Just sharing a bit of excitement. lol

[bigken462]

After working off this morning and catching a few hours of nappy, I made the 65 mile drive to the not so local HBS and picked up a few kits that I hope to keep me busy over the next couple months. These will be my 5th and 6th batch and I decided it's time to move my operations to the garage. The struggle to keep a boil going on my stove was just not worth the headache. So I grabbed the scrub brushes and cleaned a cpl pots and set out to do a test boil and to re-oxidize my BK and to test my boil off rate.

I boiled for a hour and the boil off was a gallon on the money. So that will give me a starting point in the morning. I also racked 5 gallons of Light House over to a secondary that has been sitting for a couple weeks not clearing. The OG has not moved in the last 5 days so I'm going to give it a lil while to finish and bottle next week.

Tomorrow will be a Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale ale, and two weeks from tomorrow on my next off weekend I'll do the Sierra Nevada Pal Ale. Both of these will take take 3-4 weeks and will require dryhopping - something i've yet to do. Excited to compare the difference to what I have been brewing.

Anyway, nothing major, just wanted to share with the group. Hope all has a good weekend.

 

[Setesh]

Congrats! I think you will be much happier in the garage. You should be happy you had a choice in the matter....I got kicked out!

 

[bigken462]

The owner I'm leasing from had a man cave out there. All the walls are covered with barn wood, with several vintage beer signs, ceiling fans, stereo, AC/Heat etc. Prior to me moving in he had a serving bar, flat screen LCD HD TV, card table and all.

Me? I use it for what it's made for - To park my truck. Is that not bad?

If I had a sink with hot water and some counter space out there it would be perfect. Sadly, my temporary two year lease ran out last June and I'll be facing a move in the future. Really going to miss the solitude of where i'm living. I hope though, the next place might have a basement I can turn into a beer cave.

 

[Hello]

Congrats! Now you may want to consider a blow off tube on that carboy.

 

[bigken462]

As I sit here typing, I'm trying to decide which one to use. I have a plastic fermenting bucket, a 6 gallon carboy and a 6.5 gallon acid carboy. The convenience of that bucket is looking pretty tempting, but I love coming home from work and taking a peek through the carboy to see how things are progressing. Who needs to go to the movies when you can watch beer bubble?

 

[jrgtr42]

Congrats! Now you may want to consider a blow off tube on that carboy.

I was thinking the same thing - in fact, I just am not sure there;s enough headroom in there...
I forsee a mess in the near future there...
I wouldn't use any less than a 6.5 gallon carboy for a 5 gallon batch fermentation. The 5gallon ones are good for bulk aging or 3 - 3.5 gallon fermentations.

 

[bigken462]

The last one I brewed there was 4.4 of LME and 2 lbs of rice syrup solids. It spit snot for a week before it settled down. I used the 6 gallon for that one.

Sorry, I should have labeled the pictures a little better. The one pictures above is in secondary that I racked tonight. It is two weeks old and has not bubbled in the past 3-4 days. Per the instructions, I should have been able to bottle it today, but wanted to give it some more time to clear out in a secondary. I racked so I could use the carboy for another batch. I know the argument, but I went with it. FG was 1.012. OG was 1.051. Brewed it back on the 4th. Below was how it looked last week.

 

[Cyclman]

Very nice, welcome to that next step!

 

[bigken462]

Had a pretty good day. Got started about 0830, was about 25 degrees outside, but the garage was toasty warm. Set everything out last night so all I had to do was fill the kettle and light the fire.

From the minute I seen how easy it was to achieve and maintain a boil, I was cussing myself foolishly for even trying previous brews in the kitchen. Yeah, there is the convenience of having a sink and hot water nearby, but things progresses so much smoother not having to deal with the slow boil and lids. I'll never brew in the kitchen again!

This batch used Weyerman Cara Hell for specialty grains, Warrior for bittering and cascade for flavor. I'll dry hop next week with Cascade again.

Had a total boil time of 45 minutes. I almost had a complete boilover mess on my hands. Fortunately as I was trying to decide WTH to do, I just reached down and kill the gas. I was really surprised how much more foam was made using a propane burner to boil with. It didn't take but a few minutes to learn how to dial in the needle valve to get the perfect boil. I love it! Had I known this, I would have never gave the water bath canner the time of day.

After making quick time with the boil, I chilled and saved some hot water to aid in house cleaning later.

I decided to give it a few minutes of rest this time instead of racking directly into the carboy. Gravity was initially a lil high, so I added another half gallon of water to give me 5.5 gallons. OG target was 1.048, mine was 1.052. Came down to 1.050 by the time I added the extra water.

I then put on a aerating stone and oxygenated the wort with 4-5 liters/min of O2 for a few minutes. Brought the carboy inside the house and pitched the yeast.

This was my sample that I took my first gravity readings. I was very pleased of the clarity.

After all that was done, I cleaned about 50 bottles that I had soaking in Oxyclean. Labels fell off easily, but the cold air and water kills the hands. Ugg.

Learned a few things today. Some good, some bad, but all in all it was a great brew day. Hope you guys had the same.

 

[dfc]

130 miles round trip? That's dedication. You don't like ordering online?

 

[bigken462]

130 miles round trip? That's dedication. You don't like ordering online?

I do, actually I prefer shopping online, but I am too new at brewing to trust my own judgement. I know one or two beers - both commercial. We have a LHBS in the town that I live in, but they only have a few things and mostly caters to wine making. It's a clothing, sporting, camping high end store, and their focus is not on homebrewing so the last few times I tried to go in there I was always greeted with 'we're out, I can order it for ya" yada, yada.

I discovered this other shop down south of Birmingham that is 100% to homebrew and wine. It's like shopping at a super center compared to what is offered here locally.

It's nice to go talk shop, get their insight on recipes. Everything is freshly made up at the time of your order, so all in all, I guess occasionally it's worth the drive. I don't mind supporting brick and mortar stores who takes care of their customers. Just wished they were closer. Lol