My Version of a Bazooka Screen

Okay, so this is something I have thought about doing for quite some time and am only now getting to it so here we go:

Not too long ago I built my first mash-tun out of a cooler and have been using it ever since. However, my first few batches had some problems because I used a filter I found in this website that was the basis for my mash-tun. You see, the filter that he used and what I was able to find had to be different. Mine was a water connection hose braid, however it was flimsy like cloth and could not hold up so it was giving me a really slow flow. His sounded like a more sturdy hose braid that could be crimped at the end.

After reading Grove's Beer Log about his new mash-tun and the Bazooka Screen he bought, I was inspired. I went out to home depot and bought some window screen and started to work...this is what I came up with.

The screen was in the window section at Home Depot and is was $6 for a lot of it. The good part about buying extra is that I can make other screens if need be. I sized up the length that I would need for it and cut the piece.

I rolled the screen around a small piece of PVC that I had, it was about 1/2" diameter. After I rolled this around the PVC a few times, I pulled the PVC out and picked the size I was going to make the screen. From there I left about 2" on both the beginning and the end of the price of screen and bent it over once to start to make a seem. I used pliers to pinch the seem down. I repeated this process of bending and crimping until I had the screen at the size I wanted. It wound up being about 3 good bends and I cut off all the excess.

From there I slid the screen onto a barbed copper fitting (something most people who have a home brew system are probably familiar with) and affixed it with a small screw-tight clamp.

*as you will note, I cut very small pieces of the PVC and slid them into the screen to reinforce them and act like ribs, I am not sure how much this really helps, but it doesn't hurt.

From here I cut the filter to length and crimped the end the same way that I crimped the edge, by folding and clamping.

In the end, the whole process was only about 1/2 hr of work and because I had some of the extra parts lying around it only cost $6 for the screen (which I still have about 90% of). If anyone were to do this, I would recommend a good pair of gloves and a place that you don't have to worry about making a mess of. Those little wires poke the hell out of your hands and get everywhere. Otherwise it's cake.

Good luck, cheers!

Meth Lab in my basement (*Updated!)

Got your attention right? I was looking to do a Mead using honey and some fruit (Cyser) and I got a recipe from a buddy on Beer Advocate that was for a Metheglin. I brewed this up without any cooking, heating or much else. It was quite easy and I made about 2 gallons of the stuff.

I am not going to be publishing the recipe as I told the author I would keep it on the down low. However, here are a few of my notes from that short brew day:

- After prepping all of the ingredients (some spices and ginger) along with cider and honey (that was from a local farm) I basically threw everything together and stirred for a while to aerate the mix.

- Me being the rocket surgeon that I am, I decided to put the cider in the fridge after I bought it and it was cold when I mixed everything. So I put my bucket into a sink with warm water until I got it up to room temp.

- I activated the tried yeast according to the directions and it did not seem to cause any problems. I am going to take a reading at the end of the week and see how I am doing.

- The OG was in the 1.200 range and should pan out to a nice strong drink. They say that it will take upwards of 6months for full maturation, so I get to wait on this.

I am going to bottle this up into 4 growlers when it's all said and done and it should be pretty good. I was put onto a great website called GotMead.com that has a lot of really useful information.

Cheers!

**Update**

So after the first week I took another gravity reading and there was no activity. I decided to stop of at EJ Wren's (my homebrew supply) and get a couple of extra packs of yeast to try and jump start this and Ed told me that I should get some Pectic Enzyme (like started fluid for your yeast according to him) and some Fermax Yeast Nutrient (like fertilizer for your yeast) to add into the mix.

I re-pitched last night after adding 1tbs of Pectic Enzyme and 2tbs of Fermax. I am still waiting on some results, but I think this might do it.

*one correction to make to the previous entry, the OG was not 1.200's, it was 1.100, I had taken the original reading a few days after I pitched and figured there was some action and tried to figure the difference, I had meant 1.120, but that was wrong as well. Anyhoo, it's a 1.100 for an OG and I am hoping for a lot of activity in the next few days.

** My wife has been asking me to name a brew after her so this will be Christa Meth!

Dream of Californication

I decided my next brew should be a California Common. This is what I call Californication:

Pale Malt- 2 row US 10.3 lbs
Crystal Malt - 40L 1.5lbs

.5oz Northern Brewer- 60min
.75oz Centennial - 30min
.5oz Norther Brewer 10min

1/2 tbs Irish Moss

Wyeast California Larger

OG- 1.050
FG- 1.010

**Racked it 6 days after I brewed it

I just brewed this today so here are a few things to take note of on this brew:

-I did a yeast starter for this one, though there is some discussion on weather or not a starter is needed with Wyeast and a brew under 1.065, but I still did it. I used my wine bottle with about 2 1/2 cups of water and about 3/4 cup of extra light DME and boiled it for 15-20 min (this was done at about 9pm night before brew day). It started to bubble by the morning and it continued to bubble until I pitched it.

-Over headed Mash water to about 170ish, I added ice and let it sit with the lid open on my mash tub until it got down to 158f. Once at 158f I let the mash go for an hour.

-I went by the 1.5 qts water for every lb of grain giving me a mash water of 4.5 gallons. I may want to cut that back to 1.25qts/lb or even 1 qt/lb next time because I did not use all of my sparge water (input welcomed on this point)

-Fly sparged this batch fully successfully. I used 5.75 gallons for the sparge, but wound up dumping out about 1 gallon or so.

-My last gravity reading was 1.046 and I was shooting for 1.050 so I let it go on a rolling boil for about 15-20 min before adding the 60 min hops. Before I pitched the yeast it was at 1.050 so I was on the nose for that!

I couldn't be happier with the way today's brew session went. I am about 1/2 dozen (maybe 1/2 a bakers dozen, but who is counting) brews into all-grain brewing and I finally have a really good handle on whats going on. This took me about 5 1/2 hrs from start to finish so I am even doing it in pretty good time as well.

I am going to bottle 3 or 4 of these and enter it into a contest. I figure since I am hitting my targets on my brews now I am ready to get some feedback. Either way, it's nice to know the investment in time to come up with some methods that allow me to make the recipes I am trying for has paid off.

Cheers!

Bottled Mother's ESB

Today was my day to bottle the ESB and take the final gravity. Now I say bottle because I picked up some growlers from my Brother-in-law at his eBay store:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220065864894

I wound up getting 18 of them because I wanted to start having some brew to take with me places. These worked out well with this batch because I didn't wind up with the 5 gallons I was shooting for. This was the result of all the hops I used in the process and the lack of any filtration out of my brew kettle. I lost a whole gallon's worth of ESB from all of the hops I had to dump out. Oh well, live and learn.

Anyway, I took my FG and it was 1.010 making this a 6.5% ABV wonder. I drank the gravity sample and I was a little turned off because there was a strong alcohol burn, but otherwise it was quite good.

I am hoping that a little bit of time will cure the issues with the burn. I will be sure to write on the growlers, but so far they are great and it's not easy to find the amber ones, so that's a bonus.

Cheers!

Quick Tech Note

This one is for the other bloggers and tech folks out there. I have set up an email for the new domain that I have, this email is travis@cnybrew.com so anyone who is so inclined is welcome to email me.

I used the new Windows Live Custom Domain that is part of the Windows Live set of features. I think it's in beta, but it's looking like a very useful service. Tech Crunch did a good write up of the service and I have to agree.

The way that it works is you set up a MX record with your domain host and delete any of the other MX records on the account. You then create a TXT record and the changes only take a few minutes to take effect. From there you hit refresh on the Windows Live dashboard in the setup pane and you are off.

It sets you up with a free 1 gig hotmail account that is @yourdomain.com and you are done.

There are some drawbacks to the system as it currently works. For example, you have to log out of the account you manage the domains with and log into the email account you just created. So for someone like myself who have a couple of websites I am managing, I have to log out and log in every time I want to check a new email. Also there is no way to create a "catch all" for your domain which is a problem.

Big advantage though, it's free! That means more money for beer supplies!

Sorry for geeking it up. Cheers!

Thermometer Installation

In my continuing quest to find a financial shortcut to everything, this week I installed a thermometer on my brew kettle. I searched around and found that there are 2 or 3 companies that make these specifically for brewing and to install onto a brew kettle. Let me start by saying that these thermometers have a distinct advantage over the one that I installed here because they are marked with the proper temps for everything you would do with homebrewing.



However, I found this thermometer on eBay for $16 (with shipping and everything it was $25) so I was sold. It did not come with the "all-in-one" installation, but I am always one for a challenge. So this is what I did:



Thermometer $25
Brass Fitting $3.95
2 3/4" brass washers $4
2 1/2" rubber gaskets (had them from before)
Thread stuff (had it from before)
Total $32.95 compared to the $33 for an all in one kit...who's the sucker now!

Anyway, I digress, in order to install this I had to use the step drill bit that I used for the ball valve and make a hole big enough that the 1/2" threaded section of the thermometer would fit in. This was as much of a project as it was the first time and as with before, it was as much of a chore as the whole project combined.


As with the ball valve, I put a washer on this with a rubber gasket on the inside so that it would seal the whole upon tightening. I used the thread stuff (in the background) the make sure that there were not any leaking on the connections.


As you will note from the image on the right, I had to put the thermometer offset to the right of the ball lock because the face of the thermometer was not going to fit flush right above the ball lock. If I had elected not to use the washer, it would have fit, but the washer would have been on the lowest ring and would have not sit flush, so tightening would have been a problem. Initially I was a little distraught, but then I remembered that this was MY brew kettle and as long as I didn't care, it was perfect.

Finally I tested it for leaks overnight and it was a slam dunk! I even got the dial on straight (after a few tries) so it's a totally functional brew kettle.

I am going to right a review of the thermometer on the first time I use it because it was reading some wacky temps when it was first installed, but once it got settled, it was fine...we will see.

Cheers!

Quick update on the Mother's ESB

I racked yesterday which seemed a little soon, but the bubbling had stopped a day or so before. When it was going, it was aggressive. I took a gravity reading and it was at 1.012 (from 1.060) so I have to say it's right on the money.

One thing I have to say though is my overzealous use of hops cost me some quantity. The hops at the bottom of the bucket was so thick, I couldn't save a bunch of the brew so I lost a little bit. I will have to adjust my recipe appropriately for the next time I dry hop or get really aggressive hopping sessions.

Otherwise I cannot wait on this brew. It smells great and has a nice dark hue that should lighten up to a rich deep copper once it's in my glass. With about 6 1/2% ABV at racking, it should provide some intoxication upon consumption as well.

I got my brew kettle thermometer and I took some pics of the installation so I will be sure to have a post on that in the near future.

Cheers!

Good day to brew

These are just some notes from my brew day today. One quick thing, I appreciate the comments from Bad Ben with recommendations on the ESP recipe, however I did not follow them. Not because I am an ingrate know it all, but because I brewed before I checked my blog (NEVER AGAIN!!!). I think it will turn out okay in the end though.

• I used 1.5 qts per pound in the initial mash, making the mash a little over 5 gallons of water. I brought this up to close to 170f and when it was added to the grains, it kept at the 154f I was shooting for.


• I had my sparge water all ready to go and in the process of lifting it onto my rack, it plug came out and since I was not in the mood to dip my hand it 180f water, I let it drain out. I ended up having to get another 4 gallons or so up to temp for the sparge and I did a batch sparge instead of a fly.


• I tested the gravity after the first mash and half way through the batch sparge. The mash reading was 1.065 and the last reading was 1.056ish. It ended up boiling down to the 1.060 I was shooting for.
  

This is a picture of my new brew kettle in action! The rings are a great guide on the amount of liquid you have in the kettle and proved to be pretty accurate. After the boiling and cooling, there wort was up to the middle of the lower ring and I ended up with a little over 5gallons.

This is a picture of the ball valve, no leaks! This is proof that you can do it your self without the weld less conversions. However, after looking at the cost comparison, its a toss up.

Finally, I would normally hook my wort chiller to t normal hose fixture in the basemen (I unhook the washer). However, since my wife was doing laundry, I came up with this solution. Duck tape, the solution to all of life's problems. Reminds me of a quote;

"If it slips, duct tape it, if it's stuck, WD40 it"

Cheers!

Mother's ESB

This is the beer I am going to brew this weekend. I got the inspiration after reading the blogs of some folks that have left comments, (Bad Ben and Ted I am looking in your direction) I couldn't help myself but to jump on the ESB Express. I was initially going to brew my Belgium Wit, but it has been colder than a bastard in Upstate New York and I like my BW in the sun, so I decided to wait.

So using my handy dandy Designing Great Beers book, I decided to go ahead a design an ESB I will name this weekend. Here goes:

*This recipe was based on 65% efficiency so adjust accordingly

12.69 lbs (5756g) 2 row pale malt
1.05 lbs (476g) Crystal Malt 60L
.45lbs (204g) Chocolate Malt

Boil-2.5oz (70.9g) Goldings 5% AA
Flavor-1.2oz (34g) Fuggle 4.75%AA
Aroma- 2.2oz (62.4g) Mt. Hood 5.5% AA
Dry- 1.5 oz (42.5g) Goldings 5% AA

Wyeast 1028 or 1968 (gotta see what my brew supply has in stock)

OG- 1.060
FG- 1.012

6.5% ABV
48IBU

So I will probably have some adjustments to this after I go to the brewer, but this is what I have so far. Anything seem out of place?

kegged and tasted the Shlitz

So tonight I moved my Schlitz from the garage to the keg and into my stomach. This is my first Lager and next winter I am going to try and get more into these lagers because they are a nice break from the complex flavors of a lot of the Ales that I make. I let this hoss lager for 2 months (new record for me for allowing time to pass without drinking my beer).

Anyway, one of the most gratifying things about this beer is that the first taste rushed me back to my days at the frat house pounding cheep brews out of funnels. The smell was woven into my senses as the first thing I caught a whiff of in the morning. Feet sticking to the floor, digging my books out of a pile of empty beer cups, the great wall of empty kegs...those were the days.

Now I am sure you are reading this wondering "why the hell would you brew something that reminds you of college beer?" and I too asked myself the same question. To be honest, I am not sure, but it's really rewarding to know I can make decent schwag beer.

So here is the official review:

Aroma: This has a sweet malt smell with a distinct maze nose that was the part of the beer smell that reminds me of Natty Light.

Color: I don't have a SRM chart, but I would say it's in the 20-30 SRM range. Its a light gold color that should be more clear than it is (I forgot the Irish Moss).

Taste: Well it's an American Pilsner, what more can I say? This is a distinct corn/maze flavor with sweet malt overtone. There is little to no hop bitterness that jumps out at you, but there is a dry finish that I think is the hops that was in it.

Mouth feel: Light for this style, but I think my kegerator needs to get it's self back on track!

Drinkability: Well it's an American Pils, at about 5% ABV and very light body there is not much to worry about here.

OVERALL: Meh, it's still better than Bud!

New Brew Kettle Step 2

So after the initial issues I had with cutting the top of the keg off, things actually came together very well in the end. Here is what I did:

After I drilled the hole in the side that was big enough for the 1/2 brass connector piece to fit through, I used the Teflon tape (yea it's pink, so what?) to seal the threads. *I did not use the connector pictured because the non-threaded area in the middle made this too long. The one I used was the same thing only with out the non-threaded area in the middle.

From here I attached the 1/2in brass ball valve I got at home depot with a 3/4in brass washer and a #14 rubber gasket. On the inside of the keg, I used an old 1/2 to 3/4 in piece I had from a cold plate setup I took apart. I used this because with the washer, it was the only thing I had that was going to make the connection tight enough to keep the water from leaking. I used another 3/4 in brass washer and another #14 rubber gasket as well.

Outside

Inside

After a couple of tries with the sealing and re-tightening, I had it with no leaks so I left water in it over night. I also dealt with the sharp edges left from the cutting process with some coarse sandpaper I had left over. This was wood sand paper, but it really did a job on the keg and its all dull around the sides now.

From here is was just a matter of attaching the 1/2" hose barb adapter.

As you can see, this is a huge upgrade in the size of my brewing operation.

I am waiting on the delivery of a thermometer for the keg that I ordered off of eBay. I will be sure to review the product and the seller as well as the installation.

I am brewing with the new setup next weekend so we will have to see how it's going to go.

Cheers.

New Brew Kettle Step 1

Okay, this is for everyone that ever did anything with the thought "this is going to go great because I am going to do it right!" and after a few beers and a little impatience looked at what he created and said "it'll work."

This is my first few steps on creating my brew kettle, if you looked at the previous post on my search for a new brew kettle and saw the link to this cool "how to" on turning a keg into a kettle, you would see that the steps seem easy. Drill three holes, cut the top off, drill another hole and you are done. Well this is my side of the story:

First off I thought I could get away without buying the step drill bit because those things are expensive and I ended up making some funky cuts in the top of the keg and getting no where.

So I went ahead and bought the step drill bit ($27), but things could be worse because it does seem pretty useful.

Once I had this new bit I could drill the three holes in the top of the keg and start to cut the top of the keg off. However, cutting between two holes cost me three blades. Now I had this coming because I am a very tight individual and I decided to go bargain on the blades. But nonetheless, there is a lesson, kegs are TOUGH stuff, be prepared if you are going to try and do this kid of cutting.

Now after two nights of going at this thing in my PJ's (because I am a strange person) in my basement with my wife and dog both hating me, I made it though!

I am going to do somethings this weekend to get this into better shape, but in the end, I made good progress on a project that is much harder than I would have EVER anticipated. The next steps are going to be to drill the holes for the ball valve and for the thermometer and to grind down the edges on the cut off top and the holes.

I am happy where this is going because this is one hell of a brew kettle and its going to be rough, but it's going to be capable of easily brewing 10 gallon batches when all is said and done.

More to come...


Cheers.

New tools in the mix

It's been a long lag for me on the brewing and the reason is that I have wanted to get a new brew kettle. I was at a bit of a crossroads with where to go. The way I was seeing it is that I could get a stock pot a little bigger than the one I have now (the one I have now is about 24qts or 23L) because I don't have the room to brew at the size I should be.

So I started looking and saw that I could get a 32-35qt (30-33L) stock pot for around $30-$40 on eBay with shipping. However, my concern was that I would get this stock pot at the 32qt and 6 months down the line I would want a bigger one to start with larger batches. So I also saw a 60qt and 80qt (57L and 76L) stock pot for just under $100 plus shipping on eBay as well and started to think if I should just put the money down and do it right.

Well last night my BYO came and like a sign from the beer gods there was an article about turning your pot into a brew kettle! This was great because after reading Grove's blog entry about his new brew pot a few months back I was totally inspired. I wanted the fancy temp gage and spout at the bottom. No more pouring my beer into the fermentor (I know it's bad but at that point I am always ready to get the process into the next stage).

So I just called Galeville Grocery and they will sell me a used keg for $10!!! I got a hold of my little brother and he is going to torch open the top for me and with the great writing in the BYO I should be all set to go! I am going to have to order the temp gage but I think I can get the ball valve from Home Depot and save myself a few bucks (I know I am a very cheap person).

This seems like a great compromise, I get the size of a big kettle with the money I spend going towards making the brew kettle everything I want it to be. I will be sure to make a detailed entry on how it goes!

Cool instructions on how to DIY this here...

Brew Podcasts

So since I have a little bit of lag time between brew batches and I usually spend that time reading about beer, checking brew blogs, listening to brew podcasts and oh yea, drinking beer, I figured I would start to make some posts about some of the sources of brewing information I find.

A while back I got a recommendation (Grove) to check out a great resource called Basic Brewing where you can get videos on beginning brewing and advanced all-grain brewing. They also have a podcast hosted by Basic Brewing called Basic Brewing Radio hosted by James Spencer.

I am a real podcast buff, so this is coming from an objective source, but this is a very good podcast. From the homebrewers perspective, the topics are interesting and good for anyone to follow with interest. It does not matter if the subject is slightly above or below your brewing level, because the interviews are done well and after all the subject is beer, it's fun for all.

From the prospective of a podcast listener, this is a great set up. James has a consistent format that allows the audience to know what to expect. Best yet, he responds to emails. I shot him an email out about my OG missing its target and I received a response later that day! To me, that's really cool.

Anyway, this is great stuff. If you are a iPod guy (like myself) just click on the iTunes link next to one of the episodes and subscribe.

Hope this was helpful, cheers!

My New Brew Lit

Last week I started looking at the whole "how do you create your own brew recipes?" introspection. After consulting my current brew literature I came to the conclusion that I had officially outgrown my current library of "The Joy of Home Brewing" (still a classic and a great reference) and "Homebrew for Dummies."

I posted something up on the Beer Advocate forums asking for some recommendation on reference material for the brewer looking to start making his/her own versions of classic styles. There were about 10 responses and all of them agreed on one thing; the Ray Daniels book "Designing Great Beers" was the way to go.

So I went ahead and ordered a used copy from Amazon (yes I am cheap, I am using blogger too) to see for myself. I just got started on it, but I was skimming around on it and this looks like a legit source for brew info. I will be referencing it in the future so I thought I would start with the endorsement of the book.

Happy brewing!

Tasting the IPA

Well I wish I could say that the beer lived up to the name, but alas, nothing ever does.

The IPA is all hops and no malt flavor. It's kind of sad, even my wife commented on how light it was.

The good news is that I know what went wrong. Remember, this predates my understanding of adjusting recipes to my system (and brewing experience) efficiency. I have since received a wealth of information from some of the bloggers on this site and others (Groves Beer Log and Bad Ben) and from the forums on Beer Advocate. This has helped me to understand where I was going wrong and help me to figure out how to get "Back on Track!"

Kegged Joe Cool

I moved my Joe Cool IPA from the fermenter into the keg. It's a little earlier than I wanted too, but I was drinking Molsons Canadian for the last week and I JUST COULDN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!

Anyway, this beer was surprisingly light in color and pretty smooth to drink. So far (and yes as always I am drinking my gravity test sample) it's not a knockout by any means, but it's good with a lot of hops flavor.

Something a little weird with this is that the reading I got on the hydrometer was 1.000, but since mine only reads in increments of .005 I figured that was a sign that is was under .005. It made me thing though, is it possible to get a reading of 1.000 from anything other than water? Could you have an aggressive enough yeast session to get down that low? My first thought is no. I would say that in a hypothetical case like that, you would not have any flavor in the beer because there would be no sugar left.

Either way, beer is beer and I am pleased with this one thus far.

Cheers.

I got it!

you can now access my brew blog from either cnybrewblog.blogspot.com or just www.cnybrew.com. Hope all is well and it is killing me waiting on my brews!

Cheers to not having to screw around on annoying tech crap anymore.

Quick Tech Note

For anyone that is using blogger and has seen that you can create a personalized URL for your .blogspot site, I have to put out a little warning. Now I have been using GoDaddy for my domain registration for a while now and have not been pleased. However, the war that I have had to go through with this new blogger business is out of control!

Here is the point of this; if you are interested in using the custom domain feature in Blogger, do not use GoDaddy! It is the worst.

Thanks, I promise that's the last of the tech biz I will put out on my blog, back to the beer!

Grain Bill Adjustments

I am always looking for a way to get things done that makes sense and saves money. I have to say that as of late I have been a little obsessed with this whole concept of efficiency and it led me to create a little adjustment sheet so that I could make changes to my grain bill.

If you are interested, I found a website that allows users to post documents called ThinkFree and I posted a spreadsheet I made here. This program allows you to download the document when you have an account so here is a quick run through on getting this thing down loaded:


1) go to the drop down menu in the upper right corner


2) choose Copy to My Folder from the menu


3) from here is will ask you to sign in, assuming you don't have an account, you sign up for the free account and the program will send you an email to verify your account.


4) from there the document should be in your should be in your My Office tab and if you choose from the file menu, you can download the doc to your hard drive.

The reason that I recommend downloading it to your computer is that the web adjustments don't work fast enough for my liking. I know what you are thinking, no this is not a less than clever plan to plot worms on people's computers, this is an excel doc!

Now the way that this is set up is there are a bunch of equations built into the doc (stick to sheet 3, it's the best one) and they will allow you to adjust a verity of items on your recipe to get the grain bill that fits.


Here goes:


1)The column to start with is the LBS per Batch, this is where you will enter in the amounts of the grains indicated in column A that the recipe you are planning calls for.



2)As you can see here, I have put in 1 lb of Chocolate Malt, 4.25 lbs of Belgium 2 row pale malt, and 4lbs of Belgium wheat malt. There is a recommendation about the amount of each of these mats you should use and on the far right column it lets you know how much you have in your recipe.






3)Now in the column labeled Adjust LBS there is a new number that is the result of the equations set in the spreadsheet. When you download the sheet, it is set at 54% efficiency so all of the adjustments are based on that.











4) To adjust the efficiency to reflect your homebrewery, all you need to do is change the 0.54 number that is in the highlighted box to what ever your efficiency is, for example if you are at 75% efficiency, change the number to 0.75. The number on the spreadsheet will reflect the difference from that number and 1, so for 0.75 it will read 25%. I wish I could have made it do everything, but alas.



5) Finally when you have inputted your efficiency and the recipe you are planning on using, you should have an adjusted recipe to reflect your homebrewery's efficiency.

If this doesn't work let me know. I am good with excel, but bad with math.

Cheers.

Efficiency

So I am now 3 batches into my new all brew system and I figured I would try to come up with my efficiency. I found this explanation of efficiency on the HBD Efficiency web page. These are listed in opposite the order that they were brewed, so the Yeti was the first all brew I tried. The Ed at the local brew store said that this was an aggressive first brew so it should not be surprising that I only had 37% efficiency on that one.

JC IPA
8lb. Durst Pilsner (3628 g) 56 pts
2lb. Briess 2-row (907 g) 14.8 pts
1lb. Durst Wheat (453 g) 7.8 pts
0.5lb. corn sugar to boil (226 g) 4
82.6

Potential 1.082
Actual 1.045
Eff 54.8%

Pilsner
4.0 lbs (1,800g) 2 row pale malt 29.6 pts
2lbs 10oz (1,200 g) 6 row pale malt 18.2 pts
2lbs (907g) flaked maze ?

Potential 1.048
Actual 1.030
Eff 62.5%

Yeti
15.25 lbs American 2 row malt 112.85 pts
1 lb- Crystal Malt 6.8 pts
12oz- Chocolate Malt 4.5 pts
12oz- Black Patent Malt 4.35 pts
10oz- Roasted Barley 3.48 pts
8oz- Wheat Malt 3.9 pts
8oz- Flaked Rye ?
135

Potential 1.135
Actual 1.050
Eff 37%

Avg Eff 51%

Overall I would say that I need to work on efficiency for the future, but it looks as though I am in the ball park of many brewers that are new to all grain so I am not going to complain. After all, if I started out perfect, where would I have to go?

Joe Cool IPA

This is an IPA that I made some changes too for my recipe. I am waiting on my Schlitz to lager for a month so I decided I would brew up an IPA for the Super Bowl. This should be a fine one:

5 Gallons

8lb. Durst Pilsner (3628 g)
2lb. Briess 2-row (907 g)
1lb. Durst Wheat (453 g)
0.5lb. corn sugar to boil (226 g)

1oz Spalt 60 Full boil (28 g)
1oz Hersbrucker 30 min left (28 g)
2oz Spalt 5 min left (56 g)

1 Orange (Tangelo) peel 10 mins left
1 TBS Cilantro 10 mins left (15ml)

OG- .045 (it was supposed to be up in the .058 range so I am a little disappointed, but what can you do? It's still beer)
FG- ~.003 (I need a better hydrometer, mine only works in increments of .005 so I am never sure about exacts. In this case it was actually closest to 1.000)

5.5% ABV

Wyeast Rogue Yeast- This was a recommendation from my brewer and he has yet to steer me wrong so I decided to go with it. I guess this is a limited release yeast so you are on your own for an alternative.

My version of this brew is named after the ultimate Super Bowl QB, Joe Montana!

The Schlitz

I saw this recipe in BYO.com and since I had never tried a lager, I decided this was a good place to start. This is my version of the recipe The Schizlitz from BYO:

90 min at 150F (65C)
4.0 lbs (1,800g) 2 row pale malt
2lbs 10oz (1,200 g) 6 row pale malt
2lbs (907g) flaked maze

.55oz (15g) Czech Saaz 3.8% alpha (60min)
1.1oz (31g) Fuggles (60min)

Wyeast 2035 (American Lager)

OG- 1.030
FG- 1.005

I used about 7 gallons of water, 2 gallons for the wart and another 5 for the sparge. After the boil down, I had the right amount. This was my first time using a starter and I think it helped out, though I am not sure about the smell I am getting from the fermenter. There is a sulfur smell coming out that I get a little bit of, so if there is anyone out there that know anything about that, please feel free to add some input. I am a little afraid that I may have my first infected batch (knock on wood), but I am going to wait and see if it's not something with the lager yeast that I may not know about.

Otherwise the whole process went well.

Next Brew

As an FYI for anyone interested; I am going to be brewing this weekend. I have an American Pilsner recipe I found in BYO called the Shizlitz and I made a couple of changes to it for a slight variation on the 70's style American Pilsner.

I am going to get some photos and do a detailed entry about how I brew to follow up the recipe.

Cheers!

T

First Glass

This is a great brew. I am not saying that it's the be all and end all, but to be honest a little part of me is still fired up when my beer tastes like beer!

Anyway, even though I did not get all of the OG I should have out of the grains that I used, it still has a nice Strong flavor and has all of the characteristics of a good stout. Something I might recommend changing is the hops. There is a stiff hops smell that seems little out of place in a stout. I have always associated stouts with that nice malt flavor and smell (which this has plenty of).

Either way, as you can see from the picture, the head is a nice gold color that does not stay very long, but it's there. The recipe is good and I would that anyone interested in a full flavor stout would like this.

Great YouTube Videos on Homebrewing

I saw these on YouTube and thought they were great. If you have never brewed before, or if you are just starting out, I have always recommended seeing someone in action and this guy have a modest, but thorough operation. He hits all of the high points and I must say, I even saw somethings that are going to make me change a few things I have going on.

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4

Video 5

Kegged the Yeti

Just a quick note, I took my FG and kegged my Yeti. Needless to say, I have never been one to waste beer so I drank my hydrometer sample and this was what I got from my first taste:

From what I could tell it had a great taste up front. Strong smoky malt flavor but it lacks a finish. The smell was nice, but I am not sure it was fitting of a stout. It has a strong hoppy smell from far away, but when you get your nose right up to it and take a good whiff it has that rich malt smell that you expect in a stout.

Overall I would say (again this is a preliminary assessment) it's a so mediocre example of a stout. However, thats not a bad thing for two reasons; One it was my first shot at all grain, so anything short of a disaster is cool with me and two my friends who are going to be drinking it are hardly what I would call "beer aficionados" though they do consume quite a bit of the bubbly.



My bad on the pics, I should not have drank the sample before I got the camera out.

Carbonating the Keg

So I have been kegging my beer for about a year now and I am still tweaking the process having not found "the ideal" method. I was just reading something on Homebrewmart.com that outlines the force carbonating process pretty well. For this entry I am going to give a brief overview of my method, and some changes I am going to try for this time around.

After the obvious, sanitize, transfer the beer to the keg with minimal aeration, and sealing the top, I start with the CO2. I usually hit the keg with 10-12psi to ensure a good seal and bleed off any O2 (using the valve at the top I let some out and have the CO2 replace the O2 from the transfer). After I have the keg sealed and all of the O2 out, I hit the keg with about 30-35psi until I can tell there is no more CO2 going into the keg.

If you have never done this process before, the way to tell things have equalized inside the keg and there is no more room for CO2 is actually pretty easy, there is no more noise. Once you hear that there is no more CO2 leaving the tank, the kegs got all the CO2 its going to handle.

Next I shake the keg vigorously, I go back and froth, roll it around on the floor, ext. I do this for a few minutes and then hit it with another shot of CO2. I repeat this process 4 or 5 times and let the keg rest for 1/2 hour or so and repeat the process.

After I feel that it's had enough (no logic about the how much on that one, just a shot in the dark), I release the excess pressure from the keg and hook it to the in (CO2 tank) and the out (keggerator) at 10-12psi and leave it over night.

So far the results have been good, not great. I have had a couple of kegs give me trouble and lead em to do the whole process over again. Other times it starts out totally heady and settles about 6-8 beers in. And still other times it's all over the charts.

I would love to get this down to a science so any recommendations are welcome. A quick note would be that the kegs are kept in my basement as a 60-65F temp.

In the end, its still beer and no matter how flat my love is, I still love it.

Learn something new everyday!

So I was reading my handy-dandy "Homebrewing for Dummies" that I bought a few years ago (mine is an older version and I think it's written by someone different) and I saw an interesting tidbit that I didn't realize before. When you are brewing a heavier brew, like an Imperial Stout, you should give it more time in the secondary fermentation than you would with other brews.

Now this is news to me because I was just going on 2 weeks secondary fermentation for everything. According to the book, because these beers are so heavy, the yeast needs a little extra time to work through everything.

Anyway, just a quick update and a reminder to always keep learning.

On a side note- I bought that book before I actually started brewing, I figured that I was going to get to know everything before I went into it like that was going to make me a better brewer, needless to say, I was wrong. If you are thinking about brewing and want to "learn more" my advice is just do it. Watch someone do it if you can, but if you can't, just start screwing around.

*I don't recommend Homebrewing for Dummies, it's confusing, the recipes in it are dated and is really not good for any beginner. However, it does make for a good reference now that I have been brewing for a while.

My Operation

This is something that I have been planning on doing for a while now and because I got my digital camera to start putting photo on my computer, here we go:

This is my mash tun set up that I referenced in my posting about the Imperial Stout. As you can see there were somethings that I did differently and I have to say that if I were to do it again, I would recommend keeping it simple.



As you can see, I used a hose type nozzle on the cooler as a way to keep the flow of liquid controlled. The problem with that is it makes the operation needlessly complicated and gives yet another place for a leak to develop. Fact is, the liquid that comes out of the mash tun is all but trickling out and there is no need to have a device capable of stopping water at a higher pressure. That's just me over thinking the plan.



This is my brew corner. I built a corner table out of some used counter top (great because it does not warp from water and beer sitting on it) and some 2x4s. I built it in the corner so that I would be using some otherwise wasted space in the basement (over the sum pump). It have worked out great.



This is my mini fridge kegerator. I took a dorm fridge, drilled a few holes in it and made it into my kegerator. The brew comes from the keg in the back, into a cold plate (that sits in a pan of water to help keep it cool, Pete's idea from the Salt City Brew Club) and out of a tap on the door.

It works pretty well. It does not use a lot of power, keeps my beer cold and is a space saver. Do I dream of more? Of course, but this was a great use of some of my random parts.

As an FYI, I tried using one of the bigger dorm fridges (that you can fit the whole keg inside) but there were a lot of problems. You see the freezer box will freeze the whole keg and the thing never actually worked. It was a disappointment. However, this new little guy is great because I don't even have to get down on my knees to make adjustments.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy. I am going to post some pics from a brew session one of these days.

Thanks.

All Grain- First Stab at it

Well I feel better knowing that it's not as hard as I anticipated. But there are a lot of things that I need to step up in my next round. As I said in a previous post, I plan on updating the bog with an entry that out lines my current setup, but for now I just want to cover a few things that happened during the brewing that worked and that didn't.

First, I was at a loss to figure out how much water to use in the mash. I had heard 1qt per lb of grain, 1.25 qt per lb of grain and a lot of suggestions in between. I used 5 gallons for about 18lbs on grain. That works out to 1.1qts per lb of grain. I am not sure how well this worked, but I was erring on the side of caution because I was not use how much the mash tun I made would hold (it's 48qts and had PLENTY of room).

The temp held great in the mash tun which made me happy. 150F for the full hour, you can't ask for much more than that.

When it came time to run the extract off into the brew pot, I had a bowl that I was using to watch the liquid and get an idea of when it was running without sediment. Well if you take a look at the recipe I was using (Great Divide Imperial Stout) it was DARK and there was no telling if there was sediment or not, so I ran a little out and dumped it back in and just opened it up to the brew pot.

The other thing that I think I dropped the ball on was the sparging. I had about 3gallons of water at 170F and dumped it into the mash tun after the other liquid was run out. I stirred it around for a few minutes and opened it up to the brew kettle. This may have cut down on the OG because I did not give the sparging a chance to work.

Finally, I was not sure where to put the spent grains when I was finished so I dumped them down a storm drain. I don't think it caused any problems, but there has to be a better way. I think I should start composting them.

Anyway, everything else went off without a hitch. The only think that worries me is that there was an OG of 90 on the recipe, but mine was only 50. I think that I sold myself short, though I took the OG from the extract and not from the post boil brew, so who knows if it was as accurate as it normally would be.

I have some ideas for tweaking things for the next all grain batch, but depending on how this one turns out will dictate how many changes I make.

Cheers.

Yeti (my first all grain)

Ok, so I found this cool mash tun that I made a knock off of and I used as my inspiration to take the plunge into all grain brewing. I am going to put down the details of this Great Divide Imperial Stout, Yeti clone that I got out of Brew Magazine (that my wonderful wife was so kind to get me a subscription for) and I will put a separate entry for the details on my mash tun monster that I built. Cheers- Travis

Great Divide Yeti- Imperial Stout Clone
Base Grain- 15.25 lbs American 2 row malt
1 lb- Crystal Malt
12oz- Chocolate Malt
12oz- Black Patent Malt
10oz- Roasted Barley
8oz- Wheat Malt
8oz- Flaked Rye
1.1oz Chinook Hops (60min)
.55oz Chinook Hops (30min)
.45oz Chinook Hops (20min)
.5oz Chinook Hops (5min)

OG- 1.050
FG-1.005
ABV- 5.85%

Abbey Ale

The Abbey Ale is great. It's strong, no bones about it, but I must say, it has all of the character of a good ale.

Note- I still have yet to master the carbonation of the keg. What has worked for me in the past that is kind of working this time is that I charge the keg (about 30 PSI), bleed out the O2 and I shake it for about 5 min or so. After this, I lower to what I want it to come out at and I connect the CO2 to the keg and then to the tap. I let everything sit for a few days and then start to drink.

Thus far it has produced two results, first it either starts out with a weak carbonation and eventually works it's way to being alright and second, it starts out really foamy and weakens out to a nice carb later.

This is an imperfect science for me, but once I master it I will be sure to make note of exactly what I did.

WOW

Just a note, 9.17% ABV for my "First Tuesday after the first Monday" Abbey Ale, it's going to be great!

"The First Tuesday After The First Monday" Abbey Ale

I went out looking for an Octoberfest brew that I could make with extract. There were a lot of them out there, but the one thing I noticed is that there was no consistancy in the ingredients so I was not sure what made one different from the others. So here I am. I found this Abbey Ale recipie on the internet and made some adjustments to make it my own. Ommegang has a GREAT Abby Ale so if you are interested to get a good taste, thats a great place to start.

Malt Extract: 6.6 lbs Muttons Malt Extract
3 lbs Muttons dry malt

Specialty Grain: 1 lb De Wolf-Cosyns Belgian pale malt
.5lbs Briess Victory Malt

Bitter Hops: 1 oz Czek Saaz (55 min)
Flavor Hops: 1 oz Czek Saaz (5 min)
Kicking it up: 1 oz Czek Saaz (2 min)

Yeast: Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey

Special: 1 lb dark Belgian candy- when you add the candy, add it 1/4 of the bag at a time and stir it in. This allows the candy to dissolve)

OG: 1.080
FG: 1.010

ABV: 9.17%

Cherry Wheat

Now I have never been a fan of the Cherry Wheat's that I have tried (Sam Adams), I think because they use the Cherry Flavoring as opposed to the real Cherry's. Well everyone I have talked too loves the Cherry Wheat so I bucked and decided to make this.

Malt Extract: 3.3lbs Light malt extract (I used Muttons)
3.3lbs Wheat Malt extract (again, Muttons, wish they would sponsor me)
Specialty Grain: .5lbs Crystal Malt

Bitter Hops: 1.5oz Hallertauer (45min)
Flavor Hops: .5oz Hallertauer (10min)

Yeast: Wyeast Weizenbeer Yeast

Special: 8 lbs of frozen sweet cherry's (they are put in during the fermentation, watch for clogging of the bubbler, I used a spill-over tube which consists of a tube connected to the plug where the bubbler goes and it runs into a bucket of sanitized water, worked really well, the fermentation was really intense on this batch)

OG: 1.040
FG: 1.005

Fermentation

This is a brewers note:

The primary fermentation for the Orange Blossom Honey Amber was about 5 days. I racked it last night and it smells and looks good. I think that with all of the fermentables this is going to be a strong brew.

The last brew that I did kept fermenting in the secondary fermentation almost up until I kegged it. That was the result of racking too early. This one has not been fermenting at all so I think we are in good shape. No we wait, the hardest part!

Orange Blossom Amber

This is one I found on the internet at Beer Recipes.org and it sounded too good not to try!

Malt Extract: 6.6lbs Muttons Extract
Specialty Grain: .5lbs Crystal Malt

Bitter Hops: 1.5oz Hallertauer (45min)
Flavor Hops: .5oz Hallertauer (10min)

Yeast: Safale S-04 (dry yeast)

Special: 2 cups orange blossom honey (45min)
1tsp Irish Moss

OG: 1.045
FG: 1.005

*Add the Irish moss after 15min of boiling. The honey goes in with the extract. It started fermenting within 12hrs.

Summer Fun!

The Belgium White is flowing!

This is by far my favorite kind of beer, so without a doubt I'm a bias observer. However, the brew recipe I used for this worked out great, it comes highly recommended.

It has a great smell, light fruity hints throughout the brew, and it's even uncharacteristically clear for a Belgium White. I had two of my golf buddies over the other night after a very ugly night at the links. It was named the "Mulligan Witte" because it was a Mulligan for our whole night.

If you are looking for something summer, smooth, easy to drink, this is a great option.

For anyone in the brewing side of things, it was OG 1.045, and FG at 1.011, Making it a hair under 5% abv. The grains of paradise really stand out in the aroma, but the orange peel is pungent in the flavor. It was in the primary fermentation for about 1 week, and in the secondary for over 2 weeks. I racked it too early and it fermented in the secondary for just about the whole two weeks.

Good luck.

Blanche de Bruges (Belgium White)

This was a mix I got from Ed at EJ Wren, there are a lot of extras in this one and I have to say the are all good.

Malt Extract: 4lb Alexander's wheat Malt Syrup (60% wheat and 40% Barley)
Specialty Grain: 4oz flaked oats
3oz Belgian biscuit Malt

Bitter hops: 1oz Styrian Goldings (45 min)
Flavor Hops: 1/2 oz Saaz (15min)

Yeast: Belgian White Beer Yeast- liquid

Special 1/2 lb Belgian clear candy sugar (45min)
*1tsp ground coriander (15min)
1oz bitter orange peel (1/2 15min, 1/2 at 3min)
1/4tsp crushed cumin seeds
1tsp crushed grains of paradise

OG: 1.045 (range 1.048-1.049)
FG: 1.015 (1.009-1.010)

*I did not use this, but it was part of the mix.

I brewed this for just under an hour and it fermented in the primary for about 3 or 4 days before slowing down. It smells really good I can't wait to try it!

New Life

This is my first post since moving into my new home. I am in between batches (still nursing my English Brown Ale), but I have been continuing on in a brew tasting class where I have learned about a lot of new brews.

I think my next batch will be a wheat beer, maybe a Belgian.

I will post more as I start to put together my new home brew setup.

Value of Age

Well lesson learned.

I let the English Brown Ale that I was previously not satisfied with age on the CO2 system (about 8psi) and I must say, the improvement is noticeable.

The beer has a full consistent carbonation, the smell has a overwhelming sent of brown sugar and the flavor is mellow and smooth with a sweet after taste. I wouldn't call this an award winning beer by any stretch, but I will say that I am more than willing to drink it and enjoy it. After all, that's what really matters.

Lesson; if at first you are not satisfied, let it sit, can't hurt.