Happy spring!
What I did for beer today
- Thread starter iaefebs
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Earlier in the week had a field trip to the Harbor Freight for a bottling table/rolling cart. Today I discovered it works better than I imagined! No drips, no lower back pain, life is good! It's plastic which cleans up easy and it stores kettles and such when I'm not bottling. Today is a good day.
My "Let There Be Light!" moment. After debugging a mis-wired bulkhead power connector (I had to wire everything up-side-down and missed that one) I got the lid switch and cheap LED light bars mounted and working.
Cleaned up the wiring, tie downs and ties, added SS screws to the tie downs to pin them to the wood structure, which also holds all the perimeter foam pieces tightly in place.
All the basic wiring stuff is now checked out, so tomorrow I'll hook up my backup control system to check out the flow meters and temp sensors. Then it'll just be a matter of me pulling the trigger on "K2" to start harvesting the parts I need...
Cheers!
Cleaned up the wiring, tie downs and ties, added SS screws to the tie downs to pin them to the wood structure, which also holds all the perimeter foam pieces tightly in place.
All the basic wiring stuff is now checked out, so tomorrow I'll hook up my backup control system to check out the flow meters and temp sensors. Then it'll just be a matter of me pulling the trigger on "K2" to start harvesting the parts I need...
Cheers!
Labeled some bottles tonight.
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Picked most of my East Seattle Goldings (~1#) and brewing up a fresh hop ESB right now.
After doing 4-5 fresh hop ales a year (I have N Brewer, Tettnang and ESG plants started from hop bulbs) for the past 4 years, I've settled on the following:
- Base recipe (various bitters or a czech lager)
- use hop pellets for BU/GU ~.8
- split however much fresh hops I have in quarters (1 - 1.5#). To be honest, i just eyeball and toss in handfuls
- add in the quarters at 15, 10, 5 and 0 minutes
- sparge and drain off
- let cool overnight
- decent yeast pitch in the morning
- usually bottle so I can slowly enjoy for a while but also good in the keg
I like the result, it's unique, local terroir, and kinda fun. Northern Brewer does the best for me, and I usually get 2 harvests out of that one. ESG is always latest to mature, small cones and the lowest yield. Tettnang get the least sun just based on trees and the configuration of my front yard.
I also have found that using 2 strings/plant and 1 bine per string seems to work well for my environment and style. I've had 2 or more bines per string, but the usable yield is roughly the same. That said, maybe next year I'll do 3 strings for the N Brewer.
After doing 4-5 fresh hop ales a year (I have N Brewer, Tettnang and ESG plants started from hop bulbs) for the past 4 years, I've settled on the following:
- Base recipe (various bitters or a czech lager)
- use hop pellets for BU/GU ~.8
- split however much fresh hops I have in quarters (1 - 1.5#). To be honest, i just eyeball and toss in handfuls
- add in the quarters at 15, 10, 5 and 0 minutes
- sparge and drain off
- let cool overnight
- decent yeast pitch in the morning
- usually bottle so I can slowly enjoy for a while but also good in the keg
I like the result, it's unique, local terroir, and kinda fun. Northern Brewer does the best for me, and I usually get 2 harvests out of that one. ESG is always latest to mature, small cones and the lowest yield. Tettnang get the least sun just based on trees and the configuration of my front yard.
I also have found that using 2 strings/plant and 1 bine per string seems to work well for my environment and style. I've had 2 or more bines per string, but the usable yield is roughly the same. That said, maybe next year I'll do 3 strings for the N Brewer.
Cleaned the dispenser and flushed the keg to fill with my fest bier for the Oktoberfest party this November with my German buddies. We use to ride our Harley's every Sunday. Jo has a longhorn ranch around Farmersville, Tx.
![Craft A Brew - Safale BE-256 Yeast - Fermentis - Belgian Ale Dry Yeast - For Belgian & Strong Ales - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [3 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51bcKEwQmWL._SL500_.jpg)
Bottling day 2.5 gal batch of Wheat Blonde I brewed a couple of weeks ago at the city house. Got 23 12 oz bottles and one 500 ml bottle.
The bottling bucket sample tasted pretty good.
The bottling bucket sample tasted pretty good.
Beautiful brew space! I am thinking that I may need to seal the concrete in my garage sometime in the next few years to make a smoother surface with easier cleanup. I love the peg board for brew tools.
Today we tasted and stabilized the ice wine, tomorrow we move it for aging.
Moved the Pale Sour to a keg for carbonation and cold crashing. This year we aged it on an oak spiral for 5 months and it completely changed the flavor for the better!
Brewed the West Coast 12 Beers of Christmas Honey-Ginger IPA. Still trying to dial in my process since I upgraded some of my equipment, but I think this is going to be good.
Moved the Pale Sour to a keg for carbonation and cold crashing. This year we aged it on an oak spiral for 5 months and it completely changed the flavor for the better!
Brewed the West Coast 12 Beers of Christmas Honey-Ginger IPA. Still trying to dial in my process since I upgraded some of my equipment, but I think this is going to be good.
No Patriots game today so I completed the electrical checkout of my "K3" lid project. Started by doing a basic unpowered sanity check using the "known good" umbilical cable (borrowed it from a powered-down K2) to make sure I didn't left-right transpose or "end-around" the DB37 lid connector wiring.
With that out of the way, time to plug everything in and power up the backup controller. No smoke!
Then I pulled up the Raspberry Pints tap list and walked a flow meter through all of the sockets, blowing through it and checking the tap list "poured ounces" count to make sure it incremented at each position...
Next was running my home-rolled temperature logger to check out its five temperature sensors...
Next was running the BrewPi instance that will actually control the keezer compressor, making sure all three of its sensors were registering properly.
Last was making sure the motion detector worked. And with that, the lid is 100% electrically ready to go!
Have to go up to NH tomorrow for a couple of days, hoping to decommission K2 and harvest the parts I need later in the week. Just kicked another keg so there's just the last two with a scant pour or so in each, plus the half-keg of stout that'll go in one of the fridges for hopefully just a little while...
Cheers!
[edit] Before I start blowing big holes through the lid I wanted to see how it looks atop the cabinet. I'm feelin' pretty good right now
Aaand another keg kicked. Down to one...
[edit2] And the last keg just blew a hole in my glass. Nothing holding me back now - literally: exuberance has led me to pick up an integrated drip tray/rinser for a cleaner look - and the option to add one or two single tap towers in the future...
Cheers! (spending my kids' inheritance)
With that out of the way, time to plug everything in and power up the backup controller. No smoke!
Then I pulled up the Raspberry Pints tap list and walked a flow meter through all of the sockets, blowing through it and checking the tap list "poured ounces" count to make sure it incremented at each position...
Next was running my home-rolled temperature logger to check out its five temperature sensors...
Next was running the BrewPi instance that will actually control the keezer compressor, making sure all three of its sensors were registering properly.
Last was making sure the motion detector worked. And with that, the lid is 100% electrically ready to go!
Have to go up to NH tomorrow for a couple of days, hoping to decommission K2 and harvest the parts I need later in the week. Just kicked another keg so there's just the last two with a scant pour or so in each, plus the half-keg of stout that'll go in one of the fridges for hopefully just a little while...
Cheers!
[edit] Before I start blowing big holes through the lid I wanted to see how it looks atop the cabinet. I'm feelin' pretty good right now
Aaand another keg kicked. Down to one...
[edit2] And the last keg just blew a hole in my glass. Nothing holding me back now - literally: exuberance has led me to pick up an integrated drip tray/rinser for a cleaner look - and the option to add one or two single tap towers in the future...
Cheers! (spending my kids' inheritance
)
Last edited:
nursedude
Member
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Brown Ale: Bottled 58 12oz bottles and complained the whole time about needing to get a kegerator.
Belgian Quad: Tasted, transferred to secondary, and fined with gelatin. In a few days I guess I'll bottle those as well... It's a vicious cycle!
Belgian Quad: Tasted, transferred to secondary, and fined with gelatin. In a few days I guess I'll bottle those as well... It's a vicious cycle!
Pegboard is cool. If you have the room the more the merrier. I'm a lucky man
Dry hopped my IPAs last night with Mosaic, Citra, Galaxy and BRU-1. Hopefully I can do a closed transfer to the serving kegs next weekend and place them in the kegerator.
That reminds me, I need to replace my draft lines and clean the faucets this week.
That reminds me, I need to replace my draft lines and clean the faucets this week.
Filtering my Fest bier to carbonate and then transfer to the Paulaner keg for the Oktoberfest party
Getting a few beers labeled for sharing.
All this talk of pegboard inspired me to get some to deal with the container of mess that was previously barely containing my supplies. Felt like crap this morning and took a sick day, and when I was feeling a little better in the afternoon went out to buy some and got this setup in my brewing closet.
Looks great
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- Dec 21, 2012
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Hm. I may have to steal this.
Bought more ice for my chiller for the fermenter. Okay, now I am seriously considering a glycol system, the continuous buying of ice is seriously cutting into my cost savings of making my own beer!
Got starter going for my Scottish Export. First of two.
Nokie
Well-Known Member
kegging beer and washing yeast
Today I am adding 26oz of dark wildflower honey, 2.7oz of candied ginger and 2oz of Cluster dry hops to the 2020-12 Beers of Christmas-West Coast, Honey-Ginger IPA.
Sipping on some homebrew while I ponder on this year's Holiday Ale recipe. Planning on bottling the whole batch this year so I need to get going on it in the next two weeks. I've done the last three years Holiday Ale with an american strong base beer while playing with the spice additions. This year I might add a touch of chocolate malt with some flaked barley to up the mouthfeel, and up the spice additions to a full 22oz bottle filled with capn morgan rum and a TON of spice, this year to include our usual cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, pumpkin pie spice, and what I have left of dried orange peel. This year going for something close to Old Fezziwig but with a knock-your-ugly-holiday-socks-off spice kick, just for the heck of it. Also too much fun to sit here and think about it. Also want to amaze my perfect sister who never fails to find a holiday ale at the local store to challenge my brewing skills.
FOUND THE KEG LUBE!! Under the ferment fridge. Still good. Yay!!!
Brewed up a holiday ale using 3.3 lbs of Munich LME, 6.6 lbs of Pale Pilsner LME, an ounce of Cluster (bittering), an ounce of Hallertau (aroma) and a pint of a coriander/orange peel/cinnamon infusion. Left me 5.5 gals of a fairly sweet and spicy wort (before adding Saison I yeast) that tastes great just as it is now... I can't wait to see what the yeast does to it!
Went to LHBS for CO2, grain for a stout and a DIPA, some fresh yeasties, and bottle caps for the Christmas beers. 2 1/2 years in to full-time hobby brewing, and I am definitely learning how to schedule the year's brew days for optimum production.
I put my dying keezer to rest today. My second keezer, it didn't quite make it to its 9th birthday.
It was a great machine, reliable as hell (until it wasn't), always good pours...
Hoping the next build will be a little bit cleaner in the back...
...but it's definitely going to be much less cramped inside.
Totally stripped it clean of parts for the new build.
I'll eventually stuff the carcass in the back of my Durango and haul it to the same store that sold me its replacement for disposal.
Meanwhile...K3 gets ever closer to "done"...
Cheers!
It was a great machine, reliable as hell (until it wasn't), always good pours...
Hoping the next build will be a little bit cleaner in the back...
...but it's definitely going to be much less cramped inside.
Totally stripped it clean of parts for the new build.
I'll eventually stuff the carcass in the back of my Durango and haul it to the same store that sold me its replacement for disposal.
Meanwhile...K3 gets ever closer to "done"...
Cheers!
BrewMan13
Whole Nother Level Brewing
Kicked the marzen, and immediately cleaned the keg and tapline
