The happiest day of my brewing life

Ok, I absolutely hate bottling. In fact I have 2 beers in my basement from 3 months ago sitting in the chamber waiting to be bottled. I have an extra fridge that I can use as a Kegerator. I'm planing on having the faucet come out right on the facing of the door rather than doing a fancy tower set up and with just one tap. I'd also like to rig something simple for mobile use.

Soooo, I finally got a kegging system. I'm starting out with your basic frat boy picnic tap and around June I'm going to get some perilick's and stick them in my fridge. I have a dubbel and an Irish dry stout ready for kegging after I fill the co2 tank tomorrow. \

The Snobs say Guinness is "watery"

Guinness Ahhh.....

Guinness is good beer! Don't listen to beer snobs who are too cool for a Guinness. This beer is true to style and smooth enough to drink for breakfast. Light roast, faint fuggle scent, med body and a super creamy nitro head that remains thick and tan till the last drop.

Converting a Coors style Keg "Keggle"

Ok, So I found a free keg on Craigslist but it was a coors keg with that bulk in the middle and beat to crap. But it was free! Click on this link to see the hole I cut on the top! http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=689378655768792635#editor/target=post;postID=1251898292968926146

The guy left it out on his lawn for me and I went to pick it up. I ordered a sight glass kit from Brewhardware.com  (Bobby). I believe he has the best hardware around especially sight glass kits. I made my own from a copper tube and  compression fitting, I'll take you through some of the steps.


With a Step bit or Unibit I drilled a hole about a 13/16" Hole in the lower sidewall of the keg
This is a picture of the Bulkhead hole but you get the picture. The bilkhead hole I had to keep going up a step until I got the right diameter. So we got our Bulkhead hole and our Sight glass hole. that's it you are done!

I love this Thermometer because it's 3 inches way bigger than the one on my 44qt pot and easier to read. The trick when using this set up is to ask Bobby for the extra elbow fitting to clear the bulk on your keg. Then when setting is up bend the first elbow that comes out of the T fitting to get it closer otherwise the sight glass with stick out at an angle. 

Here is a view of the inside with my copper dip tube. 

As for the bulkhead this one I bought from Brewhardware.com as well. What I love about it is that it comes with a flat high temp washer not the round ones that can slip. 

The sight glass is well built and easy to install. 

I'm very happy with my beat up and ugly kettle can't wait t use it!

Troegs Brewery Visit

Took a day trip out to Hershey, PA to visit the site where some of my favorite beers are made. I wasn't surprise of how big their operation is but it did remind me just how big a player Troegs is in the craft brew industry. We didn't do the guided tour because you have to book that months in advance. Good thing they had a self guided tour in a room where you have visual access to most of their equipment.
Walking into this place you were surrounded by cool Troegs related artwork. A lot of it was Nugget Nectar inspired and done by friends of the brew brothers. There were tons of bottle cap art and sculptures that were submitted via contest entry winners. I told my wife she should definitely enter in the next one her being an artist an all.
Their merchandise shop was great so many cool T-shirts, hats and misc stuff. They also had a snack shop where the food was just great pairings with their beers. We were in for a treat because Mad Elf is the seasonal beer being served. They also had a dedicated growler filler that filled growlers all day long without any waste due to spills or foam. Check out some the pics I plan to visit again with an appointment for the guided tour.

Yeast Lab!

 Tasting Room

OK, Before I forget this thing right here is dedicated room. There are 2 open fermenters that have small tanks in front of them that catches over spilling of yeast at high Krausen. Essentially top cropping yeast for future batches. I thought this was the coolest thing I saw there. They use this chamber mostly for fermenting the one and only dream weaver.

Brewing a Dubbel in My basement

My friends are always asking how I brew so I decided to "capture" by last brew day in which I made a Belgian Dubbel. It's not perfect because I put it together rather quickly. I guess I can make changes as I see mistakes.

Enjoy...

Get a Head Start - Brewing a stout for St. Paddy's

Probably a tad bit early but I wanted to make sure i got this in. It's a Dry Stout and I'm just trying out a new recipe that I designed but has probably been done. I wanted creamy and full bodied so I added the Flaked barley and Wheat. Should be a fair amount of roast, but i wanted a light ABV as per a dry stout style. I wanted to be able to pound back and not have to worry about calories either. I used a little Chinook because I didn't have enough East Kent to make the 35 BTUs I needed. All in all I hope it will make the Irish proud! Had a great brew day today, everything went smooth hit all my numbers and the beer is nice and snug in the fermenter now. Just thought I would share a couple pics.



The Mash

1st Run off

The Boil

Hops

Transfer to carboy

Ahhh the satisfaction of a brewday.

Can't wait to try this stout! Here is the recipe

Ingredients:
6 lb (64.4%) 2-Row Brewers Malt; Briess
10 oz (6.7%) 2-Row Brewers Malt; Briess
14.0 oz (9.4%) Roast Barley; Crisp
15 oz (10.1%) Barley Flaked
8.0 oz (5.4%) Wheat Malt; Simpsons
6.0 oz (4.0%) Chocolate (Mout Roost 1400); Dingemans
1 oz (74.1%) East Kent Goldings (5.8%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
.35 oz (25.9%) Chinook; HOPUNION (11.8%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
1.0 ea White Labs WLP004 Irish Stout
Style:
Recipe
Original Gravity: 1.050
Terminal Gravity: 1.013
Color: 32.06 SRM
Alcohol: 4.85%
Bitterness: 35.2

Brew Like a Monk

Highly recommend for anyone into brewing belgians. Now don't think you are going to get a bunch of recipes from this book, rather it shows you how they are made so you can develop your own. That's what I really like about it.