What I did for beer today

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Ordered more gas line, a 3 way gas manifold so I have an extra outlet for the tapcooler bottle filler, cleaned and sanitized 15 bottles to test the contraption out when I get my beer kegged. Had planned on kegging the Czech today but once again the wife foiled those plans...dastardly! How she comes up with things we just have to do or the world will stop turning when I have important things to do like keg beer is beyond me! 😧😳. Dastardly I tell you! Other worldly. I'm in freaking brew twilight zone.
 
Preparing to rack almost done Nut Brown to a pin. My first “real” cask ale. Yes I know that many UK breweries now let it finish and often condition the ale before casking good for consistency. Prep included shopping for a rubber mallet too.

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Kegged my Mexican Lager.
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How much will it weigh when it is finished? I mean, I suppose I could weigh one of my kegs with water in it, but since you've already done all the hard work...:rolleyes:

I'm only sorta-kidding, "a pint is a pound the world around," is what we learned in Culinary School. But do you fill to 5G exactly or are you going up to the gas post, or something?
 
How much will it weigh when it is finished? I mean, I suppose I could weigh one of my kegs with water in it, but since you've already done all the hard work...:rolleyes:
Well, I zero it out with an empty keg before I start so this was 24 lbs when I was done (3 gal keg) and probably not helpful. I’m not taking it back out to weight it again, getting both kegs in the fridge together was …. fun.
 
But do you fill to 5G exactly or are you going up to the gas post, or something?
I use the scale mostly so I can tell when it’s almost full so I can be ready to close the butterfly and not overfill or get any foamy sludge. My last couple batches have been on the nose for volumes so it’s not so much of an issue anymore. This one was exactly 3 gallons so I didn’t even get any excess to try!
 
^ I normally elevate one side a keg while filling so the gas side is lower. When I see beer spitting or coming out the gas post I know it is full and the the bottom of the gas tub will be above the surface of the beer when set level. Helps keep beer from getting sent up the gas lines.

I do a closed transfer gravity fill so I don't really need to weigh the keg but I do use a scale as well to aid in determining how full the keg is getting while I putz around.

The volume gets a bit complicated to determine by weight alone, alcohol is less dense than water but the sugars left in the beer are heavier. Using the weight of water gets you in the ball park.

edit: Link to spreadsheet to calculate volume from weight here
 
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I dry hopped the two beers I have fermenting.

The golden ale is fermenting with Voss and is pretty close to being at terminal gravity so I also moved it to a keg to do the dry hopping under pressure and carbonate itself.

Even though I have too many hops already I took the bait in an email and bought some fresh hops of the current harvest.
 
Which recipe/page in the book?

Because of the hops I had on hand, it’s kind of a mash up of the first two pages of the IPA chapter.

14# MO
2oz Goldings FWH, 90 min boil
2oz Goldings 60 min
1.5oz Goldings 30 min
1.5oz Fuggles 30 min
2oz Goldings WP, 30 min, 170F
3oz Fuggles WP, same

Plan to dry hop for a week with oak after primary. 2oz Goldings and 3oz Fuggles.

Should be about 7.5% and 100 IBU’s.

The bees like it, so…
 
Because of the hops I had on hand, it’s kind of a mash up of the first two pages of the IPA chapter.

14# MO
2oz Goldings FWH, 90 min boil
2oz Goldings 60 min
1.5oz Goldings 30 min
1.5oz Fuggles 30 min
2oz Goldings WP, 30 min, 170F
3oz Fuggles WP, same

Plan to dry hop for a week with oak after primary. 2oz Goldings and 3oz Fuggles.

Should be about 7.5% and 100 IBU’s.

The bees like it, so…
Sweet Mother! That's got to burn your taste buds off! I can barely choke down anything over 40 IBU.
 
Sweet Mother! That's got to burn your taste buds off! I can barely choke down anything over 40 IBU.

Average IBUs of the recipes for the first couple of pages of that chapter average 172 lol from the years 1839-1877.

They would heavily hop it for the trip to India and by the time it saw land again the beer was supposedly brilliant in flavor.

"The cause of all the commotion in the brewing trade was East India pale ale, and many strange tales have been told of its origin, all of which refer to a consignment of beer sent out in a cloudy condition, which, after travelling round the world, came back to the country of
its birth, in a condition so excellent, bright and sparkling, that it was said to be superior to a glass of Madeira or sparkling champagne."

-Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 2,
Alfred Barnard, 1889, pages 421-422
 
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Finally found
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time to keg my Czech!!! Gloriuous !!! Czech is 32° going into the keg, clear as a bell after 3 months lagering...or is it 4 months ?? Got it on 30 psi through the carbonation keg lid with diffusion stone so this time tomorrow should be cooking. Basement is pretty cold so temp won't drop too much over next 12 hours outside the kegerator. I had to place the Irish Red in the kegerator to cold crash for 24 hours to keg tomorrow.
 
The Boddington pre-1970 clone is fermenting away. The Manchester yeast may be doing a number on this one. In my 6 gallon fermenter, there is an inch or so of krausen.But the wierd thing this bug chunks of yeast are rising fromthe bottom and rising to the top. Looks like a slow motion snoglobe. never seen yeasties acting this was before.

Oh, WY1969 loves doing that. It's like a lava lamp! Great big, golf ball-sized lumps of yeast convecting around the fermenter like a Star Wars asteroid field. Positively mesmerizing! The odd thing is this: I can't find any rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes it does it, other times it won't. Back around '98 I did about 10 re-pitches on the same recipe while I was trying to dial in a dark mild and sometimes I'd get the golf balls, other times it looked like a normal cloudy fermentation with a small chunk here and there. No difference in the finished product, though. Just yeast being their interesting selves, I guess.

I do miss fermenting in glass.
 
May need to invest in cold-crash guardian.
View attachment 745156EDIT: one balloon fill emptied by the time the temp hit 50F. Refilled the balloon, so we’ll see if it absorbs it all before it hits 40F.

I built a ball jar-based anti-suck back rig and it wasn't too expensive. I already had the Ball jars for slurry harvesting and a step bit for modding my Brewbucket lids, so it was just the cost of vinyl tubing and stoppers. My half pint Ball jars work okay for lagers, but I'll upgrade to full pint-sized jars if I ever find a need to cold crash my ales. All told, I was out about 15 bucks for the rig. Worth every penny.
 
Last night I kegged my Rye IPA, I wasn’t happy with the aroma from the first dry hop, it wasn’t present enough, so I threw in another 4 oz of hops into the keg.

Cripes! I'm in awe at a brewer that casually says, "so I threw in another 4oz of hops into the keg." I hope, for all our sakes, that you never get your finger near the big red flashing button labeled "nukes."
 
I built a ball jar-based anti-suck back rig and it wasn't too expensive. I already had the Ball jars for slurry harvesting and a step bit for modding my Brewbucket lids, so it was just the cost of vinyl tubing and stoppers. My half pint Ball jars work okay for lagers, but I'll upgrade to full pint-sized jars if I ever find a need to cold crash my ales. All told, I was out about 15 bucks for the rig. Worth every penny.

Could you show off a picture or two? I can’t visualize what you are describing.
 
Sweet Mother! That's got to burn your taste buds off! I can barely choke down anything over 40 IBU.

When I was in my 20's and alcohol seemed to have zero effect on me, I used to brew a lot of historic Burton Ales. ~1.070 with 160 IBUs of EKGs at 90min isn't terribly bitter. Remember, hop utilization goes down tremendously as gravity goes up, it isn't quite logarithmic, but it's in the neighborhood. Going into the keg, these ales were rip snorting monsters, but once they'd been given a month or two to relax, they were no more bitter than other hop forward beers.

The point being, don't put too much stock in IBUs. Back in the mid-90's early 2000's IBU wars period, folks liked to brag about their favorite 160IBU double IPA. Those beers were invariably brewed with too much crystal malt and at too high of a gravity to really be bitter. To me, those beers always tasted sweet and under attenuated. Remember, the average human tongue punks out at around 80-100IBU, so anything over that threshold isn't real.

I used to enjoy serving the Arrogant Bastard crowd a vicious little pale ale that I used to brew called Lie Detector. It was 1.045 of Briess two row and 90IBU of CTZ at 60, 20, 10, knockout, and 2oz of Amarillo or Cascades as a dry hop. Suffice it to say, it sorted the folks that bragged about IBUS, but really liked sweet boozy beers, from the folks that really enjoyed having their skulls caved in. Then I got my hands on Simco.... muahahahaha!

I know you're approaching beer from your time in Germany, Mr. Walker. But don't discount the UK brewing tradition. It is amazing! I'll agree that those IBU numbers seem obscene, but they work rather well in the glass.
 
Could you show off a picture or two? I can’t visualize what you are describing.

It's a simple rig. The fermenter dumps CO2 into the empty vessel. The empty vessel dumps CO2 into the full vessel, then the CO2 escapes via the airlock attached to the full vessel. In this way, the fermentation purges the system.

When it's time to crash, the empty vessel pulls StarSan from the full vessel into the empty vessel and replaces the space within the hitherto full vessel with CO2 rich air from the fermentation chamber.

Each jar has two holes. The first hole on the empty jar is attached to the fermenter blow off. The second hole on the empty jar is a jumper to the full jar. The first hole on the full jar receives the empty jar and is attached to a dip tube that makes certain that the second jar fully sucks back all of the Star San available in the full jar. The second hole on the full jar is attached to a dip tube and allows fermentation gasses to escape.

This is not a sexy system, but it works quite well for crashing lagers from 60F down to 40F prior to kegging. For an ale system, I think quart sized jars would be a better option, given the larger temperature differentials and subsequent volume differences in play.

It has made a marked improvement upon my lagers.

I hope you found this useful, do not hesitate to ask further questions. I'm here to help!

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When I was in my 20's and alcohol seemed to have zero effect on me, I used to brew a lot of historic Burton Ales. ~1.070 with 160 IBUs of EKGs at 90min isn't terribly bitter. Remember, hop utilization goes down tremendously as gravity goes up, it isn't quite logarithmic, but it's in the neighborhood. Going into the keg, these ales were rip snorting monsters, but once they'd been given a month or two to relax, they were no more bitter than other hop forward beers.

The point being, don't put too much stock in IBUs. Back in the mid-90's early 2000's IBU wars period, folks liked to brag about their favorite 160IBU double IPA. Those beers were invariably brewed with too much crystal malt and at too high of a gravity to really be bitter. To me, those beers always tasted sweet and under attenuated. Remember, the average human tongue punks out at around 80-100IBU, so anything over that threshold isn't real.

I used to enjoy serving the Arrogant Bastard crowd a vicious little pale ale that I used to brew called Lie Detector. It was 1.045 of Briess two row and 90IBU of CTZ at 60, 20, 10, knockout, and 2oz of Amarillo or Cascades as a dry hop. Suffice it to say, it sorted the folks that bragged about IBUS, but really liked sweet boozy beers, from the folks that really enjoyed having their skulls caved in. Then I got my hands on Simco.... muahahahaha!

I know you're approaching beer from your time in Germany, Mr. Walker. But don't discount the UK brewing tradition. It is amazing! I'll agree that those IBU numbers seem obscene, but they work rather well in the glass.
I'm no IBU expert because I'm not a hop head in any way shape or form! I had plenty beers in Germany and England and none were what I would call hoppy. Aventinus was my fave in Germany and Fullers ESB in England..and Theakstons. I'm the 1st to admit any IBU rating over 50 is like drinking pine juice to me! Give me sweet and malty. Pilsner Urquell is about as hoppy as I ever care to get.
 
Started off the morning by dumping the horribly overpitched WF lager from last week; it was truly disgusting. And since that was supposed to be next in the rotation of not-an-IPA in the kegerator, brewed up an impromptu batch of a basic Blonde, using all Crystal hops (because I've got scads of them and I like them), and fermenting on Loki at 66 instead of warmer, because reasons. Hoping it finishes fast, the yeast lagged a bit getting started but has a nice krausen tonight. Also dumped a LOT of dry hops in my Citra/El Dorado IPA, hand got a bit heavy with the El Dorado but that's another hop I've got lots of thanks to a flash sale at YVH a few months back, and my husband deciding we needed 2lbs of a hop we'd never used before. Not in my top five of juicy hops but it does a fair job.
 
Came home from leading the volunteers at the non-profit to find that the Czech Premium Yellow Jacket Lager (see post #19310) has bubbles in the airlock.

I usually pitch lagers cold, 48F, so it can take a while to get going.
This was about 48 hours. I know better than to expect it to take of like an ale fermentation, but I'm always relieved and happy to see it (and hear) it start bubbling along.
 
Well today I bought all new tubing for my 3 keg keezer as I have been chasing a co2 leak for a better part of this year. Wish me luck that this solves my problem.
If you've done all the usual checking (kegs, regulator, connectors) I would suggest looking at your hose clamps; I got burned that way. Not by them being too loose, but too tight; it made a cut in the tubing where the co2 got out.
 
Got the yeast starter in its final phase… started with 750ml… stepped to 4.5 liters… final step to 5 gallons…View attachment 745792
Once it’s fermented out and crashed, I’m going to attempt a Utopias-ish strength ale..!
That's damn impressive for a starter! Probably wouldn't fit on most stir plates...do you just oxygenate it?
 
Wow, you must be very neat, to work on carpet!
Very very careful!!! I actually put a Lot of paper towels under the table to catch any drips. My wife was busy cooking in the kitchen and having her cousins Babel on the phone to notice heh heh 😁. Actually I just fooled myself thinking she wouldn't notice. Of course she noticed she's a wife. The basement sliding door is just to the right of where I kegged, so I did have an exfil escape route in case she called an air strike. When I finished and went upstairs to rinse the equipment, she just casually smiled and asked if everything with the beer went ok...sent chills down my spine!!! That smile had me nervous..the calmness..😳😳😳. I'm still wondering if I'll hear air raid sirens. Just in case, I notified my friends if they see the news about a mysterious townhome explosion in Michigan, if they show a burned out basement with a man laying next to scorched kegs, a smoldering kegerator and gripping a tap adjustment tool...its me, just play Taps. So far, so good...👀
 
Today is cleaning day; already finished the kitchen & bathroom, and did the monthly boil-out of the plate chiller. Started a load of laundry. In between times been staring, mesmerized, at the dance the yeast are doing in the blonde I brewed yesterday. Also made an Amazon order; out of dry yeast so restocked that, and ordered a carbonation lid w/stone for the kegs. The two in the ferment fridge should be ready to start crashing Tuesday night, so Wednesday will be kegging day. Last Monday I handed in my resignation at my job, got a nice new one lined up that I don't have to start until November 8, so after next Friday it's a glorious 2-week vacation with a trip to Vegas at the end. I haven't had 2 weeks off in a row since my daughter (31) was a baby.
 

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