn't knock him out and kill him. I was thinking how unlucky I was. haha.

Anyway, I have about 4 gallons in the other keg, so not all is lost. I'm not sure how much CO2 is left in the bottle, I'll probably have to refill it a lot sooner than I expected. Luckily the chest freezer holds liquid well, no leaks. It even has a drain plug so all I did was cart it out to the driveway, unplug the drain, and wash it out.

Now I want to find some kind of picnic tap that doesn't even have the option of locking on (pulling the tab up instead of just squeezing).

 

[BeerguyNC61]

Sounds like the drink"n buddy should be swimming wit the beer!!

Now that is alcohol abuse!!

Bummer

 

[tjpfeister]

This might be getting a hair off subject, but nonetheless: The picnic taps disassemble real easy. Unscrew the top and push up on the rubber plunger to disengage the handle. With the handle off you could very easily modify it (it's only plastic after all) so that it would not remain "on" in event of ... user-error.

 

[l3asturd]

Thanks feister.

I just got done threading some SS mesh on my BK false bottom. That was tough. Anyway snapped a picture, you'll have to really focus to see the mesh. This is my last attempt at filtering from the kettle. If this fails I might remove the mesh and try out the trub filter.

You cant really tell from the picture but it's 2 separate pieces of mesh, so the false bottom still folds. Folding was required to be able to maneuver around my heating element and remove for cleaning.

 

[tjpfeister]

Let us know how that works for ya!

I have some reservations about filtering at the bottom of the kettle, for fear of it plugging over and over. That being said, what I am looking at building for mine is...... Well, let's call it "Robo-hop-spider." I got the idea a few months back when I saw a large cylindrical tea infuser meant to go inside an airport-sized coffee maker. I'm still kicking around design ideas, but ultimately it will be a SS mesh cylinder, the height of the keg and about 3-4" in diameter that will stand in my boil kettle. It will operate just like a regular hop spider, but without all the floppy-melty nylon and PVC.

And before anyone says it... NO. I used tea balls back in the extract days. I will not be fishing 20 of those out of the bottom of a keggle to do a 10g APA ;-)

 

[l3asturd]

Forgot to snap a picture of my first electric all grain beer (Belgian Pale). Notice a little cloudier than I expected, I'll attribute that to having no control over early fermentation. Good color though, and nice white long lasting head. Good stuff to drink as well! Haha

 

[l3asturd]

Just made my second batch of electric all grain. It was my own recipe called Downtown Dirty Brown Ale. Actually went a lot smoother this time. Hit 90% efficiency according to brewsmith. False bottom with mesh worked well in boil kettle for bottom draining. I trickled the entire drain making sure not to plug up. Couldn't be happier. Ill post the pictures shortly.

 

[l3asturd]

Had to go buy a pond PH tester. Don't like it as much as the PH test strips but it did it's job.

This one is after adding lactic acid to the mash water:

This is just a shot of me draining to fermenter:

 

[l3asturd]

OK Downtown Brown has already been taken by Lost Coast Brewery, so I guess it'll be just Downtown Dirty Brown. Ya, I put a lot of thought in to names. I'm sure some of you will remember a name very similar on TV. haha.

Strangely enough the name fits even more. In my first failed attempt at grain conditioning I over watered my grains and they turned to mush in my mill. Had to lay out a sheet in the back yard and spread the grains out to let them dry for an hour. Good thing it was a sunny day. I won't be trying to grain condition again for awhile.

 

[BeerguyNC61]

Good thing there weren't many birds flying around! Or you might have to change the name again!!

 

[l3asturd]

Good thing there weren't many birds flying around! Or you might have to change the name again!!

There were plenty of birds! Me and my dog stood watch over the grains. It was mano y birdo

 

[stlbeer]

This one is after adding lactic acid to the mash water:

I thought the acid adjustment was added to the mash, not the mash water. The reason being that the grain will make the water acidic. So, what was the pH of the wort?

 

[l3asturd]

I thought the acid adjustment was added to the mash, not the mash water. The reason being that the grain will make the water acidic. So, what was the pH of the wort?

I wish I could answer this with anything but "You're probably right" but I can't. A friend told me to make sure my mash water was in the 5's. I didn't ask questions, I just started adusting my water PH.

Adjusting the mash PH seems a lot more complicated, considering it would be changing throughout the process. I'll have to do some googling I guess.

I'll consort with John Palmer again and see what he mentioned in his book.

 

[l3asturd]

After re-reading Palmer's work I realize I definitely have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to PH.

So I found a water quality report from my water company online from 2010. I plugged in those numbers on Palmer's calculations spreadsheet, but I couldn't find any Alkalinity or Bicarbonate reading so I used the US Geological map to estimate water alkalinity in my area, which like most of the continent seems to be around 400 or greater. After all calculations I realized I got lucky and the beer will be fine. I may not get so lucky on my next batch so I will send my water for a more complete test and start adjusting PH for my beer type.

 

[lud]

I befriended someone at the local city water department who sends me up to date water reports every month.

 

[l3asturd]

I befriended someone at the local city water department who sends me up to date water reports every month.

That sounds like a plan. Our water service is 4 hours away but we have local technicians. They post up a yearly report, but it doesn't seem to have alkalinity in it. Or Bicarbonates. I'll try calling them and see where I get.

I may check with a friend in town who works at a local micro. Maybe they get better water reports.

 

[mbitton]

l3asturd...i've been reading this board for months and I have to say, this has been the best read I've come across. Thank you!

 

[l3asturd]

l3asturd...i've been reading this board for months and I have to say, this has been the best read I've come across. Thank you!

Thanks! I feel kinda bad I'm not more detailed on how I do things. I'm not very good at that. I mostly started to thread to document my progress, a beer story. I know I like seeing pictures as much as the next guy, so I try to remember to take as many pictures as I can.

Also, for anyone who's posted an idea/comment/suggestion and I didn't respond, I apologize, sometimes I just read and absorb the information, and often forget to reply or say thanks.

 

[AgingHopster]

Note that some non-reputable sellers/manufacturers may use counterfeit parts and just print on the approval. That's a whole other (unrelated) issue.

Kal

I don't see how that's an unrelated issue. That IS the issue.

 

[l3asturd]

Day 6 and I dumped trub and some yeast today. The Downtown Dirty Brown Ale is dark, in the higher SRM range of brown ales. Looks like 1.014 on day 6. I'm impressed with the efficiency of these yeasties. 1.053 to 1.014 in six days. Stir plate starters WINNING.

Oh, of course I took a sip......loved it. This is my kinda beer. Gonna be tough waiting a few more weeks.

 

[l3asturd]

After 2 batches one of my biggest concerns was disconnecting hoses for different processes. Hot water/wort would spill out and make a mess, or worse burn my hands. I wasn't quite ready to hard plump everything so I came up with a semi-permanent fix. Use a bunch of valves, tees, hoses, elbows, and quick disconnects to get the job done.

Thanks to StainlessBrewing.com I picked up a crapload of 2 piece valves for $10 a pop.
Here are the pictures, and the last clip is of the whole system circulating with hot PBW. I had to use a 3rd pump to get everything circulating between the 3 vessels.

Added a HERMS bypass route so I could circulate mash without increasing temp if necessary.

Gonna install a few cross members to the frame to stabilize the heavy loads on the outputs and inputs of the pumps.

Here's the video of all three vessels circulating, click on it to play:

 

[l3asturd]

Just wanted to update my first ebrew status. The Belgian Pale is lookin good. It's over a month old now and has cleared up nicely. Here's a pic and quick carb video:

Here's the video, click to play:

 

[shuckit]

It's making me thirsty. Good on you.

 

[mux]

You did a really nice job on this build. Props to you!

 

[stlbeer]

Great build!

 

[l3asturd]

Picked up some clear silicone hose from BrewHardware for my wort side.

Not a great picture. Only the hose on the left has been replaced.

 

[l3asturd]

Downtown Dirty Brown has been carbing for 3 days. I had to pour a glass and taste test it.

That's no Porter! That's about as dark as you can get and still call it a Brown Ale. I've already made a slight modification to the Choc Malt to lighten it just a bit.

When I tasted it flat, I was worried. It was a little dull up front, but had a decent finish. Love what the oats did for mouth feel. After 3 days carbing and at 40F it is delicious. It's a tad green of course, but it'll age out beautifully. I've got 10 gallons of my own recipe...... and it's good! Haha.

 

[l3asturd]

Made my third batch on the system today. Lorrelei's Hef (Named after my wife, who loves hef). New valve system worked well. Everything went well with the plumbing, not a drop spilled before the fermenter. Due to a small beersmith configuration problem (bottom drain, little trub loss) I over sized the batch a little. I ended up doing a 90 minute boil. Strangely my pre-boil gravity was 1.042 at 13.4 gallons. My post boil gravity was 1.044 at 11.5 gallons. I was expecting 1.050 at 10 gallons so my efficiency was only 82%ish. I am completely fed up with the AutoSparge device. It's just pointless and causes more problems than solves. Today the small tubing ended up causing a whirlpool in the MLT and this actually ended up making a coned grain bed. I flattened it out with my paddle but was annoyed. It also squirts everywhere through the valve which is annoying. I need to work out a better way to sparge. Also forgot rice hulls, but that didn't seem to matter much.

Nailed mash temps

In to the fermenter it goes....