|
|
|
By Eric Kahler on Dec 7th 2008, 3:19 pm
|
Permalink |
|
waiting for all of the kegs and dual keg set up to arrive. Cant wait to stop bottling! I only got the party taps though. Will wait until the spring before purchasing the small fridge. The garage will have to work for now. Hope my beer doesn't freeze. I did however go with the 20# co2 bottle. Hope I can get it filled locally. I wonder how long a 20 #er will last? |
|
By Eric Kahler on Jan 8th 2007, 11:46 pm
|
Permalink |
Made a barley wine yesterday for next Christmas, I made the batch outside as the weather was pretty nice for this time of the year. I racked my hop devil clone kit to secondary and put the barley wine on top of the US56 yeast cake. I had active fermentation in about 2 hrs which surprised me as that is the fastest start Ive ever had. When I got up this morning the top of the bucket (7.5gal.) was bulged and the gas would come out in violent bursts into the large jar full of water thru the blowoff tube. The jar was pretty muddy with krausen and the blow off tube was full of it. I decided to just keep and I eye on it today and see what happens rather than to try to remove and clean the blow off tube to make sure it was clear for the gas to release. Apparently the krausen must have subsided some as the tube is just bubbling gas and not krausen now...WHEWWW. It is still hammering away a very steady stream of O2 .A gamble that at least this time has worked. Pitching on the yeast cake is the bomb as others have said. My blowoff tube fit right into the grommet for my airlock. I have a feeling that this is not adequet and I need a bigger tube and hole in the top of the pail.Anyway live and learn at least it didnt blow and fermentation is going along nicely.
Eric |
|
By Eric Kahler on Dec 24th 2006, 12:09 am
|
Permalink |
|
Well I now have my 3 new kegs and had the tops cut off with a plasma cutter at the local welding shop. Got my shipment from B'3 of 3 weldless spigot valves only to open the box and find only 1 valve in the box. Called B'3 from Jersey and no questions asked they shipped the other 2 spigot valves right out. Excellent customer service! Now I have to order the sight glass for the HLT , and two 170,000btu burners one for the HLT and one for the boil kettle. I considered getting a burner for the mash tun but decided against it. Ill add hot water from the HLT to to raise the mash temp if needed. My co worker is going to build a horizontal stand when I give him the measurments and we will find a way to incorperate a march pump to transfer water and wort. Still all in the planning stages but it is getting me closer to going all grain as I get the necasarry equiptment. I am going to make my own hop taco thanks to Bryan Peretto's suggestions and I still looking for the right false bottom and pick up tube for the MT. I am also going to order a digital thermometer for my mash tun and the HLT as well as the submerged wort chiller... If anyone has ANY suggestions about any of this Equiptment please chime in . This Forum rocks.... |
|
By Eric Kahler on Mar 4th 2006, 10:13 pm
|
Permalink |
|
Last Saturday I brewed my 1st saison. Made the starter a week ahead of time (my 1st starter)and pitched the whole thing when I was done brewing. Im sure that I added too much DME to the starter but what the hay, live and learn. Any way, I had airlock activity in 4 hours and 4 hours later it was going like gang busters, so much that I readied the blow off tube. 12 hrs later all activity had ceased. I let it sit at 78F (outside the fermenter water jacket) for 3 days. I popped the lid and took a gravity reading and it was 1.040...It smelled excellent. Wow, way to high FG and not close to being done. I knew it was too good to be true, so I pitched a sachet of coopers ale yeast gave it a gentle stir. I swirled the wort up gently and I now have active fermentation again..I guess as experiments go I will just have to wait and see if I have ruined it or not.. |
|
By Eric Kahler on Feb 18th 2006, 9:27 pm
|
Permalink |
|
BostonBrewer, I use 220z bottles from my LHBS and a lever capper. Im going to try some different caps the next time I bottle |
|
