Sunday, April 22, 2007

Kegging Day!

Hi there and Happy Earth Day!

Finally, the long wait is over and it's time to keg the beer! Yes...at this point we can refer to that sweet liquid as BEER! It's seems like I have been waiting forever for this happy day to arrive.

The day started at around 7AM. I gathered all the needed equipment and made up a bucket of sanitizing agent. I then proceded to sanitize the transfer pump and all of the hoses and racking canes and whatever would be in contact with the beer. While the hoses and other stuff were soaking, I rounded up the kegs and started to heat up some water. When the water was hot enough, (about 150 degF), I added and mixed in the PBW (powdered brewery wash). Once mixed in, I added some of this mixture to each keg and with my brush proceded to scrub out each keg. When I was done the liquid was emptied, the kegs were rinsed and then sanitized.

Now we're ready to keg the beer!

I had to dismantle the cooling system from the fermenters and remove it from the Big Blue Box (fermentation chamber), and then hook the pump and hoses to the conical fermenter. Once the pump was primed, the transfer began, and the kegs were filled to the top, sealed, then purged with co2 and delivered to the temperature controlled dispensing and conditioning freezer to get carbonated and conditioned. The freezer's temperature is at 38 degF, and I wanted to get this beer (APA) carbonated asap, so I applied the co2 at about 30 PSI and will hold it there for a couple of days. Every once in a while i'll open the freezer up and give each keg a good shaking to expedite the carbonation process. It should be ready within the week.

After all that was done, I also had to rack the "Brew in the Park IPA" into a keg. The IPA was fermented in a 6 gallon carboy so I had to siphon the beer out of it and into the waiting and sanitized keg. Again once the keg was filled, it was purged with co2 and delivered to the freezer to condition and carbonate. The same PSI was used for this one too.
I am planning to serve all of this homebrew during my AHA National Homebrew Day (BIG Brew) celebration that I am hosting here at my home. If you're in the Daytona Beach, FL area and want to stop by, just leave a comment here on this post and I'll get back to you with further information.

Below are some pics of my kegging day....enjoy!
Have questions?? Just ask!

Thanks for stopping by....Cheers! (_)3




Here's the setup I use for controlling the fermentation
temperature of the primary (carboy).
The carboy is placed into the insulated food bag and
the copper coil is places around it.The bag is then
zipped up and the 3/8 hoses are installed from the pump
in the el cheapo cooler. One for the in side and one for the return.
The ice water is returned back into the cooler. The temperature
is monitored by a stopper thermowell installed on the carboy,
and is connected to a digital temperature controller. The temp probe
goes in the thermowell to monitor the wort temperature, and the controller
is mounted on the outside of the fermentation chamber.



The ice water is circulated by an aquarium pump.
Cost for the pump? $9.95!



Below is a shot of my banjo burner setup. I had my
neighbor weld the brackets on the burner
as a safety precaution. The metal dolly
was from an old file cabinet that we tossed out
a while back, and I had to drill the holes thru
the cast iron legs of the burner (not easy with a hand drill),
and then transfer the hole pattern one at a time to the metal dolly,
then drilled the holes for mounting the burner to it.
It works great and is very easy to move around...even when the kettle is full!



Here's our trusty beer guard Jubilee hard at work!



Another angle..




Below you can see the fermenter inside the
Big Blue Box, with the transfer hose connected to the
racking valve. It is primed and ready to go!




another shot...




This shot shows the transfer in action on the
receiving end. You can see the pump, the keg and the beer
going thru the clear line into the keg. Notice how clear the beer
is already! Also pictured is a bucket of sanitizer.




Below is the carboy of the "Brew in the Park IPA"
getting ready to be racked into a keg and a shot of my
Temp controlled freezer setup.



Another view of my carboy primary fermentation
temperature controlled setup disassembled and out of the
Big Blue Box.




Have Questions?? Just Ask!!

(_)3

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Brewing with Bob!

Well Bob and I have been trying to get together to brew since last Nov. when we started to correspond via the beertools.com forum. Seems that we just couldn't coordinate our schedules so that we were free at the same time. Well, we did finally meet and we did finally brew up a batch at my house. Then yesterday I went to Bob's house and we brewed on his system!
His got a nice 5 gallon 3 tier gravity system that uses a round rubbermaid 5 gallon cooler for a mash tun. He installed a stainless steel faucet hose braid on the bottom and filters the wort out of it very nicely! The wort came out nice and clear on this session as the pictures below show.
We cooked some burgers and had a great time. Bob brewed a nice recipe that has 100% amarillo hops. It's going to be a great brew, and I'll let all of you know how it is on upcoming taste test reports. The session went smooth as silk and I'm sure that it is fermenting away as I write this posting.

My other friend Brad also brewed on this day, and he whipped up another batch of his Vanilla Porter. He say's that the session went good too! Way to go Brad!

I have 1 more week to go until I can keg the 15 gallons of beer that I have going in the fermenters currently. Then I'll be brewing up a 15 gallon batch of my "Hawks Landing Great Imposter" beer, which is probably my favorite recipe! After that session, I'll be planning my yearly brewing party to be held when all this brew is ready to drink! I should have a total of about 45 gallons of homebrew to have for the party.

After that, I'll be getting ready for Octoberfest, and will be brewing 1 or 2 batches of Marzen in preparation of that wonderful time of year. In between, I do have a Belgium Wit and a Negra Modelo clone that I want to make. It's going to be a busy year! And a tasty one too!!

Here's the pics of yesterday's brew session with my friend Bob!
Enjoy

Cheers! (_)3
















Monday, April 02, 2007

Brewing Madness..!!

Hello out there!

Well I sure did have a great weekend. On Saturday Bob Pierce and I brewed up a 10 gallon batch of an American Pale Ale that I have been working on for a while, and the session went pretty good. I ran into Bob a few months ago on the beertools.com forum and he lives fairly close to me! I invited him over to join me to brew and he finally had the time to come over. I was surprised when he rolled into my driveway at around 7:30 AM! It was great to meet him in person and we hit it off right away! The brew session went real nicely too. We both had a very pleasent day hanging out and talking about brewing and methods and recipies. Speaking of recipies, I thought that I'd post the APA that we brewed. It is shown below. I currently have a 5 gallon batch of IPA and a 10 gallon batch of APA fermenting right now, so it will be at least 3 weeks until I can brew again. I guess we can talk about the brewery some more next week and I'll try to post a couple of pics of what's fermenting in the Big Blue Box. The next brew coming up will be my favorite, Hawks Landing Pale Imposter. It's an imatation Pillsner that I worked up and it is a lot of fun to make. We'll be doing a 15 gallon batch this time and it will be served at my annual Brew Day Brewery Tour Brewing Awareness party that will be held sometime in May. I will have about 40 gallons of homebrew to serve that includes 6 or 7 different styles! Brad and I are getting together soon to brew another Porter too!

Well...that's all for now..brew good!
(_)3


Hawks Landing Howie's Celebration
10-A American Pale Ale
Size: 11.5 gal
Efficiency: 77.55%
Attenuation: 77.5%
Calories: 172.24 per 12 fl oz
Original Gravity: 1.052 (1.045 - 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.010 - 1.015)
Color: 10.8 (5.0 - 14.0)
Alcohol: 5.28% (4.5% - 6.0%)
Bitterness: 47.63 (30.0 - 45.0)

Ingredients:
11.00 lbs American 2-row
7.00 lbs Maris Otter
0.50 lbs Crystal Malt 10°L
0.50 lbs Crystal Malt 40°L
1.00 lbs Munich 20L Malt
1.00 lbs Victory® Malt
1.50 lbs White Wheat Malt
1.0 oz Nugget (11.8%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
2.0 oz Amarillo (9.7%) - added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
1.5 oz Cascade (5.50%) - added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
0.5 gal WYeast 1056 American Ale
2.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 15.0 min

Schedule:
00:11:14 Mash In - Liquor: 6.12 gal; Strike: 168.7 °F; Target: 154.0 °F
01:26:14 Saccharification Rest - Rest: 75.0 min; Final: 150.8 °F
01:33:28 Mash Out - Heat: 7.2 min; Target: 168.0 °F
02:18:28 Sparge - Sparge: 10.03 gal sparge @ 170.0 °F, 13.48 gal collected, 45.0 min; Total Runoff: 13.48 gal
(90 Minute Boil)