Kegging my first tonight, check my process for accuracy

[user 204491]

You don't by chance trade any of those homebrews, do you?? I'd LOVE to get my hands on that sour red or, especially, the ollie berry lambic.

Thanks for the kind words! Unfortunately I'm down to maybe 5-6 bottles of the sour red from last year, so I'd like to hang on to those. I'll be brewing it again in a few months, so if you remember to hit me up around October I'm sure I'll have several bottles

On the olallieberry lambic, that's actually a pretty unique beer. We imported 1, 2, and 3 year old lambic in bulk from producers in Belgium, and then blended them in the barrel. The folks I worked with it on and I agreed that we wouldn't trade, sell, etc. the bottles. Come to Santa Cruz though and we can open one!

 

[TravelingLight]

Thanks for the kind words! Unfortunately I'm down to maybe 5-6 bottles of the sour red from last year, so I'd like to hang on to those. I'll be brewing it again in a few months, so if you remember to hit me up around October I'm sure I'll have several bottles

On the olallieberry lambic, that's actually a pretty unique beer. We imported 1, 2, and 3 year old lambic in bulk from producers in Belgium, and then blended them in the barrel. The folks I worked with it on and I agreed that we wouldn't trade, sell, etc. the bottles. Come to Santa Cruz though and we can open one!

Totally understand that. No worries! Man, that's awesome you were able to source that lambic. Might I ask how you went about doing that? Did you have a connection or did you just reach out to someone over that way?

 

[EMH5]

+1

 

[user 204491]

Okay, well now we've veered totally off topic, but since you asked...

Yeah, it definitely helps if you know someone that lives in Belgium, is already an avid home blender, and that person has connections at the various lambic brewers. I didn't know the guy, but one of my friends did. He was able to source it for us from some of the less well known brewers (Giradin, Lindeman's De Troch), but the bigger places (Cantillon, etc.) will not sell to home blenders. It was shipped over in 10L bag in a box setups which are pretty similar to wine in a box here in the US.

 

[MadHomebrewer]

Well, got it done last night. But it was NOT without its issues. Was it Mike Tyson that used to say, "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." I had a plan. And got punched.

First problem started with my weak ass p***y syphon. I couldn't get it to stay primed. And I'm pretty sure that I ended up oxygenating some. Oh well couldn't help it. I also ended up leaving at least a half gallon in the carboy because I couldn't get it out short of picking up the carboy and dumping it in. No bueno. I will be getting a bigger, better syphon before my next one.

Then the bigger problem. Get the beer in the keg seal it up, connect the gas to purge and get it on some co2. As soon as I turn the tank on the gas starts shooting out of somewhere. It's not the regulator. Everything is fine on that side. It's coming out from, like, the base of the main valve on the tank. I'm almost thinking that release or blow off nut on the tank (assuming that's what it is) is open or something. I can post a pic if anyone has any ideas and wants to see it. Thankfully, my buddy right down the road had an open gas line in his keezer so I took it to his house to get it on some gas and chill it in his keezer. I'm going to swing back by tonight to pick up the keg and let him look at my tank. Is anyone familiar with something like this? I feel like it's a dumb mistake and when I figure it out it'll be a total face palm. Thoughts?

I highly recommend the syphinless big mouth bubblers from northern Brewer. Attach a hose and your beer goes direct from fermenter to keg.