Brew Zone Lighting Project

We installed 48 feet of exterior illumination on the brew patio and it looks great!

This is the new exterior weatherproof GFCI outlet, which was not too difficult after all tapping from an interior gang box.

Rope lighting hung on cup hook screws

Time for a homebrew!

NoDa Brewery

Today we had the opportunity to stop by NoDa Brewery in Charlotte, NC.  It's only about 4 miles off I-85 and is in a really neat neighborhood.

We sampled their Hop Drop N' Roll IPA, which was superb, their chocolate porter called Coco Loco, as well as an English Barleywine.  All were delicious beers!  We even got to buy a couple 4-packs that were canned 4 days ago to take with us to enjoy later, something unfamiliar to us in Georgia.  It is clear that North Carolina sure does understand what the brewing business does for the economy and a revitalized community, which is certainly present in Charlotte.

Some day Georgia will join the 45 states that get it, but unfortunately that hasn't happened yet.  Anyway, we sure enjoyed our stop in Davidson county!

Classic Ale Brew Day

American Amber Ale

Pale Malt as the base

Caramunich for sweetness/maltiness 

Melanoidin for maltiness 

Chocolate as a pinch for color/flavor

Warrior, Simcoe, Citra, & Amarillo hops 

pine, citrus, tropical fruit, orange, etc.

Mashed at 154

Heating sparge water

Next we lauter to the kettle

Going with a single batch sparge

Sparge water a little hot, mash to 175

Vorlauft and drained

spent grains

Bringing it to a boil

Warrior addition made

Next is 45 minutes of boil

Flameout, Chilled, Racked to Carboy fermentor, & Aerated

Helper Cat Arlo

Original Gravity is 1.061

Pitched yeast & added blowoff tube just in case.  Fermentation will begin shortly!

Bottled 10 gallons of IPA

We bottled two batches of IPA tonight.  It was the Biscuit IPA and the light caramel malt IPA.  It came out to 65 of the 12 ounce bottles and 16 of the 22 ounce bottles.  We are looking forward to trying these in a few weeks.

Yakima Valley Hops

Today we received a great package from our friends at Yakima Valley Hops!  This should last a little while.

• Cascade 2014
• Chinook 2014
• Citra 2014
• East Kent Goldings 2013
• Amarillo 2014
• UK Fuggle 2013
• Some yeast
• Whirlfloc tablets
• Gypsum
• Bottling tablets 

Brew on!

Novembrews

We made it a Brewvember to remember.

Black Rye Ale:

Barreled Black Rye:

Citra IPA:

Biscuit IPA

Mosaic IPA:

25 beautiful gallons...

Turkey & Beer

Happy Thanksgiving!  The Blichman was on double duty today...

Two ounces of Simcoe leaf hops:

This was 50 mins into boil:

After the brewing was complete, we fried a Turkey!  It was a 14 pounder, which took 48 minutes.  It was delicious!

Citra IPA Brew Day

Today, we brewed an all Citra Hop American IPA. This is batch 9 of this recipe, with small tweaks along the way.  The last batch scored second place for American style IPAs at the Music City Brew Off AHA BJCP homebrew competition in Nashville on 11/8/14.

The malt in the recipe was American 2-row Pale Malt as the base with Munich for breadiness/maltiness, Crystal 10L for light sweetness, Carafoam for body & head, & Melanoidin for sweet toastiness.  The hops were of course all Citra added as First Wort Hops, then 60, 15, 10, 5, 0, & Dry Hops.  The mash was a single infusion which rested at 152F.  We did a single batch sparge and 60 minute boil.  After chilling and racking to the carboy, we pitched Safale S-04 English yeast at 9pm into the 1.062 original gravity (OG) wort.

Ginger Ale

After having tried some great homemade Ginger Ale at Fulton Brewing in Minneapolis, MN, we decided we would like to have some on tap.  Today was batch #3 as we continue to toy with the ratios of the four ingredients:

• Sugar
• Ginger
• Lemons
• Water

 The process is fairly simple:

1. Heat 5 gallons of water to 180 (minus about 16 ounces for the juice)
2. Stir in sugar
3. Stir in juiced lemons and ginger
4. Steep for 60 minutes
5. Cool in ice bath
6. Rack to keg
7. Refrigerate and carbonate

Black Rye Ale Brew Day

Today was an experimental brew day.  We took our Rye Pale Ale recipe and painted it black.  During the mash and sparge process, we had an esteemed guest stop by.

This was a 10 gallon batch, which tested the limits of our system.

Grist:

1. Pale Malt
2. Rye Malt
3. Vienna Malt
4. Biscuit Malt
5. Honey Malt
6. Crystal 75L
7. Melanoidin Malt
8. Carafa II Special (added to mash tun prior to sparge)

Hops:

• 60: Warrior
• 30-15: East Kent Goldings
• 15-0: Amarillo & Cascade
• Dry: Amarillo & Cascade

Yeast:

1. American Ale
2. American Ale II

Notes:
American Ale showed signs of finishing at about day 5, where American Ale II still had krausen, but little airlock activity at day 7.  This turned out pretty dark; hopefully it gives a touch of roast like a black IPA.

Deep Ellum Brewery

November 8, 2014 was the 3 year anniversary party for Deep Ellum Brewery in Dallas, TX.  They had many great beers on tap and it was a great time!  It is amazing to see how much growth can occur in a short period of time from a small brewery.

This is a view of one of the refrigerator cases at the brewery.  They have many great offerings and my favorite special brew was a Belgian Golden Strong ale.

Group Brew Day

Today was the "Teach a Friend to Homebrew" Day sponsored by the American Homebrewers Association.  Several local homebrew clubs and individuals set up in a tailgate-like event in the parking lot at Beer & Wine Workshop next to Three Taverns Brewery in Decatur, GA today. We made a 1.062 OG American Brown Ale.

It was a cold and windy day.  Despite having to fish out a few leaves from the brew kettle, everything worked out well and we got to meet a lot of new people and compare processes and equipment.

Extra Special Bitter Brew Day

We brewed an English Pale Ale (aka ESB) today using White Labs 005 English Ale yeast.  The color looks great and we can't wait to try the finished product.

This is the kettle with the chiller and auto-siphon after racking was complete.

The color looks very caramel/toffee:

We are looking forward to this one!

Bottle Prep Day

Today was bottle cleaning day and this is what 100 bottles looks like in the dishwasher!

Cleaning carboys & racking Star-San.

4 beers are now in the secondary fermentors:

• Imperial Stout
• Super dryhopped IPA
• Rye Pale Ale
• Oatmeal Stout

1 in primary: Pine Fruit Pale Ale

Bottling is next!

Rye Pale Ale Brew Day

Today was the brew day for a Pale Ale with Rye, inspired by Spike Buckowski at Terrapin.  I am happy with my current process and wanted to photo document the many steps involved during Brew Day.

Heating the strike water is always first.  We always get that going early while working on the recipe formulation, gathering ingredients, and other things.

Next is milling the grains.  We usually do this during the 30 minutes the strike water is heating up to the calculated temperature ranging from 165 to 170.  Once the water is at temperature, we pour the hot water into the mash tun, add the grains, stir with the mash paddle, and establish the mash temperature.

Mashing.  This is an hour long process, so you will have some time to take care of a few other chores.  About 30 minutes in, we light the burner to get the sparge water heated to 170-180F.

Vorlauft and Lauter First Runnings.  After the hour is up, we run some wort off the mash tun into a pitcher, which helps catch some grain husks and proteins.  I pour that back into the tun using a colander strainer, then attach tubing to the mash tun ball valve, then transfer (lauter) all the wort into the boil kettle.

Vorlauft and Lauter the Second (and possibly Third) Runnings.
This is a repeat of the first lauter, but first adding either half or all of the sparge water.  I will do a single batch sparge if I have a big grain bill and a double batch sparge if I have a small grain bill.  Pour in the water, stir it like you mean it, vorlauft, and let it ride.

During this transfer, I light the burner to start heating the wort up to 212F.

Dispose of Spent Grains.  They did their job with the enzymes from the grain converting the starches into fermentable and unfermentable sugars during the mash.  Now, I clean the mash tun and usually spread the grains out in the yard somewhere.

Clean out the Mash Tun.  This picture shows the new plumbing with the false bottom, which is easy to remove and clean.  This is a 10 gallon cooler, which I maxed out with about 23 pounds of grain once and ended up being a pain.  If I do more 10 gallon batches, I will either need to double mash or find a larger or second mash tun.

Boil Away.  This is the fun part!

Add Boil Additions.  Hops, Whirlfloc, Irish Moss, etc.
It's 5:30, how bout some Fuggles!

Sanitize Wort chiller by placing it in the boil with 15 minutes left.  Add some Gypsum, irish moss, whilfloc, & East Kent Goldings hops.

Lots of steam on this 60F degree day!

After the hour-long boil was up, we extinguished the burner and turned on the hose for the wort chiller.

The mash tun got a bath in our wheelbarrow/outdoor sink.  We collect the water from the chiller and use it to pre-wash the equipment.

Here's a shot of the wort transfer from kettle to carboy fermenter.  Racking is the term for moving wort/beer, so you can insert many "nice rack" jokes!

The kettle gets a bath in the salvaged water as well.  Batches with lots of hops make this a messy endeavor.

Prior to pitching the yeast, the wort needs to be aerated well.  We will eventually get an O2 tank and diffusion stone to inject pure oxygen for the yeast, but now we shake, rattle, and roll it.

Now the wort is ready to be inoculated with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is the scientific name for brewers yeast.  We are using White Labs yeast today, which conveniently comes in a test tube-like container.

Usually, one to two days later, we will start seeing CO2 activity on the airlock and a krausen forming on the surface, which means the yeast are converting starch to ethanol and carbon dioxide.

Cheers!