tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61934367488843029082024-02-02T04:29:04.159-06:003 Dog Brewery BlogFollow the homebrewing adventures of an intrepid home brewer. Share in the successes and failures of trying to work out solutions to common home brewing problems like temperature control, yeast wrangling and the production or wort.Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-33646696617037440052017-08-16T16:33:00.000-05:002017-08-16T16:33:02.239-05:00Long Overdue Brew Cart Completion<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSX_IvmCIs-v3SKDJ654dGWlTH9CFM6qCDQC8D0c02WIV-7x1w1F2qIgSAwK-lrduk4fHJVNhnHCp9bVDlDQcmyYmPtmEtuvdXLRJut94HUcBw1YLN5qhCdbPNQllwfTM_y1_dSF_bwRc/s1600/2017-03-27+15.36.09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSX_IvmCIs-v3SKDJ654dGWlTH9CFM6qCDQC8D0c02WIV-7x1w1F2qIgSAwK-lrduk4fHJVNhnHCp9bVDlDQcmyYmPtmEtuvdXLRJut94HUcBw1YLN5qhCdbPNQllwfTM_y1_dSF_bwRc/s200/2017-03-27+15.36.09.jpg" width="200" /></a>To my regular readers, sorry for the long delay. I've been meaning to write this for a long time now. Since March, actually.</div>
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If you refer back to the previous article about rebuilding the brew cart, "<a href="https://3dogbrew.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-cart-after-horse.html" target="_blank">The Cart After the Horse</a>", you'll notice some design changes from the original sketch. The original sketch had the plywood on top to add some torsional rigidity to the parallelogram of 2x4's. <br />
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However, what I realized during construction is that the design left very little clearance between the bolts for the 2x4 construction and the screws for the large swivel casters. So, the design was modified and I added a second layer of shiplap boards to create a bottom shelf. Additionally, I added 2.5 inch drain holes to the 4 corners of the plywood, should any liquids make their way through the layer of shiplap. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-AP2QSiA0zkumqbfZp3gwOxNWo0E8hQ_PO4usNd14Ne4f2QHcfcx-LbgGAIWMkmPwnMgwo4VQY09-qAXwMAH2cWGI4zV3JyQjo_hyi2CKNqUjwBzQuGNAE_q2oVph3YGTvKAzja2P9GI/s1600/2017-03-27+15.37.07-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-AP2QSiA0zkumqbfZp3gwOxNWo0E8hQ_PO4usNd14Ne4f2QHcfcx-LbgGAIWMkmPwnMgwo4VQY09-qAXwMAH2cWGI4zV3JyQjo_hyi2CKNqUjwBzQuGNAE_q2oVph3YGTvKAzja2P9GI/s200/2017-03-27+15.37.07-1.jpg" width="150" /></a>I could have gone all crazy and used stainless steel hardware everywhere, but the old cart used plated fasteners and I found very little corrosion when I took it aparts so I used cheaper grade 5 stuff. Having a miter saw and a drill press made the whole job a lot easier than the last time I built a cart like this. I used square drive decking screws to fasten the plywood down along with a nice bead of carpenter's glue.</div>
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I used an <a href="http://www.minwax.com/wood-products/stains/minwax-wood-finish" target="_blank">"Early American 230"</a> penetrating stain from Minwax to add some color to bring out the grain of the wood and provide an oil-based seal. This cart will see a lot of water over the years, so sealing all the wood pores is vital to its longevity. The bottom of the plywood was stained as above before anything else and sealed with a water-based polyurethane. Hopefully, it will never bee seen again so this step was just to prevent water damage. <br />
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The shiplap was then cut to length and arranged for an aesthetically pleasing grain pattern. Any<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoiGVdoN_oTjNx9gJJkF89JJ_oB3tcHOrIMw_PXWn4OgqUUbRfpYVNi2ba5691sFg_QusQlst4pSk6GIGskK5-HCV6ILlndn3NOz_YnJEgbhZ6oNu7AVcy4TQwnRqmI8kUZO4BpTfugVg/s1600/2017-03-27+16.20.53-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoiGVdoN_oTjNx9gJJkF89JJ_oB3tcHOrIMw_PXWn4OgqUUbRfpYVNi2ba5691sFg_QusQlst4pSk6GIGskK5-HCV6ILlndn3NOz_YnJEgbhZ6oNu7AVcy4TQwnRqmI8kUZO4BpTfugVg/s200/2017-03-27+16.20.53-1.jpg" width="200" /></a>boards that didn't match or had any imperfections were assigned to bottom shelf duties. My daughter has an eye for art, so I asked her to help with choosing the right arrangement of boards. Although unplanned, the math worked out well for the boards between the 2x4 uprights. Had I thought of it sooner, I would have also run a center support, lengthwise on top of the plywood so that I had something to fasten the shorter boards to (between the uprights). As it turned out, I used shorter pieces of scrap 2x4 under the edge of the last full board to support the shorter boards. Problem solved if a little inelegant. </div>
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All the lap joints of the shiplap were glued with carpenter's glue in an attempt to make the shelf water-tight. The same Early American stain was applied after several hours of sanding. The 2x4's required more sanding than the shiplap as you might expect, but sanding down to 320 grit really makes the grain stand out, even on prime 2x4's which are still much less expensive than real hardwoods. I let the stain soak in and dry for 48 hours and then began the application of Waterlox Original (as mentioned in The Cart After the Horse). You can see in the photos that the Waterlox actually increases the amount of yellow hues and softens the contrast in the grain.</div>
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The top shelf was constructed along the same lines, but as you can see from the layout photo, the number of shiplap boards didn't fit exactly. I used this to my advantage by ripping the last board in half so that I could used square (unlapped) boards to place as end caps. The top shelf was sanded out in the driveway while more coats of Waterlox was applied to the bottoms shelf in the garage, away from the sanding dust. This allowed me to work on two things at once, switching back and forth. <br />
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Finally, the top was stained and fitted to the bottom after drying for 48 hours. I bought one more piece of shiplap to make a backsplash. This was more to prevent things from rolling behind the cart than worrying about splashing. Forgot to mention that the shiplap was fastened to the 2x4 rails with a pneumatic staple gun, like you would use for hardwood flooring. The staples are on the lap tongues so that they are not exposed. I had to turn the air pressure down to 40psi to keep the staples from ripping the softwood apart like paper and fine tune the fit with a nail set.<br />
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After several coats of Waterlox, I built a 2x4 upright to hang the electrical box on. The backsplash I added after the design meant that I had to cut small pieces of shiplap board to acts as spacers for the lower fasteners. This is the only place I used stainless hardware since it would be exposed. One of the things I learned from the old cart was that my silicone hoses were too long to hang from the side of the cart so I added the hose hanger on the back of the control panel. This lets them hang down without needing to be looped around and that allows them to drain.<br />
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The last step was adding the pumps to the bottom shelf. I used T-nuts on the bottom of the shiplap boards to I could "bolt" the pumps down and it wouldn't be a major undertaking to remove one. I've had pumps go bad before.<br />
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Overall a successful project that accomplished all the goals I set for it. This cart is much lighter than the over-built monster that came before it. Hardwoods would have made the cart more durable and better looking, but also heavier. The difference in weight between <br />
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pine and poplar is significant when you put this much together and oak would have been heavier than that. Not to mention a ton more expensive. Other than the fasteners and finish, the lumber for this project was under $100 with the shiplap eating up 3/4 of that number. Many of the fasteners were recycled from the old cart as well as the casters. I've used the cart for a couple of brew sessions and the pine shiplap will not take much of a beating. I put a big dent in one board just moving the mash tun to empty it. However, moving from the garage to the carport for brewing is so much easier due to the reduced weight.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB1tQsWyu7C_dXm35gEUg-eg1n7Nl7fhu6WLBzYSIr41BpK59mstLl2l2DnP0s-F9M44owj-RB0PFsEV9hbEDVXswUapeB5c-vyFD_xUL5xtJ3lJbrgF5hbtkF9AJ3d4GRwv2B1hTETd4/s1600/2017-06-01+09.33.41.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB1tQsWyu7C_dXm35gEUg-eg1n7Nl7fhu6WLBzYSIr41BpK59mstLl2l2DnP0s-F9M44owj-RB0PFsEV9hbEDVXswUapeB5c-vyFD_xUL5xtJ3lJbrgF5hbtkF9AJ3d4GRwv2B1hTETd4/s400/2017-06-01+09.33.41.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-56320876242698988712017-03-22T10:07:00.001-05:002017-03-22T10:15:52.994-05:00The Cart After The Horse<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi12Nqv7wuUwH7N2IUcuEPiQnhJ8W6HAT-SS8ZaMe2bNPq8dx5o_QkadMxQcroHrtGjck1klEqU0jp7UkYqakRTJXSN8I2xdMIgiKVwrfGXVI9Yo3ldLDML_OsEkOSaVwTvgps0Qq-DcAo/s1600/P7290003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi12Nqv7wuUwH7N2IUcuEPiQnhJ8W6HAT-SS8ZaMe2bNPq8dx5o_QkadMxQcroHrtGjck1klEqU0jp7UkYqakRTJXSN8I2xdMIgiKVwrfGXVI9Yo3ldLDML_OsEkOSaVwTvgps0Qq-DcAo/s320/P7290003.JPG" width="320" /></a>I have been brewing for nearly 18 years now and have had several iterations of various equipment and brew setups. The old brew cart (shown at right) has served me well since I built it in 2008 to accommodate the original heat infusor shown below. <br />
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This was my first attempt at computer controlled heat management, long before The Electric Brewery and many of the other Electric Brewery systems that are popular today. They are popular because they work. This heat infusor was difficult to use. It clogged with grain particles easily, had a very bad habit of scorching wort as soon as you were not looking and had no safety protocols preventing the heating element from running dry. I burned up a couple of heating elements by leaving the unit powered and running the liquid out. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGWxthfTGBKG710EbfKLH_ejd6dnknzHPYQzeq0X4FyqZ3m12Pm-YUjF3nqCwTJC7wCmIuGwRJHpLPEfjL0VcngXfTaMSDDSwaYTMzZ7MqnJU3xju8eYvcEjfO8PnT8ZqC89JC303SNjs/s1600/heat-infusor.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGWxthfTGBKG710EbfKLH_ejd6dnknzHPYQzeq0X4FyqZ3m12Pm-YUjF3nqCwTJC7wCmIuGwRJHpLPEfjL0VcngXfTaMSDDSwaYTMzZ7MqnJU3xju8eYvcEjfO8PnT8ZqC89JC303SNjs/s400/heat-infusor.JPG" /></a>The cart that was built for this purpose was designed to use propane burners for both the hot liquor and the boil kettle so it had a tile backsplash, a concrete backer board and 18" x 18" ceramic tiles under the burner locations. Since the jambalaya burners I used would throw off tons of heat, and the mash tun the system was designed around was a plastic beverage cooler, there was a lot of space built in around each vessel. It was originally designed to have drawers under the counter to act as storage space for cleaning chemicals, tools and etc. That would work great if it had been stationary, but moving it would have made a mess. It was also heavy. It was so heavy that I had to use a block and tackle to lift it upright after putting the casters on the bottom. Adding a bunch of junk to drawers would have made it even heavier. Everytime I wheeled it out into the carport was a back breaking affair and putting it back was just as difficult. It was time to rethink this.<br />
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One day in February (2017) I just deconstructed it. I saved very little of this behemoth, sending most of it to the yard waste recycler. When I designed a new cart in Google Sketch Up, there were basically 4 design parameters:<br />
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<ol>
<li>It must fit all three of my kettles and allow some workspace near the front so a 60" x 30" work surface was prescribed.</li>
<li>It needs to be lightweight. I wanted to be able to move it easily when unloaded without giving myself a hernia.</li>
<li>It needs to be lower to the ground. I designed the original cart to be the same height as the average kitchen counter (about 30 inches high). Completely ignoring the part that my kettles were 24" tall at a minimum and that peering inside these kettles would now require a minimum height of 54 inches.</li>
<li>It needs to support the weight of all three kettles when full. With 2, 15 gallon and a 20 gallon kettles this is 50 gallons at full capacity. Assuming 8lbs/gallon + 20%, the math 50 x 8 = 400 + 20% = 480, rounded up to 500 lbs.</li>
</ol>
So here is the design I came up with. Using premium pine 2x4 construction, according to the <a href="https://courses.cit.cornell.edu/arch264/calculators/example7.1/" target="_blank">Cornell University Capacity of wood Column Calculator</a>, it should be able to support about 1900 lbs.<br />
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PAWS 2</div>
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Why PAWS and what does it mean? Portable, Automatic, Wort, System. Plus it ties in nicely with the 3Dog Brewery theme. </div>
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Construction has begun, but you will have to wait for the next post to see any. Sure, I could have purchased a stainless steel work table or even a work surface to put on top of this cart, but it would have been 10x more expensive. Pine 2x4's are cheap. Plus, using wood as a medium, I can make it exactly the way I want for a very low materials cost. </div>
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At this point, the most expensive component of this cart is going to be the finish. After using several different types of finishes on many wood projects, and viewing many YouTube videos, I love <a href="https://www.waterlox.com/products-item/waterlox-original-penetrating-tung-oil-floor-sealer-finish" target="_blank">Waterlox Original</a>. Waterlox original is the most forgiving, best wearing, warmest finish I have ever used. This stuff can make cheap pine 2x4 look like art because it uses both boiled linseed oil and a tough resin sealer.</div>
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Stay tuned to see how this comes together.</div>
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-34172852304293631682015-09-20T12:45:00.001-05:002015-09-20T12:45:30.566-05:00Been real busyGetting ready to go back to school (yes, at my age, be nice). Taking lots of exams to qualify out (CLEP) classes. Look for an article on the conical fermentor I just got in place soon. The first batch of Octarine Moon will be done in a couple of days and I'll be able to get some better pictures.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-3487423334442191142015-09-01T09:00:00.000-05:002015-09-01T09:00:02.189-05:00DIY Refrigerator Repair. Now 20% Easier!<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsLTcnHo1Udi1nZDnmhe86Q9KcJV4HbFoMGt14O0iEE0oZh6x5_DcXGKW9qpgX_cVh_3DszSORTa5KlB7YixCyzTnnmJeFpST5AN2l5K5Sbu5mGNPcDkN2cVQbIeVXP-m4WwXiG9TqW30/s1600/a1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Refrigerator graveyard" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsLTcnHo1Udi1nZDnmhe86Q9KcJV4HbFoMGt14O0iEE0oZh6x5_DcXGKW9qpgX_cVh_3DszSORTa5KlB7YixCyzTnnmJeFpST5AN2l5K5Sbu5mGNPcDkN2cVQbIeVXP-m4WwXiG9TqW30/s1600/a1.jpg" title="Refrigerator graveyard" /></a>If you are a homebrewer, you probably have or will have an investment in refrigerators or freezers. Prior to this article, I had a chest freezer that I had converted into a "Keezer", which, for those unfamiliar, is the combination of the words freezer and kegerator. It was a 15 cubic foot Frigidaire chest freezer I purchased brand new and installed a <a href="http://www.homebrewsupply.com/digital-refrigerator-thermostat.html?___SID=U" target="_blank">Johnson A419 Controller</a> which kept the freezer from freezing, but at a nice 36 degrees F. Large enough to store 8 <a href="http://www.homebrewsupply.com/keg-supplies/home-brew-kegs.html" target="_blank">Corny kegs</a> with CO2 plumbed into the lid to pressurize and serve. Then one day, it died. It had served me well for over 5 years, but living in the harsh environment of the garage and during a 6 week heat wave with temperatures in the high 90's (F.) and humidity around 85% relative, it decided that it had enough.<br />
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Refrigeration.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Vapor Compression Refrigeration" border="0" height="187" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Refrigeration.png" title="Vapor Compression Refrigeration" width="200" /></a>Refrigerators are reasonably simple machines that are only made complicated by modernization that add in-door ice dispensers and multiple temperature zones. Our home refrigerator has features like "power cool" and "rapid freeze". I have no idea how these are intended to work, but the basics of the refrigeration device are simple. Most refrigerators, your home and automobile air conditioner all work on this same "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump_and_refrigeration_cycle" target="_blank">Vapor-Compression cycle</a>".<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdDMXQzU2K1CkyK27ZWnB9RoqEXLiXlOR8qcwZ5NxTUmxzbLnEkn7KUJhupP9MQjS9Ms_EdyKxjnejYXyE0b3sSW4MQrcrY65pjXZ6U7zh8wrILqtxW7PIchq5A9Jl44yDGOGu5Zd0K18/s1600/Refrigerator+airflow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Refrigerator airflow diagram" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdDMXQzU2K1CkyK27ZWnB9RoqEXLiXlOR8qcwZ5NxTUmxzbLnEkn7KUJhupP9MQjS9Ms_EdyKxjnejYXyE0b3sSW4MQrcrY65pjXZ6U7zh8wrILqtxW7PIchq5A9Jl44yDGOGu5Zd0K18/s320/Refrigerator+airflow.jpg" title="Refrigerator airflow diagram" width="217" /></a>A compressor pressurizes a refrigerant (usually Freon) and as it does so it generates heat. The "coils" on the back or bottom of the refrigerator allow most of the heat to dissipate through the use of a fan that blows air (outside the refrigerator) across them. The refrigerant should become a liquid at this point before it is then allowed to expand through a "throttling valve" or expansion valve. The refrigerant then rapidly cools through the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule%E2%80%93Thomson_effect" target="_blank">Joule-Thompson effect</a> where it is then sent through the evaporator (inside the refrigerator). All cooling work is done inside the freezer compartment of the unit and the refrigerator side is kept cool through air management. Since I am working with "Craig's List specials", these are older, much simpler refrigerators that are easy to take apart and work on. <br />
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One caveat before continuing. The refrigerant circuit is a closed system and Freon is considered a hazardous material. You should not attempt repairs on the closed system unless you have the proper tools, training and licenses. The issues I have fixed did not involve the replacement or repair of any of the closed system components.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT87jnVolnBiGSvKj6LtGAJtU52Dln9Z9iu16ug2pQU6ePWOScNTebLOxD3OUbUafBLbZrHvF1ad2_pVI0nZsisbiLf-Acbs0LGbTjsYNJ9Y4x9O-qqJCVaaY4s7x8HfxroBPZSiuQXmw/s1600/2015-08-27+11.43.31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT87jnVolnBiGSvKj6LtGAJtU52Dln9Z9iu16ug2pQU6ePWOScNTebLOxD3OUbUafBLbZrHvF1ad2_pVI0nZsisbiLf-Acbs0LGbTjsYNJ9Y4x9O-qqJCVaaY4s7x8HfxroBPZSiuQXmw/s320/2015-08-27+11.43.31.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Onto my specific problems with my refrigerators. The first problem I was having was that the freezer was attaining temperatures less than 0 (zero) degrees F., but the refrigerator was approaching 60 F. As shown in the image above the air from the freezer is pumped into the refrigerator cabinet by using a fan and some baffles. First some troubleshooting. UNPLUG the refrigerator first! Inside the refrigerator cabinet is the main control unit. Given that this was an older refrigerator, there were no circuit boards to contend with, just some elctro-mechanical hardware. <br />
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Remove the screws (these were Phillips head) and unplug the main harness so the components can be tested on a bench. Way back in the before-time, folks had to manually defrost the refrigerator by unplugging it and chipping the frost away of waiting for it to all melt. More modern units (and these are still dinosaurs) have automatic defrost cycles built in so that moisture in the air doesn't accumulate on the evaporator and cause it to "freeze up". This particular refrigerator uses a timer that starts the defrost heating element after every 8 hours of operating time. That's not every 8 hours you have it plugged in, but 8 hours that the compressor is running. If you don't have ice all over the evaporator coils, I would assume that this circuit is working and focus on something else. <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVgT6lk2JdQQGqwYn85LnJuaFFjTym8ZhZ2pn50Ec-TCyDhlZJiW-kthNbZV_jzkevv35Y5eHme8mhOq4OvwI5V-vCgXJIEaCP2R4kELt38xTgSZxjRC80trzb2DCrpPKn3-ty0U3RYEw/s1600/2015-08-27+11.45.26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Refrigerator main control unit" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVgT6lk2JdQQGqwYn85LnJuaFFjTym8ZhZ2pn50Ec-TCyDhlZJiW-kthNbZV_jzkevv35Y5eHme8mhOq4OvwI5V-vCgXJIEaCP2R4kELt38xTgSZxjRC80trzb2DCrpPKn3-ty0U3RYEw/s320/2015-08-27+11.45.26.jpg" title="Refrigerator main control unit" width="320" /></a><br />
I didn't take photos of it, but by using a volt meter on the continuity setting (it beeps when the circuit is closed), I tested the temperature sensor by removing the two spade lugs connected to it, connecting my volt meter across the two connectors and placed the metal probe in a glass of ice water. Turning the adjustment knob back and forth, the meter would beep when the circuit closed (this would turn the compressor on because the refrigerator was too warm) and not beep when the circuit was open (this would turn the compressor off because you had reached the desired temperature). For reference, these older defrost timers have a manual advance that can be rotated with a flat-head screwdriver to test the heating element and sensor if you need to. I didn't have that problem, so I didn't run that test. Other than replacing the door switch so the interior light would come on, this all checked out. The next thing to look at was the evaporator and airflow assembly in the freezer.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimpAeFerC59ogxTBq0TP2xeas3vWacGjwxkanni2vQ_5KJqPQb9lHbT3xD7noYq58OTMrKRXIhrOPjWfobgX-CHmWTrzN7iCwGLXqXSTe2RfeMf8-GSa_fbxrIAl_z8WVwHTz4GKDchqQ/s1600/2015-08-27+11.31.03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimpAeFerC59ogxTBq0TP2xeas3vWacGjwxkanni2vQ_5KJqPQb9lHbT3xD7noYq58OTMrKRXIhrOPjWfobgX-CHmWTrzN7iCwGLXqXSTe2RfeMf8-GSa_fbxrIAl_z8WVwHTz4GKDchqQ/s320/2015-08-27+11.31.03.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This is what is behind the metal plate in the back of the freezer.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCjqI7jU1j0I88xKbJH2IVRIhSrV-NAlavQfZvJgAqffqW0HfM7sAcVy9drIY3_SIbuqt0DCEW0RbUh9TG8d-aMahs86PgzG7nntbgg35SgVNDBMxilBqcVCHMcSyUMNQKTv_IqtzYNXc/s1600/2015-08-27+11.25.59.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Another use for duct tape" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCjqI7jU1j0I88xKbJH2IVRIhSrV-NAlavQfZvJgAqffqW0HfM7sAcVy9drIY3_SIbuqt0DCEW0RbUh9TG8d-aMahs86PgzG7nntbgg35SgVNDBMxilBqcVCHMcSyUMNQKTv_IqtzYNXc/s200/2015-08-27+11.25.59.jpg" title="Another use for duct tape" width="150" /></a>As you can see the evaporator is not frozen up, the air supply and return vents are not blocked so there is only one thing that can be wrong with this unit. The fan is working, but not supplying the correct amount of air needed to cool the refrigerator. I used <a href="http://www.appliancepartspros.com/" target="_blank">Appliance Parts Pros</a> to find the parts for my refrigerators. You put in the model number you are working on and they have exploded view diagrams with all the parts referenced. I ordered a new fan motor and blade along with the door switch. While I was waiting for my parts to arrive, I taped over most of the vents in the freezer forcing more air into the refrigerator cabinet. This confirmed my troubleshooting as the temperature in the refrigerator began to plummet to more reasonable temperatures. Another use for duct tape. After 24 hours the refrigerator began cycling on and off as the temperature reached the setting the sensor had been set to. Before the "duct tape" the compressor had been running for 36 hours straight without getting the refrigerator to temperatures below 50 (F).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQoQE-f6xdp0i4P11B-XjkioEyxaMAssgrApdu6eA-ZhTemUPhcyN194LFDb2F_wFkhXlaGyIKEqqYSCL6LFBJhCD6to0PZt_AyJ7EDG8hKByFKFTRHew5Pr2RujbiFRU4RsGDZGF7ktM/s1600/2015-08-27+11.37.01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQoQE-f6xdp0i4P11B-XjkioEyxaMAssgrApdu6eA-ZhTemUPhcyN194LFDb2F_wFkhXlaGyIKEqqYSCL6LFBJhCD6to0PZt_AyJ7EDG8hKByFKFTRHew5Pr2RujbiFRU4RsGDZGF7ktM/s200/2015-08-27+11.37.01.jpg" width="200" /></a>When the parts arrived from Appliance Parts Pros, it took me less than 30 minutes to replace both of them. The refrigerator is now behaving as one would expect. The unit with the bad fan was purchased 2 years ago and just started behaving badly, someone didn't sell it to me that way. I was suddenly asking a lot more of it once I stacked it with 4-<a href="http://www.homebrewsupply.com/new-5-gallon-amcyl-ball-lock-keg-double-rubber-handles-5029.html" target="_blank">5 gallon Cornys</a>' and wanted them all just above freezing. </div>
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I did attempt to fix the chest freezer, but that has no air management and no defrost circuit. The compressor was running fine, but the cabinet would only get to 40 degrees (F), so I sold it to the appliance repair shop. It either was low on Freon (which means it leaked somewhere. Not good) or the gas filter was clogged. Replacing a gas filter requires removing all the Freon, soldering the lines apart and back together, vacuuming out the Freon circuit and replacing the Freon. All way beyond my capabilities and equipment budget. The motor and switch cost around $60 with a new fan blade, which is about what I paid for the refrigerator a couple of years ago. But 1) I didn't have to move any of my stuff, 2) I didn't have to haul a new/old appliance around and 3) I didn't have to redo all the CO2 plumbing I had just finished.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMYaKL-WzHEe1VkB97G0AdT14Las_3UdLeZHr5SYcGnMapLgr6e5S7LJHRa2-0lASSjG-Ea3yTlp1VhjC_jLX9bqh3PWWfwSDvK8iipQpMHTAsXaS12ubN281IZK6qQUnFT7oMoMeaSP0/s1600/20percentcooler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMYaKL-WzHEe1VkB97G0AdT14Las_3UdLeZHr5SYcGnMapLgr6e5S7LJHRa2-0lASSjG-Ea3yTlp1VhjC_jLX9bqh3PWWfwSDvK8iipQpMHTAsXaS12ubN281IZK6qQUnFT7oMoMeaSP0/s320/20percentcooler.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I really had no idea that <b>this</b> was a thing and was clueless to the whole "<a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Bronyism" target="_blank">bronyism</a>" and "<a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/256743-bronyspeak" target="_blank">bronyspeak</a>" subculture. I was just looking for a "cooler" internet meme to add to my conclusion. </div>
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Want to<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=355&v=xsMgwPSxPgM" target="_blank"> "ponify" your browser</a> so that you can read like everypony instead of everybody? You can do that, watch the video linked above. I think I hurt my spleen laughing so hard. Just search for "Ponify". I spent way too much time reading about this, since I thought it was a joke and I kept waiting for the punch line. Awww, yeah!</div>
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-19959869241229150202015-08-18T15:51:00.003-05:002015-08-18T18:31:35.498-05:00Why are you a home brewer?<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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I get asked this question a lot. It's rarely phrased exactly like that, but more akin to "can't you just buy that at the store?" Depending on specifically the brand and style of beverage we are talking about the answer may or may not be easy. If this question comes up about Pedigree Porter, the answer is "no, you can't just buy this from the store," unless you live somewhere that has a good selection of Fuller's product with London Porter on tap, you can't get this anywhere around here. It's literally taken me a dozen or more attempts to make this particular ale so that I can't taste the difference from a bottle of London Porter to what I have on tap. Now, if we are talking about Paradise IPA or Viking Blood Red IPA, I probably can get something very similar to that at the local bottle shop. Then, why make it at home? What's the point? I'm sure if you are not a home brewer, you probably have these questions and the answers often don't make any sense. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYNe3vpWFrbpx6UxutRyTSIYGKN4AsVe3YfNp5Pz68GNisJpPFDPPxC_PAN8y1jBA21YtVKvLAMdpBe8K4vKGjSfca44HbjM-IK5cIzbo_Sscn_AO0YsBOnp_yeZ0B_D6G1o4lQaxrwnE/s1600/seriously-dude-dude-seriously-thumb2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Dude, Seriously?" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYNe3vpWFrbpx6UxutRyTSIYGKN4AsVe3YfNp5Pz68GNisJpPFDPPxC_PAN8y1jBA21YtVKvLAMdpBe8K4vKGjSfca44HbjM-IK5cIzbo_Sscn_AO0YsBOnp_yeZ0B_D6G1o4lQaxrwnE/s200/seriously-dude-dude-seriously-thumb2.jpg" title="Seriously Dude?" width="161" /></a><br />
I started brewing at home in 2000. A colleague that I worked with in the IT consulting business had just poured me a stout that he made at home in his garage. I was blown away. I had never tasted anything like this. It was chocolaty, smooth, and warming with tiny carbonation bubbles that tickled the tongue. It was also like 9.5% ABV and gave me a raging headache the next day. He told me I should give it a try, it's just like cooking. You follow a recipe and you end up with beer. In hindsight, I would turn something as simple as following a recipe into a quest to build my own micro-pub at home.<br />
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<a href="http://amzn.to/1ND2JXu" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Brew Chem 101: The Basics of Homebrewing Chemistry" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibiktst_cCtuR3kZCbZalhPFqGczyuWWGMcNfEeJ0eIUok-JBK0qxdkwBcTGAb_TzvonUdIbkJXamhz-_nqzemjBEe7Q9WRf-REsMStU8Fa2fqos8tbBgHJaiRscxUzdPye9z-kJcrB_4/s200/2015-08-18+12.44.20.jpg" title="Brew Chem 101" width="150" /></a>Way back in the dark ages of 2000, before my daughter was born, if you wanted anything other than BMC (Bud, Miller, Coors), or whatever local, mass produced light lager, you would have to go way out off the beaten path to find it. Craft brewing was exploding in California with Anchor Brewing and Sierra Nevada leading the charge, but I remember Gordon Biersch with a certain level of fondness. Out in the beer desert some call Texas, Saint Arnold was 6 years old and most restaurants had heard of them, but getting room for them behind the bar was a rare thing.<br />
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In my particular case, I have a mild allergy to lager yeast. I had no idea why I would lose my voice and had what I can only describe as asthma like symptoms after having 2-3 servings of whatever everyone else was drinking, usually something straw colored and a product of lagering. I happened to mention this to an allergist I was getting shots from for pollen related allergies and he said, "yeah, that's actually more common than people think. They are just not willing to give up drinking beer." I wasn't either so started searching for an alternative.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi31DZIE7g8pXPUOzkBOCPNy0QFp5P2EXoRtMWSRZYPfyCiZMqvsorB8QScGR_kE528yzTdN9UYSadPxivdtE-IEELngGIivnOAx77ESE_Cis6aJ5MUYJBL3fMTdqz-0nANmhHCLvYFyps/s1600/internet-search-engines.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Internet Search engine history from WordStream" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi31DZIE7g8pXPUOzkBOCPNy0QFp5P2EXoRtMWSRZYPfyCiZMqvsorB8QScGR_kE528yzTdN9UYSadPxivdtE-IEELngGIivnOAx77ESE_Cis6aJ5MUYJBL3fMTdqz-0nANmhHCLvYFyps/s320/internet-search-engines.jpg" title="Internet Search engine history" width="63" /></a>I bought <a href="http://amzn.to/1ND2JXu" target="_blank">"Brew Chem 101" by Lee W. Janson Ph.D.</a> trying to understand the difference between an ale and a lager. If you asked me today, I could easily rattle off several styles that are ales and several styles that are lagers, but back then it wasn't easy. The brewers didn't think it necessary or important to label their beers as ale or lager and to make the whole situation even more convoluted, the laws in Texas made it impossible to label things correctly. Before the change to the law in Aug, 2012 any <strike>beer</strike>, sorry "malt beverage" with an ABV above 5 percent must be labeled "ale or malt liquor". You can't make up stuff this stupid. Conspiracy theories are everywhere about this law being an effort by the mass producers to control the market. I don't know about that, but thanks to Brooklyn Brewery, Jester King, Authentic Beverages and Zax, who were plaintiffs in the suit against the TABC, the labels can make more sense now. (source:<a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2012/08/09/tabc-changes-what-it-means-to-be-a-beer/" target="_blank">Texas Tribune, Aug 9, 2012</a>). I still didn't have any reference to tell me whether a Porter was an ale or a lager. It stood to reason that a "Pale Ale" or an IPA was an ale and that a Pilsner was a lager, but what about a Hefeweizen or a Stout? I was clueless.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQNWbRgkoO_RbdKmqo0o0IDBSP1tVxHnQKK4Kfy609D-QEzM8n4oMM3GAxlcSKFSjEPSmspwCL5JmDgUWxe9MUFzAkqX2jiPKNTUFNwsNnByioIPnDrMzky7F6emWcTyAUYme0NvNQlfg/s1600/2015-08-18+11.59.12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="How to Brew by John J Palmer" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQNWbRgkoO_RbdKmqo0o0IDBSP1tVxHnQKK4Kfy609D-QEzM8n4oMM3GAxlcSKFSjEPSmspwCL5JmDgUWxe9MUFzAkqX2jiPKNTUFNwsNnByioIPnDrMzky7F6emWcTyAUYme0NvNQlfg/s200/2015-08-18+11.59.12.jpg" title="How to Brew" width="150" /></a>This was also in the infancy of the Internet. There was no Google or Bing, but there was Yahoo and Ask (<a href="http://www.wordstream.com/articles/internet-search-engines-history" target="_blank">and as it turns out Yahoo was using the Google engine way back in 2000</a>) so I was trying to dig up some information on brewing beer. Keep in mind that I hadn't even tried to brew anything myself yet, I was just trying to find stuff I could drink. I stumbled on this website from this guy <a href="https://www.facebook.com/john.palmer.336717" target="_blank">John Palmer</a>. He had this online book called "<a href="http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html" target="_blank">How to Brew</a>" and was giving all this information away for free. I read the first few chapters without even blinking and noted that in the sidebar Mr. Palmer had just finished a second edition of the book and he was self-publishing it. I sent him an email and some money. I don't recall if I sent him a money order in the mail or what since there was no PayPal at the time. In a week or so I got this paper bound book in a manila envelope and it was signed by John Palmer himself. I read this book from cover-to-cover and started over again. I was hooked. As far as hobbies go, this had all the MacGyver ingenuity of build-it-yourself stuff and the science-like chemistry and biochemistry of being a real basement mad-scientist. This became my "nerd-vana" allowing me to geek out on beer (That phrase has been "copyrighted" by Palmer and Jamil Zainascheff for the <a href="http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/brewstrong/" target="_blank">Brew Strong</a> show on <a href="http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/" target="_blank">The Brewing Network</a>)<br />
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<span style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><a href="http://amzn.to/1Ku5wPz" target="_blank"><img alt="Designing Great Beers: The ultimate guide to brewing classic beer styles" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6hhu-vUS3o-pAbm0FpW0k1jl-FfQ0V4TIWrKRCJPD9tGC3xwz-QTxO1DVlFTwpBTYc79dPfZB1eRKOAjoRu5YvlDuQCMkV68M4pkeaTKxwIYZ76wkwdQoXQCUTRnioEOhQCk5SiIRDcQ/s200/2015-08-18+12.30.06.jpg" title="Designing Great Beers" width="150" /></a></span></div>
I found my local home brew shop (The Brew Stop) in the Yellow Pages (we didn't have YP.com) and drove there to get a home brew kit. I made my first extract batch on the kitchen stove and when it was done 4 weeks later I took a couple of bottles back to Ken (RIP), the owner of the Brew Stop and shared with him. The second batch was similar only my wife was home this time and for 2 hours constantly complained about the smell. I have no idea what's wrong with the smell of malt and hops, but apparently it's offensive. This is how I went from a WalMart tamale pot to a stainless steel turkey fryer. I made several batches this way, but I was having trouble with head retention. The beer's head, not mine. I still have that. This elusive flaw in my beer is what drove me to all grain brewing. I was doing partial mash on my second batch, so I knew the basics of mashing, I just needed a bigger vessel. I built my first dedicated mash tun from a 5 gallon beverage cooler like the players have at football games. <br />
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By this time I was reading through <a href="http://amzn.to/1Ku5wPz" target="_blank">Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels</a> and trying to formulate my own recipes. This turned out to be harder than I'd imagined. I had many batches that never saw a bottle or a glass and got fed to the lawn or used to etch the driveway if they were real bad. I made an entire batch using biscuit malt as a base malt with honey malt as a specialty grain. That was terrible and doomed from the start. It was near this time that we moved. I had no idea that this too would effect my beer. I stopped trying to formulate recipes and just tried to make kits of known good quality and they came out terrible. I made nearly a dozen different beers that were so off that I couldn't drink them. A simple amber ale that I'd made before was just "off". I couldn't describe the flaw or even begin to speculate on what the problem could be. Frankly, I thought it was me and that I just sucked as a brewer. I was just about to give up and have the home brew garage sale of the century when I heard something on the Brew Strong podcast that resonated with me like a tuning fork. The water! John Palmer was an inspiration a second time now.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1nSbEcjr1EwjxpBc67j4H9DL4lFjvLNRomYIK0oTuXPVVh0Tj0VzPtDI_4xYjFJlvtkyxPunemtrBRpAhoP61BGH56ITI2yg7SLi1ci00vxLljdoRSLRsRmlEymm3ry0Oi96ke-ycBJA/s1600/2015-08-18+14.27.46.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="https://producers.wardlab.com/BrewersKitOrder.php" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1nSbEcjr1EwjxpBc67j4H9DL4lFjvLNRomYIK0oTuXPVVh0Tj0VzPtDI_4xYjFJlvtkyxPunemtrBRpAhoP61BGH56ITI2yg7SLi1ci00vxLljdoRSLRsRmlEymm3ry0Oi96ke-ycBJA/s200/2015-08-18+14.27.46.jpg" title="Ward Labs Results" width="150" /></a><br />
We moved and the water source was different, but how different and how was I going to fix it? I was one of three homeowner representatives to the Water Board for the sub-division we used to live in and I knew a lot about where our water came from, how it was stored and treated and for making anything but very light or very dark beers the water was great. My Amber Waves recipe and the aforementioned Pedigree Porter were two of my best beers before we moved and now I was unable to make them. Coincidentally, we were having a water treatment system added to the house to reduce the water spots on everything and an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_osmosis" target="_blank">RO</a> system was part of the deal. I collected three water samples (before the water treatment system, after the treatment system and output from the RO system) and sent them off to <a href="https://producers.wardlab.com/default.aspx" target="_blank">Ward Labs</a>. I just checked their website (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ward-Laboratories-Inc/108794495807469" target="_blank">they are on Facebook now too</a>!)and they now have a <a href="https://producers.wardlab.com/BrewersKitOrder.php" target="_blank">Home Brewers Test Kit</a> which they did not have way back in July 2005 when I ordered my W-6 test. I had to dig up some old papers to remember this. I used the results to plug into the EZ Water Spreadsheet linked here and started to "build" my water by adding the mineral salts indicated by the spreadsheet. Todd H. now has the EZ Water Calculator at <a href="http://www.ezwatercalculator.com/">www.ezwatercalculator.com</a> where you can download the spreadsheet in various forms. He has updated it to version 3.0 which I just <br />
<a href="http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=135095" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="EZ Water Spreadsheet by TH on Homebrewtalk.com" border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwnOfxJMffQsmKqP3FLR0nLRgBtROZ_MWVr1SLxWFy19eB7gYO5stO-ffkCp-FgAO9bj_w1ZuqcnNYxdruIyQqo8DoGExtF9oYUBL_sg0kHPX5dcF6tVmx6Ddp-icmZbDimS_DRHgfrN8/s200/EZ+Water.JPG" title="EZ Water Spreadsheet by TH" width="200" /></a>discovered while writing this article. I've been using V1.5 for years and it turned my brewing around.<br />
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Another thing that I have done for years is keep notes. That's how I was able to dig up all this information for this article 5, 10 and 15 years later. There's even a receipt from <a href="http://www.defalcos.com/" target="_blank">DeFalco's Home Wine and Beer Supplies</a> from 2006 in this folder as well. They are the home brew shop that sponsor's the <a href="http://3dogbrew.blogspot.com/2010/10/dixie-cup-homebrew-contest-results.html" target="_blank">Dixie Cup</a> that I have written about before. I used to keep all my notes in a spiral bound notebook before I started using <a href="http://beersmith.com/" target="_blank">BeerSmith</a> to track all my brewing sessions. My <a href="http://beersmith.com/" target="_blank">BeerSmith</a> save folders for recipes, equipment and ingredient lists are all tied to a DropBox account so they are in the cloud and the same information is available on both computers I have <a href="http://beersmith.com/" target="_blank">BeerSmith</a> installed on. I've been warned, advised and encouraged by many people that tell me "If you keep good notes, then that one time you stumble into a truly great beer you'll be able to make it again". I'm still not sure if those are words of encouragement or subtly trying to tell me that me beer really is mediocre (or worse) and keep trying. It doesn't really matter because I'm a home brewer.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPRu6u7YprNkwlQ_9Ova6-2lKW0UWlOEKLqkewJ-OPQWXTb1Bn4dFQbVSfbWaSiKCwYf6D1hNll03uB9wKkHMc_NZgC-s2yTJ63FI55U1pDmSk8oqnBWYqQEoDde0-q2-qtyii7TUSHO8/s1600/2015-08-18+14.30.32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Brew Log" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPRu6u7YprNkwlQ_9Ova6-2lKW0UWlOEKLqkewJ-OPQWXTb1Bn4dFQbVSfbWaSiKCwYf6D1hNll03uB9wKkHMc_NZgC-s2yTJ63FI55U1pDmSk8oqnBWYqQEoDde0-q2-qtyii7TUSHO8/s200/2015-08-18+14.30.32.jpg" title="The Brew Log Spiral bound notebook" width="150" /></a><br />
So, what's the answer to the question? Why am I a home brewer? This hobby can be frustrating, expensive, labor intensive and has very few material rewards. So why do it? I keep at it because there's always something new to explore, a new hop that's on the market, some new trend that everyone is trying (remember Black IPA's?) or some historical beverage that has been discovered like when <a href="http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/year-round-brews/midas-touch.htm" target="_blank">Dogfish Head came out with Midas Touch</a>. I've tried making "cooked mead" which is where you caramelize the honey before you ferment it. It has a marshmallow character and is very unique. I didn't care for it, but I made it anyway. I get to build stuff that has a practical use like the <a href="http://3dogbrew.blogspot.com/2010/08/fermentation-chamber-update.html" target="_blank">fermentation chamber</a> and I get to use MacGyver like skills to solve perplexing puzzle problems like how do you work with 240VAC, propane and water and not kill anyone. I was told by a professional electrician that I was crazy and looking to blow myself up. It's been 15 years and I'm still in one piece. I enjoy accomplishing tasks <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL1p5ktUqp0IXlDxrtxvSnhUz295aLy2L8JA0v2wyFLbUhVB9IW9sgP6V3Mj7-0-hJR0JXTnsS525TD3ozoda3diZyu8LAUo1EuX-kb3XGLgsaOtJHNtixo7gtIOn9TBd24ZSr79p1N1M/s1600/2015-08-18+14.29.49.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Palmer Nomograph" border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL1p5ktUqp0IXlDxrtxvSnhUz295aLy2L8JA0v2wyFLbUhVB9IW9sgP6V3Mj7-0-hJR0JXTnsS525TD3ozoda3diZyu8LAUo1EuX-kb3XGLgsaOtJHNtixo7gtIOn9TBd24ZSr79p1N1M/s200/2015-08-18+14.29.49.jpg" title="Palmer Nomograph" width="200" /></a>that others say can't be done or are just too difficult. If you are a home brewer, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you're not, then you probably don't get it. I have learned more about world history through beer than all the world history and social studies classes I have taken in school. I have always loved chemistry, due in part to the passion that my teachers had for it. Mr. Russell at Andrew P. Hill High School and my Chem 1A/1B instructor at West Valley College. I can't recall his name, but he always wore overalls and a John Deere ball cap. Odd for a chemistry instructor which is why I remember it. The point is, I don't brew at home so I can sit in the garage and drink myself stupid. Funny how most folks <i>really</i> think that is the goal. I enjoy the creative and pseudo-scientific aspects of home brewing. I will never be a lab technician or a pharmacologists working in a real lab, with real consequences. Nor will I be the mad scientist or crazy inventor that build stuff in his basement that changes the world. Home brewing gives me an outlet for those desires and I find fulfillment in being able to create good beer (and other beverages) on the equipment I constructed. It's not great beer, I don't have the time to brew every day or week that it would take to become great. Nor do I have the audience to consume everything I make. I had at one time these fond visions of my friends and neighbors stopping by unannounced to see what I had on tap. Maybe some of you experience that, but I find that people have their own lives and don't have time to drop by for a beer. I'm a little disappointed about that, but the alternative could be worse. If you are home brewer, why? Leave a comment below to share why this is your hobby.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-45026186448352110192015-08-11T06:00:00.000-05:002015-08-13T19:05:03.765-05:00There's a Bug in My Beer<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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We all know those mixed feelings of disgust and not wanting to waste beer when you find a cold-blooded creature with a segmented body in your solo cup. Do you pour it out, or fish out the drowned arthropod and pretend it never happened? Did anyone else notice? Are your friends saying encouraging things like "he won't drink much" and then smirking, daring you to ignore the bug and finish your drink. Is there a waiter you can complain to? Surely, they won't mock you for sending back a glass with an insect in it. Lucky for you, this is not the type of bug I put in my beer.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dCpPkQ248Zc/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dCpPkQ248Zc?feature=player_embedded" style="clear: left; float: left;" width="320"></iframe>In November 2012, I pledged a small amount to the <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/" target="_blank">Kickstarter</a> program for <a href="http://www.thebeerbug.com/" target="_blank">The Beer Bug</a> by ParasitX. This is a wireless, digital hydrometer that stores your hydrometer data and temperature data in the cloud and can be accessed from any network connected device. There is a BeerBug app for <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/beerbug/id789539805?mt=8" target="_blank">iOS</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beerbug.parasitx" target="_blank">Android</a> or you can view your data on the web. The first, prototype units were bluetooth, but I waited until around April 2014 before my pre-ordered <a href="https://www.thebeerbug.com/order/" target="_blank">WiFi Beer Bug</a> was ready to ship.<br />
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I've had a couple of materials engineers look at the thing and they have described The Beer Bug as a "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Load_cell" target="_blank">strain gauge load cell</a>" of sorts, probably in a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheatstone_bridge" target="_blank">Wheatstone configuration</a>. The real magic is in the "torpedo". This is the "weight" that hangs into the beer and must have a constant buoyancy to provide accurate readings. It's also the one thing you won't find a picture of on their site. From the user perspective, there's nothing magic about it, but I think there is more to it than meets the eye based on the Kickstarter project updates and how ParasitX protects it. I'm only going to share the reference drawing they have on their site. After I wrote this, I found the video above of the early, pre-production Beer Bug.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Torpedo hangs from The Bug</td></tr>
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The one thing that I found most interesting is the BlinkUp application that comes with the mobile apps listed above. Without knowing all the exact details, what it does is translates your WiFi passcode into a series of digital screen flashes that <a href="https://www.thebeerbug.com/" target="_blank">The Beer Bug</a> then intercepts and uses to get on your WiFi network. No USB software with a clunky interface, just hold your phone screen up to The Beer Bug and it "magically" connect to your network. See for yourself with this next video. Brad at Parsitix let me know that they have updated the <a href="https://beerbug.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205091478-Blinkup" target="_blank">BlinkUp instructions on their support page</a>. This has an updated video and a lot of written instructions to accompany the video. <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6J5k7NxS3D4/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6J5k7NxS3D4?feature=player_embedded" style="clear: left; float: left;" width="320"></iframe>I will confess that I don't always use my Beer Bug mostly because my brewery is in the garage and most of my networked automation is upstairs in my office. It can be a challenge to "tare" the hydrometer (telling the BeerBug what the Specific Gravity of the wort you stuck it in) when you have to hold a button on the BeerBug and press a button on a web page. I've used the iOS app to tare my BeerBug but (and I know I'm making excuses) it can be tedious and the app and BeerBug need to communicate both over the WiFi network and ... it's just tedious. I don't think the web page is any faster, it just gives you more feedback that it's working whereas the iOS app just sits there with the activity indicator spinning.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">3 Dog Brew Standard Ale Ferment Profile</td></tr>
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When I do use it, I'm always glad I did, Being able to "know", without constantly having to take samples and test, that you beer is done fermenting is awesome. It can cut that 14 day "is it done yet" to 5 days and "I know it's done" because the gravity isn't dropping anymore. Plus, being able to track the gravity over time and overlay it with a fermentation profile can reveal a lot about what is working in your brewhouse and what is not. I use a an <a href="http://www.embeddedcontrolconcepts.com/" target="_blank">embedded control concepts BCS 460</a> to manage my fermentation profiles. Just set what temperature you want to ferment at and for how long, set that as a profile in the BCS and let it handle the chores of that crazy profile, like the one from UK brewery that is famous for London Pride.<br />
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This may sound like a commercial for <a href="https://www.thebeerbug.com/" target="_blank">The Beer Bug</a>, but it's not. I have no relationship with ParasitiX other than being a happy customer and early adopter. I get nothing out of this other than to introduce folks to something they may have not know about or ever considered using before. Apologies for no pictures of my personal Beer Bug, it's still in the fermentor. :-)<br />
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If you want to know more about a specific topic, or want to say hidee ho! leave me a comment below.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-20431643590889483452015-08-03T09:00:00.000-05:002015-08-18T08:58:40.626-05:00The Coil of Hermes<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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In Greek mythology, Hermes is known as the "trickster" always playing pranks on the other Greek gods,out witting them with his winged sandals and thinking the whole time how clever he is. The HERMS coil I built for my brewery seemed to be failing on all accounts when I tried to construct it, until I outwitted fate and came up with a solution to this problem before it "spiraled" out of control.<br />
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<a href="http://www.highgravitybrew.com/store/pc/HERMS/HERMS-Mash-Recirculation.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.highgravitybrew.com/store/pc/HERMS/HERMS-Mash-Recirculation.gif" height="158" width="200" /></a></div>
I have a number of readers of this blog that don't know the first thing about home-brew other than how to drink it, so you home-brewers reading this have a little patience while I explain what a HERMS coil is. There are several acronyms for some common brewing tools, most of which have to do with heat management of some kind. HERMS stands for "Heat Exchange Recirculating Mash System", basically using an exchange coil to transfer heat from one vessel into another like a radiator but with water instead of air. This animation from <a href="http://www.highgravitybrew.com/" target="_blank">High Gravity Brewing</a> explains it visually. We can discuss later whether the word "recirculating" is redundantly redundant. Circulating seems to communicate the idea clearly, but it doesn't make a good acronym. HECMS just isn't as catchy. CHEMS? That could have a future, but HERMS has been around a while.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhniGUzDXud7uE7pEc6PylHPm2Vo6bbxR9WPnB9SKz0AWsRh6GA1-YXZT4gR2KK-2MHCl5hELHLrW0xy3FwNS-nqQ6p1mYsocwEzF2rVCXXIIzNeHUmu1aX7-8n4e8q3QoQy6V-GCRc7lg/s1600/Infuser.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhniGUzDXud7uE7pEc6PylHPm2Vo6bbxR9WPnB9SKz0AWsRh6GA1-YXZT4gR2KK-2MHCl5hELHLrW0xy3FwNS-nqQ6p1mYsocwEzF2rVCXXIIzNeHUmu1aX7-8n4e8q3QoQy6V-GCRc7lg/s200/Infuser.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> 3 Dog Brew RIMS Heating Element</td></tr>
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Another design is a RIMS "Recirculating Infusion Mash System (which I have tried before) where a small amount of mash pumped through a directly heated tube. And, there's that word again, recirculating. I used a 2 inch by 12 inch copper tube that had a water heater element at one end. I feel the HERMS system works better and has fewer issues. I have cooked an element more than once by letting it run dry either through a stuck mash or just forgetting it was on and draining it.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="TheElectricBrewery.com: A step by step guide to building your own brewery" src="http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/images/logo_728x90.jpg" height="48" width="400" /></a></div>
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When I started the project to convert my system from RIMS to HERMS, I was following the design well documented by Kal at The Electric Brewery. I can't recommend this enough. Buy the man a beer, <a href="http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/the-complete-guide-to-building-your-brewery" target="_blank">pay the $20 for his guide book</a>. You won't be disappointed, and it supports all the work he put into this. <br />
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I purchased the 50' coil of stainless steel tubing <a href="http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/Stainless-steel-tubing-1-2-OD-0-020-0-035-wall-thickness" target="_blank">from Kal's site</a> for the Hot Liquor Tank and when it arrived, I immediately set out to fit the new coil into the tank. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1HBQzvp1Esv2lQ55l3F_BXurU76Kj_cM8czKAs3YY652yAkACxfgw7K0zgGtmJfGR31yzkZoJVdsuwmsRoUKQEhz3MAx1f2F1wn6KY8dYqyQyPlrBAQdrBVouXAn7uLcsG4oNhxuIh8A/s1600/2015-08-01+12.23.01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1HBQzvp1Esv2lQ55l3F_BXurU76Kj_cM8czKAs3YY652yAkACxfgw7K0zgGtmJfGR31yzkZoJVdsuwmsRoUKQEhz3MAx1f2F1wn6KY8dYqyQyPlrBAQdrBVouXAn7uLcsG4oNhxuIh8A/s200/2015-08-01+12.23.01.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Hmm. The coil that arrived from Amazon was 50 feet long and 2 feet (that's 24 inches) in diameter. Easy, right? Just recoil it per Kal's instructions on <a href="http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/hot-liquor-tank?page=3" target="_blank">this</a> page of his guide. It appears simple, just stand on the coil and reform it using tie-wraps to hold it in place until you fit it into the HLT. Except I was getting this (image at right). This looked nothing like what Kal's was demonstrating in his guide. What was I doing wrong? My coil was "folding" not bending. <br />
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Mr. Buttons does not approve of this design. Look at that face. Does he look like he's happy with me? Probably because I made him sit still for a picture. Just a small plug for <a href="http://www.lonestarboxerrescue.com/" target="_blank">Lone Star Boxer Rescue</a>, or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/lonestarboxerrescue?fref=ts" target="_blank">LSBR on Facebook</a> where we got Mr. Buttons from. Rescue a dog (or a cat), it'll change your life.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmgXLZJYpa1ztWcdPqZm3_RVv96biZTl02UeWiFQiDJXygF4yJmwemRClaOhMc3yi2yX0HhOUY89YInKkLcQYJ64SNcccsPb8EDvF4uz-bInGr9L0b5cAuY9Z4FZHtxe5hD8TtcUWL3E4/s1600/2015-08-01+12.24.50.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmgXLZJYpa1ztWcdPqZm3_RVv96biZTl02UeWiFQiDJXygF4yJmwemRClaOhMc3yi2yX0HhOUY89YInKkLcQYJ64SNcccsPb8EDvF4uz-bInGr9L0b5cAuY9Z4FZHtxe5hD8TtcUWL3E4/s200/2015-08-01+12.24.50.jpg" width="166" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mr. Buttons</td></tr>
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After getting frustrated with this for many hours and trying to figure out why Kal was so much better at this, I realized my error. Kal was using a 20 gallon pot as his HLT and I was using a 15 gallon. The pots are significantly different in size. Roughly 25% bigger, imagine that! I had just eye-balled my desired coil diameter and came up with about 12 inches. Kal could create a coil up to 16 inches in diameter with his 20 gallon pot and that 4 inches in diameter was putting a "crimp" in my project. He never mentions in his instructions the desired coil diameter for the HERMS coil, I'm just guesstimating.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI9XTyv_ix9reVuEW0Dhs7DTyQfJCXzYChM38CYnos4RGrZ0XCtDS9HV9mg51g7ZfqyrbPzsGJPxgRt7fXB_JGqBVWfTt5fb4mwll5-MmcTNhysqhUpqTcUkau9prqlbaVFJ78JShE2oM/s1600/2012-10-13+15.04.14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI9XTyv_ix9reVuEW0Dhs7DTyQfJCXzYChM38CYnos4RGrZ0XCtDS9HV9mg51g7ZfqyrbPzsGJPxgRt7fXB_JGqBVWfTt5fb4mwll5-MmcTNhysqhUpqTcUkau9prqlbaVFJ78JShE2oM/s200/2012-10-13+15.04.14.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Motorized grain mill</td></tr>
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I put my toys away and decided that I needed to noodle on this for a solution that a) would give me what I needed and b) didn't require me to spend more on tooling than I spent on buying the raw tubing. I was trying to think large scale. What would a big machine shop use to recoil a coil of tubing or stiff wire? They would use some sort of compression wheel with an offset guide to keep the coil from springing back to it's previous shape. After scrounging through the garage/brewery for a while, I realized that I already had the perfect tool, in the correct diameter and that all I needed to do was find a way to secure it and to build some forms to keep the tubing coiled around it. It's called a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheave" target="_blank">sheave</a>, but you probably think of it as a pulley. I had a 12 inch sheave on my <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOm17aG9S5HroEVR4IkZFvVhDmSBy_qNJkI09GqMKhdCh02QxrwkzdDhzpxD36iqE7HimIBUMOciw8D5B7WgcUcjIqARYxYjbpQ3tZhI3OYb4wNh1Km5FRjsRByMpjoWTaZYJUxLjI1m0/s1600/2012-10-13+13.47.55.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOm17aG9S5HroEVR4IkZFvVhDmSBy_qNJkI09GqMKhdCh02QxrwkzdDhzpxD36iqE7HimIBUMOciw8D5B7WgcUcjIqARYxYjbpQ3tZhI3OYb4wNh1Km5FRjsRByMpjoWTaZYJUxLjI1m0/s200/2012-10-13+13.47.55.jpg" width="150" /></a>grain mill. There's a large coil of 10 gauge, 4-wire cable sitting on top of the grain mill that was used later to send <b>240 Volts at 30 Amps</b> to the main control panel. I can't decide if I hear Gru from Despicable Me or Tim Taylor from Home Improvement saying that. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD3L5os_nloqnnR7o4-15QZXHf-KMzp2HGY4hMe4iYiRwukynDdmOK8SKxnvqJFGXvmK9aSK3zfjyXI9pcal2ylz60NAMKeZsZOf8az5I2x-wwUXplKtIEI-G5pRpiMjQK26hgVoEzIDc/s1600/2012-10-13+14.45.12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD3L5os_nloqnnR7o4-15QZXHf-KMzp2HGY4hMe4iYiRwukynDdmOK8SKxnvqJFGXvmK9aSK3zfjyXI9pcal2ylz60NAMKeZsZOf8az5I2x-wwUXplKtIEI-G5pRpiMjQK26hgVoEzIDc/s200/2012-10-13+14.45.12.jpg" width="150" /></a>So, remove the sheave from the grain mill, mount it to a flat table with room for the coil on either side and find a way to hold the tubing tight against the sheave as I wind it around reducing the bend radius. <br />
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I bolted the sheave to a large square piece of 3/4 MDF I had sitting around but plywood would have worked just as well. Then made a fence by gluing some MDF together and bolting that to the large square piece. I bolted a "handle" made of another longer piece of the same MDF and used a U-Bolt to loosely attach it to one of the spokes of the sheave to make turning the whole contraption a little easier. As you can see in this photo the system worked and I soon had a coil that went from 24" in diameter to 12". I used clamps to hold the tubing in place as it worked it's way around the sheave.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizzq2eqsTjrISGRZsy7P0j3wDmPA9o4YbcjZmyiFDxV7wKt01LL7kl05WiL7q0uh0tvcLXk7id1uaPweWBP6mmb8IDev6ZwIHgWTo3SKfYwd62S_eZonf2CYxxTLud4CGwuuitD2l0j00/s1600/2012-10-20+11.56.30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizzq2eqsTjrISGRZsy7P0j3wDmPA9o4YbcjZmyiFDxV7wKt01LL7kl05WiL7q0uh0tvcLXk7id1uaPweWBP6mmb8IDev6ZwIHgWTo3SKfYwd62S_eZonf2CYxxTLud4CGwuuitD2l0j00/s200/2012-10-20+11.56.30.jpg" width="200" /></a> It wasn't "easy" and you can see in one of these photos that the "handle" I made failed and broke where the U-Bolt was. Just keep turning the wheel and it continues to work.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirvhfO9IvSfXCYZZx526nuDg7H3buozWcysU6FH3JMbSlrCwjxu7hCmJB5Y_J-9peGOYRRBsGIgCCl5lZXvzSqcSkjdaI20aW_pS5WJ_erg-bdSmkoZ633JI3LMDbRt2EOquALfIAM_wc/s1600/2012-10-23+16.58.43.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirvhfO9IvSfXCYZZx526nuDg7H3buozWcysU6FH3JMbSlrCwjxu7hCmJB5Y_J-9peGOYRRBsGIgCCl5lZXvzSqcSkjdaI20aW_pS5WJ_erg-bdSmkoZ633JI3LMDbRt2EOquALfIAM_wc/s200/2012-10-23+16.58.43.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
Now that I had a nice HERMS coil, I had to bend the ends even sharper to exit the pot at right angles. That's where the giant tubing bender comes in (red handles). After all that work the last thing I wanted to do was to mess this up and have to start all over. I used some of the pieces of destroyed tubing shown earlier to test bending the tubing to meet the sides of the pot. This was more difficult than I imagined and I crimped several pieces of tubing and had to cut them off to start over. Doing some quick math on what I had that was still good, 12 coils at 12 inch diameter, I had taken a 50 foot coil of stainless tubing and turned it into a 35 foot HERMS coil.<br />
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Yep. I ruined 15 feet of tubing trying to figure this out. Someone else figured out that by using 90 degree compression fittings, you don't have to make those crazy sharp bends in the tubing. Wish I had thought of that. Would have saved me a ton of grief. So there you have it, another adventure in home brewing and how I managed to outwit Hermes and create my own HERMS coil. <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-47288947557465016072015-07-28T16:53:00.000-05:002015-08-18T08:59:18.363-05:00How much mash does a tun weigh?<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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I injured my back a few weeks ago, so my plans to brew in late June early July were sidelined like Danny Hultzen. Brewing is a very physical and mental process, but not like pitching for the Seattle Mariners'. After several trips to the chiropractor, I felt good enough that I needed to brew an IPA, since it was hot outside and an IPA sounded real tasty. Of course, it's the middle of July in Houston so working outside is about like trying to work in a 350F degree oven. Add to that notion that the process takes nearly 8 hours and I was <strike>hoping</strike> counting on several indoor breaks with A/C and a cold drink. It had been several months since my last brew day and I didn't want to wait until November to brew again, especially since my last two attempts at brewing sucked.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwZAZteJOJ-WVgn2AfAb4MgJ_pHh4zdbUbSzterXigzh1XEcpmbpohINygFkauH5lIdg2oRdAVlQiqHuvFwd-QNbV6bC0d-CH76QMBO_45ki4Qn2zsiG_qDxPLdn6bOxod45jaS9gznwg/s1600/2015-07-23+09.44.34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwZAZteJOJ-WVgn2AfAb4MgJ_pHh4zdbUbSzterXigzh1XEcpmbpohINygFkauH5lIdg2oRdAVlQiqHuvFwd-QNbV6bC0d-CH76QMBO_45ki4Qn2zsiG_qDxPLdn6bOxod45jaS9gznwg/s320/2015-07-23+09.44.34.jpg" width="240" /></a>I had this new mash tun I purchased from <a href="http://www.northernbrewer.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Northern Brewer</a> along with a <a href="http://www.blichmannengineering.com/products/autosparge" target="_blank">Blichmann Autosparge</a> another tool that lets me step away from the brewery and not worry about making a mess. The mash tun will introduce a new variable into the process and as I've mentioned before, changing any little thing can, just maybe create the best beer ever, and if I don't know what I changed, I may never be able to make it again. Not to get on too much of a tangent, let's talk about trigonometry! No, let's not. This variable thing has happened to me before with the Pedigree Porter recipe. This was an awesome beer I had been able to make exactly one time. It took me several re-brews to discover that there are both <a href="http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/simpsons-chocolate-malt" target="_blank">English</a> and <a href="http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/briess-chocolate-malt" target="_blank">American</a> versions of chocolate malt. Coincidentally, they taste nothing like each other. So wandering into the local brew shop and asking for "Chocolate malt" will give you a random beer, unless <b>they</b> ask you "English or American". Live and learn on that one.<br />
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Back to the IPA. I may have mentioned before that the other variable was changing water supplies. To minimize the effect this has on my beer, I make my own water. No, I'm not pounding hydrogen and oxygen atoms with a hammer hoping they stick together, I use RO (Reverse Osmosis) water and add minerals back into it. The water we have here is terrible. They say it's safe for drinking, but it tastes like stagnant pond water and you can't make <strike>good</strike> beer with pond water. At least not if you want to drink it, or serve it to friends. Unless you secretly hate them. The RO unit filters out most everything, but that also means if I want water like Dublin, no problem. Burton on Trent, easy. Of course nothing beats the geologic scale of the real thing, but by doing some kitchen table chemistry (or using a spreadsheet), I can create a decent water for whatever beer style I'm making.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEYPp5VF8_m5wcTpLy24O6GKkGw8j1pC3bP_jjVQxDquOChtskXzKyjELw69NhqNeiJUK3oxFEVmlXSJVL7dkJCvyZ_H06Uvn0uW4neVgPZyOYuh1o0p3gL3lkIhymh_r2DWs9rQe1Og0/s1600/2015-07-23+08.58.00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEYPp5VF8_m5wcTpLy24O6GKkGw8j1pC3bP_jjVQxDquOChtskXzKyjELw69NhqNeiJUK3oxFEVmlXSJVL7dkJCvyZ_H06Uvn0uW4neVgPZyOYuh1o0p3gL3lkIhymh_r2DWs9rQe1Og0/s320/2015-07-23+08.58.00.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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Wait, you didn't know that different beers require different waters? Think about this for a minute; is Guinness known for their Pale Ale? No. That's because they can't make a good one with the water that occurs naturally there. Of course, nobody knew why when this all started, it took a long time to figure this out. Essentially, darker grains lower the pH (increase the acidity) of the mash where all the beery enzymatic magic happens, so if your water contains more buffering minerals (like chalk or bicarbonate), you can add more dark grains like for stout and porter and still get great beer. If your water has minerals like sulfides or chlorides, you should use paler grains (like for pale ale and lager). To make my water, I use a 3 beam balance scale like you used in high school chemistry because it's accurate to a gram and I'm not making huge adjustments to the water. For example, in this IPA I'm using 9 gallons of mash water to which I'm adding 21 grams of these salts:<br />
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<ul>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT2m8U-fk7sl-WjkrkGliUTSafoxj7q1pNAtgOPRBJwjCKs5RWhyphenhyphenVWPskKgxVXgZ1nWxTPuNYKk08EJfJEJy8TfIr_vqrEJiADTOsdjOBAA9wab1-YqMsVLIPCEQyB7mYbK7esObY19-E/s1600/2015-07-23+09.44.42.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT2m8U-fk7sl-WjkrkGliUTSafoxj7q1pNAtgOPRBJwjCKs5RWhyphenhyphenVWPskKgxVXgZ1nWxTPuNYKk08EJfJEJy8TfIr_vqrEJiADTOsdjOBAA9wab1-YqMsVLIPCEQyB7mYbK7esObY19-E/s320/2015-07-23+09.44.42.jpg" width="240" /></a>
<li>2 grams of chalk (CaCO3)</li>
<li>4 grams of gypsum (CaSO4)</li>
<li>4 grams of calcium chloride (CaCl2)</li>
<li>6 grams of epsom salt (MgSO4)</li>
<li>2 grams of baking soda (NaHCO3)</li>
<li>3 grams of salt (NaCl) - pure, not iodized table salt</li>
</ul>
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That's less than an ounce of various salts in 9 gallons of water. See, not much. I use a coffee filter because it weighs next to nothing. I tried using a small plastic bowl but it weighed so much I was measuring the weight of the bowl and not the salts. I'll add the same 21 grams of salts to the boil kettle to get the right flavor in the finished beer, instead of adding them to sparge water (clean water used to rinse the grains of all sugars after the mash). FYI -No, I do not have a meth lab like Walter White.</div>
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Here on the right you can see the auto-sparge which appears to have been modeled after a chrome toilet fill valve and that I'm still using the same hacksaw and copper pipe manifold I used in the old mash tun, I have had real good luck with it not clogging and getting excellent extraction from the grains. Extraction can be affected by several <i>other</i> variables, I won't bore you with today. Maybe another time! I know you're <br />
looking forward to it.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmYlzwx_ITuvZw5FrseNekSLJfgirZTTA3wWvgDM4nCQIoMmIxxpJ1UuLoqXWVie5gjipqf72M8gs1RFlL4QUNBGGKWTpbtuNucJlCWjKiH7Z8gXI6kya1B40O-CxW10V1xBlwyYZCn-E/s1600/2015-07-23+12.20.47.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmYlzwx_ITuvZw5FrseNekSLJfgirZTTA3wWvgDM4nCQIoMmIxxpJ1UuLoqXWVie5gjipqf72M8gs1RFlL4QUNBGGKWTpbtuNucJlCWjKiH7Z8gXI6kya1B40O-CxW10V1xBlwyYZCn-E/s320/2015-07-23+12.20.47.jpg" width="320" /></a>I'll put some more details behind the heat exchange system another day, but as you can see from this image the Hot Liquor Tank (basically a hot water heater) is set at 150F and the mash temp is 147F so there is a couple of degrees lost in the exchange but that's within a degree of the desired magical 148F where the enzymes can break down the starch into maltose. It's the same experiment you did in school where if you chew a cracker long enough it becomes sweet because <i>your</i> enzymes break down the starch in the cracker to a simpler sugar. At least, that's the crazy stuff we did at my school, way back in the day, before cell phones and personal computers, or the wheel. Malted grains are allowed to germinate so that the enzymes needed to breakdown the starch are developed and then the process is halted by drying them so that <i>I</i> can control it later with temperature. You can read all about that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malt" target="_blank">here</a> if you're real bored. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUUZ8hA9vavQpZY9IrtjM2KrQDk-zoAvsOSfhERuViKZQOb6KUDmrG_x-i2fhAXnKfDDADPcd6Rav7cioqgmisVPvXDJkWjk-GKrb7dSqw9aj7WPG23hx4Vi3NHLoch6iIWRp77w_Kkf4/s1600/2015-07-23+12.20.15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUUZ8hA9vavQpZY9IrtjM2KrQDk-zoAvsOSfhERuViKZQOb6KUDmrG_x-i2fhAXnKfDDADPcd6Rav7cioqgmisVPvXDJkWjk-GKrb7dSqw9aj7WPG23hx4Vi3NHLoch6iIWRp77w_Kkf4/s320/2015-07-23+12.20.15.jpg" width="240" /></a>The new mash tun worked great, I must say. I just had a flash back to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAE4AOP6xKs" target="_blank">Ed Grimley</a> talking about Pat Sajak, I must say. The auto-sparge worked as advertised allowing me to walk away from the system while it "fly-sparged", meaning to run off the mash liquor into the boil kettle while adding the same amount of 168-170F water to the mash tun to "rinse" the grains of all sugars. My efficiency was much higher than with the old mash tun. I have no theories on that, it just is and I'm not worrying about it. </div>
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As can be seen in this last picture, the 15 gallon tun got pretty full with 9 gallons of water and 32lbs of grain. I'm real close to the limit of my system. I'm thinking that anything over 1.070 gravity (around about 8% ABV) would require the addition of some extract or sugar to the kettle. The best part by far was how easy it was to clean. I struggled with the old keggle to get the spent grains out of the thing in the first place and then to try and clean all the bends and folds in the metal was a major pain. This was super easy. The grain just dumped right out into a hefty bag and a quick rinse cleaned it up real well.</div>
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This has been a real long post. I hope you enjoyed reading it. If not, leave your comments for me and I'll be sure to ignore them.</div>
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-39948575743069586752015-06-09T12:53:00.000-05:002015-06-09T13:41:30.285-05:00The old Website is Dead!The old 3dogbrew.com site has been taken down and the <br />
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service points directly here. If you were looking for 3dogbrew.com, this site replaces it. The other content was even older than the stuff left on here. <br />
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I'm working on a new site, but that is a few months away. Keep checking here for updated content<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-40118706740185771852015-06-08T11:36:00.001-05:002015-08-18T08:59:34.842-05:00The Brewing Continues<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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Thank you for being patient with me, I know it's been way too long since I've posted anything here. Since my last post I've converted the entire brewery to all electric (no more propane burners) and replaced all the liquid vessels and lines. I did take some photos of the process at the time with the intent of posting them here. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQxbIy0gtQMYnihdqOuSaAKq0lFth2KhJhJedWXjjUBjVMr30WC-8JCk5us1-is2-LIhEFYA3Ygx0N6nWMFM9Q9WpJ2iA3WtOXy8-jd79bWxvAGCJW675uUcRzWBnbW0IQ1ww7_x4vXGo/s1600/DSC_0084.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Control Panel Image" border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQxbIy0gtQMYnihdqOuSaAKq0lFth2KhJhJedWXjjUBjVMr30WC-8JCk5us1-is2-LIhEFYA3Ygx0N6nWMFM9Q9WpJ2iA3WtOXy8-jd79bWxvAGCJW675uUcRzWBnbW0IQ1ww7_x4vXGo/s320/DSC_0084.JPG" title="Control Panel" width="320" /></a></div>
In the next few posts I would like to upload those old photos and describe the process I went through to convert the brewery to all electric. Of course, I never would have thought his possible is it wasn't for Kal of <a href="http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Electric Brewery</a>. I used this design as a template and over a very long period of time acquired and built a very similar product. As you can see, I started with smaller project box and added onto it. My first experimental exposure to electric brewing was in building the lauter tun. Mashing and lautering are the most temperature critical steps in the production of wort, so I built the first control box to regulate the temperatures of these steps. Boiling is just that, and doesn't require specific temperatures and control. I used the left side of the box for over a year while still using a propane burner for the boiling step. <br />
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There were some things specified in The Electric Brewery that I either couldn't find, or couldn't justify the expense for like the timer that Kal used. I bought a process timer, but I find it difficult to use and the design utilized the same buzzer for the time events as other alarms. This makes it impossible to tell the difference between an alarm for mash temp too low/high and mash time completed. Some require immediate attention and others, not so much. I think the idea is that all events require you to pay attention to the rig for something, but it made brew-day stressful for no reason. I use the small magnetic kitchen timer for timed events. This also allows me to carry the timer with me in case I find a reason to wander away from baby-sitting the brewery, like grabbing some lunch or just seeking a few minutes of air conditioning in the house :-). Before building the monster welding cable that powers the 30 Amp/ 240 Volts supplied by the box to the heating elements, I used a 120 Volt extension cord to bench test all the functions including safety lockout/interlock which ensures that if a power failure occurs and is then restored that the system doesn't start back up on it's own. This is for the safety of both the equipment and the operator. <br />
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The 30 Amp dryer outlet that feeds the rig now is sent through a GFI breaker installed in the main breaker panel to protect me from any stray current. Kal used a 240 Volt GFI cable that I was unable to find. The breaker is simpler, but more expensive and required me to shut off the main power to the house to install. I don't recommend doing this in the middle of summer if you live anywhere (like Houston) that is somewhat dependent on Air Conditioning. Until the day where I have a huge vent hood, I still need to move the rig outside to brew, so the entire operation needs to be on wheels and movable. Having this power setup allows me to shut down all power before attempting to move it. It's still very heavy which I hope to solve in the next few months by reducing the size of the table or replacing it completely.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-74918620961256462222012-01-22T16:02:00.001-06:002015-08-18T09:00:22.070-05:00Failed Experiments<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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If you have been following this blog at all, you will remember that back in 2010, I built <a href="http://3dogbrew.blogspot.com/2010/11/fermentation-chamber-finale-fruits-of.html" target="_blank">the mother of all fermentation chambers</a>. After using this for two years and having reasonable success with it, I have decommissioned it, broke it down and hauled it out to the trash heap. There are a couple of issues with that assembly that I just couldn’t overcome. First, I had experienced a couple of fermentations that had clogged the airlock and blown yeast slurry allover the inside of the cabinet. Despite my efforts to clean up the mess, there were just so many little specs of goo everywhere that it inevitably started to mold. Having a moldy environment makes the challenge of keeping contaminants out of your <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe32hbvVv-Inob6EOXkch__dg4tqGdzfyAekkZxwQ6p8W0iLCWsEZsDFmTX8qGLdEXuJvH777EmTIPBGb2oC0r0USZCa4pLpCbF3yXbaFbZc_R54LPZeraogoReWxkEKu3V9OatFQ6fh8/s1600-h/IMG_0522%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="IMG_0522" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcJHUFfTXYsUFAU1plO4kOODXBCyFWNqo8DtEqQwolWnFRysVV731KSEZEEQM47mJ6FrTCXW6ZLKzebIIdXVDXsfRRRleDQqwXoOaK1TT502qr_YHKX64GBGEqztIPNjNp9ibxVvoQQnU/?imgmax=800" height="184" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; float: left; margin: 5px 5px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG_0522" width="244" /></a>yeast and fermenting beer even more daunting. Second, using an air conditioning window unit sounds simple enough, I was even able to figure out a simple temperature probe bypass to attain cooler temperatures than your normal air conditioned room, like 65 degrees. My desire to try fermenting a lager turned into a nightmare when the A/C unit froze the coils a number of times. Add to this disappointment that the insulation between the “sealed” panels was starting to grow mold and turn the wood paneling black from the inside and it was clear. This was an experiment that may work fine in less-humid environments, but this was clearly not going to work for me anymore.<br />
A couple of days casually looking at Craig’s List and a solution was discovered. I found a reasonably-new Whirlpool refrigerator that someone was selling cheap (like $60 cheap). It is getting harder to find a ‘fridge that is not a side-by-side and I needed one with the freezer on top. Found it, picked it up, cleaned it out and stuck a temperature probe in it. My wife is still confused as to why I wanted a refrigerator that is set at 65 degrees, but if you are reading this, I’m sure you know why. The one remaining piece of the old fermentation chamber is the shelf on the bottom of this new one. After some sanding and a new coat of sealer, it’s good as new. I’m using it right now to ferment a couple of ales that I brewed last weekend. This leads me to my second failed experiment.<br />
I am very enamored with the Fullers line of ales (use your browser toe search, I can't have a link to them) . If you live near London, this may seem very odd and silly, but here in “the colonies” the products we get from the Fuller’s brewery are a bit old and oxidized. Apparently a cargo container and the Atlantic Ocean are not favorable to beer, who knew? So, in typical home-brewer style*, I proceeded to try and clone some of these ales. Also, in my typical style, I try and go the full 9 yards with the processes. I was going to brew these beers the same way they do at Fullers and use a <a href="http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Parti-gyle" target="_blank">parti-gyle</a> system. The linked article is long on description and short on practical application. Being new to this process, I assumed that I would take the grist from beer A and combine that with beer B to make a Master Grist. Then take the first 6 gallons of running in one kettle and the second 6 gallons in another. Easy, right? Of course it is, which is why it is all wrong. So, off I go milling and mashing 2 brews worth of grain and running the resulting wort into kettle A. Great, after about 7.5 gallons are in the kettle, I switch to kettle B and continue on draining. Perfect! Start the boil and add some hops, right? Boil for 50 minutes and add the second set of hops. Both kettles are on the same schedule, what could be easier? What? You’re saying I missed step?<br />
As it turns out, a big step was missed. I take a hydrometer reading from kettle A and whoa! 1.098 SG? This can’t be right. Take a hydrometer reading from kettle B and I get 1.034. It was about this time that I realized that I didn’t take a pre-boil hydrometer reading which would have prevented the catastrophe I was now in the middle of. I stop draining kettle A into the first carboy (1) and start adding it to carboy 2 after about 2/3rds of the wort was drained. Then I blended the worts 2/3rd and 1/3rd to lower the gravity of kettle A and raise the gravity of kettle B. Now my hops and bittering was going to be all screwy<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFU8-Rq-HTCXt5knhfSRs9a1sAWFcpZGMmXv7F7fkEb9xgcUDSss3GUGO01Re0kCd6cfpxt5YmSC10BIhwK9VqELkAPoSqOIQgBLckEG2m57lAX2SEoWGQ5k5-V234Gv5cI-3p0Aca7Y0/s1600-h/IMG_0523%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img align="right" alt="IMG_0523" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC0x_YVJCd2HFrN0dhxEzGOU-HN1i6HvWjaLEBQKJDhvxfuNE9oIlbZiwhtqFhAyeLhpEOhndF9bgKKFoqE_zV4Zg-QQ5UsMQq-KuVYsvmbt-1Xp89GJDHkkkg8VfR7paB1HfUc5-R7nM/?imgmax=800" height="184" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; float: right; margin: 5px 0px 0px 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG_0523" width="244" /></a> but what could I do at this point other than throw them both out and start over. At roughly half a sack of Maris Otter I was not dumping this down the driveway. The correct way to do this is to drain the first runnings (what I had put into kettle A) into a separate container and blend them into the second runnings to get the appropriate gravity. Now, what was supposed to be an ESB clone (SG of 1.058) was at a post blend gravity of 1.082, nearly Barley wine strength and what was supposed to be London pride (SG 1.048) was at 1.056.<br />
Over the past week, I’ve found a couple of parti-gyle calculators, with <a href="http://www.antiochsudsuckers.com/tom/Tom-OsParti-GyleCipherinSheet.xls" target="_blank">Tom’s from the Antioch Sud Suckers</a> being my personal favorite. I used way too much grain and didn’t blend them before starting the boil. Other than that these brews fermented just fine, both achieving their original, calculated terminal gravity. I plan to dry hop them both since the London Pride is closer to the ESB and the ESB is way under hopped.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-89261118111392594352011-07-24T16:03:00.001-05:002011-07-24T16:03:03.124-05:00Cleaning and Sanitizing a Brewery<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8yI6060ZYkCrcx9BhxeiHIQd514P4Cjixi1nFnaFvq4isHsQkkkjbnahz-QkC1sXNkItsXPzm4fRyWttYysfXw0_BQ9Cc6auXNIfjVRGeDwhi7cTs1V1H-KNiQ9tx7sBDQ_cj0tgkiT4/s1600-h/Cleaning2%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 8px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Cleaning2" border="0" alt="Cleaning2" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNoKrcimJ0GspAJkHibjccvDCZR_Gsrl7yOfzxGgRg5seq5jZNLGzik6P6MZDqgPx1e_mtZE_QnQVQ5t93etrhYM3u_6c-HCjB_74wgc47hoC9hu93cBiTTnReOb6jnhhm60A9yuGDa7w/?imgmax=800" width="210" height="174"></a>As I mentioned in a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/128390837235666?ap=1" target="_blank">post on Facebook</a>, cleaning seemed to me to be self-explanatory and a “non-topic”. Anyone who has ever made their way around a kitchen, or as I have, worked in a retail food establishment, should know how to clean food preparation equipment. A simple detergent that is biodegradable (because most of it gets dumped on the ground when you’re done) and a <a href="http://www.scotch-brite.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Scotch-BriteBrand/Scotch-Brite/Products/Catalog/?PC_7_RJH9U52300V2E0I02BK7KM0GT3_nid=RWGDPNXX08gsBBDGVJTLBMglJC3NXJH2HPbl&prodID=RWGDPNXX08gs&lang=en_US" target="_blank">Scotch-Brite pad</a>. Use warm water and scrub away the gunk, right? </p> <p>As it turn out, no. It’s not that simple. Brewery soil is a different concoction of organics with a low pH (meaning mildly acidic). Think about all the different sugar compounds created, maltose, dextrose, sucrose, etc. and then boiling that with hops which are for all intents green flowers. The mess that gets created gets into everything. If you don’t clean at all, you’ll end up with a mold experiment so it’s easy to realize that stuff needs to be washed off. I’ve read many suggestions like using hot <a href="http://www.oxiclean.com/" target="_blank">Oxiclean</a> or other kitchen type cleanser to let everything soak, and then come back and scrub it. I have always had on hand a container of Powder Brewery Wash (<a href="http://www.fivestarchemicals.com/breweries/homebrewing/products/" target="_blank">PBW</a>) from Five Star, but compared to something like Oxiclean, PBW is expensive so I only used it when stuff wasn’t coming clean with other products. I used this method for the first ten years of my brewing hobby.</p> <p>“<a href="http://www.fivestarchemicals.com/breweries/homebrewing/why-cleaning-matters/" target="_blank">Why cleaning matters</a>” is a page on the Five Star Chemical page for home brewers and for me I understood that you cannot sanitize something that isn’t clean. Dirt harbors bacteria so if the dirt isn’t removed, a surface cannot be sanitized. I think we all know what “clean” means, but what does “sanitized” mean? We’ve all heard words like “disinfect”, “sterilize” and “sanitize” but what do they really mean? These three words form a progression of remaining bacterial infection. Something that has been sterilized has had all micro-organisms –harmful or not, and their spores killed on a surface. Something that has been disinfected has had all harmful micro-organisms and their spores killed on a surface. Something that has been sanitized has had most of the micro-organisms killed on a surface. </p> <p>To put it another way, sterilization usually takes more than a single method to achieve the total destruction of all micro-organisms. Chemicals and heat, heat and pressure, pressure and radiation or some combination thereof. Disinfection is usually achieved through the use of a chemicals alone. Rubbing alcohol, iodine and even vodka are all good disinfectants. Sanitization is, at least in my experience, a solution that you can have prolonged skin contact with and it won’t harm you. Take a chemical such as Five Star Star San, to make a sanitizer the directions are to use 1 oz. in 5 gallons of water. This is a no-rinse solution that you just leave it to dry and the surface is good to use. To take that same chemical up to disinfectant levels would require 5-10 times as much, and I believe that it would require rinsing before use. If your water looks like mine, this could be a problem of re-introducing micro-organisms to the surface you just prepared.</p> <p>After all that, remember that what isn’t clean can’t be sanitized. I thought I understood and was successfully applying these principles in my brewery until hearing a <a href="http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/469" target="_blank">“Brew Strong” podcast from The Brewing Network on sanitization</a> with Jon Herskovitz from Five Star Chemical. While this may sound like Jon is hawking his wares via the Brew Strong show, what I found is that Jon is very conscious of this perception and is reluctant to discuss what makes the Five Star products superior in every respect. The hosts had to drag out these facts from Jon. After listening to this, I ordered a large container of PBW and put the Oxiclean back in the laundry room.</p> <p>As a test of this “new” knowledge, I filled my brew-kettle with five gallons of water and the properly measured amount of PBW. After heating the<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLag0YpOmLbt00hXPt2wyikYIK3gBIC8LB-mLP5tGfNaO1MbZwYEXNWTs3SGHamJ4pZKAtckVmOH38HL-CCu7xbJw4Urccre330w-aUm-1-ttA7U0HB8kIdpBOtemiH3Hr00c-AgwKxNE/s1600-h/Cleaning%25255B7%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Cleaning" border="0" alt="Cleaning" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8YoHYM6PEauakyO0pnwjemdR0zsKF49UZ3jveJPiVUl0YflfdgmB_Ai9Y7iJBqyr9uRmiIVJao9Ht1kS7E5N0hDxyTBn18x0uzDL6xE29z6sPywmlVj_IuyEvB-R4K0M774r1p55Z5Mw/?imgmax=800" width="215" height="166"></a> water to 130 F (about hot water from your sink temperature), I pumped it through the entire brewery, one piece at a time. The “gunk” that was removed from the pot and equipment was astounding. As you can see from the picture, most of the gunk is hop matter that had adhered to various surfaces, mostly in my plate chiller. I had just boiled the plate chiller in a pot on the stove to get out all the “gunk”. As you may guess, that wasn’t very effective. Knowing what I wrote above, how can this have possible been sanitary? You can also see a line of scale circling the inside of the pot. This is just from the steam of the warm PBW. I did have to scrub at that some the get it off. </p> <p>Take-away from this? Using a more expensive, no-scrub cleaner isn’t about being lazy and not wanting to scrub; it’s about using the proper product to ensure the brewery is “clean” so that it can be sanitized. I have never had a beer show signs of infection in the bottle or keg but that doesn’t mean I’m good, just lucky. I’d rather be good, that is more reproducible. Good thing all that old beer is gone. Or is it?</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-5194667071613280242011-05-29T14:23:00.001-05:002015-08-18T09:03:05.995-05:00Tea Party Porter & Witbier l’Orange<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<p>A very ambitious undertaking I thought, to brew two different beers in a single session in less than 12 hours. Mission accomplished. It wasn’t as hard as I thought since most of the time spent on a brew day is for cleaning up afterwards and putting everything away. <img style="display: inline; float: left" title="" alt="RO Water" align="left" src="http://www.3dogbrew.com/3db/images/blog/RO_Water.jpg" width="149" height="190"></p> <p>This was a plan that had been conceived the week before and at the last minute, I decided to take the Friday before Memorial Day off to brew. Nobody around to distract me, or come to my rescue if I did anything stupid. </p> <p>I’ve said this before, but since our county switched from well water to surface water, it has been terrible for brewing. It has no mineral content other than Sodium. That’s all we need is more Sodium in our diets and it tastes horrible to boot. Knowing this, I brew with RO water and add minerals back in. I have a spreadsheet that helps me calculate the additions of CaCO<sub>3</sub> (Chalk), CaSO4 (Gypsum), CaCl<sub>2</sub> (Calcium Chloride), MgSO<sub>4</sub> (Epsom Salt) and NaHCO<sub>3</sub> (Baking Soda). All of these additions are in 1-5 grams for 5 gallons of water and they can change the flavor and mouth-feel of the water<img style="display: inline; float: right" title="" alt="Scale and Salts" align="right" src="http://www.3dogbrew.com/3db/images/blog/Salts.jpg" width="150" height="114"> dramatically. Without going into an entire treatise on water formulation, there are two factors I am concerned with; the Residual Alkalinity and the Chloride to Sulfate ratio. The Residual Alkalinity is determined by what color of beer I want to brew (higher is better for darker beer) and can be raised by adding Carbonates (CO<sub>3</sub>). It has been described as “buffering potential”, but a simpler concept is that Carbonates (like Baking Soda) absorb acid and dark malts are acidic. The more dark malt you use, the more buffering potential you need. This is beyond the basic minerals needed for yeast health like Calcium.</p> <p>The Chloride to Sulfate ratio affects the perception of hop bitterness or that of “malty-ness” and is adjusted by adding Sulfate to improve bitterness or Chloride to improve malty-ness. I don’t know why I write this pseudo-science stuff, nobody’s going to read it… In the old days, people used to put salt in a beer to reduce the bitterness. Same thing.</p> <p><img style="display: inline; float: left" title="" alt="WLP001 and WLP400" align="left" src="http://www.3dogbrew.com/3db/images/blog/stir_plate.jpg" width="165" height="125">My wife thought I was kidding when I said I was getting up at 5am to start my brew day. I had some coffee and breakfast and as soon as she pulled the car out of the garage I was heating the strike water for Tea Party Porter. I received the yeast for the witbier (White Labs WLP 400) the day before, but had the WLP001 California Ale yeast from the batch of Amber Waves that I could re-pitch. Both were in the Fermentation Chamber, getting fed and acclimating to their new environment.</p> <p>As I described in my Facebook post, the idea of heating the sparge water with the <img style="display: inline; float: right" align="right" src="http://www.3dogbrew.com/3db/images/blog/TeaPartyMash.jpg" width="160" height="207">infusion heater just occurred to me and it helped a lot. Given that it is “set and forget” computer controlled, I could set the sparge temperature of 168 and walk away. Very convenient. I batch sparged this, meaning I drained the first runnings from the mash tun before closing the drain valve and filling the tun up with the sparge water. Let that sit for 15 minutes and drain it again. While that batch was set to boil, I emptied the mash tun and refilled it with the strike water for the witbier (mean white beer) and started that heating to the strike temperature.</p> <p>The mash profile for the witbier is a little more complicated than the simple, single infusion, porter mash. The witbier recipe has 4 mash rests at 102, 122, 152 and 168 (all in F.) so I would have to use the heat infusor to raise the mash temperature instead of heating the sparge water. All of these temperature rests have specific time intervals and my system is not completely automated. I can set the temperature and so long as the pump continues to move liquid <img style="display: inline; float: left" align="left" src="http://www.3dogbrew.com/3db/images/blog/FilterKeg.jpg" width="172" height="226">through the infusion heater, the computer will control the temperature, but not the time interval. So, while all this was going on, with the Tea Party Porter boiling, and the timer telling me to change the temperature of the mash, I was filtering the dry hop material out of the last batch of Amber Waves. After it had been racked to keg and left to sit at 34F for a week it was ready to filter to another clean, sanitized keg. A little CO<sub>2</sub> pressure and the beer gets pushed out of the old keg, through the plate filter and into the clean keg. Once that was done, the keg was put back in the refrigerator and hooked up to more CO<sub>2</sub> to carbonate. You can see the chill-line on the keg telling you how full it is. The 3rd keg in the picture just has pressurized sanitizer in it for cleaning out the tubing.</p> <p>I bought a 6 gallon plastic bottle for fermenting in and I keep running into the same <img style="display: inline; float: right" align="right" src="http://www.3dogbrew.com/3DB/images/blog/TeaPartyPorter.jpg" width="173" height="223">problem with it. Every time I use it I dump precious beer down the driveway. If it was 6.5 gallons like my glass (breakable and heavy, see my last entry) carboys, I wouldn’t be so annoyed with them. The <a href="http://www.better-bottle.com/" target="_blank">Better Bottle</a> brand does the same thing infuriatingly enough. They make bottles in 3 gallon, 5 gallon, and 6 gallon. Why not continue the progression and make a 3, 5 and <strong>7</strong> gallon! I’m tired of dumping out beer. I don’t mind spillage or waste, but to dump perfectly good beer out for the lack of space is very annoying. So as you can see, there is very little air-space at the top of this “fermenter” and I know what is going to happen. I’m going to waste perfectly good yeast by having it overflow into the blow off tank (it’s a 1 gallon cider bottle that has a couple of holes in the lid). Sure there will be yeast left behind when I rack this beer off the trub, but the best fermenting guys are the ones that end up betting blown out the tube. So, if I had more of the Tea Party Porter than I expected, why did I use this bottle instead of the 6.5 gallon? Funny thing, the WLP400 witbier yeast needs even more headspace than the California Ale yeast. Last time I used it I learned that lesson the hard way, with yeasty <img style="display: inline; float: left" align="left" src="http://www.3dogbrew.com/3DB/images/blog/Blow-off_tank.jpg" width="160" height="211">foam and beer goo all over the floor of my fermentation chiller and pouring out the front doors onto the garage floor. What a mess that was. This time I’m using the bigger 6.5 gallon bottle and a blow-off tube to catch the foamy mess.</p> <p>This photo is from about 24 hours after pitching the yeast. The “water” in the tank was clean water 24 hours ago and now there is a layer of foam and a ton of yeast blow-off that I kept from making a mess.</p> <p>I’m not sure how these beers are going to turn out, it is in the high 90’s here this Memorial Day weekend and my chiller is set at 62 but the temperature indicators on the bottles say it’s 68. That is a bit warm for both of these yeasts, but I can’t cool them down once they start. Start cold and let warm, never the other way around. It will be another week or so before the Amber Waves is ready due to the 1 week of dry hop and 1 week of settling before filtering and I’m 2 weeks behind on that batch. </p> <p>Good thing I don’t have any customers to disappoint <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smilewithtongueout" alt="Smile with tongue out" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB_3B7LFQuiENxalu31nCMGyBx92i1eNGa-Mm6t0inT17ck-_2n8Gk5yjWaxMyZAgDubif9cTlIJAE1QPRbTvaLGiZDHfh2CB7Cx-YcRpQ4GR5D5nECbZFW5_wQPXiykO2vhgQUqEG_ws/?imgmax=800"></p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-23554216577682400672011-05-01T15:57:00.001-05:002015-08-18T09:03:17.792-05:00Amber Waves<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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It’s been way too long since I’ve written anything here. There are three beers that I’ve brewed since the last entry. The 2011 edition of St. Bernard Christmas Ale that has completely fermented and is aging in the cold storage of the 34 degree F chest freezer. This time, it’s a Belgian Dark Ale instead of the Old Ale that we all enjoyed last year. I still get asked if I have any more of that beer, but I gave it all away at Christmas time. <br />
Next, I made the first attempt at Southern Belle Blonde Ale which is about as close to American style lager as I would be wiling to serve. The fermentation is clean without character. Exactly what I imaging this style is supposed to be. Maybe I should get some of Southern Star’s Bombshell Blonde to compare it to. Lastly, I brewed the first attempt at Doubting Thomas, an American Pale Ale. I don’t care for this at all. The hop character is all wrong. Apparently the combination of German Magnum, Centennial and Columbus doesn’t suit my palate. If I mix 75% Southern Belle and 25% Doubting Thomas, I can make a light pale ale that I can drink all day, but it’s nothing special. I’m going to try a new recipe that is based on Epic Pale Ale from New Zealand. Apparently the kiwis know what the Hell they are doing. The recipe is simple, British pale and crystal malt and all American Cascade hops. The trick is the execution. More on that adventure later. This brew day is about Amber Waves, American Amber style ale. This is part of the American Patriot line that in addition to Amber Waves includes, Tea Party Porter and Paul Revere IPA.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib3lZClBgP1c1WrmgOY-0eWIOHolDWS9DCGVV2YhLbJYna62SyXVm_SRrKLkNVy732q3XEzKriEtuyGai0G0-nENK3FWQ016w0fBUdZm7TrcDna1wYpDLfXQTVpmjdaZDZE3RwMPSRbLo/s1600-h/BrokenCarboy%5B4%5D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="BrokenCarboy" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4lk9sbptQ-EUhUPLt7cvmsssi8alOaTNn4geqUDeNfTLKOocOFkNXX0xsHOxPLtmFQVml7NKyIjcDiIn5Y_9RXErrH27q1W07XZL-EXtYtWkkf62AlopNjgocEzoCgRPzSbSlbCaF9aY/?imgmax=800" height="240" style="display: inline; float: left;" title="BrokenCarboy" width="180" /></a>Most brew days have their little problems; a stuck sparge, a missed temperature, a boil over, or the one time you walk away from the kettle, the propane goes empty or a gust of wind blows the flame out. I’ve heard about full on catastrophes that lead to Tim, “The Tool Man”, Taylor style hospital visits, but I’ve been careful. Or lucky. After eleven years of brewing I had a minor catastrophe on this brew day. I got lucky in that I didn’t need to visit the Emergency Room to seek stitches or a burn treatment. <br />
My minor catastrophe was backing into a draining 6 1/2 gallon glass carboy that was balanced precariously on the bottle drain, but sitting cock-eyed due to a carboy handle. In the split second that it took to fall over, I had time to consider many things. “What was that I just bumped into? It was smooth and cool, like glass. What could it be?” It was about this <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ1ab-zqdYDl5NVZO47njmOTJ5aIxma2wPeZbiiNZ2ocWmxC6juoZ2zVWaEv6Vc8vhlDmgmw2x8oAKl0EUYBNOI-JlKwjEBQfbCLxlntyYDCmUviSlE8mSkMKcjZpSNp9bSb1CRrh8cZk/s1600-h/BloodyThumb%5B4%5D.jpg"><img align="right" alt="BloodyThumb" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5W2j0p8WAqo17me4SLSHUjOVrY5tB_cWhnC708ki3YTKtFj0lLF1UINuipeFObeyF2AKS83Ocd9lZuLUIQIcd6N2Szc0mX4NVmNDzbIzRB0s_P2Pp3EAqqASuey1IigD8vJaaAHnHoT4/?imgmax=800" height="240" style="display: inline; float: right;" title="BloodyThumb" width="180" /></a>time in the eternity that was the 1.5 to 2 seconds of the event that I realized it was that carboy that I so stupidly left behind me, in the way, and balanced on the carboy drainer, leaning up against a bucket full of iodophor sanitizing solution. I spun around and reached for the falling carboy with all the deft and coordination that a middle-aged, slightly-pudgy non-athlete can and stuck my thumb right into the newly formed joint where the glass had broken. Whoops, that was a mistake. Retracting my hand from the pieces of the fermenter that had been a faithful provider of malty elixirs since my earliest days for brewing, I examined the collateral damage. My thumb started to bleed and as I applied pressure to the wound, there was more sharp pain. Third mistake. There was still glass in my thumb but I couldn’t see it. All told a minor injury that could have been much worse. I’ll be replacing that carboy with a PET Better Bottle.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEk04f_tkXsgG2NEPlUBHe5G168ypVe3OjjHNoW29ANfNHC4lw543tvzGozQ4EnBPl5_l2MofY9N4rijLApCKyfFVAKssZ7F9x6UVSMd1FWzgdC_9kAVCB7nTHMkEY9fwYawRuaxTS4m4/s1600-h/DriveBeltFail%5B4%5D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="DriveBeltFail" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGtjJ53ZPr0p5EaK7II5DRJtTsEmaT6ixLKUPel161MD4PE-_6OiNYY9kBPue322gLJKYuEeEkHRenEgnBxsNPoND2h1b3E35hNLMb14p2ByDWpdJ_OeXjky9CwHIETA6PmT9exUmTaJc/?imgmax=800" height="240" style="display: inline; float: left;" title="DriveBeltFail" width="180" /></a>While milling the grain for Doubting Thomas, I walked out of the immediate area to get the mail. When I came back the garage was full of smoke and smelled of burnt rubber. Apparently, I had conditioned my malt too wet and gummed up the grain mill which seized and the motor kept right on churning, abrading a big divot in the drive belt. No I need to find the instructions so I know what size belt to replace it with. It still works for now, but It needs to be replaced.<br />
Another, recent modification to the mash tun includes an all copper manifold that replaced the stainless inverted sieve that is supposed to be better. I also stopped continuous mash circulation. Rather than draining the mash water, running it through the heat infuser and back to the top of the grain bed, I’m just heating up the water, stopping the pump and dumping in the grain. The mash tun holds the temperature amazingly well and I’ve had much more relaxed brew days without fooling with falling grain beds, stuck recirculation pumps and all that mess. If I add one more fitting to my hot liquor tank, I can use the heat infuser to heat up step infusion or mash-out water instead of trying to recirculate the mash. I get just as clear a wort without recirculation and it’s much less of a headache. Anyone can follow a recipe. The masterful part of being a brew-master is nailing the process down to being repeatable and within guidelines. I missed my target gravity by 3 points, but this time I was on the low side instead of overshooting the target. I think this was due to my attempt at fly-sparging, which is simply refilling the mash tun with 168 degree water from the top while draining the wort from the bottom. Most times I batch sparge which is draining the mash tun of sugary water and then refilling with warmer water and draining a second time. At some point I will need to brew the same beer twice, once fly-sparged and once batch sparged to see if I can tell a difference.<br />
Another issue with my current process is that I have an in-line oxygen stone aerates the wort as it goes from the chiller to the fermenter. My pea-brain insists that gases bubble up through liquids, so the oxygen stone is below the outlet to the fermenter. The problem is that since I do not need to aerate the entire batch (only about 25%), while there is no pressure to the oxygen stone I get wort into my hepa-filter that filters the oxygen. If I was using medical grade oxygen this may not be an issue, but I’m using welding/brazing grade that you can buy at the hardware store. The beer still turns out fine, but if I start growing mold in my hepa-filter, it kind of defeats the purpose. I guess I could invert the assembly and have the oxygen stone above the outlet, but I have no idea how, or if that <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFlR9LtVmfY3yz3WpI2C_tqyKsFE2Y_h7J4_sgCztdcc-A6cgQ84Kk_415MqUEQE5kkH-GtHxQOQl4ZPve6yZ6rxe3qlfPBJgvqRwRuh9sG34g6Wbo_J06j0posLuaKdONAUyz5EtXL9k/s1600-h/CarboyFilling%5B4%5D.jpg"><img align="right" alt="CarboyFilling" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8mv_9TiwuoNX6FYbtgINBe3nF9T2n4sMtU8xQWhSeIWiHlDRvsolFaibEYiGa7w5oGKlxDKo-FiQh7Ax2CArIQq3CBtRRMghfbnMXQinZgNy9k6PC9rIW26Hng1aRhKA88QpTp-umJ1w/?imgmax=800" height="240" style="display: inline; float: right;" title="CarboyFilling" width="180" /></a>would work.<br />
I pulled the yeast slurry from Doubting Thomas and warmed it up to room temperature the day before brewing. In order to make sure that my little friends were still healthy, I boiled another liter and 100 grams of malt extract. After cooling, it was dumped into the flask and put on the stir plate. I now had 2.5 liters of WLP 001 California Ale Yeast slurry and it was very healthy. Thinking that this was too much and remembering that <a href="http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/The-Jamil-Show" target="_blank">Jamil and Tasty</a> keep telling me that too much yeast is just as bad as not enough, I used the <a href="http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html" target="_blank">Mr. Malty (aka Jamil) yeast pitching calculator iPhone app</a> to tell me that I only needed 1.1 liters or repitched slurry. Measured that into my 1000ml Erlenmeyer flask and put in the 62 degree (F.) fermentation chamber to acclimate from the 80 degrees of the house.<br />
One thing about brewing in Texas is that the ground water is close to 80 degrees, so even with the ultra-efficient <a href="http://www.blichmannengineering.com/" target="_blank">Blichmann Therminator</a>, I can’t get my wort much below 80. I could rig up an ice bath for the Therminator inlet water, but man, just one more piece of equipment to worry about. I’d rather brew than build stuff (I haven’t always said that!). So my Amber Waves wort had to sit in the cool changer overnight. By 10am, Sunday, it was still at 65 degrees. I pitched anyway, planning on holding that temperature until Monday night and letting it slowly climb to 68 over the next 3 days.<br />
I’ll post tasting notes when I brew the next batch which should be Tea Party Porter.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-89699284761768922922010-11-14T11:54:00.001-06:002015-08-18T09:03:34.679-05:00English Pedigree<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYDDacPimEwe9nNHqNYu51pmlxaNkmEWimHMu4diXIV2QEb8B9WwwRuiD67C9wAoU4uG5p9cMxEHjhovpWvE8Eavjo6DUkNL8txW3C03LEj5xwWvyo81YrYoPQFt3uAo16UlfiyWsdpOQ/s1600-h/RusselEdwinCox2small%5B5%5D.png"><img style="display: inline; float: left" title="RussellEdwinCox" alt="Russell Edwin Cox" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVyyqnwmfrR4QzfHANLDLD95Gu810hKJ7bU8HAXSbvtbg5b3vfxe7f9Cem6ikozKQ1ejFnSFKLkSBQAlFM2cksKCynYOiOe12-xAxw_ZjsVGMDAOQEEObcacxeVjCwfbz2JyPcZPnFpRM/?imgmax=800" width="167" height="240" /></a>Saturday, November 13th, Shawn and I made <a href="http://www.3dogbrew.com/3db/Recipes/recipes_5.htm" target="_blank">English Pedigree Porter</a>.  I chose this recipe so we could re-pitch the yeast from the <a href="http://3dogbrew.blogspot.com/2010/10/strapping-numpty.html" target="_blank">Strapping Numpty</a>.  In hindsight, I did this backwards since the gravity of English Pedigree is lower than Strapping Numpty.  I should have started with the “smallest” beer and worked up to Strapping Numpty which is the “biggest” beer.  Biggest would be the beer that is the most malty, highest alcohol beer.  Purposely, several of my beers use the same yeast so I can re-pitch without having to buy new yeast packs (or tubes). </p> <p>Shawn helped me mill the grain and dough in the <a href="http://www.3dogbrew.com/3db/Recipes/recipes_5.htm" target="_blank">English Pedigree</a> while we racked 5 gallons of Strapping Numpty into a sanitized keg.  I racked the last gallon into a 1 gallon glass carboy to be bottled later.  Both got loaded into the Keezer (a chest freezer with a refrigerator thermostat that one stores kegs in) at 4 degrees C (39F) to chill <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEsXpbbsoUjp2YKgU5q11Xuc_O4ki3kY5pRiaXZoO3OuuK1-KNaREr9HtGonvuzs5Ynkde4PvobPF_njaF7YIh-BlwUlMXFRrWYNw7nBOHTSnDQmHmzsHfrtZCwDVQdnIhJE91eUdbRnA/s1600-h/grainmill%5B6%5D.jpg"><img style="display: inline; float: right" title="MaltMill" alt="Malt Mill" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgm3MNv_iIFcJqZW2-5LDHaOxdJpKBEUFYT01Z7xRlDEcuH_JWl0Eg7w0eOOgIJr3EMm3imbkHNLbsvxW7n3SiwOOJmqMHuP5vD085wchN3tE1CY-lbar0qpgfzGWU1PKnQvc733HB0fM/?imgmax=800" width="153" height="240" /></a>down.  I put the keg under 12 psi of CO2, then lowered that to 4 psi in the morning.  Using the <a href="http://3dogbrew.com/3db/brewTools.htm" target="_blank">Brew Tools software</a> I wrote, (which you can get for free by clicking the link) the calculations for the keg pressure say <1 psi.  I didn’t believe it so I put the same parameters into <a href="http://www.beersmith.com/" target="_blank">Beer Smith</a>.  I got the same results.</p> <p>Coincidentally, this was an English Pedigree weekend given that I helped my friend to digitize his coat of arms.  This is the real deal, created by and listed in the registry of the <a href="http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/" target="_blank">College of Arms</a> in London, listing Russell’s English pedigree.  His father was Knighted and now goes by Sir. George.  Russ explained what all the colors and images mean, but the only one I recall is the shooting stars refer to Information Technology.  This is a reduced version of the image I cleaned up.</p> <p>Meanwhile, the mash water is heated, we added some minerals to the mash (gypsum, <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE49I3ulLZt7V7vivqK7AnjlL0GeAkOqN0KNP2UeSkhFKdafJnOUeAcPVx-vS2DMU_nCSYoPgCPQvjKbkJNfRPfVV9lF8dfNHqhE8Sl1BajepDdMWDL8thHSR6059JEsqI0CXzsZaTkc8/s1600-h/Shawn%5B7%5D.jpg"><img style="display: inline; float: left" title="Shawn" alt="Shawn" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLL-aCVkGURWcMifatw3w3zq4EkK9lQEXGxw3KP5vHrWzE3ewxkFvZXWAPCXOLwhC1SK-uuoCn7ekgVw7wYw49TNRxPe0W1UtwuuiFLoATOMVxzZoaqPYoFKtbUv1TDGrTExsGZg9EylU/?imgmax=800" width="178" height="240" /></a>Epsom salt and Calcium Sulfate) to adjust the pH. I tried to use my new <a href="http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/brewing-equipment/testing-measuring/ph-measurement/milwaukee-ph56-ph-temp-meter-martini.html" target="_blank">Milwaukee pH56 pH/Temp Meter</a> but it became obvious to both of us that this was more complicated and required a re-reading of the instructions.  I added 2 tsp. of lactic acid to reduce the pH and “guessed” that it would be enough.  We quit messing with the pH at this point.</p> <p>We take a sample for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refractometer" target="_blank">refractometer</a> and since for the first time I actually had to explain what I was doing, I realized that I was not getting the sugar density that I expected.  So the question of “why” entertained us for a number of minutes until we figured out that this is an older model refractometer and doesn’t automatically adjust for temperature.  It is only accurate at 20C (68F) which is a long way from 200+F that that wort was at as we neared our boil.  In reading about that further today, I realize that I’m supposed to calibrate the meter at ambient temperature and then let the sample cool to “ambient” temperature before taking a <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5SfXaSFH0vCxNKaqXj-m82nkL0z8U44OAfp6lVYHrU9EIiaNDcaGSa3KajnOanEnPEMpKeLhEp-h8qb2u6GiuXK6xA-tz-aUrMa4tYZz0wXd5Ve7LUMysTssKbQjkF9_6zO1bDeJhbd8/s1600-h/PedigreePorter%5B5%5D.jpg"><img style="display: inline; float: right" title="PedigreePorter" alt="Pedigree Porter" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRijx3RpooTl7UWVHZv9e7Oeu79H3rZdEdswGQpEePJJCWD80KqjxcpkyKxKHWnb07MKmhBKqjlK0oxbJ1bjhyphenhypheno_tr6hJy7nvciuasptN0_m4w-vVfN-hfjnVvvxpv-PwyBk-NeNIvMww/?imgmax=800" width="180" height="240" /></a>reading.  Simple, once you understand that.  </p> <p>Mash-out and a couple of hop additions to the boil later and we’re whirl-pooling and chilling the wort.  Our target gravity is 10.51 and the hydrometer reads 1.056 (I know how to correct that reading for temperature).  Since switching from the copper hard-line to the silicone hose, my efficiency has gone from (a very poor) 65% to 70-73%.  Meaning that of the available sugars in the grain, I’m getting 70+% of them out.  We get the wort cooled down from 212F to 72F in about 20 minutes.  Once the 6 gallon carboy (23L) was full we still had some in the kettle that we fed to the snails (dumped on the driveway.  No actual snails were fed).  That’s when it struck me that something was wrong, but I couldn’t figure out what.  We put the carboy in the fermentation chamber and pitched the washed yeast into the <a href="http://www.3dogbrew.com/3db/Recipes/recipes_5.htm" target="_blank">Pedigree Porter</a>.  Cleanup takes another hour and everything is put away.</p> <p>The next morning I go and check on the fermentation <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiloY9Uxgh2HIByQDHD_NTQLKcwr2Kh7hoqSaH4cacQCoN795Kw1dJM35eDaLcVCCkwnVSwl2XxcVcR630vZ-Rjjd7vSDwohJZ4hg-jqb64JGdXtXqdkTtV_mhLCgrgFILCh6EDnhDxXkg/s1600-h/PedigreePorterKrausen%5B5%5D.jpg"><img style="display: inline; float: left" title="PedigreePorterKrausen" alt="PedigreePorterKrausen" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYHcMZX2pk46A_oV5_Fabv6RsCELWO2DkH-u2WbDu07Jbb1RqdJKXe5nMKLm_NhPHczJS-Doo2sPbMl6-xlKR8X4n7rckU55wRSRhR9eN7TDfi0LL0UdDgNMPR0xUeXnDh0udhnY8EpC8/?imgmax=800" width="180" height="240" /></a>and the yeast are going to town.  It’s a good thing I’m using a blow off tube because an airlock would have been clogged full of yeasty foam.  This is dangerous because the fementer starts building up pressure and it’s nasty because mold and bacteria can now migrate through the foam to the beer.  A blow-off tube prevents this by running a piece of tubing to a secondary container where the end of the tubing is submerged in water.  I had to put the second container inside of a third pan because it was blowing foam (or <a href="http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter8-2-2.html" target="_blank">Krausen</a>) out of the top.  Messy.  That’s about the time I realize that what was missing yesterday in the whirlpool was the <a href="http://www.brewing-solutions.com/products.php?action=details&id=9" target="_blank">Whirlfloc</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chondrus_crispus" target="_blank">Irish Moss</a>.  That explains why we didn’t get much of a <a href="http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter7-4.html" target="_blank">cold-break</a> in the kettle.  I’ve since modified all of my recipes to include <a href="http://www.brewing-solutions.com/products.php?action=details&id=9" target="_blank">Whirlfloc</a> when there’s 10 minutes left in the boil.  No more forgetting that magic ingredient.</p> <p>I’m sampling some of the <a href="http://www.3dogbrew.com/3db/Recipes/recipes_12.htm" target="_blank">St. Bernard Christmas Ale</a> I brewed in February as I write this.  It did finally develop some carbonation in the bottle and the 12oz pour formed a thick, off-white head.  I’ve been sipping on this for some time now as I’ve been writing, editing pictures, helping the offspring with <a href="http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=How+to+train+your+dragon+wii&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=2658253131741821488&ei=t1_gTIyKA8OAlAeIg93lAw&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CEcQ8wIwBA#" target="_blank">“How to Train Your Dragon” on the Wii</a> and it’s <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6kGj0PRtsX0Ds1eB7-XNIEMZXUVbydMr-9mN-3ISs98h966j8i7vaVeUMCuyv4_4kG7iI0_wozK7D-dacZs360lrYElPCUC4JVH-p678ddkQKR85K1n65dVyaTy50ND_J_Fy7aoEvFVY/s1600-h/Mel%5B5%5D.jpg"><img style="display: inline; float: right" title="Mel" alt="Mel" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIzLOxv9B_UrIBZdleLbUQSPfDEIHjg0Dg31FiDLDoSneq0Gec9z1MLKtd1dQtSlcMNu23K65BtIIeo1B7iJDGn-HileCEJnqMVQdoZMWb9y42vIgl7KhYdvkn5xJ6WDkRptUpl2FLctk/?imgmax=800" width="159" height="240" /></a>definite “winter warmer” at over 10% ABV.  6oz. would be enough for a single serving.  After that it just makes you silly.  Good thing it’s cold outside and I’ve nowhere to go.</p> <p>I know I said I wouldn’t change my equipment or my recipes until I improved the process of brewing but…  while cleaning the kettle I realized that my whirlpool arm could be at a better angle and while I thought that reducing the diameter from 3/8” to 1/4” would increase the velocity, the pump just deals with the added backpressure and reduces the volume (the velocity stays the same).  Also, if I figure out how to form cold-break in the kettle, I need to move the pickup point of the kettle drain so that it stays in the kettle and out of the fermenter.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-76493725886729830232010-11-04T20:35:00.001-05:002015-08-18T09:00:59.166-05:00The Fermentation Chamber Finale, the fruits of labor<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<p>After countless hours of test-fitting, cutting, sanding, bending and tweaking the Fermentation Chiller Phase IV is complete.  When I <a href="http://3dogbrew.blogspot.com/2010/08/fermentation-chamber-update.html" target="_blank">last wrote about this</a>, I showed the internal construction and what it looked like with no front on it.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg74_Y03Gf2n-7m4xe2F3ETx36Tgz2OAFbxhQ1z1X8XE98gkZrl818hgA0vi7c4qq4qEN42EkX5KV2bOhOISmKBihp3D-aPvKswso50FL4OE5j1cgU-7Jv_bmJzBdpukEEleNbtR4uQPP4/s1600-h/IMG_0149%5B1%5D%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="display: inline; float: left" title="IMG_0149[1]" alt="IMG_0149[1]" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ7Vbpkss2k221Zt478wIRoWVu9mauLVtrnssFxnRjJnIy8vcrzYAOJcY-68-sQurKkSW7pIY7B1nD-pZrnUYe3vopT1wj27nSEG3920W6FmiAN__6nDXjY-wSSLUriKdYvWXoNsy638M/?imgmax=800" width="240" height="180" /></a>I calculated what I <strike>wanted</strike> needed for door sizes and built the internal bracing to hold the doors first.  This was purposely left as hollow channels for running power and signal cables.  After running power to two outlet boxes that face the inside of the chamber, I also wired a light switch that controls the internal lighting.  The bracing is constructed of 3/4” plywood that is 3 1/2” wide so that it is the same dimensions as the 2x4 construction of the outer walls with half of the thickness to allow more internal space in the channels.  Everything was still a tight fit.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsOU43fomXFU4cqBdwcA9ih-bTvbspDQVYFBj3fvtWAEJFPAWcbAnIqb-ONkH-m5Z2ry1zX_NR7hd6IIOICo-GwZYsB32O7RYhRpN5d6ip6SvspJpp27Xdxg-TAkCnYr7G706utIRzhmg/s1600-h/IMG_0161%5B1%5D%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="display: inline; float: right" title="IMG_0161[1]" alt="IMG_0161[1]" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKrtSkk8LJCNBSSyzr3KNYfi9L2kjo9Q123HC-WxU6mfMHClRhhXf1y0IjAdZ53Dce26WfNZxorqnyMSxd_Z3wzY1_EzNaNtHHSVcopSqXJ8fEGPGNkY62YzE5Mx_uG_HUMBsst_ewCng/?imgmax=800" width="180" height="240" /></a></p> <p>The next step was to add door frames to improve the sealing edge around the doors.  I can’t afford to cool my entire garage in the summer.  I used pine 1x2 to frame around all the door openings.  The first piece can be seen in the photo below, lower left corner.  This was then coated in spar varnish just in case something sprayed liquid all over the inside.  I hope this never happens, but best to be prepared.  </p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8mJjm481KrhWvTST-N-rizxY1SulswTnpt3M2b45LUstir-jbldFBmP5ACLTa8eNw3VC_f8Olr2dqlqgeH70bf2ZmfGbGp-MsixAjkNJpJLI9_naoVS1HNgCXghFcE-9K-pvTUUVC6p0/s1600-h/IMG_0151%5B2%5D%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="display: inline; float: left" title="IMG_0151[2]" alt="IMG_0151[2]" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixJ1f-OtCpzXU_4rz16LarNnFGtW2fFo6p6xwtGDZYE4hiMExTjDrsr7flYAHmtzf1Qr8ORhWAY4mcb-AS1Z5jE65uCLnp_s9wK7fJ9S24eOBoeQLU0nK_YFvvPbSixofJ6kXHNM7pn1c/?imgmax=800" width="180" height="240" /></a>The doors were each constructed to fit each opening (inside the 1x2 frames) as there were slight variances in each opening.  Even though the two top doors were intended to be the same size, when you are trying to keep tolerances as low as possible to keep the cold air in the box, a 32nd of an inch (1 mm) matters.  The doors were framed from the same 3/4” x 3 1/2” plywood strips intended to keep all framing to the same dimensions (a 2x4 isn’t really 2” x 4”, it’s 1 1/2” x 3 1/2”).  Then I used the same pine 1x2 to provide a mating edge to the door frames built previously.  The frames were then skinned using the 5mm plywood that<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNjsJoVyIJ6-QmVZRsDYH8X5ZY9Lk6a5ympbJhAnGDKBryCsLyS6wop0udUf9cD71uaaLCYQyzMzeBOkbgQA9igedtPicFUdzKvM7UZD32wxg-26CUoeZaij6vxYy9PlIXyWkC38a_FLI/s1600-h/IMG_0235%5B1%5D%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="display: inline; float: right" title="IMG_0235[1]" alt="IMG_0235[1]" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcKnF7VPIp0X8uQUYSpD26D3DNaPht1sVoyBsdhsRgrpPdRf8UXuqoIhNe6zdW6Y3d0D4E0PZArq3iUkUgYd8-EklLEvu0iIBHgb-FaMWJFKdaDNWh0lcsYRSplqnVZwppBxpXRhLmRIs/?imgmax=800" width="180" height="240" /></a> covers the rest of the box, but not before filling them with insulation.  In hind sight I should have built better door handles into the doors and I may have to come up with an alternative solution.  Once each of the doors was fitted, I added foam rubber insulation to the mating surfaces of the door frames.</p> <p>With the doors fitted and functional I was ready to fire the box up and see if I could chill it down to the magical 65 degrees F that I needed for fermenting ales.  After it ran for several hours it had dropped from an internal temperature of 88 degrees to 86 degrees.  Hmm, not what I was hoping for.  I realized that the compressor for the mini-fridge I had cannibalized to cool this thing was going into thermal overload and shutting down.  The compressor was heating up because it couldn’t exchange enough heat from inside the box to outside.  It was the little engine that couldn’t.  I even spent several hours building an elaborate heat exchanger with a box fan for the external coils.  They were no <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE8XIttJjSHhWu8gxSF6PJAjS8EdWBpchOvqFiLLI7HZsEgob53ksUorQ9oUwqNmz3R0wTd2kudZmqoIouj9oU7GPRrpc40M_Xt9Iy7KphcO6oQ0kEZK2X5FnnDHb_nFul2ByjctyL_ik/s1600-h/IMG_0237%5B1%5D%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="display: inline; float: left" title="IMG_0237[1]" alt="IMG_0237[1]" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvHpogIsNjM3Kd_6j1u1gDqcuaufoABE3G2H7V98hEd0Ui9qAvDhxCAxrvxjjUbGf_LlIDB6Fwhoi_qzldql8g-TSoxGxMgXr2Z3r6EvLfGmntuXo3MsX2U6wn6miOdXbm_wIZfdf4CBY/?imgmax=800" width="180" height="240" /></a>longer hot to the touch and the low pressure line was building up frost on it.  The chiller coils were even building up ice on them, but it just wasn’t enough.  Either the box had to shrink or the cooling engine had to get bigger.  I certainly was not going to start over on the box.  I knew I would quickly run out of space inside it and I had built it as big as I could for the space I had available.  There was only one option.  I drove to Home Depot and bought a $99 window air conditioning unit, ripped out the mini-fridge compressor and elaborate exchanger coil with $100 of copper soldered to it and resized the opening in the back to fit the window unit.  Less than 4 hours of work, start to finish.  The cheezy framing around it will have to do for now.  I had to compromise between and exact fit and trying to work through framed door openings now.  This picture (at left) doesn’t show the capabilities too<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBg5Z-gJU_EfIMuIBmvXVYnG0GDaaHLk6PIN9PQQkWXZ5a6PNM-A9dII1MZAWA1F2f-qs1B80f5RoFvy27SKpms9B72aqkyFVjjNEq2mMWKz_Jtv0NnnvRALIFww_amkgbm7aCIQQK2NU/s1600-h/IMG_0199%5B1%5D%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="display: inline; float: right" title="IMG_0199[1]" alt="IMG_0199[1]" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVVUALceO2z3gYlJ6Nv8abZLU1x_Z7FPHsevdKD4iz-8yQFkpERPchMoCYZLwFler_6pg8ehQ6N7XYENZwmMPSw7R8sOwFoeJspV2hyMebTbx16QWnLtvMdEXB33I2f8Ac5UbaIioqDkI/?imgmax=800" width="180" height="240" /></a> well as the difference in temperature from inside to outside is minimal.  This one at right is more dramatic in that the temperature in the garage is 94.7 and the temperature in the box is 62.  With the season changing in November, I had to do some rewiring and add a space heater to ensure that the temperature doesn’t drop below 65 F.  I have another Johnson Controls A419 on the way to manage the heating more precisely.  For now the “temp” knob on the heater is a failsafe.  The recently written about <a href="http://3dogbrew.blogspot.com/2010/10/strapping-numpty.html" target="_blank">Strapping Numpty</a> is currently fermenting away at a nice even 68 degrees and the not so written about Amber Waves American Wheat was just fermented and conditioned in there so the box has been in service for at least 6 weeks as of today.  I have an old <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh94b6mfwX0RxZsy1GLch87wXGB47UKMghejx_P-ra-TpvsSvXqFNF5fH4HxGS5zQF26KzgsymbHM6BNVGsrfk_f40qHOO5RnG2iYXyy-mwW9rtGVSFEzpuF6dQohcdjgF_UZUPpWkpsSs/s1600-h/IMG_0234%5B1%5D%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="display: inline; float: left" title="IMG_0234[1]" alt="IMG_0234[1]" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4rW8ImF8lUcqVjYNUL2_7dp2hjU-H5S1zGXlCNxXyV5Mk3GKONK_ShmmUtRqLhK3rhbfpgpbY9yOeOulYG8ef3zxd6EDDtjryHV1uWg9O7Hs7Js7Kwea6zbZ4mTBxMzNlzZyAwhcSnxo/?imgmax=800" width="180" height="240" /></a>laptop with a webcam in the box as well connected to my home network and publishing images every 15 seconds to a web page.  Unfortunately, the wireless doesn’t work very reliably to the inside of the box so I’m not publishing that for anyone else to see yet.  I have a spool of cat-5 cable in the garage so  may wire it to the network to improve the reliability.  Just in case you want to watch stuff ferment.  I had put it in there so I could remotely monitor the temperature, but the resolution isn’t high enough to see the numbers on the thermometer.  This was a long, 6 month project that if I was independently wealthy, I would have just bought a commercial, glass front, display cooler.  But, I’m relegated to the do it yourself cheap way.  I’m just happy with the results.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-58633256435182266702010-10-30T23:05:00.001-05:002015-08-18T09:02:17.495-05:00Strapping Numpty<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<p>I asked for a recipe review on <a href="http://www.homebrewtalk.com/" target="_blank">HomebrewTalk</a> for my Special/Best Bitter (an English Pale Ale) and posted the recipe I had been using.  I got a few comments, but there are some brewers on that list that just know their stuff.  Through my vague description of not being able to pick out any real flaw, but that I wasn’t happy with the results, they were able to determine that I had too much “variety” in my recipe.  I was using too many types of grain and the resulting beer was “muddy”, meaning all the flavors were at the same levels and nothing “stood out”.</p> <p>Realizing I had fallen into the common home-brewing mistake of “more is better”, I was<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihG-1ZW7_YhaLsLS9ZFTkwr8UhQ9EHE8FGrQQ-LJUd00R0kHGh0gWFVlU1HPqHa4xCdv8EYgSS6p2YMgk_tyAc7vIhsvVblzVq4YZOD3s_HXFpy3bG4mVKHNfNzLqs31T_qpJJrJy_gSk/s1600-h/IMG_0221%5B1%5D%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="display: inline; float: right" title="Lots of Hose" alt="Lots of Hose" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi6JHzg0laP8Vw9fkl47za1HpVKIubjC2QhvY-il02aSdCLPQT9XaP3VpqG5omzph82nXSJIOrMVgbtvgkCtATR8L6k6rbSWed-Bhh8OXfb8KtqQRUQKfQz0r7ocRCkFkpTAtNsBUQ-S0/?imgmax=800" width="240" height="180" /></a> going for layered complexity and got bland beer instead.  Taking their advice, I simplified my recipe greatly.  Instead of using 6 different grains, I mashed 2.  </p> <p>Quick sidebar:  Mashing is where the complex carbohydrates are broken down by the naturally occurring enzymes in the grain.  The best visual image I can give you is from <a href="http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter14.html" target="_blank">John Palmer who likened it to cutting large limbs off a tree and breaking them down into small enough pieces to fit in the the trash can</a>.  This happens naturally if the brewer provides a couple of things.  First, the grains must be cracked.  Not made into flour, just cracked open.  Second, just enough water to make a cereal gruel must be added.  Not too much, but enough to cover the grain.  This gruel needs to be a just the right temperature for the enzymes to work on those carbs.  This just takes some time now, up to an hour to break down all those carbs into simple sugars that yeast like.  Drain out the sugary water <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkltufFEjcbCTFlEZMXZgiAP_LIuzpIbxoIj44ZsciWHxENzZjVrdRLtDf93TLP86PqqPN7KmTGVEz9IDI8DR30iwe8xJNd2mD8u0U6Xc4Wdj3lAxY_4R1byXSP42PXScDmWz9Wz7D2VA/s1600-h/IMG_0223%5B1%5D%5B5%5D.jpg"><img style="display: inline; float: left" title="Boil" alt="Boil" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBk0u92atf3_JmdaZxuafgLA9784s1ukY_XF_opSufHkZ4g8j3lU68uPK24PKPFZlLKgmV6proUvwxgKVYD9j5KSXfYxiTdVJiFmX6RltvHFB4FuwCgiHYLvJO-odjPzbpqf7vKVVbGM4/?imgmax=800" width="189" height="148" /></a>and rinse the grains with some more hot water.  That sugar water is soon to be beer.  </p> <p>Given that my municipal water sucks and has way too much sodium in it, I have to “make my own” water.  I collect water from the RO unit and store it in three 5 gallon water bottles.  Since this water has no minerals in it, I have to add some back, or the water will taste bland, the grain will change the pH of the water too much and the enzymes will have a hard time with those carbohydrates.  The minerals I generally add are Calcium Carbonate, Calcium Sulfate (gypsum), and magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt).  These are similar minerals to what <a href="http://www.primowater.com/" target="_blank">Primo</a> adds to their brand of bottled water.  Some are for taste, some act as buffers, preventing the grain from changing the pH too much.  Today, I have added Lactic acid to my water to set my pH at optimum which is around 5.2.  This allowed me to add fewer minerals.</p> <p>This was also the first time I have brewed using the silicone tubing rather than the copper<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUFXvF3zqj_w3w6x94BHo7DN54URQ3qKtYJmdYiF_rhmUKeqem4C4qgpz_YEL7BmA52zkldsqv2H8Gl1ZnQCakQFD7UfBKfNxYzJ2hWHpNCubeEiTIkhVUkpltsuRmz-eOjNlA-lOYp50/s1600-h/IMG_0225%5B1%5D%5B7%5D.jpg"><img style="display: inline; float: right" title="SG at 1.060" alt="SG at 1.060" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4_WADxHQkSYaFlKUXIXajtPTysFxFsoVnMhYsSKFrVhHXJaoa4DNDeR52ZL4blUqcjp6RakrtAAcxPXNrp3kUooHGsnxaRf0UY-O8m-aqX6WiYWqwLNp8bdoZ5yntlsBibIWHFf_MncQ/?imgmax=800" width="148" height="193" /></a> labyrinth I had first built.  Another first was using nylon hop bags for my hop additions.  A major frustration for me was not being able to whirlpool at the end of the boil because the hop material kept clogging everything up.  I tied these small nylon bags up with the measured amount of hops in them and tossed them in the kettle at the prescribed time.  One last change was that I switched from Irish Moss to <a href="http://www.brewing-solutions.com/products.php?action=details&id=9" target="_blank">Whirfloc</a> tablets as kettle finings.  All these changes made a huge difference in the stress level and ease of my brew day.  I wasn’t fooling around with pumps that wouldn’t prime or air in the lines.  I wasn't trying to unplug the kettle drain to start the whirlpool and get out of the danger zone (wort, or unfermented beer, is very susceptible to contamination after the boil and before being cooled to below 140F.).</p> <p>As a result of all this I exceeded all of my yield targets.  I was calculating for a Starting Gravity of 1.054 and hit 1.060 and not by lowering my volume either.  My target volume was 20L and I hit 22.7L + some I had to dump out because the fermenter was completely full.  Using the <a href="http://www.brewing-solutions.com/products.php?action=details&id=9" target="_blank">Whirlfloc</a> tablet, I got cold break like I’ve never had before and the new whirlpool arm I built had my wort down below 80F in 10 <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgswfxIDqRDnte-CSyuQBMSjTZ_-_kwc8m1NbrpdkCdVEUiFgIYzpq0mGg0PorMIexuay3V0An5T5j87p3A5AIf9GFh_StaD1tUqX9UqEHBfgy7qIEcA4JWD3J62Funpi3hKgZ2cHoO_qM/s1600-h/IMG_0226%5B1%5D%5B15%5D.jpg"><img style="display: inline; float: left" title="Perfect Color" alt="Perfect Color" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh15yHxhmFtmb05eUQ9OFr3wGk_ZvrcvQQ1_M1grCdR-YmL4vq8Xr0rpTPZXUz50Mw9gp_fadUPfTC0RMR3SceDCV10B2nsqcFviT_hO9bLyuVpmn1kKrDFlALZoowzNRwYu28REjC-fKU/?imgmax=800" width="180" height="240" /></a>minutes.  I run out of the boil kettle, through the plate chiller and back into the boil kettle, but at an angle so that the wort in the kettle gets stirred around and all of it ends up getting cooled.  This is supposed to allow the cold break to form and avoid dumping it in the fermenter.  I guess I should turn off the pump and let it rest for a few minutes after it’s cooled.  Since all the cold break wound up in my fermenter, I’ll rack to another carboy tomorrow before pitching the yeast.  The color is perfect and this simplified recipe came out amazing so far.  This is the first time I’ve actually enjoyed the taste of the wort before it was fermented.  I can’t wait for the first batch of Strapping Numpty to be done!  What’s a Numpty you say?  Let <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/numpty" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a> be your guide.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-80887420846687133362010-10-27T19:38:00.001-05:002015-08-18T09:01:35.736-05:00Dixie Cup Homebrew contest results<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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The Dixie Cup XXVII is history and the results are in. I was admittedly very disappointed that I didn’t even receive an honorable mention for any of the ten entries I submitted. I was so upset that for about a day I even considered hanging up the mash paddle and having a homebrew garage sale. Well, unfortunately for you, I don’t give up that easily. I just get belligerent, defiant and extremely competitive.<br />
For 2 weeks I have been thinking that these judges had been consuming way too much barley-wine before judging and that some of them had permanent brain damage from higher alcohols. I received my feedback forms today and I have to say that everything I’ve read makes sense. Dammit, I hate being wrong. On the brighter side, 3 of my entries made it to second round judging. On the flip side of that, they were none of the entries I expected. These judges picked up on stuff that I thought I could cover up or compensate for and they were right on the money.<br />
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The entries that made it to the second round were:</h2>
<strong>Shaggy Dog Oatmeal Stout</strong>. This is cool because it is the beer I brewed with my dad. I thought this was a “throw away” entry because it was 12 months old. So color me surprised. Compressed feedback would be to tone down the hops and increase the body. I agree. Good feedback.<br />
<strong>Nottingham Nectar Sweet Mead</strong>. This is a surprise because it was an experiment. Most “experts” say you need to use a wine yeast or a dedicated mead yeast for mead making. After some discussion with some other “meaders” we reasoned that mead had been made since the dark ages and they didn’t have “wine yeast”. I used a packet of dehydrated Nottingham Ale yeast, reasoning that the fruity esters of the English Ale yeast and low alcohol tolerance might make a nice sweet mead. Feedback would be that this was better categorized as a Hydromel (or light mead). This was fermented at room temperature which in my house is the high 70’s (F.).<br />
<strong>Applewine</strong>: Uh, this was fermented Tree Top apple juice from Costco with extra corn sugar to boost the alcohol <a href="http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/" target="_blank">per EdWort on Homebrewtalk.com</a> I didn’t even know there was a category for applewine, but <a href="http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style28.php#1c" target="_blank">there it is</a> in the BJCP style guide. Considering the amount of actual effort (or lack thereof) that went into making this, I’m somewhat insulted.<br />
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Entries that I thought were sure winners that got poor feedback:</h2>
<strong>Figgy Mead</strong>: This was made with fresh local grown figs and orange blossom honey that I had shipped from Timbuktu. Feedback on this entry was that there was an astringency to the finish. Now that I read that, I agree that this is the flavor I couldn’t put my finger on and why I can only drink one glass of the stuff. The suggestion was that it could have been fermented too warm and they were right. I fermented this in the wet bar instead of the fermentation chiller. Good call. They did say it had promise and that it could be “dialed in”. Cooler fermentation temps could make a huge difference. I hope so since I planted my own fig tree.<br />
<strong>Ginger Zingamel Metheglin</strong>: I had given up on this entry until my “friends” convinced me that this was the best thing they had ever tasted. I thought it was too acidic and that it didn’t have enough ginger or honey up front. So, I doctored it by adding sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) to increase the pH. Once the “salts” had precipitated out I blended in some fresh honey and lemon zest along with some candied ginger. It’s quite drinkable, but… So onto the feedback. “Sharp and moldy” What does that mean? Other comments were that it was “wimpy” or “flaccid”, probably from all the “additives” to reduce the acidity. “Perhaps wine tannin will fix this?” No, it won’t. This is a crap recipe.<br />
<strong>Blackberry Melomel</strong>: I thought that this entry would do quite well. The judges, however, <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgquO1A3wPEkCMnONvPuyUnIrm5H13tDD9jqoSQ9DZxF56yvIszwP2Ok-dNE5Vs4uhxeWAI_nmFYH85vIdJdtrGCY7R3xSMfk2NHxlX5687_8llPFA2pitGVsXHBlcZn0q6tp9N-Y81Hjo/s1600-h/IMG_0152%5B1%5D%5B6%5D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="IMG_0152[1]" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM3cfGvbqfFZ8oyxD7sbmnD3kK4NycxC1z6F2ETld38ZEgZEmhpZXAm3A-LF0ES2EGIGoVPHye5DkWaICAVA5VOVnwcdfEF9Gbud-gi3mlVqNzDr6XzDERRdW8S3I2hk16TeoTpB1rxb4/?imgmax=800" height="161" style="display: inline; float: left;" title="IMG_0152[1]" width="193" /></a>somehow picked up on the fact that this mead was still very young and there was still some yeast in suspension. Another factor that I hadn’t considered was that with yeast still in suspension this mead came out with a petillant carbonation level. (check the box, not to style, move on.) This carbonation completely masked the berry flavor and I got “needs more berries” and “kill the yeast with sorbate next time”. I still haven’t bottled the rest of this so there’s still hope.<br />
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Stuff that didn’t surprise me:</h2>
<strong>Mayan Porter is a stupid idea</strong>: But, it was entertaining to read the feedback. I knew it was a bit “peppery”, but I think those poor judges are permanently damaged. Way too much heat in them chipotles. Suggestions are “have a good porter recipe first”, (ouch!) and maybe you should stick to one spice addition instead of three. I’ve found a couple of flaws with this recipe since brewing it, so I’m okay with this. For one, I entered it as a “robust porter” when it was a “brown porter”. Sounds like they should be “close enough”, but brown is an English style and robust is an American style and they are very different. <br />
<strong>Old Ale shouldn’t come spraying out of the bottle when you open it</strong>: Yeah. I had no idea since I never opened one until they had been sent to the contest. Way too much carbonation which completely ruins the flavors. Feedback “Carbonation saturation ruined you entry”, “beef up your malt and decrease the fizz”, “astringent finish”, “oxidized” (I thought that was to style?)<br />
<strong>Christmas Ale doesn’t mean “Treacle and Clove Bomb”</strong>: Yeah, they picked out the black treacle in this. I can’t taste it, but what do I know. Basically, the feedback was that I have no clue how to ferment a “big beer” like this. I got a lot of suggestions about building a bigger starter yeast culture and using more spices and more malt. If I use more malt, doesn’t that make an already hard to ferment beer more difficult? They also picked out a diacetyl flavor, which I thought was an “artificial butter” flavor, but according to the score-sheet it can be toffee or butterscotch. Then after telling me how much my beer sucked, I got “Overall a pleasant, warming beer that is reasonably appropriate to style, but the complexity of the spice is lost” and “Treacle is not a spice! Boost spices! and lower fermentation temperatures to clean up flavor”<br />
<h2>
Onwards and upwards:</h2>
So some of that feedback I found very enlightening and some was just confusing. Consider that I made the Christmas Ale in January or February and the smaller Oatmeal Stout last October (2009). Since then I’ve finished the gigantic fermentation chamber and I am dialing in my basic recipes. I’m encouraged and can’t wait to brew some more. <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-52937709059252865102010-08-23T21:56:00.001-05:002015-08-18T09:02:28.231-05:00The Fermentation Chamber Update<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<p>The construction phase…  <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMUKKH3FP4pEQghuuo2Q-5tdKlfGV6Y9SIqdGnX4UVajhE92agC7IluP2SWOps50pZkgr5bs6IWqOotH97_vEL5hqhn63yb0dZiBPIv6Q5jRJesp7_IJ50KNxKi2HngQCGBSHFXnDNk20/s1600-h/IMG_0114%5B1%5D%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: 0px" title="IMG_0114[1]" border="0" alt="IMG_0114[1]" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1R6JVgyktRTTpK23nS5UIZcyvAyahCbToNnbbPsMXsCn3OEk_sefyyVcq33Ux3shH86hUCc9wQbgqzlS8BfTxWXa1S6iKp2QegCZ4M4b3VsGLCGEXTfNWog_YYFZaAnaShc8Odqqz0WU/?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a>I started with the base frame of 2x4’s on 1/2” plywood with casters.  At this stage it doesn’t look very imposing at 4 feet wide and 3 feet deep.  Filled with R13 insulation and covered with 5mm fascia board.  From there I added part of the back with two 6 inch holes for the squirrel-cage fan motors.  The holes are lined with stovepipe duct to prevent the motors from sucking in insulation and burning up.  The picture are right shows the wall at 48 inches high where the compressor motor will sit so that this area can be reinforced.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBgdiqSjmadJjoZSNHqR1skRH3gV_clrrvGvKjKGsgm4LUGGJ0GoF1xqVGMhYjqh0qKuxySudOgTBVRS2eRDiyBeTCstgfUfKznuV3K1LcnK_zQqWz1AcCH8JkCXQHYj9MHCx9A33jZzU/s1600-h/IMG_0116%5B1%5D%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: 0px" title="IMG_0116[1]" border="0" alt="IMG_0116[1]" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKdUzVVfOoj-xdLAnEaFSAIoe2ZYcqtwb2-WrVZJVSuIFX5DIEzQtoTfNeOv-XOzxXqG8fX35o3t1AmXllIEoabUzY41KWGpaKxwjMWVGE1IGmUJYAHaAJlaK06N2DgrbPoJOtBb8XgaU/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>  It will be continued later to the full 72 inches.  Some trial and error in this area caused me to have to use a hand saw to remove the center of the top 2x4 and replace it with a 2x6 to fit the depth of the compressor. </p> <p>The side walls go up in much the same fashion with 2x4 frame secured with drywall screws, the inside fascia board installed, the insulation cut and inserted and finally the outer fascia board.  The frames were pre-built at the same time and then fastened to the base with 4 inch deck screws before using a pneumatic stapler to secure the fascia board.  This 5mm plywood from China isn’t exactly structural material, but it is fairly easy to work with and although lacks some of the depth and warms of true hardwoods or birch, it doesn’t look bad.</p> <p>This next image requires some explanation.  This is what the inside of the chamber looks like without the front on it.  Two 5 gallon water bottles are<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjka2fISAnn_EvmNnVepsuFQB-1NS2vouYdIKASkRgjS61jSLFHIqmY6ApOLcY1PFcRo8jjw6VIRRjlqEgZzPk9g4rHT1Ocd5UgMPv1i9sUN8NETkApXxIeyMGovFlkMWjlnsPIQBCyTEs/s1600-h/IMG_0144%5B1%5D%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: 0px" title="IMG_0144[1]" border="0" alt="IMG_0144[1]" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhod6BMNNpzacjkHko2bGiL1nUFGiOWl1hWYTHfp1Oqa7LouxhtuEUuq-bwOK_p5n2f_4vbBNixn7Tke0wPVSs-gdZly7SS7cow8qC9SgL7qVvYXpxdH0Tc0LX55JTUZ8X2TloHODNeORs/?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a> shown sitting in the bottom to give some perspective on the scale.  The compressor “hump” can be seen 2/3rds the way up the back wall with the chiller plate fastened to the top with a machine screw and a spacer.  The air is handled by the two squirrel-cage fans and using 2x3 plastic downspout for rain gutters.  Very inexpensive and because the air never travels outside the box, I only used friction fit to secure the downspout.  If a little air leaks at the joints it isn’t big deal.  I designed the air movement to pull from the bottom and push to the top assuming that the cold air will fall if nothing moves it around.  The concept is to have one fan on all the time and the other turn on when the compressor kicks on.  </p> <p>The 2x4 box sitting on three 2x4 legs is a mock-up of a 14 gallon <a href="http://www.blichmannengineering.com/fermentor/fermentor.html" target="_blank">Blichmann Fermenator</a>, which I plan to purchase next year.  The rails fastened to the side walls are supports for the shelf.  The chamber is designed to accommodate a 14 gallon Fermenator, two 6.5 gallon carboys on the bottom and four, 5 gallon carboys or Corney kegs on the top shelf.  I also wanted to be able to put cases of bottled beer on the top shelf.  The bottom <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyUUaJWesUGRfzOnjDkXURWbDFTt-lhIONPo2_jZegndyEK42yYFJci7F7W9BsgKm69KKCkoET0H6mtVvWBeW0x74zaQeIeBhEfVS3odnNnBvqKPUftbVHRKtRMq49qe9o-Bt-F25pKQ0/s1600-h/IMG_0147%5B1%5D%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: 0px" title="IMG_0147[1]" border="0" alt="IMG_0147[1]" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmGzZ7Nfs9qzOsHm-9hpu9BtqIZ-D9h5MC1tBkxUanf8gtkP4PvwCFkUJzfLxMynN1LCyNzDcldYIMkmzYpAa5FyQCgRMUbkci_TfS7iWHIpoyCIdXUzH-x0i0gvCRiV_xumgXiDI9qQs/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>being for fermenting and top being for controlled temperature ageing.  </p> <p>The shelf, shown at left is constructed of 2x4 pine ripped to 1.5x1.5 square lengths with 1.5x1.5x1.5 square spacers to allow for airflow from top to bottom.  I wanted to make sure that  I didn’t have to worry about putting 200lbs or more of fermented liquid on it and not having a catastrophe.  The shelf weighs over 20lbs once finished with spar varnish.  The entire inside of the cabinet is finished with spar varnish to prevent moisture from wreaking havoc on the wood.  Almost a gallon of varnish was used in the construction of the cabinet.  Notice the space left at the front of the shelf, this is for the front which at the time of this picture had not even been designed yet.  This was as far as I got with the “on paper” design phase of this project.  Wait till you see what happens next…</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-15013577378510594642010-08-07T22:49:00.001-05:002015-08-18T09:04:12.899-05:00Still brewing!<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<p>In my <a href="http://3dogbrew.blogspot.com/2010/08/fermentation-chamber-phase-iv.html" target="_blank">last post</a> I wrote about the Fermentation Chiller Phase IV.  I may not have been too clear on this, but the old chamber (Phase III) has been trashed to make way for the new one.  I did try and give it away to any local home brewer that may need such a device but found no takers.  Without any temperature control what’s an industrious home brewer to do?  Make cider and mead, that’s what.  I could also make Ginger Beer, (Ginger Ale, with low alcohol), but haven’t had a lot of luck with this venture.  </p> <p>First, I made a one gallon batch of basic mead.  Three pounds of local wildflower honey, three quarts of RO water, some minerals to improve the taste of <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh8Ds8H9TSItkr_ZJJgV9N3XlohhknmCPkBA_9fb4j6thaIHzz6g9Olw5FhIPddoG9JT4aWfwWeNPGfVusX2SWoyWrdDxbIe1c8UBgQnjDpVzCxFSTkJqN40hVEUJqszmW7jCLFg2uJjg/s1600-h/IMG_0153%5B1%5D%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: 0px" title="IMG_0153[1]" border="0" alt="IMG_0153[1]" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ0Rtcx63pTPx00KO4zYukkiHUwHwgntGb5vgp55OcHKwyfxb_WZ8T1RJ0Y7yarcaCzGiew66Sd2ajCmcx6gLKvjZDwHD2TKJrFOCrY3lGVviAzSUEY_18LWwYEgQE7JFjrJzEkmEuWh4/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>the water, a small amount of wine tannin, some yeast vitamins and a packet of Lalvin Narbonne (71B-1122) yeast.  Wait three days and cold crash (put it in the fridge) to get the yeast to go to sleep and sink to the bottom.  Wait four days and rack it off the lees and sleeping yeast.  The bottle on the left contains the basic mead.</p> <p>I used the now empty one gallon bottle to make cider.  One gallon of Tree-Top ®, Unpasteurized apple juice and about one quarter packet of  Nottingham Ale yeast.  Throw in some yeast vitamins and wait.  The Nottingham yeast shouldn’t ferment as dry as a wine yeast would so there should be some apple sweetness left.  We’ll see, this is the first time I’ve tried this.  I saved the plastic jug that the juice came in with the intention of putting the fermented cider back in it.  This is the rightmost bottle in the picture.</p> <p>Lastly, I made a one gallon batch of blackberry melomel (fruit mead).  Four pounds of organic frozen blackberries from Costco, three pounds of local wildflower honey a small amount of grape tannin and three quarts of RO water.  I reused the lees and sleeping yeast from the basic mead.  They woke up hungry and the berries and honey started fermenting right away.  I can hear the airlock bubbling away as I type this.  You do not want to try and get <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxRRBhKZbaN_f7aNwrdUqfrMTiZIPrT0DIt25YhX1P5QZYOzim9fWalF3GpuHnYjjWUC2RMf8xIzQq_Be71VfMG58OCurwN7NYExzYwnAt-Y3g6vvndFAw4QEmdVPaPy6DDtQ5bKPaAEM/s1600-h/IMG_0152%5B1%5D%5B5%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: 0px" title="IMG_0152[1]" border="0" alt="IMG_0152[1]" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMhj4-YsxbXiUFiQp25VTld_c27pGgFaLK6hqPs6EK-1XrfEICxV_pItRg3XY-UmPWXyMM0gBGkz1Yv7wWnzvqenouAPgZ07nevt12Ru7w9pzgHNJJJwtxoY07W0WSEKK-KNT0Vh2V60A/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a>berries in, or worse, out of the small neck of one of those one gallon glass jugs and I didn’t want to use a five gallon bucket for this.  Lowes just happens to have two-gallon plastic paint buckets with gasket lined lids for around $6.  Drill a 1 inch hole for a rubber stopper and airlock, clean and sanitize it and I’m ready to make small batch fruit mead (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melomel" target="_blank">melomel</a> is the official name). </p> <p>Mead’s and ciders are easy to make and don’t require a lot of elaborate equipment or space if you keep to one gallon batches.  I don’t know about cider, but I’ve made meads that taste like sweetened <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everclear_%28alcohol%29" target="_blank">Everclear</a> until they’ve had some time to mature and mellow.  The amount of time is dependent on many variables, but usually the stronger the mead the longer it takes to be drinkable.  I’m hoping smaller batches mature more quickly, but I’m not holding my breath.</p> <p>I’ve got a few more meads up my sleeve to try out as soon as these batches are done.  I want to try making a bochet mead, which as <a href="http://www.examiner.com/x-241-Beer-Examiner~y2008m7d2-The-mystery-of-Bochet-Tasting-60-year-old-mead" target="_blank">this article</a> explains is a “burnt honey” mead.  I would also like to try making a mango melomel as I can’t find where anyone has tried that before and lastly, I have a large bag of star anise, a fortune in saffron threads and a bourbon vanilla bean.  A mead made with spices like this would be called a metheglin.  </p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-56214303092046922942010-08-01T21:40:00.001-05:002010-08-01T21:40:49.024-05:00The Fermentation Chamber Phase IV<p>Most home brewers realize at some point that in order to have properly aged homebrew ready to drink they must develop a pipeline, just like a professional brewer.  If you wait until you are out of beer to brew a new batch, you’ll be waiting for a number of weeks before the new batch is ready too drink.  I am no different.</p> <p>An issue arises when you consistently make beer from a region of  <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg49de_SmvldHMAs4ykfLr94CtTJZUtxVDET4X0VtAMoY3Z0oyYaZr1Lf_H7KlZgdW_z_z3M7XqEETuz37gKBu-IPso_Gg7fPQhk_sud1b-FBWSCm3Y2scYieNKSnOfn9dY6TEWY118J-o/s1600-h/fullers%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 5px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="fullers" border="0" alt="fullers" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiKbfh0_G7APg-T8bbBvAshX4XG0e6xy7NftS_i-23bqfVs7yG0CWXq8uwmkXeLZUTdioru0YI_YPn-513UzhDUTMzAWtHfw-A_XVNYtPaXzji-uyednCZq6KU-KNAmkjwtit1BN8Txbs/?imgmax=800" width="145" height="99" /></a>the world with very different climate from your own.  There are two areas of the world that produce the beer I enjoy drinking and  neither are where I live.  The first being London style ales, and secondly Northwest American style Pale Ales.  Given these preferences and that I live in the Gulf-Coast of Texas, I find that I must artificially create the climates of these <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLVGadTQe8ZozFr9Wikzb5LHvQoZCeP_YjqYleilsIrn6tALY6sCgAGDoj5ycN117dd3joQC5Nux_uLnmCZ9wkLEMZi1pj5aRl3tEt6SJNghNWneGo2GT9gy0gV8y1BwzGzjYS1R29Iis/s1600-h/fd_NYT%5B5%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 5px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="fd_NYT" border="0" alt="fd_NYT" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyKdEbk7H3FYjdxObSpooLNq69_qADO56GdccGgYfYpOl4IJ3hzbU9Oun-3zFvDouw0ctb5pOMuFuYz7dEEXL2y9UHrkWk6CS0T48U2GOXIikm9qggHQFjkSNKFZvh1azg7lt1-Z3sKT0/?imgmax=800" width="133" height="96" /></a>regions to ferment and age beverages native to those areas.  Yeast are funny things and if you take them out of their native environment they don’t behave the same.  This means that they don’t produce the same flavors either.  San Francisco sourdough bread is the same way.  You can make sourdough anywhere but<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-R2M-oSxIL84g9a7rZ1FefO28OmicTQ3Dd9AcLSltiHNjl6MWGZJ84vzjZPWKOWWY4nT218RZ9MEubvkLS9Px31ysm0smcNH_sNWHSQte7vFys61RMB07cBzp5yKYA1UFJeSRn-q8VBE/s1600-h/F_123x98_breadbasket%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 5px 0px 5px 5px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="F_123x98_breadbasket" border="0" alt="F_123x98_breadbasket" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlQQ-070LsOFGuKpCBfjW8ONqWWxiLRRf7J6I9QmuhU42Ihjsb2EKU-nEu0DVvmN8mz4HDNMp4O87KuDnTMeNbdiY-eIgnJXd_7ebKkFU7tRpLHhGyGRJWU_vtEpI62ytEaa9yR7TtNhc/?imgmax=800" width="127" height="102" /></a> nowhere else can you duplicate the complex flavor of San Francisco sourdough.  This is why I need to have a fermentation chamber.</p> <p>As described on my website at 3DogBrew.com, I have 3 previous versions of the Fermentation Chiller.  The first being the “Son of Fermentation Chiller” that Ken Schwartz designed.  The second version eliminated the constant ice rotation by using a pump to move glycol from the freezer to the chamber.  The third was a hardened version of second with hardboard laminated to the inside and outside of the box to make it sturdier and nicer looking.  All of these were designed to hold two 6.5 gallon carboys with airlocks.  This year, since I was fermenting in January and February, I added a heater as well.</p> <p>I began having problems with the glycol picking up moisture and the moisture freezing in the lines.  Then I started having trouble getting all the air out of the lines.  Either way, if the glycol won’t move from freezer to fermentation chiller, the thing doesn’t work.  This hatched the justification for Phase IV.</p> <p>Back to the pipeline I mentioned earlier, the other issue I had is that with space for only 2 6.5 gallon carboys, I could not bulk age bottles or kegs and carboy cannot be pressurized.  So, in order to accommodate a pipeline, Phase IV would have to be bigger than Phase III.  A lot bigger.  So much space was I wanting that I considered buying a walk-in cooler to put in my garage.  After a 5 minute web search those hopes were dashed due to the $6 to $10 thousand dollar price tag of a walk-in.  Oh well, plan “B”.<img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 5px 0px 0px 5px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="IMG_0111[2]" border="0" alt="IMG_0111[2]" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKd-MzCdhFT_esYARScKbtVJoh4Fpg18f7cfcs2DbQa3Qjw8Nvb5OpGPx5_cJgWCa8QZDqj8sTovicd1CQVsDujsnR3pU2eG1aUwvSAQ4h26PKOIkCw608B_fkN-W7vqhYXPgpq0oOa38/?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></p> <p>Plan “Bravo” would include the compressor and heat exchanger from a dorm fridge.  The goal is to maintain between 55 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit (12 to 15C) inside the box and the compressor is designed to maintain cooler temperatures than that.  I found a used small fridge for $30 on Craigslist and proceeded to dismantle it.  I ran into a snag when I realized the compression lines (hot side) ran all through the walls of the unit.  After many hours of pulling the fridge walls off, I was able to remove the Freon system intact.  </p> <p></p> <p></p> <p><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="IMG_0108[1]" border="0" alt="IMG_0108[1]" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgijr8QE6mvnqvZaSMTxJpmFcQ7rR3OT5rmSnI0dPj2bw0zdc3Vsfjg_NXTQMilzsI89dzE-igGLWS4VU3Pp_WrVI5ew3UrjqobLxFTeONeV-KGlQWSzhSby5m_jwWtYapnJgJMDPXTGU0/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /> I bought two surplus squirrel cage fans to move the air around the box.  I picked these units because the square outlets are roughly the same size as 3 inch downspout (rain gutter material).  They were offered with the run capacitors which made them even more appealing.  I didn’t want to have to source other  unknown parts.</p> <p>Construction is under way and I’ll submit another article soon with details on the construction.</p> <p>Mel</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<p>Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all those brave men and women who gave their lives for our country.</p> <p>This is the second bottle of the Mayan Porter I blogged about <a href="http://3dogbrew.blogspot.com/2010/03/mayan-porter-brew-session.html" target="_blank">here</a>.  The first bottle I tried was way over carbonated and filled<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjriPS35EiiB5JVzyKEikuCe1pDhkBlkOi1FupSuol25DLqCEmJvKILCQNuVPoSTT0PzBbFBmnW3ow9kd2KcbpAPCiRNOE-BJvLddoWlA4dG0s4o3LIrSYp8_VsW1JVFjMPToH2-19Prts/s1600-h/IMG_0121%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 5px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Mayan Porter first pour" border="0" alt="Mayan Porter first pour" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd88f7nKR9uPGahgxxs_g7QGOzA5nKZN-Tl0faiV_8aMSp1ifR9pjHKN08wHJdj3AQdJ9qPWAOR6NBp8qUlfNiaZdexCHSyFC36B93kyeUrL4k2vNmYs8_XyI4W6PwFNtR2Soxpr9SZtI/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="186" /></a> up a 16oz glass with foam and I had barely poured 6oz out of the bottle.  So this time I was cautious.  A little too cautious as can be seen from the lack of head after the pour.  I improvised pouring the last 2-3 ounces straight in the middle of the glass and from a height of 8 or so inches. </p> <p>I used a <a href="http://www.bjcp.org" target="_blank">BJCP</a> Score sheet as a guide for this tasting so that I remember to cover all aspects.  The judges at the Sam Adams Long Shot certainly will be.  Just so we are on the same page, I have only been a Steward at a genuine BJCP beer judging and do not have any qualifications.  I am “winging it” based on observation and study.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjebmSyODjs6m_5zCF18frc-2o1PLuNiUYZN3j82Of22Yu9uJ8J-LzDfk53AgBFoOWYacIaIhB2CPXRIYARTgRSGLcW12-fJGQHBmMJ7gctjZ9BVgi5YAiJiTigC1hSTPMOJF9dU_YqvGQ/s1600-h/IMG_0123%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 5px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Bottle residue" border="0" alt="Bottle residue" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBjCqQ8VG2pgUzq0n_zxzexsxDRHpiq4V3MUPqUuRDqis2wQD27unD91F551jaKuprfqRTfbJysRj9L-LtzuVV09ssRXIKqCjQbD7qaOHvKwyf4WUpJLDpww0FGVhZRzwQvbwB6QtqAyE/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a> <strong>Bottle Inspection:</strong>  Residue in the bottle is minimal and obviously yeast.  The picture is slightly out of focus, but pretty good for a camera phone (I love my <a href="http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone?afid=p219|GOUS&cid=OAS-US-KWG-iPhone" target="_blank">iPhone</a>!). </p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong>Aroma:</strong>  No discernable hop aroma, but some malt comes through.  Definite aroma of chocolate.  I didn’t expect the chocolate to be part of the aroma of this beer, but it is unmistakable to me.  The secondary aroma is the chipotle, especially if the glass is agitated to produce a secondary head.  To me it is a pleasant, reminds me of smoked Texas style barbeque, ribs or brisket. </p> <p><strong>Appearance:</strong> The head is tan to off-white, about the perfect color for the base style (porter).  The head retention is short lived, probably due to the cocoa butter and other oils, but it should be downgraded for this flaw.  The beer is slightly cloudy, but not a “yeasty” cloudy.  To me it appears like the cocoa that is <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnqo7I_NRWh733Z08dzASTRahtOVBfE30ffHf0HDoLQu8GPwqMQUtxnaSWoRzNiNBBSBSZ9uv4bqAU_SPhIKJ_C_JUIOg68x2cJPUG5Vid5IV9F7SuusUUoI8GoGtga8qdBN7MznkLplo/s1600-h/IMG_0122%5B9%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 5px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Tan to off-white head" border="0" alt="Tan to off-white head" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq7Osz3g7bVnkBqvY-YzL64edbySfTZobaEer3di4bE5Bgdrm6hhMMllTz2yKvpUjnXk08zy5Yut8FkAXRhN81QnkpdalNovjEw0huf0FsUEPBZeIKMcShm21i5FCL2lrP8oWq3Oov6H4/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a> still in suspension creating that chocolate milk haze to the beer.   This beer is completely opaque and a deep chocolate brown (as I would expect).</p> <p><strong>Flavor:</strong>  I’m actually surprised at how drinkable this beer is.  Smoke beers and spiced beers I can usually only take one-at-a-time, but this is surprisingly easy to drink.  The up-front flavor is chocolate that quickly gives way to a common porter malty goodness.  Finally, the chipotle provides the “take-down” assault with a low, slow smoky burn that starts at the back of the throat and goes down, coating as it goes.  Lastly the smoke sensation backfills the senses reminding me of barbequed delectable's.  If you are prone to reflux disease, take your meds before drinking!  </p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_jQ-9VWAHEvtsig3LT5zqIiwlrd1Da2vKyfCGZ8zuuJSkaR4_WSLylcA81OsGvoGDkliNAdnWI3fcvjyCjA5ImO6qBSjzbnWsmc4rFTp2CVudzllznqT4JQErveg3r-_xdE75uU_Whg/s1600-h/IMG_0124%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 5px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Mayan Porter, glass half-full or empty?" border="0" alt="Mayan Porter, glass half-full or empty?" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl6D-fjNUScThAx7po7t14wBiZxRv1D-Pr9HHdIXc-__p0_VigoxEBzmhbO4Eei6DTBrkd52sZZQydTJ6v7zx3GKNJCUseVlH94BVg2xEFJZ3bTbAouy7PzQxJHIGu-bNAgrpVkHDTvgU/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184" /></a> Mouthfeel:  Body is medium-light; heavy enough to be considered a porter, but not too heavy.  Attenuation is good without a lot of residual sugar.  Carbonation is good to light.  The beer is fizzy on the tongue as the mouth warms it, but not carbonated enough to produce bubbles while sitting idle.  No astringency or other palate sensations other than the “heat” from the chipotle spices described above.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p><strong>Overall Impressions:</strong>   This is a very good beer that is, in all honesty, probably not <em>“improved”</em> by the additional spices.  The porter recipe stands on its own or it wouldn’t be in my “most brewed” recipes in Beer Smith.  I wanted to try an experiment and although it didn’t go horribly wrong, it isn’t <em>great</em> either.  As has been proven for thousands of years in the production of beer, simple is best.  I would not say that this is a complete waste of time, but I will change a couple of things when I do this again.  First, I would use chocolate extract instead of cocoa powder.  Cocoa powder is <strong>a mess</strong> and nearly impossible to know when it is done falling out of suspension.  Second, I would use much less chipotle.  The flavor combination is very good, but it could be improved by being more subtle.</p> <p>The telling part will be the comments from the two Guinea Pigs I gave samples to for this long weekend.  They will be able to add comments below.  Let’s see what they say.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-22130378092730889952010-04-23T21:29:00.001-05:002015-08-18T09:04:26.906-05:00Transatlantique Kriek<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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This is really part two of the Lips of Faith posting I did on the 9th which is two weeks ago today. As I wrote last time, I’ve been following and reading <a href="http://www.themadfermentationist.com/">The Mad Fermentationist</a> for a few months now and that has lead me to seek out some<strong> Sour Beer</strong>. I had never tried a sour beer before this. <br />
Another of the ales produced by New Belgium Brewery I found at the local Specs is the Tranatlantique Kreik. According to the New Belgium website <br />
“<em><strong>This authentic kriek beer began life in the oaken vessels at Frank Boon's brewery in the Lembeek region of Belgium. After more than two years aging, Boon's offering shipped across the Atlantic and found its way to the intuitive palate of New Belgium's Brewmaster Peter Bouckaert. After much sampling and internal consultation, Peter and his brew staff created a full-bodied golden lager to round out the light-bodied kriek</strong></em>.”<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTuIeJlcLHJQjYqcSMs286CP22MegztTzp_c0YfCzLTxT-pK6oh9NlBEr2ZP3BdC4mwR_H020JVIevi4Bx1DZuhCENdX-_UfFUDZy3mhogGdokA8OZbeYIzki3hz81mNVYVf7xxw6E4rg/s1600-h/IMG_0061%5B1%5D%5B5%5D.jpg"><img align="right" alt="IMG_0061[1]" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDJCGXMDplFxtNfuyvAem9bGBhdR7LNmluC6D4ITvOD6s1F01Qcm8BU3X4t4E8QUpmYCmI4rL5Bh5YT3lq_R9NxS3X-AOed7VjE4lgfT-MJB8WWVXevTrDhuUywPliNhf7iVzFIYrLmXk/?imgmax=800" height="260" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="IMG_0061[1]" width="200" /></a> This ale poured out a light red and the aroma of cherries was wonderful. As you can see from the photo the pale white head formed thick and lasted for a quite a while.<br />
I found this ale from New Belgium to be very enjoyable. The flavor of cherries was up front and not hidden in layers of other complex and indescribable flavors. I finished the 22oz bottle without the level of effort I put into the La Folie Sour Brown ale and I would definitely purchase this again. <br />
The one thing I do not know about these ales is if they will lie down and keep for any period of time. considering that they are already more than two years old, I would imagine that they keep fine, I just don’t know if they change/improve with age. <br />
This weekend I plan to bottle the Mayan Porter so look for an update on that.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-23964863598645496522010-04-09T21:40:00.001-05:002015-08-18T09:04:39.737-05:00La Folie Sour Brown Ale<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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I’ve been following and reading <a href="http://www.themadfermentationist.com/" target="_blank">The Mad Fermentationist</a> for a few months now and that has lead me to seek out some<strong> Sour Beer</strong>. I have never tried a sour beer before this. <br />
Venturing to a local Specs I browsed what the average Joe-six-pack would consider to be the “beer oddity” isle. I looked for something like “gueuze”, “lambic”, “Flanders”, etc. There wasn’t much to choose from. What I found were some ales produced by New Belgium Brewery. <br />
<img align="left" alt="IMG_0069[1]" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf7SNh4ciaRI1ORWwdVWXtYfVN55jKghcNYMzRUbnCLfpGka8OruyrbJrOVsB3kvr5qPGe33WZFMhjbTuuxfp1u0IUJKHGfFaRsTrAj4SxPR8NtQLfH90QTs7LYFHejfNeEo9l8RDl1Qc/?imgmax=800" height="220" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="IMG_0069[1]" width="124" /> La Folie Sour Brown Ale is one of the Lips of Faith series of ales by New Belgium Brewery in Colorado. The description is that it is a Spontaneous fermented ale in the Flanders style. I’m assuming this is meaning to emulate a Flanders Brown and not a Flanders Red. It states on the bottle “Seriously Sour…”. Hmmm…<br />
<a href="http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/new-belgium-la-folie/10513/2/1/" target="_blank">Rate Beer rates the La Folie Sour Brown</a> an Overall 100 and a 98 on Style. Most reviews that I read spoke of dark cherries and sour candy with the occasional comment of over-ripened fruit. Last I checked there were 792 ratings that went into this assessment.<br />
<a href="http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/192/1917" target="_blank">Beer Advocate rates this an “A”</a> Outstanding with 506 reviewers. The average rating is 4.26 out of a 5. <br />
Sounds like I picked a winner here, an ale that was rated very high by both Beer Advocate and Rate Beer with plenty of favorable reviews.<br />
It poured out a ruby red/brown with a thin off-white head that dissipated quickly to appear to my untrained eye like the effervescence from a freshly poured Coca-Cola or Dr. Pepper. so far, so good, product is “as advertised” and living up to my expectations. Sorry, I took no pictures of this event and didn’t think of it until later.<br />
The aroma was wonderful, much like a combined cherry pie, dark fruit like prunes or dates, with a foundation of malty beer. There was already some acidic bite to it, enough to start the salivary glands going with that feeling of pressure in the floor of the mouth on either side of the tongue all in anticipation of that first sip.<br />
The first sip was a shock to my mouth. I am obviously not used to sour beer in any way and for a millisecond the thought raced through my head that this bottle had gone bad. The shock subsided, and the mellowness of well aged, and cared for, no. The French/Belgian term of guarded as in “Bier De Garde” was more appropriate. This was a very good beer, and I longed for a second sip to confirm the perceptions of the first. Had I been fooled? The second sip was less eventful, but I was still struggling with the sour aspect of this beer. It seemed so wrong, so out of place to me. Then the sourness fades and the other delightful flavors come through. <br />
Maybe I’m just not a sour beer guy, I don’t know. I poured some more from the bottle into my glass and began to enjoy it less and less as I got through it. I was only able to finish roughly 16 of the 22 oz bottle before it was no longer appealing to me. Would I buy it again? Probably not. Maybe I need to train my palate on some more plebian sour beers before coming back to this one. It did say “Seriously Sour” right on the bottle and they weren’t kidding.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Mel Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08291403237713420723noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6193436748884302908.post-55401261644857446382010-04-06T13:07:00.001-05:002015-08-18T09:04:49.912-05:00Old Ale<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<p>Last December I brewed an Old Ale for 2010, knowing that it would need some time before it was ready to share.  It just got it into the bottles a couple of weeks ago and hasn’t made it to the <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWmd4WSGAAjj6O3ugitUO5LxfOPwQ9QTiuWcap6n99YybxqONFNANGSH4SZLX3vMknlcPmQ4S5rFKyo463ZA5HyndP9qNB75GuD2ENJSbIjWSq7Czikq37P-fR6-H1EC9-hQXDRutk9Fc/s1600-h/3dog%20BreweryLogo_Old%20Ale_Merged_Final2_small%5B8%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="3dog BreweryLogo_Old Ale_Merged_Final2_small" border="0" alt="3dog BreweryLogo_Old Ale_Merged_Final2_small" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCcPkktwr1nXu3NLcgGb8hQoPH1GOcPXEqYGhJewbuXg27mtgv5sXkH2xJ71BK0MckdzzrjxaWEidAybSI1flZmNNaIrbIy0SUhg5AH3mwZAhop_4IuBAhRvcinYt3SxHbAASX0IZSfBo/?imgmax=800" width="200" height="260" /></a>cooler yet.</p> <p>Along the same lines is the St. Bernard Christmas Ale that is currently relaxing in an oak whiskey barrel, but soon ready to be bottled.  To keep me from mixing up the bottles (and to make more appealing gifts) I have usually, created labels for each batch.</p> <p>This is the label I came up with:</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKGfqMFnTBLA61yx-JCDtjZjvH5u81Ah7W946goZI48WXnCWosor51cN_UMra3UqsGrHD3SVQ9yvdoWQCfGHqv10hfJ7pCTzTOo5PqFLBPI60yqTa11HSMcMyyfhwI33G3Zjm2MWvMHHY/s1600-h/3dBOld_Ale%5B10%5D.jpg"></a></p> <p>This is vastly different from the old<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKGfqMFnTBLA61yx-JCDtjZjvH5u81Ah7W946goZI48WXnCWosor51cN_UMra3UqsGrHD3SVQ9yvdoWQCfGHqv10hfJ7pCTzTOo5PqFLBPI60yqTa11HSMcMyyfhwI33G3Zjm2MWvMHHY/s1600-h/3dBOld_Ale%5B10%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="3dBOld_Ale" border="0" alt="3dBOld_Ale" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiisz1w70gS96lQQG4MWwhMULFNJVlh1s0GIpLozamEirHZDwtxH_FNpBuyVAFCAXL0kRZhYWuH-wTbAZoj-nxs3oO6N0j3fzAkDe8oisj9WYjQkQz1_NquigF9g47C1jtozGaiOOCHZJs/?imgmax=800" width="185" height="244" /></a> label that I had been using for previous batches:</p> <p>This was a generic image scrounged from the internet with some added embellishments.  I had originally named this “Old Dog Old Ale”, which sort of worked.  Don’t ask how I thought Belgian candi sugar and Irish ale yeast were appropriate for an old ale.  Brew and learn I guess.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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