Gas valves installed

I wasn't always sure how I was going to get here and I changed plans several times along the way. If I had designed it in the beginning knowing how it would take shape it may  look a little different but would probably work just the same. To date the gas valves and ignitors have been the single biggest brewery expense. I have 2 valves, 1 for the HLT and 1 for the MLT. The BK is either continuously on or off.

 

Fancy thermometer

push button ignitor on left,
controller on right
 



probe wire exiting
the thermowell




 

Step one of the planned temperature control upgrade is the addition of a controller with a temperature probe. I have incorporated it into the brewery at the MLT with a thermowell I ordered from Brewers Hardware. For now it is nothing more than an expensive thermometer. The next step will be the addition of a gas valve and automatic ignition system. I have been doing some research but have not ordered any parts yet.

 

Another project I have been working on is a mobile pegboard assembly for the clamps and hoses. I am expecting this to make brewery disassembly and temporary storage much more convenient.  



Still brewing

Keg washer

Yes, I am still alive and brewing. There hasn’t been much new to report on the equipment front. I added a new valve.  I now have 6 in the brew system. Mostly, though, I have been learning how to brew on my system. I moved some of the valve locations for improved control. All of my temperature control is still done manually, igniting and shutting of the burner as necessary to maintain the desired temperature. This method has worked well but is rather tedious. It also means I have watch the thermometer pretty closely for the entire mash. I am now contemplating temperature control f the mash as my next major upgrade.

CO2 and regulator

I did buy a kegerator in 2015 and am now kegging beer. Everything you’ve heard about kegging is probably true. It really will simplify your life, except, of course, for all of the additional equipment you will want. I moved the gas bottle to outside the kegerator it will now hold up to three 5 gallon kegs. I currently have only the single tap tower that came with it. My hope for this year is to upgrade to a 3 tap tower.

Bulkhead fitting with washer

Sparky

Since brewing for me is an outdoor activity not much happens during the cold winter months of the year. It is a good time to dismantle the brewery, including the valves, for a good cleaning. It is also a good time for improvements. In the latest issue of Zymurgy magazine (Jan/Feb 2014), the gadget issue, one of the highlighted gadgets was a burner igniter adapted from the grill industry by Mike McMonagle. Like me, he was tired of using a grill torch to light his burner. Drawing inspiration from Mike's gadget I decided I too should have push button ignition. I went to the local hardware store and returned with a battery powered grill igniter kit. Eager to prove it would work I quickly installed it in the burner under my mash tun. The test being successful, and since the kit included two electrodes, I installed the second one under my HLT. I am able to light both burners simultaneously with just the push of a button. I will continue for now to light the boil kettle burner with the lighter because once it is lit it stays lit for an hour or more. One obstacle left to overcome is how to enclose the igniter assembly and integrate it into the brewery.

2 contests, 1 medal

This summer I entered a couple of local homebrew contests. The first was a Belgian themed contest limited to BJCP categories 16, 17 & 18. I brought home a bronze medal with my Saison (category 16c) entry. It was very exciting as this is my first medal.

The second contest was open to all categories. They did combine several similar categories into groups for judging. I entered a Scotch Wee Heavy (category 9e). I did not win any medals for this beer. But I will get some valued feedback once I pick up my scoresheets. 

Contests are a great way to get an honest opinion of your beer. It takes both effort and commitment to become a BJCP certified judge, it also takes a certain love for beer. Contests allow you to receive an evaluation of your beer, in a blind tasting, from at least one of these judges.

Of course I want to win every contest I enter, but, the real goal is to learn from them and to keep improving.

Learning by drinking

I have now done four all-grain brews. So far only two of those have been bottled, the other two are sitting in carboys. With each brew session I learn a little more about the brewing process and my brewery. Of course there is also a lot to learn from tasting the results! I have added a few more clamps to make it easier to assemble and disassemble the brewery.  It looks like my next big project, maybe this winter, will be a better way to control the mash temperatutre. The way I am doing it now makes it tedious and a little difficult to maintain very tight control.  I am recirculating the mash which seems to be working out pretty good. However, I am controlling the burner manually, which is okay, but I am also igniting the burner with a lighter. I will be doing some research before making any changes but I think my next upgrade will be to add a gas valve and a pilot light. It may not lead to better beer but it should make brewing a little easier. Cheers!

 

My first all grain brew day

I brewed my first all grain beer on Sunday April 14th. The whole process, from start to finish, takes longer compared to extract brewing. There is more equipment to both set up at the start and more equipment to clean at the end. Also, the process itself takes longer because of the mash time. Even though it takes longer it seems somehow to take place at a more relaxed pace.

I have come a long way since my first brew on a borrowed turkey fryer. But, as far as I have come in terms of brewing equipment and my understanding of the process I still have a lot to learn. That, for me, is what keeps it exciting.

I converted one of my extract recipes to all grain estimating the conversion factor. Based on the amount of grain I started with and my starting gravity my brewery efficiency was low, probably in the low to mid 60% range. That is about 10% less than what I was hoping for. I think I need to mash at a slightly higher temperature and, probably more importantly, extend the mash-out time. I know I am already looking forward to my next brew session.

Brewing update

I haven't made the move to all grain brewing yet. I still need a false bottom and a sparge system for the mash tun. I have designs in mind and plan to work on them this winter.

In the mean time I have continued to brew using dried malt extract (DME). The winter ale is in the bottle and should be ready for Christmas. I have a stout in a secondary fermenter with cacao nibs and vanilla beans. I also have an IPA in primary fermentation that I will dry hop with Cascade hops.

Cheers!

Pump it up

 I wrestled with how to integrate the two March pumps into the brewery. I studied how other people had mounted their pumps. I set them in place to see how they would fit. I considered mounting them together on the bottom horizontal frame tube. To make room for all of the connections and valves I would have to rotate the pump head vertically, this would require some additional elbow fittings and would also mean some connections would be very near the floor. I looked at attaching them separately to the vertical frame tubes to get them up a little higher but didn't like how close they would be to the burners. The heat may not be a problem but I didn't think it was a good idea. Finally I decided to mount them to a stand separate from the brew sculpture. This would allow me to get them up to a comfortable working height. It would also give flexibility to use the pumps separate from the brewery. Storage space is limited so I still wanted to be able to store them when not in use as part of the brew sculpture. What I ended up with is a pair of stands that break down for storage. I spaced the legs so that they would fit loosely in the frame but not allow enough movement for them to fall through.

KC Irish Fest brewing competition

I received a letter in the mail with my 2012 KC Irish Fest brewing competition results. I did not place in the top three, which are the prize winners. My feedback was mostly positive with an overall score of 38 (out of 50). The beer was deemed very good with no major flaws but not outstanding. I toast the winners and look forward to next years competition. They vary the style category from year to year, I wonder what it will be.

Chi-Town in August



Our beer selection



The wife and I went to Chicago for a short get-away. Sometimes you just gotta get outta town. I don't think it matters where you go, just go. Except for the notorious Chicago trafiic it is a great vacation destination. We took in a couple of tourist sites including the Shedd Aquarium, Chicago Botanical Garden and Wrigley Field. We also sought out a few beers that are not available in our home town.



Jelly fish at the Shedd Aquarium



Chicago Botanical Garden



Goose Island Wrigleyville



Rain delay



Winter Ale 2012

On Sunday, August the 5th, I brewed a Winter Ale. It uses my Wee Heavy recipe as the base with mulling spices added.  I brewed it a little later than I had hoped but still a couple of months earlier than last years. It should be ready by winter and maybe even in time for Christmas. The extreme heat this summer is one of the reasons I have brewed so infrequently this year. Who wants to stand around a stove when it's 105 degrees outside? The heat also seems to have raised the water temperature coming in to the house which slowed the chilling process somewhat. I created a yeast starter for this beer. Fermentation started right away and was consistent. I will leave it in the primary for a couple of weeks then transfer it to a carboy to rest for a couple of months prior to bottling.

A big step forward

It's been a while since my last post. I haven't been doing much brewing, only three batches so far this year. Unfortunately I have been preoccupied with some home and auto repair projects. I'd much rather be brewing. With the purchase of two new March 815 pumps I just took a big step, and financial commitment, forward toward all grain brewing. Of course the commitment doesn't stop with the pumps. I need three new valves, an assortment of fittings, and a few feet of tubing to connect everything together and control the flow. As I mentioned above, I have brewed three batches. The first was the Hefeweizen from previous posts. The second was a Scottish Wee Heavy that I brewed for the Kansas City Irish Festival Homebrew Contest, I will update later with the results. The third was an IPA that I have brewed before but with some changes. It is better than before but still needs a little adjustment to the hop profile. The IPA boil was also the first time I have used pellet hops and is something I will do again.

Kettle sight gauge

Before using the sight gauge it needs to be calibrated. I filled the kettle, 1/2 gallon at a time, marking the sight glass with a maring pen as I filled. I marked it up to 12.5 gallons. Once this was done I engraved on the marks to give them more permanence. Every piece of equipment added to the brewery means more set up and cleaning time. But this is really nice to have and worth the extra work. It means I can add water directly to the kettle, no more filling buckets to measure the water volume and lifting them over the kettle. Also, it will me to measure the volume of wort in the boil kettle when I finally am able to move to all grain.

Bottling the Hefe-weizen



Bottle blaster



  



Sanitizer pump



  When bottling beer, like most home brewing activities, the majority of the time is spent cleaning and sanitizing. Many people prefer to keg their beer so they don’t have to deal with bottles. Why clean and store cases of bottles instead of a few kegs. And besides, bottles are breakable. For one, bottles are a lot less expensive way to get started with brewing. Besides, I can’t imagine totally giving up bottling. Once you have the process in place preparing bottles is not so bad. That is, as long as you have rinsed your bottles soon after pouring a beer. I have not kegged any beer, so I don’t really know for sure, but I think one of the big advantages would be carbonation control. I do think it would be nice to eventually have both options available.

Bottled beer



Draining on the bottle tree



Bananas and cloves

On Tuesday, May 1st, I racked the hefeweizen to a secondary fermenter (5 gallon carboy).  I thought it had strong aromas of banana and clove. Both my wife and daughter said they smelled peaches, cloves, and general spiciness. Either way it had good fruity esters, just what you expect from a German style weiss bier.

I have also ordered the ingredients for my next beer. It will be a Wee Heavy. It is the beer I also brewed the last two National Homebrew Days, which is always the first Saturday in May. This year I won't be brewing on Saturday but I will be where it is being done. And, of course, I will toast the day with a couple of home brewed beers.

First brew day of 2012

I finally brewed for the first time this year on Monday, April 23rd. I brewed a hefeweizen using a 65-35 wheat, barley blend DME for my base. I am fermenting with a Bavarian wheat style yeast. While I haven't been brewing this year, I have been working on the brewery. I now have three burners installed and propane connected to all. I am currently adding some fittings to my newest ketle for a sight gauge, ball valve, and thermometer. On a side note, I tried out some silicone tubing for my blow off tube on the hefe fermentation. I really like it and am planning to gradually change to silicone tube throughout the brewery.

Propane distribution

A couple pictures of the assembled and painted propane gas distribution system installed on the brew stove.

Two burner test

I hooked up the two burners and operated both at the same time. I now know I can get them both to burn at the same time. Of course I still have to make sure I still get good performance out of each burner.


The next step is to get the gas plumbing properly sealed and attached to the stove. I have been working on some brackets but still need to add some holes to the frame.

Two burners

Ater receiving my burner I installed it in the burner shield. This burner was assembled at the correct angle to fit my burner shield so I didn't have to take it apart to make modifications like the first one. However, the mounting screw size was changed to a larger size than the first burner so I had to drill out the holes in the shield. This was a lot easier than modifying the burner angle though. Once installed I hooked the propane directly to the burner just to make sure there were no problems. Now it was time to put together a gas distribution system. I want to be able to operate any comination of burners from a single propane source.

I picked up some parts at the local hardware store. I assembled the pipes and valves hand tight and without sealant so I could do a quick test of the distribution system. I want to make sure I will be able operate two burners simultaneously.