Homebrew Journal: I'm ba-ack

[TongoRad]

First of all- thanks to Susan Burgess aka Susan in FL for suggesting doing this thread as a journal, giving some pointers to get started, and investigating some pesky issues in regards to posting that may come up.

So here's the readers digest version of my Rip Van Winkle story:

I got started homebrewing in 1991 via the prodding of some friends. My dad and I were already into home winemaking so I really didn't need to buy very much new equipment, and coincidentally some friends had just purchased a bar and gave me a bunch of old soda kegs that they found in the cellar. All I really needed was a CO2 tank and regulator and I was good to go. My first few batches were done in an enamel lobster pot on the stove and fermented in a 6 gallon Poland Spring water jug that I got from work. You really can go the low-tech route and make some really good beer- which is where I find myself right now.

It wasn't long before I was doing all grain, decoction mash brews and that's sort of where I left it in '97. My lifestyle now is a heck of a lot different than it was then and I just don't have the weekends to dedicate to that sort of thing. But, for whatever reason (mostly from participating in the homebrewing thread here, actually- so thanks, folks) I have gotten the bug again. The thing is- it's going to have to be done at night, between 8 and 11 pm, and on a stovetop (the 'brewing' part, that is).

My plan here is to document the whole shebang- from un-mothballing all the old stuff to purchasing my ingredients to brewing to packaging to serving. I'll also post my thought process, in regards to recipes, procedures and God only knows what else, along the way. The first beer will be all extract and, depending on how that goes, I may go into partial mash recipes.

Questions and comments are welcome and encouraged. I don't think I will actually be brewing anything for a week or two, but I do have a lot of work to do and some phonecalls to make during that time.

See ya soon. Cheers!

[Susan in FL]

...And he's going to include photos! I'm happy about that, as well.

[cdh]

Wow! Perfect timing with the eGCI brewing course getting started real soon. I've designed that course to be geared to the absolute beginners amongst us, so it will be fun to see the journal of an old hand at it progressing in about the same time frame.

And your pictures will be interesting... I've found myself unable to take pictures of the brewing process that have as much information content as the text that would have filled that space does. It doesn't seem a photogenic process to me.

[Susan in FL]

Wow!  Perfect timing with the eGCI brewing course getting started real soon.  I've designed that course to be geared to the absolute beginners amongst us, so it will be fun to see the journal of an old hand at it progressing in about the same time frame.

And your pictures will be interesting... I've found myself unable to take pictures of the brewing process that have as much information content as the text that would have filled that space does.  It doesn't seem a photogenic process to me.

←

Cool! This is perfect timing.

Even though it isn't a very photogenic process, it will make those inquisitive ones among us, like me (aka nosey ), delighted.

I am looking forward to both of these contributions.

[TongoRad]

Wow!  Perfect timing with the eGCI brewing course getting started real soon.  I've designed that course to be geared to the absolute beginners amongst us, so it will be fun to see the journal of an old hand at it progressing in about the same time frame.

And your pictures will be interesting... I've found myself unable to take pictures of the brewing process that have as much information content as the text that would have filled that space does.  It doesn't seem a photogenic process to me.

←

Perfect timing indeed- now I definitely feel as though the beer gods want me to do this. Congratulations, Christopher, and good luck with the course if you haven't yet completed it. I will definitely be there.

I'll probably have a bit more leeway with the photos than you did, this being a journal and all. I'll definitely post some of my ingredients, hopefully the homebrew shop (if they let me), some of my gear, and maybe even some people making happy drinking faces. I'll also photograph some of the process which, in cojunction with the textual elements, I hope will be illustrative. We'll see.

Edited March 29, 2006 by TongoRad (log)

[TongoRad]

Allrighty, then- let's get started with a 'square one' shot. I've moved two times since I last brewed so at least most everything found its way to one location (a shelving unit in my garage). It has all been gathering dust for years, though that really shouldn't be that much to overcome.

Most of that stuff won't even be used on the first extract batch, but should come into play on the next. I am most concerned with the condition of the kegs, particularly the seals and o-rings. I would guess that the CO2 tanks need to be recertified and filled, and that would need to happen first because I need the CO2 in order to test and clean the kegs. I prefer to use my kegs for my secondary fermentation and conditioning so even if this weren't going to be a draft beer (which it is) this is a necessary first step.

Meanwhile I will finalize a recipe. Without getting too much into it, there are just certain styles that do not translate to the extract(*) method very well, while others can be pulled off easily. My inclinations are to avoid prehopped kits (I like to control the hops myself) and anything other than the lightest of the extracts (same reason as the hops but substitute 'specialty grains'). I am also leaning towards a 3 gallon boil for a 5 1/2 gallon batch, diluted with cold water at the end, just because I suspect that the stovetop will not do a satisfactory job with a 6 gallon boil. Or take forever. So that's a somewhat concentrated boil and it brings its own set of issues to the table such as poor hop utilization and overcaramelization of the wort.

The plan is to make an English IPA, playing off of the fact that the original IPA's had no caramel or specialty grains in the grain bill but did get some caramelization from a lengthy and high gravity boil. I will deal with the poor utilization by adding a significant amount, but less than half, of the extract at the very end, keeping the gravity manageable enough to get decent hop utilization. More on this when the recipe is complete.

(*) Malt extract is essentially concentrated or dehydrated runoff from the mash- wherein the the starches in the malted grain are converted to fermentable sugars. The benefit is that you don't have to conduct a lengthy mash and sparge process yourself, just add water and boil. The downside is that you don't conduct a lengthy mash and sparge process yourself, and have no control as to what grains are in there or how fermentable it is.

[TongoRad]

Just posting back with some behind-the-scenes stuff that has been happening, as well as a final recipe.

Christopher's eCGI Homebrewer's Course First Installment is up. I think he found the right way to be thorough enough without throwing too much information at you too soon. All beginners are encouraged to check it out, and to start brewing: "You can do iiiiiiiiiit!" (...that guy never fails to crack me up).

On to where I stand at the moment-

My brother is going to get the CO2 tanks taken care of. There is a welding supply place not too far from his house and he can probably get this done faster than I can. I used to be able to do it from work, but am no longer at the same place. We wouldn't want me to get out the Yellow Pages or anything like that, would we? I mean...I just may get a paper cut

On another front I contacted the guys from my old homebrew shop. They are still around and seemed genuinely glad to hear from me. In fact, they had the same reaction to the 9 year absence that I did :"has it really been that long?" In some ways it was a lifetime ago, and in others it really does seem like yeaterday. Anyway...just because I love to be a real pain in the ass sometimees...all of the ingredients that I plan on using for this batch are items that they normally don't carry. But have no fear, for a special order is on its way. My other inclination would be to change the recipe rather than go someplace else, but this way I don't have to do that.

Here's what I'm doing:

Extract

(2) 3.5 lb. Cans John Bull Light liquid extract

3 lb. Extra Light DME

Hops

Eroica- approx. 22 HBU for bittering

4 oz. Phoenix- for aroma and dry hops

Yeast

Wyeast #1275 Thames Valley

Hopefully this will give me a beer at o.g. 1.070 with IBU's in the 60's. Utilization is tough to figure for something like this- if I add one can John Bull and the DME to 3 1/2 gallons water at the beginning, I'll be boiling the bittering hops at a gravity of around 1.080. Then there is the matter of how much of a rolling boil I can get on my stove. This isn't exactly the style where a few IBU's extra will hurt so much, so I'm figuring on the low side for utilization and hoping for the best. The second can of extract will be added at flame-out, along with the first addition of aroma hops. The residual heat will essentially pasteurize the extract, which is all you really need for that product (I'll go more into the 'hot break' when I move on to grain brewing, but it is not necessary here.)

The main ingredients all have an English flavor profile though the end result will be a lot bigger and more aggressive than any (imported) English IPA that I have seen. There are some domestic versions of the style that are probably more in line with my recipe. Anyway, it's going to kick ass, I guarantee it. And I can't wait.

Coming up:

Hosing the gunk off of stuff

Shopping

Yeast starter

Water treatment

Giddy up...

[Susan in FL]

I'm so glad you're going to make an IPA. I remember just enough from our brief period of homebrewing several years ago to know basically what you're talking about. I'm really enjoying how you are treating going back to it. And, it's so cool that the guys at the homebrew shop were glad to hear from you. Beer people are like that.

Besides the Eroica for bittering and Phoenix for aroma and the dry hops, are there other reasons for selecting them? Are they favorites of yours or did you choose them because they are more classic for an English IPA? Can you give an example or two of a domestic version that's like the recipe you're using?

[TongoRad]

I'm so glad you're going to make an IPA.  I remember just enough from our brief period of homebrewing several years ago to know basically what you're talking about.  I'm really enjoying how you are treating going back to it.  And, it's so cool that the guys at the homebrew shop were glad to hear from you.  Beer people are like that. 

←

Yeah, they're like that, especially these beer people. I'll post back with more details when I have the stuff in hand.

Besides the Eroica for bittering and Phoenix for aroma and the dry hops, are there other reasons for selecting them?  Are they favorites of yours or did you choose them because they are more classic for an English IPA?  Can you give an example or two of a domestic version that's like the recipe you're using?

They are not classic for an IPA at all, actually. Those hops would be East Kent Goldings and I've used them in precisely this sort of beer with great success...

{To back up just a bit...

I'm not sure of the exact year- 1995 I think- but everybody who entered the original Boston Beer Company's Longshot competition received a pound of Goldings for the effort. I took most of that pound and used it in a 70/70 IPA ( the 70's stood for 70 IBU's and 1.070 o.g.), all hops were goldings. 'Up the wazoo', being the technical term. This was, in part, inspired by a passage in the Terry Foster Pale Ale book. In it he writes " Nevertheless, a group of dedicated English homebrewers, the Durden Park Beer Circle, has reconstructed a recipe for Original India Pale Ale. It uses only pale malt, has an OG of 1.070 (17P) and uses 2.1 ounces of Goldings per gallon...this amounts to 52.5 HBU per five gallons (150 to 200 IBU!)" Obviously I backed off on the bitterness a bit, but my beer wasn't meant to spend months at sea, either Anyway, conceptually it may have been simple, but it also kicked butt if I do say so myself.}

So that was one of my original thoughts- either resurrect that beer or my smoked porter. Going 'all extract' pushed me in the direction of the IPA, but then I also remembered the Phoenix hops. They are a fairly recent development- a sexy English 'dual' hop- that I recall getting curious about just when I stopped brewing. Randy Mosher recommended them as "very attractive" in the 1997 Special Hop Issue of Zymurgy. What's not to like about 'very attractive'? Scuttlebutt at the time was that they had elements of both the typical English (spicy/floral) and American (citrus/resin) varieties, but I definitely look forward to finally getting some first-hand experience with them.

As far as domestic examples go I can't really think of a widely distributed one that features the Phoenix hops, but Brooklyn's East India Pale Ale probably comes really close. It utilizes only British two row malts, has a very similar gravity, and a combination of English and American hops (leaning towards the Goldings, IMO) with a dry hop addition.

Only time will tell...

[DerekW]

Welcome back indeed! If you departed the "scene" in '97, you may not have come across John Palmer's excellent online version of his book How to Brew. For someone like yourself who has already been down the all-grain with decoctions route much of the information will be old hat, but for any neophytes observing your progress the e-book might be a useful background text. Palmer's a professional metallurgist, and a bit of an engineer-type, so I found his information on mashtun manifold design to be lucid and helpful.

When the frozen weather means I'm unable to brew outdoors, I've been doing a lot of what are essentially half-batch recipes [fly sparged, all-grain] in a simple setup in a tiny apartment kitchen. While I'm kegging those into 3 gallon kegs, I'd suggest the half batch thing even if you only have 5 gallon kegs available - the batch size is big enough to overcome any issues in recipe scaling, but small enough to encourage lots of experimentation. As you will of course know, there is no problem with using a full size keg to secondary and serve a half-sized brew. No pesky hop utilisation calculations to deal with, either.

cheers

Derek

[TongoRad]

Thanks, Derek. You're right about that John Palmer site- I just glanced through it and it seems to be quite an excellent resource. And there is a very handy Hop Utilization chart included that I just may rely on for this particular calculation.

I've toyed with the idea of brewing smaller batches myself, and may even do it in the case of pale all-grain beers (helles, wit, kolsch, etc.), should the mood strike. For now, though, I want to see how the concentrated boil goes because it sure would be nice to have a larger volume of beer for essentially the same effort. My biggest concern is the water used to dilute the batch at the end. I plan on doing a pre-boil to make sure it is 'safe' and sealing the pot to refrigerate it overnight.

[TongoRad]

Allrighty, then- after a bout of illness that ran through my household that preceeded a family vacation of sorts...I am now back on track! The break gave Derek's suggestion of 3 gallon batches sufficient time to sink in to my noggin, and I have committed myself to doing just that on this first batch.

Here's where I went today:

Kedco is located in Farmingdale, NY (on Long Island) and is where I have bought my supplies since my very first batch. Dave and Ken have been at this for a very long time and have always been tremendously knowledgable and helpful. I'm pretty sure that the first Long Island homebrewers' club (Paumanok United Brewers) had its inception in their shop.

That's a partial interior shot, with a cider conditioning in the foreground. Lotsa cool stuff for the homebrewer or wine maker. And here is what is going into my beer-

The John Bull Unhopped is no longer available, so I will be going with just one can of the Munton's Extra Light, which is also an English extract (no biggie). 2 1/2 pounds of DME will bring it up to the gravity I need. We did get those Phoenix hops (4 oz. at 10% a.a.), so I'm really psyched about that. I'm using one oz. for bittering as well as an ounce of Northern Brewers (6.8% a.a.) now that this is no longer a concentrated boil. The other three ounces will be used at 5 minutes, flameout and as dry hops. The yeast hasn't changed- Thames Valley- and I will still be making a starter from some of the additional DME in the 3 lb. bag.

So this is essentially the same beer, except 3 1/2 gallons. The tradeoff is that I don't have to preboil and find a place to chill the diluting water, add that goopy extract at flameout and worry about what it will do to the wort chiller, screw up the hop utilization rates- it's a much more streamlined and predictable process.

More to come very soon...

[TongoRad]

Cleaning the gunk off of stuff, first installment:

Here are the things that I will need to get the beer into the secondary:

From left to right- 1/2 gallon growler jug for starter, airlock pieces, siphon hoses, racking cane, siphon spigot, siphon starter, and 5 lbs. of B-Brite cleaner (I happened to have that in one of my boxes- yea!). In the back is an old fermenting bucket that I use for cleaning. The bucket will be filled with B-Brite solution and all of this stuff will sit in it overnight, and then rinsed the next day. This stuff does wonders, so I am sure that this is all I have to do with these items. This is the initial cleaning, mind you- it will all be sanitized with iodophor prior to actually being used.

Here is a closeup of the siphon starter:

This is used to get the cooled wort from the kettle to the fermenter. You plunge the top part down to start the siphon, and the bottom basket is there to theoretically strain out the hops (when there are lots of hops it seems to get clogged up midway through, but it's still not a bad little device).

And here are boxes of other things, one of which will come into play when I work on the kegs:

My CO2 tank is filled, so I'm good to go on that front as well.

[TongoRad]

That B-Brite definitely did a great job on everything but the hoses, which I sort of expected but thought I'd give it a shot anyway. I was on the Island this afternoon so I got some replacement hoses at Kedco.

Tonight I will clean up the wort chiller pictured here:

That is a simple immersion style copper chiller. It's actually a lot cleaner than I had any right to expect it to be. All it will really need is a surface cleaning to get rid of any dust and maybe some of the oxidation. The chiller is sanitized with heat by putting it in the boiling wort for the final 15 minutes, so I don't have to do anything like that now.

I was speaking with Ken at Kedco today and he may have pushed me in the direction of using some of the newer dry yeasts (like Safale US-56) for the next batch, but I may be getting ahead of myself there. Let's get this one under way first! Just a few more days and I'll get to making the starter and it's off to the races...I promise

[cdh]

You've got many more toys than I've got... The wort chiller is neat, but I continue to be happy with the results of dropping my kettle into a pond after it's done boiling. And my collection of swing-top bottles has kept me from getting into the whole kegging thing.

I've been quite pleased by the new generation of dry yeasts, though I prefer more character than the US-56 produces... I've been happy with S-33, T-58, Windsor and Nottingham, though the Nottingham was a little non-descript for my ester-loving tastes.

[mtigges]

Start kegging Chris. You'll never look back. It truly is homebrewing heaven. I have nine cornies, and a fridge which has a CO2 regulator & manifold in it such that three kegs get dispensed through the door and 1 can be carbonated and cold conditioned. It takes only half an hour to package 10 gallons of beer. Bottling that much would take hours.

[TongoRad]

You've got many more toys than I've got... The wort chiller is neat, but I continue to be happy with the results of dropping my kettle into a pond after it's done boiling.  And my collection of swing-top bottles has kept me from getting into the whole kegging thing.

I've been quite pleased by the new generation of dry yeasts, though I prefer more character than the US-56 produces... I've been happy with S-33, T-58, Windsor and Nottingham, though the Nottingham was a little non-descript for my ester-loving tastes.

←

I am now seeing that the dry yeast may be the best thing for my schedule- for a beer with the liquid yeast that I am using this time around I will have to plan 2 or 3 days in advance, which sort of took this week out of the running since my stuff is not ready for tonight and Fri/Sat/Sun don't work for me. If I was using dry yeast I may have been able to push it for today (Thurs).

I am not married to the US-56- I can also get those others- but I would like to have another beer ready for a June party and I am considering making a SN Celebration type beer, so that yeast would be perfect for that.

mtigges- it sounds like you really are in homebrewing heaven! Maybe you should get a beer engine next (I always wanted one of those myself...) I found that both kegging and bottling have their drawbacks and advantages, but kegging is definitely in my future this time around.

[mtigges]

The only drawback to kegging that I'm aware of is that you can't quickly grab a bottle or two to take to a party. (And of course you need a second fridge.) But, really, the bottle thing it isn't much of a drawback. It's a bit of a pain filling bottles from a keg, but on the plus side, they won't get cloudy from yeast sediment and protein being shaken up. The beer in the keg doesn't have yeast, and the protein usually settles out quickly enough. So when you do bottle a few for a party, it's crystal clear. Not the case with bottle conditioned beer that you drove across town.

If I may ask, why do you have a CO2 tank if you don't do kegs?

NB: If you are considering getting into kegging, start looking for kegs NOW. They're becoming very scarce. I'm very glad I have my nine.

[TongoRad]

The only drawback to kegging that I'm aware of is that you can't quickly grab a bottle or two to take to a party.  (And of course you need a second fridge.)  But, really, the bottle thing it isn't much of a drawback.  It's a bit of a pain filling bottles from a keg, but on the plus side, they won't get cloudy from yeast sediment and protein being shaken up.  The beer in the keg doesn't have yeast, and the protein usually settles out quickly enough.  So when you do bottle a few for a party, it's crystal clear.  Not the case with bottle conditioned beer that you drove across town.

If I may ask, why do you have a CO2 tank if you don't do kegs?

NB: If you are considering getting into kegging, start looking for kegs NOW.  They're becoming very scarce.  I'm very glad I have my nine.

←

Miscommunication there- sorry. I meant in my immediate future- this batch and the next are definitely draft beers. I have about 6 kegs and plan on using them. You pretty much layed out the drawback of kegging, which isn't that big of a deal in the long run. I think I'd bottle if I was doing a beer that I wanted to condition for a long time, but I don't really see doing that for a while.

[TongoRad]

Yeast starter time- here is a 'before' shot. Hopefully it will swell up with activity by tomorrow and I'll show an 'after' one.

Wyeast products come in these pouches that contain the yeast culture as well as a separate small packet of nutrient within the pouch. To activate it you press down on the pouch breaking the packet of nutrient and putting it in contact with the yeast. Most folks call them 'smack packs'. This ensures that the yeast is active and viable, although you really don't get enough to ferment an entire batch on its own. That is where the starter comes into play- tomorrow I will make up a small amount of wort, like a quart and a half, with malt extract and pitch this yeast into that. As the yeast begins fermenting that wort it will multiply to the point where there is enough of a cell count for the job ahead.

I really like this yeast, particularly in an IPA. It has a crisp finish and a mildly fruity profile. From the Wyeast website:

1275 Thames Valley Ale Yeast. Produces classic British bitters, rich complex flavor profile, clean, light malt character, low fruitiness, low esters, well balanced. Flocculation - medium; apparent attenuation 72-76%. (62-72° F, 16-22° C)

I don't want anything too distinctive to compete with the hops, and the Chico strain (1056) may be too neutral for this beer so this is a good choice in that regard, plus the apparant attenuation can get to over 75% which is what I'm looking for. I haven't decided where I am putting the fermenter yet but I plan on looking for a cool spot, and again this fits the bill. When you ferment any aromatic beer I prefer to do it at cool temperatures because the more rapid fermentation of higher temperatures will 'scrub' out those lovely aromatics that you just put into your beer.

ETA (the following morning): In anticipation of making the starter tonight I pre-boiled 1 1/2 qts. of water this morning. Hopefully any chlorine in the municipal water was boiled off. I just put a lid on the pot and stuck it in the fridge for now- it will be boiled again tonight to deal with any sanitation issues and dissolve the DME.

Edited May 10, 2006 by TongoRad (log)

[TongoRad]

So here's what happened...

It seems that the Wyeast pack's schedule and my schedule were not exactly in synch. By the next day it had barely begun to activate (which I probably should have anticipated, to tell you the truth) because it was manufactured in January, and you should really give it an extra day for each month beyond the first. Unfortunately that put my brewing day smack dab in the middle of the weekend, which didn't work for me. So I had to put things off until today.

Anyway- here's the 'after' shot of the smack pack:

It really swelled up there- didn't it? Well...eventually...

And here it is with everything else I used to make the starter:

L to R- Yeast, funnel, airlock, growler jug, squirt bottle of iodophor sanitizer, pitcher for sanitizing solution, spoon for stirring, and 1 1/4 cups of DME.

I prefer iodophor for sanitizing because you don't have to rinse it off. Everything the touches the wort once it has been boiled has to be sanitized- including the funnel, spoon, thermometer, etc. I even filled up the growler jug with some solution. The items await their duty in the pitcher:

I know what you're thinking, and stop it! I prefer to think it looks like flat beer, myself.

So- the DME was boiled in the 1 1/2 quarts of water for about 10 minutes and then put into an ice bath to rapidly cool it down to the proper temperature to pitch the yeast.

It took only 5 minutes or so to get it down to 74F

(That's what the thermometer says. Honest! )

Into the emptied growler jug it went. I used the old fashioned method of aeration here which means that I just shook it like hell with the top on. Then the yeast went in with a swirl and the airlock went on. By tomorrow it will be fermented and ready for the big job.

[TongoRad]

Phoenix IPA is in the fermenter! Alert the media, hoorah!

The following is a blow-by-blow account of how it got there:

7:54 pm - Begin by filling the kettle with filtered water. The PUR filter is sufficient for most beers- I'm really just looking to get rid of any chlorine and whatever particulates I can here- and since this is extract I won't have to worry about the pH at all, so there will be no treatment for this beer beyond the filtration. This is a 20 qt. pot with markings on the side which I am using to measure 16 qts. for this beer.

8:01pm - Divide water between two pots and place on the stovetop to boil. I'm hoping this turns out to be a timesaver because boiling 4 gallons could take a while.

8:09pm - Remove water filter from faucet and attach hose fitting for wort chiller.

8:12pm - Make a container of iodophor sanitizing solution for everything that may come in contact with the beer post-boil.

8:27pm - Verify wort chiller hook-up is working. It is. Nothing like waiting till the last second, huh? My backup plan here would be to do the ice bath like I did for the starter.

8:29pm - Put can of LME in a pot of hot tap water to help it to flow easier from the can. This stuff can be pretty thick.

8:34pm - Enjoy a beer!

8:40pm - Water in both pots begins to boil. Turn off heat and add extract to each- half and half of each the DME and LME. Carefully incorporate into the water to minimize oxidation.

8:45pm - Return to heat.

9:01pm - Top of boil. Add 1/2 oz. Phoenix and 1/2 0z. Northern Brewer hops to each pot.

9:11pm - Put 1 gal. iodophor solution in fermenter and shake to coat all sides every 10 minutes or so.

9:45pm - Add 1/2 tsp. Irish Moss to each pot. This will act as a coagulant and aid in clarifying the beer. Put wort chiller in the large pot- the heat will sanitize it.

9:55pm - Add 1/2oz. Phoenix hops to each pot.

10:00pm - Turn off heat. Add 1/2 oz. Phoenix hops to each pot. Carefully transfer all of the wort to the large pot, trying to minimize splashing. Place near sink and begin chilling wort. Total amount is about 3 3/4 gallons.

Clever me even started to rinse out the stock pot with the hot runoff from the wort chiller.

10:06pm - Empty out fermenter and cover the top with sanitized foil.

10:18pm - Wort is at 74F. Remove chiller and cover pot to allow things to settle a bit while I wash off the chiller.

10:35pm - Wort is successfully racked to fermenter. There was at least a quart of sediment (mostly hops) remaining in the pot. Yeast was pitched at high krausen (I tasted it and it had a nice profile of apples, pears and some berries). O.g. at room temperature was 1.068, right where I wanted it.

11:01pm - Finished cleaning up!

[TongoRad]

I couldn't take too many shots of the racking process because both of my hands were occupied, but I have a few.

That's the fermented beer. The 3/4" or so of white stuff on the bottom is mostly yeast, and the goal here is to rack the beer off of that stuff and allow it to settle out some more. I put it into a keg, and purged as much of the oxygen as I reasonably could. Now it can safely clear up and mature before going into the final serving vessel to carbonate.

The color looks a bit dark, but that is because it is in bulk form. The beer in the glass looks like this:

The intermediate gravity is 1.018. The hops still taste a little green, and there is still a bit of a yeast bite so I haven't commited to dry hopping yet. The beauty of kegs is that I can monitor it every few days quite easily, so I may make that call later in the week.

Edited May 27, 2006 by TongoRad (log)

[cdh]

Start kegging Chris.  You'll never look back.  It truly is homebrewing heaven.  I have nine cornies, and a fridge which has a CO2 regulator & manifold in it such that three kegs get dispensed through the door and 1 can be carbonated and cold conditioned.  It takes only half an hour to package 10 gallons of beer.  Bottling that much would take hours.

←

I've given in and ordered a reg, some lines and a couple of kegs. I've realized that I've got more brewing to do this summer than I've got room to keep it, so something needed doing. The two keg setup will cost me less than $100 before the CO2, which I hope to rent locally for a pittance, so it is even affordable.

Great deals on regs and lines at www.beveragefactory.com and great prices on kegs at www.homebrewing.org. Worth checking out if you're in the market.

[TongoRad]

Best of luck with the keg setup, Chris. I'm sure you'll come to appreciate the investment in no time.

Another advantage may be that a brewpub near you could sell you their beer at bulk rates. I know a guy who has two taps going constantly- I think he pays $40.00 for the fillup. I'm thinking of doing the same thing for an upcoming party myself.

Anyway- on to the Phoenix IPA. Dry hopping will be tonight or tomorrow...definitely. It was designed with that in mind but since I am unfamiliar with the hops I decided to take the cautious road and wait a bit. They sort of remind me of Styrian Goldings at this point, so I'm definitely not complaining, but are milder in flavor than the 10% aa would suggest. It also comes across as a fairly big beer which will need quite a bit of conditioning. I've waited long enough, so I'm in no hurry.