Beer Gun Bottling

Bottling with the keg system is working well.  I split the CO2 feed to the beer keg and the Blichmann beer gun and run everything through a keg filled with Star San before and after to sanitize and clean.  I have a drip bucket and a pitcher filled with sanitizer and a new antique bottle capper.

Draft Line Cleaning

A pretty good setup for cleaning draft lines.

Using the Mark Keg washer basin and pump with a special connector.

Works like a charm!

Credit: homebrewfinds

http://www.homebrewfinds.com/2015/11/ss-ball-lock-carbonation-cap-8-11-shipped-for-11-11-draft-line-cleaning-conversion.html

Pale Ale Brew Day

I was the co-brewer today.

Pale Ale with some great hops. 1.052 with Conan yeast.

Cheers!

Brew Day Video

At long last, I filmed shots of brewing an all-grain batch of a Honey Double IPA and strung the clips together into an 8-minute video on YouTube.  It illustrates all the steps involved in brewing a batch of beer from milling the grains through pitching the yeast.

The beer turned out great and the honey flavors really shined through.
Cheers!

Carboy and Keg Washer

We got a new piece of cleaning equipment and it works great.  It is the Mark II Keg and Carboy Washer and is basically a pump attached to a sprayer tube with a basin and stand.  I ran the primary fermentors from the Pale Ale through it with some hot water and Oxy Clean Free and was pleased with the results.  It still requires using a carboy brush for the caked on yeast from the krausen, but saves time and water and I am pleased with it.  There are some attachments that allow you to run cleaning solution through hoses as well that I will test out soon.

Here's a shot of the 10 gallon batch of Pale Ale with split Conan (Alchemist) and Pacman (Rogue) yeast in the secondary fermentors.

They both clocked in at 1.010 from 1.052, which will be 5.5% ABV.  I used 90.3% Rahr American 2-row base malt with 2.2% German Carared (24L), 3.2% American Caramel-10, and 4.3% American Carapils malts.  The hops are a "clean out the freezer" method with some Apollo, Centennial, Citra, Simcoe, Pine Fruit, Jarrylo, and Columbus.

I will dry hop these for a week and get them into kegs once we kick the leftover Rye Pale Ale from our field party.

Cheers!

Kegerator 2.0

Our newest project is to keg more beer!  I have a new Blichmann Beer Gun that I need to get in the practice of using.  In upgrading the kegerator, I am going to move the CO2 tank and regulator to the outside of the refrigerator, drill a hole for the air tube line, silicone seal around it, affix the gas distributor to the inside of the fridge where it will be easy to access, and have extra room for a fourth keg to condition or possibly a carboy to cold crash on the inside.  I will also shorten the extra gas tubing as it typically gets all tangled up and confusing for what goes where.  It will also be a good opportunity to clean the beer lines and faucets as well.

One recent issue I have been having is hop debris from dry-hopping clogging the dip tube and post, causing a blockage in the flow.  To combat that, I thought of cutting the dip tube, but decided to test out just bending the tube so it is not touching the bottom of the keg.  So far, so good on that experiment as I rescued a half-full keg of Rye Pale Ale leftover from our last big party.  We carefully transferred an IPA and an Amber Ale into kegs and they are awaiting a place in the newly configured beer fridge.

Note: Accidentally drilling through the electric line and having to splice a copper line makes this project a lot more difficult!

Tank on the outside:

Kegs on the inside:

Snake in the yard:

Cheers!

Brewery Update

Due to the lengthy summer vacation absence and our computer being in the repair shop, it has been a while since our last post.  Here's a new logo I have been working on:

Keg Party

The Rye Pale Ale and American Pale Ale were successfully served at a party in Maryland on July 13.  They both tasted great and we had many compliments from the Bud Light crowd.  I had several issues with the liquid dip tube and post clogging continuously on one of the kegs, so we had to improvise and rest the keg on it's side.  I will be evaluating options for fixing the issue, such as a dip tube screen or stainless steel scrubby pad over the end and possibly shortening the tube an inch.  We camped out at the party, but somehow lost our air mattress pump, so having the CO2 tank proved valuable as it was used to fill the mattress!  It is amazing how much gas is in that 5 pound tank.

Fermentors

There is beer in three of the secondary carboys.

1. Imperial Stout made on 6/7 with an OG of 1.090
2. American IPA made on 6/23 with an OG of 1.071
3. American Amber Ale made on 7/2 with an OG of 1.057

Next week, we will dry-hop the IPA and Amber and prepare some secondary additions for the imperial stout.  I am thinking cacao nibs, some mild chile peppers, and possibly some cinnamon.

There is beer in two of the primary carboys.  This was a 10-gallon batch split with different yeasts with a 1.052 original gravity.

1. American Pale Ale brewed on 7/4 with Giga Yeast GY054 Vermont IPA yeast
2. American Pale Ale brewed on 7/4 with Wyeast Pacman yeast

Because I turned off our A/C during our week-long trip, the basement temperature rose from it's typical 64F, which will influence the amount of dissolved CO2 in solution and therefore the amount of priming sugar needed for bottle conditioning.  Because of that, I plan to keg as many of these as I can and may either CO2 force carbonate them or do a combination sugar carbonation and CO2.

I will be working on my brew day video soon.

Cheers!

Peach Pale Ale Bottled

Wheat-Pale Ale with 7 pounds of GA peaches added to the secondary fermentor.

45 bottles + 2 to Chattanooga for the Fugetaboutit! competition in the Fruit Beer category.

Looking forward to this batch!

Pale Ale Brew Day

Today was a big brew day. Back to back Vienna Rye Pale Ale and a Maris Otter Pale Ale with American hops. I am low on the 2-row, so these are unique in their base malt with the German and English barley, but it should come out nicely, albeit more bread crusty, which I like.

Rye was 1.054 with American Ale II

Maris was 1.056 with California Ale

They should get down to 1.012 - 1.014 and be good ~5% brews. Excited for the new malt experiment!

These will be kegged for a field party in July!

Cheers!

San Diego National Homebrew Competition Entry

We packed and shipped the IPA to the National Homebrew Competition Finals! Judging is 6/11 and the awards ceremony is 6/13. We are hopeful for the best!



The IPA has Rahr 2-Row Pale, German Cara-Red (20L), Crystal 10, and Carapils malts with Amarillo, Cascade, Columbus, Centennial, Citra, Chinook, and Crystal hops.  We were pleased with the batch that used GigaYeast GY054 Vermont Ale yeast as it had less attenuation, but gave a brighter color and aroma than the Safale US-05 American Ale and White Labs 001 California Ale yeasts.

IPA: Conan vs. Chico

These are the carboys of the split batch of our San Diego IPA with Conan yeast on the left and Chico yeast on the right. There is at least a pound of hops in each!

There are considerable differences in color, attenuation/ABV, and taste, but consistent in flocculation.

Bottling station is ready.

Cheers!

AHA National Homebrew Competition 2015

We were fortunate enough to advance an American IPA in the Nashville first round of the 2015 American Homebrewers Association National Homebrew Competition!

Since we floated the keg of that batch at a local homebrew competition, we got a chance to rebrew it with a few tweaks based on tastings and feedback.

It is a San Diego style IPA with plenty of Pacific Northwest hops.

The final round with entries placing 1, 2, & 3 in each category from each of 12 regional sites will be judged in June in San Diego at the National Homebrewers Conference.

The grains are:
US Pale, UK Pearl, Crystal 10, Cara-Red (20), & Carapils

The hops are a mix of:
Amarillo, Columbus, Chinook, Centennial, Ahtanum, Simcoe, Citra, & Crystal

Fermentors were 64 and got good attenuation. Bottled.

IPA Brew Day

Brewing our Eternia IPA for the National Homebrew Conference Competition.

7 types of Hops:

US Pale and UK Pearl with German Cara-Red and Carafoam.

Mash hopping and big hop stand after 90 minute boil.  Double dry hop planned.

War of the Wort Entries

We are entered in an AHA/BJCP competition in Starkville, Mississippi on May 16.  I packed some of my entries for shipping and have one more batch to bottle to complete the box.  The competition name is the War of the Wort and is sponsored by the Golden Triangle Homebrewers. I cut the entry labels out, secured them to the bottles with a rubber band, sealed each in gallon ziploc bags, and wrapped them with bubble wrap.  I use 12" x 10" x 8" dimension boxes and 12" width bubble wrap and can fit up to 8 bottles securely.

Honey Imperial IPA Brew Day

On Sunday, we made a batch of Imperial IPA and took some videos of the action.  Once the video is edited, we will post it here.

Batch Moving Day + Ginger Ale

Today was batch transfer day.  We had 10 gallons of Pale Ale and 5 gallons of IPA that finished in the primary.  One Pale Ale went directly in the keg with a sock of Ahtanum hops and the other went into a secondary fermenter.  The IPA with an original gravity of 1.064 went into the secondary fermenter at a gravity of 1.011, which equates to about 7% ABV with 70 IBU.  In addition to the three transfers, we made a 5 gallon batch of ginger ale with fresh ginger, lemons, sugar and water.  Here are a few shots of the action.

Dry hop Ahtanum:

Pale Ale transfer:

Washing bottles with recycled cleaning water:

Racking Pearl Malt IPA:

Ginger Ale:

Cheers!

Fawcett Pearl IPA Brew Day

Today we brewed the base malt challenge IPA for my homebrew club with 95% Thomas Fawcett Pearl malt and 5% Carafoam.  Hops are Columbus, Simcoe, and Amarillo.  The target ABV is 7% with 70 IBU.

Weighing the malt:

Heating strike water for mash:

Milling the malted barley:

Grains into mash tun:

Water into mash tun:

Vorlauft:

Lauter:

Measure hops:

Draining with first wort hops:

Boiling strong:

5 minutes remaining:

Racked into carboy and pitched yeast:

The original gravity was 1.064 and the yeast is Wyeast American Ale 1056.  Hopefully we can get it down to around 1.010.

O Rye Ale Bottling Day

Today is the bottling and kegging day for our Rye Pale Ale.  Check out our snazzy new labels.

We have 10 gallons of this Rye Ale with half on Safale US-05 American Ale yeast and half on Safale S-04 English Ale yeast.  Somewhat surprisingly, both finished with the same Final Gravity of 1.014.  The Original Gravity was 1.058, which puts this at 5.8% ABV.  The grist was Pale US 2-Row, Munich, Vienna, Rye, Biscuit, and Honey Malt and the hops were Columbus, Fuggles, East Kent Goldings, Cascade, and Amarillo, which should play well with the malts.  This will be a great beer for tailgating at the Braves home opener on April 10!

Racking to keg below:

Bottling via bucket:

Sanitized bottles:

Hop shrapnel:

Crowned and cased:

49 longnecks and 2 bombers:

Packed for competition:

Cheers!

Fat Ninja Ale Big Brew Day

Saturday was 65 degrees, perfect for a Pale Ale 10g batch. We used up the Maris Otter and used Pale US Malt, Munich, Biscuit, and Wheat malts. It came out at 1.052.

Experimental hop schedule with Simcoe, Centennial, Amarillo, & Palisade in the boil at 7,6,5,4,3,2,1...

Grains pre-mill:

Draining mash to kettle:

Boil in progress, lots of green hops:

Racking to two carboy fermentors;

Pitched yeast and set blowoffs:

One is California Ale yeast and one is English Ale yeast, both from White Labs.