Messages

316

All Grain Brewing / Re: Brewhouse lesson of the day

« on: August 21, 2011, 01:28:39 pm »

I'm going to update my lesson to "rice hulls go through 3/32" perforated false bottoms", after reclogging while stirring the sparge, and after i'm finished today its a Denny braid from now on.

317

Equipment and Software / Re: My subscription to Strange Brew (Recipe Calculator) ran out.

« on: August 21, 2011, 11:56:25 am »

I used to use Brew Recipator before I switched over to BeerSmith.  Beersmith is worth every cent, but for a real basic calculator Recipator worked for me to begin with.

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator

318

All Grain Brewing / Brewhouse lesson of the day

« on: August 21, 2011, 11:51:07 am »

Don't add your rice hulls before your grain when you're recirculating the HERMS.  They go right through your false bottom and plug up your lines down stream.  Its not fun pulling apart the hard plumbing at 160F against the clock...

anyone else got a good lesson learnt the hard way? 

319

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: First brewing-related injury

« on: August 19, 2011, 11:42:43 am »

when building my brewstand, the angle grinder kicked up and landed on my forearm, taking a chunk of flesh with it.

320

All Grain Brewing / Re: First all-grain brewday

« on: August 19, 2011, 11:40:28 am »

Congrats, welcome to the obsession.  I did a couple of batches for a friend's wedding, and filled a few bombers of each brew.  On their first anniversary I presented them the bottles of their wedding day brew as a surprise.

321

Yeast and Fermentation / Follow up - Re: California Ale screw up

« on: August 19, 2011, 08:49:35 am »

I brewed last Sunday, chilled, pitched my starter and had held it at 65-67 ever since.  Airlock activity is good, but the krausen is almost non-existent.  I'm not too worried, I took a gravity reading after 4 days and its gone from 1.052 down to 1.020 so fermentation is active, I've just never experienced such a poor krausen.  Normally its a couple of inches or out the blow off tube, not a thin blotchy layer of yeast.

Anyone else experienced this?

322

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Freezer for a Keezer

« on: August 18, 2011, 02:52:31 pm »

I have a 15.4 cu ft chest freezer, and my options are 2x 3gal cornies on the hump plus;
    a)  8x 1/6 barrel / cornies
    b)  4x 1/6 barrel + 1x 1/2 barrel
    c)  2x 1/6 barrel + 2x 1/2 barrel
I'd say a 6.5gal carboy or a bucket will take up a footprint not much smaller than a 1/2 barrel.  If you lager in a keg (albeit that's 5 gallons) you use less space, and then you can just carb it afterwards.

323

Pimp My System / Re: My new HERMS rig

« on: August 18, 2011, 06:50:17 am »

rjharper - I'm considering shop vac-ing my mash tun in my new brewery - but I am curious how do you keep the shop vac clean?  do you suck up warm water after the mash?  do you put a bag in the canister to capture the spent grain and then just dispose of the bag?

I dont use any bag, I remove the dust filter, and set it up for wet operation (usually have to flip the diverter from the hose) then I just suck away. Once I've emptied the tun, I usually add an inch or two of hot water, wipe everything down, then suck all that up too.  After that the hose is clean, and I can just pour out the shop vac onto the compost heap, then hose it out clean.

After all that, its CIP with a little PBW.

324

Pimp My System / Re: My new HERMS rig

« on: August 15, 2011, 08:40:01 am »

More photos




I chose to go hard plumbing for a clean look.  Its all 1/2" stainless tubing.




Here's the pump output, where I can select the HERMS coil or to bypass it.  The tube running up the centre connects to the HLT and BK fill valves that are on the kegs themselves




The inlet to the BK hooks to the left so it whirlpools automatically as it fills / recirculates




Inside the BK with false bottom / screen, and whirlpool inlet.  You also see the pickup arm and brewmometer sticking in.




The inlet to the MLT has a brewmometer fed coaxially down the middle of the fitting so I can observe what the temp of the liquor coming from the HERMS coil is.




I chose the smaller banjo burners, then changed the orifices to #58 and went high pressure on them.  The ball valves on the frame use the horizontal member as the propane manifold.  I added heatshields and a burner arm to the central position just in case I ever wanted to add a direct fire option to the mash tun


The entire photo collection is here http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150249915705081.360915.285119700080&l=6dce79903e&type=1

325

Pimp My System / Re: My new HERMS rig

« on: August 15, 2011, 06:14:01 am »

Very pretty.
How do you remove the stainless tubes from the kegs for clean up and grain disposal?  From a distance it looks like they are permanently attached.

It is hard plumbed.  I use a shop vac to empty the mash tun (takes about 30 seconds to suck out the grain!).  I cycle PBW through the system when I'm done and clean in place.

326

Pimp My System / My new HERMS rig

« on: August 14, 2011, 04:04:27 pm »

After 6 years of extract I decided to switch to all-grain, and figured it was time to go big or go home.  So after lots of research, and 3 months of fabrication in the evenings and weekends, its finally done, and I brewed by first batch on it today (a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone).  First day's efficiency wasn't great, 63%, but its all improvement from here I hope.

About the system; 3 converted Sanke kegs, 2 banjo burners, 1 March pump, 10 ball valves, 25' x 1/2" HERMS coil, hard plumed with 1/2" OD stainless lines.  The frame is 1-1/2" square x 1/8" steel tube, powder coated with 1000F smoker paint (and it still blistered by the burner!).



I'll post more pics once I remember how to make an image folder public in Google Docs.

327

Ingredients / Re: Hot water

« on: August 14, 2011, 10:32:39 am »

Its a new unit (within 5 years) and I flush the tank occasionally anyways so the valve is good.  That said, when I read into the subject of drinking/cooking from the hot water tap, every source said it was a bad idea based upon lead content from hot water sitting in tanks / pipes, and even "lead-free" new houses still have some lead in the brass fittings.  So its back to the original plan and the cold water tap.

328

Ingredients / Hot water

« on: August 13, 2011, 07:11:51 pm »

Has anyone used the hot water tank drain valve to fill the HLT and save time/propane?  My theory is that the house hot water tank is in the garage, which is where I brew, and I have an RV hose that normally hits the ourstide faucet, then feeds the undersink filter, then onto the HLT.  If I flush any major sediment first, then the rest is trapped in the filter, then I can save time.  Am I missing something here, or should it be this easy?

Thanks
Ross

329

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: California Ale screw up

« on: August 12, 2011, 12:34:30 pm »

It's good.
Why would you ferment over 70*
Don't do that.

I wouldn't, at least not intentionally.

The reviews on White Lab's site indicate it get very fruity / estery / orangey over 70F.  What I was trying to get at, was that WLP001's optimum range is 68-73F whereas WLP051 is 66-70F.  I usually target a 65F ale yeast zone, but it might creep up at the height of fermentation.  WLP001 is a little more temp tolerant, that's all.

330

Yeast and Fermentation / California Ale screw up

« on: August 11, 2011, 10:45:10 pm »

So WLP001 California is my jack of all trades, and as I set out to make the yeast starter for my Sierra Nevada APA clone, I realize I've grabbed WLP051 California V the last time I was in the LHBS.  What makes it worse is WLP001 is the Sierra Nevada strain, so it would have been perfect! @#$#@@%@%@%@@#%&(^&!!

All ranting aside, anybody have experience switching these two out?  I've read that WLP051 can get really fruity (orange) if its over pitched or goes above 70F, so temp control is gong to be key here.  Any other input?

Thanks.
Ross