• Please visit and share your knowledge at our sister communities:
  • If you have not, please join our official Homebrewing Facebook Group!

    Homebrewing Facebook Group

What I did for beer today

Homebrew Talk

Help Support Homebrew Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
My starter from early in the week went as planned but I need more yeast for the upcoming brew schedule. So, I was about half done with today’s starter when I added the yeast nutrient. Ugh, massive boil over. Nothing to do but start all over.

Here is todays 2nd attempt. Lol
IMG_8822.jpeg
 
All that brewing stainless steel makes me all warm and fuzzy inside !!
Finished cleaning up after yesterday's brew today. A storm ended my clean up yesterday so I had to finish today. And my CF5 is finally holding pressure so I'm purging and filling up a 1.6 gal Torpedo with free Co2. Mean while I'm sipping on another Idyle Hounds Goast Crab Pilsner.

View attachment 819899
 
Spending the morning cleaning/leak testing kegs, and making a yeast starter for tomorrow's pressure fermented lager. Yes I know I don't need a starter for dry yeast (going with 34/70 for this batch), but for this one I'm being overly cautious; will be on 15psi from the time I pitch until transferring. Want to make sure plenty of good hungry yeast in there. Also I need practice at it. Don't have a stir plate, just going to leave it on the counter and swirl it around every time I walk past it.
 
A grand+ for a mill for home brewing - vs standing up wind?

Cheers! 😁
Had a bad week and this just happen to piss me off the most. Was considering the brewtech but the portly gentlemans review kinda turned me off, plus the short someone had on it. Just said if im gonna do it might as well do it right lmao.
 
I hope I haven't screwed up, but I'm carbonating a Czech Pils using the over flow Co2 off a fermenting APA. It didn't dawn on me that it may become an issue until it was well under way. Oh well I filled 4 other kegs with free Co2. We will soon find out, the Pils needs about two more weeks of lagering before I tap it.
 
Last edited:
Yesterday I finally transferred the pressure-fermented cream ale, and immediately regretted the floating dip tube. Didn't get clogged but just wouldn't keep flowing. So I quickly reinstalled the long metal diptube and finished it that way. If the beer isn't great it's okay, it's my first try anyway. So for today's brew I cut the diptube down about 1.5" and will go that way instead. Found one of those nifty ridgid pipe cutters in dad's old toolbox, did a great job with minimal effort.
 
I took my new Riptide for a test pump by hooking it up to my boil kettle and seeing how it handled whirlpooling water just off the boil. Worked like a champ, unlike my two Chuggers (purchased used), which kept stalling out when the wort got hot. Took me forever to figure out it was the pump and not my dumbassary. I toyed with the idea of replacing parts, or even doing the Riptide upgrade on one of them, but ultimately, I sprang for the 'tide. Magnets seem a lot more powerful, and it's easier to clean.

I then got it mounted to my brewery control center, pictured here with the Chugger still installed. The second Chugger had already been replaced with a little solar heater recirc pump attached right to the output of the HLT. Those little $25 pumps are perfect for recirculating the water in HLT and for sparging.
IMG_20221015_114225092.jpg


Then over on the cold side, I tinkered with my glycol chiller build. I've already torn apart a window AC and got the heat exchanger bent out and into position. Today I'm testing the worthiness of the drain on the cooler to make sure it's up to the long-term job of holding back the glycol without a slow drip.

Also finally ordered a 30amp 240v GFCI circuit breaker, 'cause I tired of living on the edge.
 
Stopped in at Lowe's during Saturday morning errands. Wifey needed some potting soil to start a pot of basil, so I snuck over to the insulation aisle and grabbed a roll of Reflectix.

Been wanting to try it. My current mix of lightweight blankets and old coats is not only klunky, but also loses ~5 degrees/hour during my BIAB mash. Hoping this helps!

Cheers.
 

Attachments

  • 20230513_162407.jpg
    20230513_162407.jpg
    2.6 MB
Ok, I'm sure the group is totally behind you on this, but 12 pounds per minute is crazy throughput for home brewing that I'd love to see, so you're gonna have to post a video review of that beast. Capiche?

Cheers! :D
Will do, ill wait till it gets here and put the imperial stout grist thru it. I think its like 22.5 pounds for a 5.25 gallon recipe. I dont have a shipping date yet but ill throw it up when it gets here.
 
Had a great time in Astoria; picked up several new stickers for the ferment fridge, had some great beers, got myself a T-shirt at Rogue, and before we left received permission to drop the hammer on the Fermzilla kit from Morebeer. Hell of a deal at $123.99, that includes all the pressure fermenting stuff needed. Can't wait for it to get here!
 
I hope I haven't screwed up, but I'm carbonating a Czech Pils using the over flow Co2 off a fermenting APA. It didn't dawn on me that it may become an issue until it was well under way. Oh well I filled 4 other kegs with free Co2. We will soon find out, the Pils needs about two more weeks of lagering before I tap it.
Nothing wrong with experiment!! Many miracles happen from unintentional happenings !!!
 
Ok so today bucked up the courage to transfer the 5 months late Xmas white and do a taste test after 5 Hail Marys!!! Lordie B it actually taste very good ! Orange peel and coriander still coming through! I watched it like a hawk during transfer. Absolutely no uglies visible in the beer or on side or at the bottom of the fermenter. I know you can't always tell by looking and smelling but the taste is a good indicator. Thank the Beer Lords that garage was pretty darned cold till a little over a week ago. So I guess I ended up with an unintentional lager.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20230515_175646082.jpg
    IMG_20230515_175646082.jpg
    759.7 KB
  • IMG_20230515_175659058_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20230515_175659058_HDR.jpg
    756.9 KB
  • IMG_20230515_180359096_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20230515_180359096_HDR.jpg
    1.5 MB
  • IMG_20230515_180645311.jpg
    IMG_20230515_180645311.jpg
    1.7 MB
Back
Top