Alcohol

[lostfido]

Mumbles

 

As far as pressure on kegs goes, I can only comment on what my experiences have been. I have a beermeister in my garage that I have had for the past 10 years or so.

 

 

When experimenting with pressures on the keg for your plain jane american beers (Miller or AB) I have found that the least amount of pressure gives the best all around performance.

 

 

My beermeister is set at 4 psi all the time for my standard beer of choice (Miller Diet) and the performance is perfect, a nice head without blowing foam all over the place. Increasing the pressure does help speed the rate the beer comes out, but I'm old and I'm not in a hurry.

 

However you may know better than I if the fact my Co2 bottle is inside the beermeister could affect the results.

 

As far as pressurizing a keg and letting it sit without being hooked up has never been successful in my attempts, I believe you are better keeping it pressurized all the time.

 

Multiple regulators off one cylinder should not be a problem, provided the nozzle of the tank can supply the volume you are looking for.

 

I hope this helps as my areas of expertise are limited to Auto/Truck repair and beer drinking, but I'm learning a ton here!!

 

Fido

[_Po_]

I finally made a reflux column and condenser. Kind of dodgey, but for a friday afternoon and $40 it should do the job.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/kakkak/blocky/still1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/kakkak/blocky/still2.jpg

 

Apart from the 2m of 2" copper pipe I bought for $40, I found everything I needed in the shed...and the 2" threaded brass overflow outlet with a lid flap sticking out the side of my house...Cough cough.

 

Column is 1300mm long and the condenser is 700mm long. The column has 3 internal cooling pipes which I'm not sure if I'll actually use. Packing will be stainless steel scrubbers. I bought a rubber stopper with a thermometer hole in it so I'm going to drill a hole in the top of the column to fit it.

 

Just waiting on the 20L hot water urn to arrive so I've got a boiler.

[Richtee]

I finally made a reflux column and condenser. Kind of dodgey, but for a friday afternoon and $40 it should do the job.

I'll say it should! Looks fine to me! Nice work!

[tentacles]

Mumbles

 

When experimenting with pressures on the keg for your plain jane american beers (Miller or AB) I have found that the least amount of pressure gives the best all around performance.

 

Those aren't beer, those are what we call barley tea... Beer has this thing we like to call "flavor" ;P

 

 

My beermeister is set at 4 psi all the time for my standard beer of choice (Miller Diet) and the performance is perfect, a nice head without blowing foam all over the place. Increasing the pressure does help speed the rate the beer comes out, but I'm old and I'm not in a hurry.

 

However you may know better than I if the fact my Co2 bottle is inside the beermeister could affect the results.

 

CO2 in the kegerator should be fine, you get a much lower primary pressure but it's plenty enough to operate the regulator. My keezer is just north of freezing temp (once in a while my beer line ices up a bit actually, I gotta change the thermostat some time) and the primary pressure is about 400PSI. The CO2 still boils off just fine.

 

4 PSI seems really low for dispensing anything other than stout - although it's been my experience that the pressure gauges on regulators are dodgy at best. I keep mine around 10psi, and as far as head, it's all in how you pour. If you are lousy with the tap, you can get a mug full of foam off my keezer, or I can pour you a beer with no foam at all. Pour beer so the stream experiences the least possible violent movement (splashing, sloshing against the side/bottom of the glass).

 

And I'd just like to point out, lite beer is pointless. All they do is make a weaker wort, so along with your lower calories, you get less alcohol, which is why you can drink a case of light beer.

 

edit: on a side note, I'll be brewing another batch of my chewy bock today. I pulled out the fridged sample of yeast from the original brew last night, boiled up some DME starter wort, and about 2 am pitched in the yeast. Got up today at 11 and there's evidence of activity, nice! Little white fermentation foam on top, swirled the pan it's sitting in and broke up the foam (it was definitely foam) and in less than 20 minutes, more foam.

 

This batch will be a bit different, the brew store only had 660g of munich I so the remainder is subbed with vienna. Also, they were out of crystal 120L so I subbed in a bit more crystal 77L. I may have some 120L stashed away, will check.

Edited September 1, 2008 by tentacles

[Richtee]

Those aren't beer, those are what we call barley tea... Beer has this thing we like to call "flavor" ;P

 

Calls 'em barly-pop here..or soda iffin' yer an eastcoaster ;{)

[Mumbles]

I'm giving a Kolsch a try today. I added 4oz of honey malt after the taste it gave the Pilsner. The Pilsner also got dumped. It was getting worse. The Kolsch is mashing right now. Hefeweizen with red wheat is up for possibly 2 weeks from now. I wasn't sure if the kolsch needed the carapils, but the hefeweizen sure doesn't, and I don't want to let it go to waste, so in it went. This is my first shot at using the chiller I got from Tentacles. It was slightly modified into an immersion chiller.

 

Due to some unforseen unfortunate happenings, the kegging and kegerator may be put off. I found out the hard way that it actually is possible to get too much money in financial aid.

 

8lbs Pilsner Malt

1lb Munich Malt

.5lb Wheat Malt

.5lb Carapils

.25lb Honey malt

 

.5oz Magnum (13.3AA) 60 min

.5oz Hersbrucker (3.3AA) 15 min

.5oz Hersbrucker (3.3AA) 5 min

 

Irish Moss at 15 min left in boil

[tentacles]

I modified my recipe today, even though I had crystal 120L stashed away. I remembered thinking it wasn't quite hoppy enough last batch - so now it's maybe a bit pilsner ish.

 

5 lbs Pale Malt - 2 Row (Cargill) (2.0 SRM) Grain 49.5 %

2 lbs 3.2 oz Munich II (Weyermann) (8.5 SRM) Grain 21.8 %

1 lbs 6.4 oz Munich I (Weyermann) (7.1 SRM) Grain 13.9 %

12.0 oz Crystal Extra Dark - 120L (Crisp) (120.0 SRM) Grain 7.4 %

8.0 oz Crystal Dark - 77L (Crisp) (75.0 SRM) Grain 5.0 %

4.0 oz Chocolate (Dingemans) (340.0 SRM) Grain 2.5 %

1.00 oz Cascade [7.80%] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 27.1 IBU

0.50 oz Palisade [8.10%] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 14.0 IBU

0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.80%] (15 min) Hops 3.8 IBU

0.50 oz Tettnang [4.50%] (15 min) Hops 3.5 IBU

0.15 oz Mt Rainier [4.70%] (10 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -

0.15 oz Mt. Hood [6.00%] (10 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -

0.15 oz Palisade [8.10%] (10 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -

0.15 oz Saaz [4.00%] (10 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -

0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc

[Mumbles]

My kolsch finished up at 1.046 OG, and about 5.5 gallons. I decided to give my mom's house one more shot. I realized the thing I had been doing differently, which is the likely cause of the contamination. I had been using ice to cool the wort somewhat. Not anymore with the immersion chiller. Worked like a charm. Thanks again tentacles.

 

Thats quite a hop bill your Bock has. I bet it's mightly tasty though. I love a good bock, and have been theorising about some recipies for a while now. There really are not a great deal of them out there.

 

On the topic of recipies, anyone have any good irish red they've made? I've seen a few, but the recipies are so varied, it's hard to get a good idea. Roasted Barley seems to be pretty traditional, but I've seen chocolate and special B substituted out for it.

[Richtee]

Thats quite a hop bill your Bock has. I bet it's mightly tasty though. I love a good bock, and have been theorising about some recipies for a while now. There really are not a great deal of them out there.

 

Yanno I thought a bock was supposed to be a malty, lightly hopped style. But...ya can call it what ya want.

 

And yes..the wort chiller prevents ALOT of bugs. Great invention, that :{)

[tentacles]

Well, those palisade hops I added in for bittering and aroma are supposed to be a very mild hop. Last time the hop flavor just needed a bit more kick - it seems to finish pretty low (1.005 last time) but it was still rich and malty.

 

Just finished the boil, gonna turn on the wort chiller in a couple minutes. I had to make up a new faucet adaptor for my vacuum aspirator (my chiller hose just slips over the end of it). I love this new lathe, and the toolpost I put on it.

 

edit: Starting gravity ended up at 1.065, I boiled it down a bit more than I should have, but my starter was 1qt and I got this nice new stainless strainer that just fits perfectly on a brew bucket so there will be very little trub. Thanks to the 60 mesh screen I put over the ~8 mesh of the strainer.

Edited September 2, 2008 by tentacles

[lostfido]

Those aren't beer, those are what we call barley tea... Beer has this thing we like to call "flavor" ;P

 

 

 

 

And I'd just like to point out, lite beer is pointless. All they do is make a weaker wort, so along with your lower calories, you get less alcohol, which is why you can drink a case of light beer.

 

http://www.realbeer.com/edu/health/calories2.php

 

 

Here is some info on alcohol content of beers. When you figure out the differences in alcohol content by percentages, your still drunk if you can drink a case!!!!!

 

I will take my light beer over the beers you have to use a fork to consume, however that is just my opinion.

My fridge in the garage has all kinds of "Chewy" beers in it, because my wife agrees with you 100% and she likes the stouts and IPA's and not the light beers.

 

As far as the pressure thing goes, my gauge is a liquid filled unit I bought from a welding supply house near by.

My beermeister works best @ 4 psi and my neighbors works best @ 8 psi so I'm sure it is just a difference in the gauges.

 

Good luck to all of you brewing your own, but I will stick to my wimpy light beers I can buy at the store.

 

 

 

Fido

[Richtee]

Good luck to all of you brewing your own, but I will stick to my wimpy light beers I can buy at the store.

Fido

We knew who ya were by the header eh. And Lord have mercy on yer tastebuds..or lack thereof.

[Mumbles]

So, I've decided to make a couple of monsterous beers for May when I theoretically graduate. I have one more german beer to make, then nothing planned. 9 months of aging should make them pretty decent. If not, I might not graduate until next December as well. I'm not sure about the formulas yet, but I have two ideas. One light beer, one dark beer, both extremely complex. I'm going have to leave a couple around for when I get my PhD.

 

I'm thinking a Russian Imperial Stout. Decent amount of chocolate malt. Somewhat hoppy. I've had a few RIS that weren't hopped enough and were almost disgustingly sweet and just coated your mouth. Probably some bourbon soaked oak cubes. Probably going to end up being a normal mash, and then adding in about 8-10 pounds of liquid extract to get up to gravity. Besides, I am going to need something to get rid of all the extra roasted barley and chocolate malt from my red ale.

 

For the other I am thinking about a belgian trippel. These seem fairly easy mash-wise. A normal sized mash and a few pounds of candi sugar in the boil, and oh so tasty.

 

My mouth is watering already. I'll bring some to the PGI if they are left.

[Richtee]

For the other I am thinking about a belgian trippel.

 

Personal conjecture...make it a Belgian dubble. Will age as well and SOO much better. Personally :{)

[_Po_]

I used my still for the first time today. It fills a 700ml bottle with 93% in 20 minutes. No flavour or smell. I'm very pleased with it.

[asilentbob]

Working on making a refux still head currently... need a step drill bit to make a big hole in a stockpot lid... then need to do some soldering... then I should be about ready to clean everything out and distill some water. Chances are that it will still take longer than I think. Meh.

[Mumbles]

I have terrible luck with beer. I think it's time I stop leaving the fermentations unattended. The top blew off the Kolsch, or at least pop the edge off. It's probably been that way for the better part of a week. It does have a bit of a vinegary smell to it now, pretty similar to how the last one that poped the top off smelled like.

[Swede]

A couple of years ago, a guy gave me some "junk" he thought might be useful. One of them just *might* make someone here weep bitter tears of envy, for lo and behold, it be a 4-foot stainless steel "heat exchanger"...

 

http://www.5bears.com/firew/sss01.jpg

 

The shoe is thrown in there for scale. The tubing is some variety of stainless, maybe 316. The tube ends terminate, via welding, in a 1" male pipe thread. When I saw it, I thought "still", and tucked it away in a corner of my shop.

 

Question: Could this be turned into an alternate-fuel distilling rig? I can see this thing in a rubbermaid garbage can or some fancier HDPE water jacket, dribbling cawn likker to fuel my motor vehicles. Or maybe making ethanol for fireworks binding with red gum, chem washing, etc.

[Richtee]

A couple of years ago, a guy gave me some "junk" he thought might be useful. One of them just *might* make someone here weep bitter tears of envy, for lo and behold, it be a 4-foot stainless steel "heat exchanger"...

 

http://www.5bears.com/firew/sss01.jpg

 

The shoe is thrown in there for scale. The tubing is some variety of stainless, maybe 316. The tube ends terminate, via welding, in a 1" male pipe thread. When I saw it, I thought "still", and tucked it away in a corner of my shop.

 

Question: Could this be turned into an alternate-fuel distilling rig? I can see this thing in a rubbermaid garbage can or some fancier HDPE water jacket, dribbling cawn likker to fuel my motor vehicles. Or maybe making ethanol for fireworks binding with red gum, chem washing, etc.

A-Yup. Not as efficient as a stuffed column, but will work. With proper temp management and knowing when to collect said fuel a short time after the process begins... will work. If actually burning it...you can collect the entire amount. Other uses you should let the first bit go away. Fusel alchohols or smething are the first off. I know nothing other than reading and from talking to an older Appalaichan American.

 

I DID learn from a chem prof that counterflow cooling is more efficient for what that's worth ;{)

Edited September 8, 2008 by Richtee

[tentacles]

Harvested my hops today - got right at 4 gallons wet. I'll let you guys know what it weighs tonight when I pick them up after work. They're in the food dehydrator now at 140F for 4 hours. I found an article on drying hops that suggested drying at 62-65C for 2-4 hours, then conditioning the hops. They smell GREAT and I think most of them are ripe. There were even some spots just blooming on the plant. Didn't get any pics but it was nice and full, I think it did well for a first year plant.

 

http://www.czhops.cz/tc/pdf/optimisation.pdf

[FrankRizzo]

Dude, that is *beyond* any expectation I've ever heard of for a first year plant. Dried weight is usually ~25-35% of the wet, so you've got quite a few batches worth of aroma there. Awesome! That location must have great sunshine and fertile dirt....and a good gardener.

[tentacles]

Good to hear! If it's about 25% I may have as much as a pound. I didn't weigh it, but the bucket was reasonably hefty full. I'll put it on the scale later, I have it with me. They have a great smell.. I'm thinking of making my IPA with a bunch of this. I'll make a bit of hop tea and compare with some of the other hops I have of known(ish) AA levels.

 

It's gotta be the gardener (my mother in law) and the soil I used. I wanted a rich, well draining soil - not so easy to find. Found some that's called "tri mix" it's 1 part loam, 1 part peat and 1 part sheepshit. The hops certainly seem to like it. Frank, want a rhizome?

 

 

Follow-up! Total dry weight: 8.61oz Not bad for a first year harvest! And they seem plenty bitter, I made a bit of hop tea and even after boiling only 30 seconds, it was tasty. I WILL try that IPA next brew. 3oz of cascade for bittering, .61oz for flavor, 1oz for aroma maybe? That might be a bit much, though. I might sub in an ounce of something more potent for 2oz of the bittering - some magnum or chinook or something.

Edited September 12, 2008 by tentacles

[Mumbles]

I just wanted to throw out a few ideas for this RIS, and see about some feedback. I went through several RIS recipies, made a database of them, and weighted the ones people seemed to like better. I want this big, so I am looking at at least 1.120 OG. Should have mellowed by around the time I turn 30

 

12lbs Light Malt Extra Syrup

7lbs British Pale - Possibly Marris-Otter

1lb Chocolate Malt

.75lb Special B

.5lb Caramunich

.25lb Pale Chocolate

.25lb Roasted Barley

.5lb Carafa III

1lb Roasted Oats

.5 Dark Crystal

 

1 oz Magnum - 60 min

1 oz Fuggle - 15min

1 oz Fuggle - 0-5min

 

With some playing I did, it should end up around 75 IBU I did some creative calculating. Since I will be adding the extract in at around 15 min left in the boil, I will get higher hop utilization out of the magnum than with a full boil.

 

 

As listed it should come it at around 1.125 or 1.130 depending on efficiency. I might need to sub-out some of the extract for base malt to get the diastatic power needed. If I make an order from Northern Brewer, I will probably sub out the pale chocolate for something they call "coffee malt". Any ideas for if I should drop anything? I was looking into a chocolate wheat malt as well.

[Richtee]

. Any ideas for if I should drop anything? I was looking into a chocolate wheat malt as well.

 

Dude you have me flabbergasted. It's not gonna taste like bud yanno...LOL!

 

Mentioning coffee... I did a stout way back when with it. Works well... can take the place of a finishing hop.

[Mumbles]

You know, I didn't even think about adding coffee for a coffee flavor. I have often seen it used as an addition to the secondary, but should probably work the same as a finishing hop. I figure it takes me about 5 min to get my shit together, and the cooling all setup anyway, so that should give adequate steeping time. I also have access to a french press, so that could work too. French Press coffee is so much richer and smoother.

 

Other ideas I was throwing around is racking onto chocolate powder if the flavor isn't pronounced enough. Bourbon soaked oak chips(bourbon added in as well) I think would add another element to it, plus more alcohol.