South Carolina SC midlands area brewers

[SHAIV]

All my beers throw off so much damn sulfur that it smells like the pit of hell/New Jersey whenever I open my fermentation freezer, and none have tasted bad once conditioned. I wouldn't put too much stock into the fermentation smell.

Nice. I didnt get any bad smells but more like not much of anything. The little bit of smells i did get it smelled good but it was very faint and seldom. I was thinking maybe thats a good thing haha. Read somewhere that if it gives off smell then its losing flavor. Ill try it soon once it carbs.

Anyway on another note. I went to a friends house last night for dinner. Our kids played and i tried some beer they had. I hate it when people say “i dont like ipas” you said you loved the simcoe smash i made you mean you had a bad experience with an old ipa. I struggle with going to the store to buy a good ipa all the time. You have to get it fresh and it had to have been taken care of right? Most ipas dont age well and arent even drinkable much past their expiration date. I have bought beer from a brand new store and its been so bad i had to dump it because its old! Why dont people know how to take care of beer or why are stores too stupid to realize that their distributors are giving them old beer? Am i alone on this?

 

[TravelingLight]

Just kegged my birthday ipa. The closed transfer i rigged up from my bubbler was leaking. It made a loud whining noise. I think i need a rubber stopper to fit the gas side as thats where it was leaking. So lots of struggling with that but it got kegged and now i just wait till its carbed. Maybe itll be good. I hope. I didnt get a lot of good smells from it like i usually do from the open fermenter after its emptied. It had been cold crashed before kegging. It smelled awesome during fermentation though...

What's your gas side hook up like? I've built a few different closed transfer setups, so I might could help out.

 

[TravelingLight]

Nice. I didnt get any bad smells but more like not much of anything. The little bit of smells i did get it smelled good but it was very faint and seldom. I was thinking maybe thats a good thing haha. Read somewhere that if it gives off smell then its losing flavor. Ill try it soon once it carbs.

Anyway on another note. I went to a friends house last night for dinner. Our kids played and i tried some beer they had. I hate it when people say “i dont like ipas” you said you loved the simcoe smash i made you mean you had a bad experience with an old ipa. I struggle with going to the store to buy a good ipa all the time. You have to get it fresh and it had to have been taken care of right? Most ipas dont age well and arent even drinkable much past their expiration date. I have bought beer from a brand new store and its been so bad i had to dump it because its old! Why dont people know how to take care of beer or why are stores too stupid to realize that their distributors are giving them old beer? Am i alone on this?

Not at all. There's a gas station on the corner up from my house that has a pretty decent beer cave. I pop in when I need some nightlies in a pinch. I picked up a 6 pack of Stone IPA (I believe it was) and it was 6 months past the enjoy by date. I showed it to the cashier hoping he'd just let me have it for free but nope, he apologized and put it behind the counter. I've definitely had older IPAs past their prime. Thankfully none of them were straight up "bad" just lacking any hop nose and punch whatsoever.

 

[SHAIV]

What's your gas side hook up like? I've built a few different closed transfer setups, so I might could help out.

Heres a close up of the top with the gas side hooked up.

I used a universal/5 gallon carboy bung. I may need to trim the grey part of the lid some because i believe it may have been pushing on that. What i did with the liquid side is i removed the airlock and inserted my racking cane with a standard 1 gallon bung and inserted that bung into the universal bung that the airlock is in then pushed down real hard and it held pretty good. I might try that same thing on the gas side next time or get a regular (flat top) 5-6 gallon bung to fit the holes in the blue lid.

 

[TravelingLight]

Heres a close up of the top with the gas side hooked up.

View attachment 572659

I used a universal/5 gallon carboy bung. I may need to trim the grey part of the lid some because i believe it may have been pushing on that. What i did with the liquid side is i removed the airlock and inserted my racking cane with a standard 1 gallon bung and inserted that bung into the universal bung that the airlock is in then pushed down real hard and it held pretty good. I might try that same thing on the gas side next time or get a regular (flat top) 5-6 gallon bung to fit the holes in the blue lid.

Do you know it's coming from the gas side? Meaning, did you spray starsan or anything to look for bubbles, i.e., be certain it's not leaking from the seal around the racking cane?

 

[SHAIV]

Do you know it's coming from the gas side? Meaning, did you spray starsan or anything to look for bubbles, i.e., be certain it's not leaking from the seal around the racking cane?

If i pushed on the gas side it would stop sort of. Anyways we can come back to that...

Um i just went to hook up my liquid line to my keg to see if my beer was carbed and give it a taste test. I was kind of excited. Well i hooked it up and i saw that my gas line was bent for my second keg and i went to straighten it out. Then i realized... dum dum dum.

My gas was empty! Both gauges read 0 psi. Omg! What? What just happened? One of my kegs was leaking! My keg that i was trying to carb! Wtf? Why? How? Where? Who? What? Omg! This is crap! Im so upset now. Not only is my beer definitely not carbed but i also lost all c02 in that tank. I dont think i had used it all unless the leak from my transfer leaked out a lot of it... i changed out the keg lid as i believe that to be the culprit i see a crack on it around the valve. It was holding pressure though. It is a used keg i just bought but it came pressurized. So what the hell!

 

[TravelingLight]

If i pushed on the gas side it would stop sort of. Anyways we can come back to that...

Um i just went to hook up my liquid line to my keg to see if my beer was carbed and give it a taste test. I was kind of excited. Well i hooked it up and i saw that my gas line was bent for my second keg and i went to straighten it out. Then i realized... dum dum dum.

My gas was empty! Both gauges read 0 psi. Omg! What? What just happened? One of my kegs was leaking! My keg that i was trying to carb! Wtf? Why? How? Where? Who? What? Omg! This is crap! Im so upset now. Not only is my beer definitely not carbed but i also lost all c02 in that tank. I dont think i had used it all unless the leak from my transfer leaked out a lot of it... i changed out the keg lid as i believe that to be the culprit i see a crack on it around the valve. It was holding pressure though. It is a used keg i just bought but it came pressurized. So what the hell!

Damn dude that sucks. Is the crack in the actual lid or is it just the PRV, i.e., something that's easy to replace? I'd also check/replace all the o-rings as well. I had one do that recently. I force carbed it in the keg, turned it down to serving pressure the next day, then 24 hours later the tank was empty. Think I had a crappy poppet causing a slow leak.

 

[SHAIV]

Yeah i replaced all the o rings with a new o ring pack. Well looking at the lid further. Its not cracked on the bottom so it must be the prv itself. I remember it was bubbling from star san when i put it on and turned on the gas but it stopped when i lifted it and pushed it back down. I thought it was good

 

[TravelingLight]

Yeah i replaced all the o rings with a new o ring pack. Well looking at the lid further. Its not cracked on the bottom so it must be the prv itself. I remember it was bubbling from star san when i put it on and turned on the gas but it stopped when i lifted it and pushed it back down. I thought it was good

Gotcha. Well at least that's an easier fix than having to get a new lid! Still a PITA for sure though.

 

[SHAIV]

I did put a deferent keg lid on because i didnt want to chance it still leaking

 

[TravelingLight]

Hope to see some of you fools at the grand opening for Angry Fish tomorrow! Brewery opens at 1pm. If you fancy getting there early, some of us are having a bottle share starting at 11:30am. All are welcome.

 

[catdaddy66]

Hope to see some of you fools at the grand opening for Angry Fish tomorrow! Brewery opens at 1pm. If you fancy getting there early, some of us are having a bottle share starting at 11:30am. All are welcome.

That sounds great! I have a graduation for my niece at 9am but can make the bottle sharing and grand opening. I just need to know the location. Can I bring some samples to share?

 

[TravelingLight]

That sounds great! I have a graduation for my niece at 9am but can make the bottle sharing and grand opening. I just need to know the location. Can I bring some samples to share?

Absolutely! It's at 106 Fabrister Ln. Behind the Luce's(?) Italian restaurant. I'll have some homebrew as well as commercial bottles. Bring your own taster glass, we won't be supplying solo cups. Cheers brother!

 

[SHAIV]

Sounds like fun. I wish i could go but my wife is working and ill have the kids

 

[carpathia]

Angry fish?

 

[SHAIV]

I think its in lexington off highway 1

 

[TravelingLight]

Angry fish?

I think its in lexington off highway 1

Correct. Angry Fish is being opened by two guys from our local club (PSB). It's off highway 1, 106 Fabrister Ln, behind the Luce Cucina Italian restaurant.

 

[carpathia]

Maybe one day I'll make the haul out to the west side for a meeting.

I'm looking to get a Counterflow; my existing immersion, while good with recirculated ice water, is too tall for my kettle, and half the coils sit above water line (and I had one of the hoses come off, dumping about a gallon of chilling water into my boil pot about a minute out from pitching temperatures). Anyone have any recommendations?

 

[TravelingLight]

Maybe one day I'll make the haul out to the west side for a meeting.

I'm looking to get a Counterflow; my existing immersion, while good with recirculated ice water, is too tall for my kettle, and half the coils sit above water line (and I had one of the hoses come off, dumping about a gallon of chilling water into my boil pot about a minute out from pitching temperatures). Anyone have any recommendations?

I've also been considering upgrading chillers when I get my pump in the near future. I went back and forth between plate chiller and CFC. But I think if I upgrade to one of those, I'd go with CFC, mainly because I do a lot of hoppy beers and don't want to deal with clogging plates with hop debris. But, I also think my chilling will improve a lot just by recirculating with a pump and still using my immersion chiller. So I'm going to try that first before I decide whether I want to get a new chiller.

 

[carpathia]

I have been doing just that; I use a diptube to whirlpool around my 50' chiller while recirculating ice water through. It takes about 15-20 minutes (not that I time it) to get down close enough to pitching temps. It's really the lack of 100% contact with the cooling coils, and constant fear that my hose clamps will fail. again. for the third time (1st time was while still stovetop brewing). I took my valves and fittings off for cleaning, and discovered that the only place showing residue (a month later) was the interior of the ball valve; the smooth fittings that come in contact with hot PBW didn't have issues. Therefore, I think the star-shape on the z-chiller (bought from AIH last night; although marginally more expensive then a stripped down exchilerator, i figured having full copper would increase durability, and the lack of moutning bracket wasn't a big deal) will clean nicely with my normal sanitation procedures (I already do an hour or so of hot PBW recirculation; this is just one more tube to push it through).

 

[SHAIV]

I got that pump for recirculating ice water through the chiller. Ill try it out next brew day. That also gives the the ability to brew inside without having rig up something to a faucet. I also have a new hop spider that fits perfectly in my 8 gallon kettle so i wont have a clogged valve from hops like what happened last time. So yeah ill also get more wort out of my kettle. Woo hoo! Im excited to not have to run outside and go back and forth when i need something next brew day and use less water. Though the 10’ blow up pool we just got will more than offset that lol

 

[SHAIV]

So looks like i might be brewing tonight. A columbus smash extract. I would like to pressure transfer this when its done fermenting and last time it didnt transfer so good in my bubbler but i had plenty of headspace. I plan on ending up with 4.5 to 5 gal to ferment. I could probably use a 5 gallon carboy since my pressure transfer worked great out of that. Or i guess i could keg ferment it pressure fermented or not. What do you think i should ferment in?

 

[carpathia]

Just kicked on my immersion chiller pump for a helles lager (think I might have hit 80% or so thanks to actually having a mill). Only took 2.2 hours to boil down!

I'd live with the extra headspace if I were you, if only for the krausen. I ferment all my swill in a fermonster, and that leaves a ton of headspace.

 

[SHAIV]

Just kicked on my immersion chiller pump for a helles lager (think I might have hit 80% or so thanks to actually having a mill). Only took 2.2 hours to boil down!

I'd live with the extra headspace if I were you, if only for the krausen. I ferment all my swill in a fermonster, and that leaves a ton of headspace.

Hows the pump doing with the chill? Got temps down fast? I got 40 lbs of ice today and a 48 quart cooler to use for chilling
Oh i love having extra headspace. I guess i should do that but i just dont like how the closed transfer worked out of it last time and i dunno if i can use my current racking cane because its cracked. I could use my buddies plastic bubbler with a valve on it i guess

 

[carpathia]

I timed it this time. It got down to ~82 with 50 pounds of Ice and a few quarts of water (100% recirculation; I'm not trusting a hose near my electric with the cutoff 50' away on the side of the house) in about 20 minutes, at which point I gave up on recirculation. Wort is now getting down to the 50 pitch temp and aerating in the freezer.

What yeast/og/fg are you shooting for? As a non-kegger (though I did buy a 1.75 gallon cannonball for the fridge), i've never done a closed transfer. Is there that much of a benefit, especially if you bottle condition?

 

[SHAIV]

Well i meant to say my auto siphon is cracked so i dont think i can use it for transfer

 

[carpathia]

I abandoned the autosiphon for a length of tubing and a turkey baster; works much better than that autosiphon ever did, with no turbulence and significantly less difficult to clean. Not my video:

 

[SHAIV]

Brew day finished got done cleaning up around 1140. Started at 8. Not too bad i guess. i did do an hour boil this time and 30 min for heating and about 30 min for chilling. That pump with ice water was awesome! I trusted my kettle thermometer too much and when it said 70 i transferred but my fermometer read about 58! And the glass was condensating. I ran the first 5-6 gallons of chillin water to another vessel until it didnt feel really hot, i think the wort was at about 140-150 at that time i switched it to recirculating. Man it chilled so good. I mean wort was under the 5 gallon mark on my kettle at that time as well but if i used a second thermometer it may have only taken 20 min or so to chill. And the hop spider did its job well. Only 3 oz in this boil but it held them in well i think. I got a lot of foam when transferring though. I tried to use a aerator tip on my transfer hose that i originally got for sparging. So i had foam flowing out of the fermenter while transferring, so that was kind of a pain but all in all i think it was a successful brew day

 

[Lifer59]

You missed my Sage Saison at beer club. Light turnout but those that were there said it was pretty good.

 

[TravelingLight]

You missed my Sage Saison at beer club. Light turnout but those that were there said it was pretty good.

Damn! Hate I missed it. I was on vacay with the inlaws.