What I did for beer today

[day_trippr]

K3 is fully up and chillin' down!

Today I calibrated all (9) temperature sensors together to a tenth of a degree F, installed the lid gasket, filled and tested the rinser, drain and vent, then connected the compressor to the control system and turned it on. After nothing happened for a couple of minutes - and a split moment before panic could show its head - I realized I had the freezer thermostat set to the "Off" position (dumb ass )

So...I used a 3/8" thick inch-wide "dual D" closed cell foam weatherstrip recommended by a fellow HBT member - and didn't split the twin "D" strips, just applied them together for a double-course of stripping.

Went with 45° cuts at the ends and jammed the ends together. Hopefully they squish together tight where I can't see 'em.

With the gasket in place I set the lid down, then loosened the hinge screws and went around the lid with an inside caliper to get the gap set to a uniform 3/16" before tightening the hinge screws down.

Down in the luxuriously spacious bidness area I have two EVA Dry E-500s (with 40mm fans driving cabinet air into them for much better performance), a 120mm fan on the hump blowing lengthwise down the aisle, and a small plastic container with the "Lower Cabinet" temperature sensor tie-wrapped to it sitting on the floor.

The shorty kegs on the hump are the rinser water supply (2.5g) and the rinser tray drainage catcher (3g). Getting these both on the hump saves floor space for actual beer kegs

Filling the 2.5g rinser water keg with 2 gallons of fresh water. I use a scale tared with everything attached then fill to ~16.5 pounds, while using my spunding gauge to keep the head space pressure below 60 psi. This keg feeds an adjustable regulator (seen at the top of the previous pic) to drop the pressure at the rinser valve to 15 psi as recommended by the manufacturer. The "catch keg" is vented outside the cabinet through another bulkhead.

Rinser in action...



So, now I wait for the beast to get down to 36°F, at which point I can stick a few kegs of beer in it.
Then I'm gonna be brewing like a maniac to get my pipeline going again - I have 12 empty kegs, a turrible situation!

Cheers!

 

[Beermeister32]

Great Job!!!

 

[TheEagleRising]

Had a slab of maple lying around so I figured why not make my own mash paddle. It's not pretty but it gives it character. Still need someone final sanding and want to inlay something in the handle.

 

[jcav]

What a work of art! Awesome job, you should be proud of yourself! I am really digging your glass rinser too!

John

 

[ba-brewer]

Weather cooled down so got a brew day in, a Munich Helles that is going to be fermented with Lutra kveik. Pitched the yeast and it was bubbling in 90min.

 

[bobeer]

Squeezed in a late night brew day and did a milk chocolate Stout and a party guyle that turned into a 1.037 whoppers (the candy) brown ale.
We have a ton of Halloween candy, and I love to do experimental stuff with party guyles, so I decided to crush up 14 or so packages and toss them in throughout the boil. I also added a few pellets of 12%aa loral hops just for a tad of ibu. The sample tasted pretty good so im going to go with it. I have some sa04 that I think will go well with the overall vibe.

 

[Immocles]

Brewed! A brown ale, giving Windsor yeast a try. Got a free packet from a friend when I bought his neglected fermenter

 

[eric19312]

Do you have some sort of safety on the rinsate catch keg? I see you have larger volume in your catch keg than in your rinse water keg but I'm speculating there may be other stuff (beer from a foamy pour, cleaning solution to clean up the beer from the foamy pour) that goes down that drain. How will you know it is full?

 

[johndan]

Starter for a Heady Topper clone.

 

[VikeMan]

Starter for a Heady Topper clone.

View attachment 703401

Maybe it's the lighting, but that starter wort looks really dark. What did you make it with?

 

[johndan]

Maybe it's the lighting, but that starter wort looks really dark. What did you make it with?

Munton's Dark DME. It's what I had on hand. Maybe I should have used a light DME for a double IPA? I just started brewing three or four months ago, so I'm still sorting things out.

I'm not going to pitch the whole flask; I'll decant most of the liquid, swirl, and pitch the yeast.

 

[VikeMan]

Munton's Dark DME. It's what I had on hand. Maybe I should have used a light DME for a double IPA? I just started brewing three or four months ago, so I'm still sorting things out.

I'm not going to pitch the whole flask; I'll decant most of the liquid, swirl, and pitch the yeast.

And besides color, another reason to use light DME is fermentability, i.e. you'll get more cell growth with lighter extract because it has a higher proportion of fermentable sugars.

 

[bobeer]

Moved the xmas dubbel upstairs to warm it up a bit for a few days before bottling it. That reminds me... I have to clean out a bunch of 750 ml bottles and dig out the floor corker...

 

[TheEagleRising]

Finished all the sanding on my paddle and put my finishing touch on it.

 

[aharri1]

Made a starter for my dunkelweizen I'm brewing Saturday.

 

[day_trippr]

Christened "K3" with the first pour. The imperial chocolate stout, of course...

Even cleaned the glass first!

Cheers! (Now to fill this thing up!)

 

[bracconiere]

sleep well!

 

[seanjwalker1]

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.

Been kicking around a Fezziweg recipe in my head myself. Last 3 year's have been spiced porters and brown ales. Want something lighter and closer to Sam Adams Fezzi this year.

 

[seanjwalker1]

Did a beer clean up in the fridges and garage, collecting all the loose bottles from here and there. Be darned if I didn't collect 2 cases worth!! It's a hodge podge...but it's 2 cases!

 

[johndan]

And besides color, another reason to use light DME is fermentability, i.e. you'll get more cell growth with lighter extract because it has a higher proportion of fermentable sugars.

Didn't know that--thanks.

 

[fourfarthing]

Dry Hopped two and cold crashed one. Got a starter running for a Kolsch and dug in on some Suarez that arrived yesterday. Life is good.

 

[BrewZer]

Sanitized 28 22 oz bottles and the bottling bucket/hoses/spigots in prep for bottling the Belgian Saison-al Dubble in the fermenter right now.

 

[OldDogBrewing]

Brewed my house tripel, lower in OG as I want to add brett at secondary but keeping the same ABV, the brewday went great and now I need to wait for the yeast to start, last time it took 5 days to start and it nearly blew the lid, this time I'm ready, clear bucket to watch on the krausen, and lid sealed with tape, obvs blow off tube added too

 

[BrewZer]

Bottled the Saison-al Dubbel with no breaks, no crooked caps, and about a half-gallon of yeasty waste. In two weeks I'll check a bottle for carbonation and clearing.

 

[seatazzz]

Kegged off my three-week-old Cascade APA that I started crashing last week; first taste of it last week wasn't what I wanted, so I just left it to crash this week while I did other things (while in the back of my mind I was thinking oh sh*t, this might be a dumper). Finally decided to keg it tonight (need the fermenter tomorrow) and very pleased with the flavor; initial taste last week had a slight off-flavor (may have been overworked yeast) that wasn't pleasant, tonight it tasted like I wanted it to. Although the yeast was fresh Notty I trashed it, just to be on the safe side. Also exchanged a propane tank, and working myself up to milling the grain for tomorrow's Holiday Ale. Just haven't been feeling the "brew bug" the last two weeks (amazing!!) but tonight I'm getting pumped for what should be an epic brewday tomorrow. Decided against adding some chocolate to the grain bill, going to use about 1/2lb of well-aged homeroasted crystal instead; it gives a nice roasty flavor that should mix well with all the spices I intend to throw at this one. TLR but I can't wait for this one.

 

[aharri1]

Brewing a dunkelweizen for our Homebrew 25 Days of Christmas beer swap we're going to do. 25 different members are dropping off a case and then they're going to sort them where everyone gets one different beer for everyday. I'm doing 1lb of cacao nibs in secondary for a Xmas spin on it!

 

[grampamark]

Well, so far today, I’m brewing some, drinking some, and it’s not even 3 PM yet, so who knows what beer-related adventures lie ahead.

Actually, what lies ahead is, probably, falling asleep in the recliner after supper. But, I can imagine that I’ve returned, once more, to those thrilling days of yesteryear, right?

 

[TheEagleRising]

Brew night, doing a APA SMaSH with Golden Promise and Manderina Bavarian.

 

[BrewMan13]

Yesterday got a big starter going. Today kegged the milk stout, and prepped for brewing tomorrow.

 

[JAReeves]

Prepped grain, water, and hops for tomorrow's brew day. A Citra-Mosaic DIPA. Tasted the Red Rye, and it is amazing.