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.