I’ve been looking around for differences between the plastic and stainless heads on the chugger pumps. Of course most people say go with the stainless, but I’ve yet to see any rational for it other than fear that the plastic might break (haven’t seen anyone actually report one breaking).
I’m looking to hear from those that have plastic heads or have converted from plastic to stainless what their experiences are.
I’ve used gelatin in a secondary and have been able to bottle condition just fine. I’m working on making a Kolsch and want to see how clear I can get this to be. Any experiences or thoughts on cold crashing and using gelatin in the primary and repeating it again the same steps later in the secondary?
Beer Name: Whenever Wit
Style: Belgian Witbier
Alcohol: 4.31%
Color: 15
Recipe Source: Midwest Belgian Witbier
This came out to be a pretty nice beer. I didn’t do anything fancy (no secondary, no fining agents) and was pretty happy with the result. I added a bit of fresh orange peel to give it a bit more zest though I’m not sure how much it added over the dried peel that came with the kit. It has a nice hazy color and is well carbonated (if not too much). If I were to do this again I’d reduce the coriander a bit as it is a bit strong for my tastes, but not so much that it ruins the beer.
I didn’t do anything fancy for this beer and left it in the primary untouched the whole fermenting time (and a bit longer).
I did a bit more research of Witbiers and came across this post which suggests fresh orange peel. So I added a bit of my own to the kit.
For what it's worth, Here's a quote from July/Aug 2007 BYO mag, Style profile (Witbier) by Jamil Zainasheff: "The best way to add citrus character is with fresh citrus. The Petrified bits of orange peel often used may be authentic, but fres zest has a much brighter character. Select tangerines or oranges with a nice bold, fresh, aroma...Use a citrus zester to peel the very surface of the skin and avoid digging deep into the white pith as it is bitter and lacks citrus character. Measure the zest by weight, targeting about 1 to 2 ounces in a 5 gallon batch." His recipe is in that article, as well. (calls for 1.5 oz of zest and .4 oz of crushed coriander.)
So I didn’t do the yeast start calculations correctly and subtracted 5 months instead of 4. This resulted with an over pitch but given that I hit my OG and FG right on everything worked out just fine.
Also, I didn’t clean out my tubing right away on brew day. Some of the hoses look stained now. I’m not sure if they would have been if I’d cleaned everything right away, but I think they are still usable.
Finally, my fermentation could get down to cold crashing temperatures. At one time it was iced over so I had to let the thaw out. This was the first time it has ever iced up and after that either something broke in the A/C unit or just I’ve never tried to cold crash when it was this warm. Either way my fermentation chamber could only get down to ~55 degF and that was with it running almost none stop. I really hope it didn’t break.
Use less coriander. This beer is a bit too spicy for my tastes. Still good, but I’d tone it down a bit as suggested in the same Witbier article mentioned above
For what it's worth, Here's a quote from July/Aug 2007 BYO mag, Style profile (Witbier) by Jamil Zainasheff: As for the coriander, he says, "I gently crush the coriander with the back of a heavy spoon to expose the inside of the seeds, which gives it a fairly strong, spicy character versus whole seeds. The level of coriander is probably the area most brewers overshoot, resulting in a really peppery beer. The desired result is a gentle background spicing not an overwhelming one. If you have fairly fresh coriander, start with .4 oz per 5 gallon batch during the last 5min of boil."
I’m copying the (Black Widow Kolsch recipe, but have made some adjustments for my efficiencies and losses which puts my hops Hallertauer hops to 1.25oz (60min boil). Since the hops come in 1oz bags I’m thinking about just using 1oz of Hallertauer and then using 0.25oz of Magnum which is leftover from my last batch. Seems to look like the profile is about where I want it (brewtoad recipe), but I’m wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the taste/smell impact as I’ll know is what I’ve read from freshhops
I’ve read that the coleman 70Qt extreme cooler was a great cooler to convert to a MLT, but wanted a little bit larger one. So I got the 100qt version online thinking it would work out the same. On receiving it I’m second guessing my plan. Take a look at these pictures.
I’m concerned the ridges inside will create a channeling effect when batch sparging. I don’t think the 70Qt version has these.
The other thing that seems different from the 70Qt version is the drain channel. Pictures from the 70qt version look like there is a distinctive channel (and the sticker on 100qt version looks like it does too). However, the channel appears non-existent and the bottom looks flat (though I haven’t tested to wit the is a slope or not)
What are your thoughts about the 100qt version? Should I keep it or look for a different cooler?
I’ve finally completed my mash tun build, the last new tool I need for all grain brewing. For my birthday, I got a 110qt Igloo Glider Roller cooler from Costco, a ball valve kit, and a 12″ stainless steel water heater connector. With this I will be able to brew the highest ABV beers (all the way up to 18%) in 10 gallon batches. Which is perfect since I recently got new kettles and burners (see my other post on that) to do 10 gallon batches too.
With my new gear I’ll had to do was take out the coolers drain and then put in my own drain. Well 8 hours later I’ve finally finished. Apparently my cooler is thicker than most coolers so I had to get some additional parts. With my new parts, a female to female (f2f) extension and a male to male extension,, both stainless steel, I had a setup that was too long and I had a leak out of the hole. So I then hand cut the f2f extension on both sides to shorten it up. Still this leaked. I tried several other configurations with additional washers and they all had leaks. Then when I was in DC I stopped at a My Local Home Brew Store and got some help from some very friendly staff and purchased several O-rings, some heat resistant some not. Well when I got home I still could screw things together without having an ever so slight leak. Note, the leak on the outside was slow, which is bad, but I was also worried that it was leaking into the center of the cooler, even worse. So then Chase and I made another trip to another hardware store and picked up some more washers and another pipe wrench. With that final trip to the store I finally got a mash tun that didn’t leak. Hallelujah! Oh, and it turns out I never needed to cut through any of the f2f extension, but it works just fine short too.
One final note, most coolers advertised size includes the lid and seems to not always add up correctly. This cooler, Igloo Glide Roller Premium, is advertised as a 110qt cooler. When you measure up to where the lid hits 13.5″ (which is needed to keep the heat in while mashing) and take out the bump in the inside this cooler ends up being about a 96qt cooler. Still plenty big for 10G batches, but something to be mindful when selecting a cooler.
I created my mash paddle with some help from my father-in-law, Bob, to get me upgraded for all grain brewing. Bob gave me a very nice piece of Lenga (aka fireland cherry) wood from Chile to make the paddle out of. We were able to quickly cut out a paddle shape and drill out some holes one afternoon. Then in another afternoon I used a dremel and rounded out all the edges. Followed by some good old hand sanding with 60 and 200 grit sand paper. It isn’t the fanciest of paddles, but should work out for be great. Now I just need to get the MLT to stop leaking and I’ll be ready for my first batch of all grain brewing.
Beer Name: Falconer’s Success I2PA
Style: Imperial IPA (Rouge XS Imperial IPA clone)
Alcohol: 7.78%
Color: 18
Recipe Source: Austin Home Brew Supply, Extract
Well this is the first beer I’ve made that I’d say that I’m impressed with and say that it is a success. My beers prior to this were okay, but not impressive and I always thought they were not just quite right. This beer is clear, well carbonated, the hops aromas are amazing, and the taste is excellent. It is the second beer since I made the fermentation chamber and I’ve gotten better at the process in general, but either way I’ve happy with the outcome. In fact I was so pleased with my beer that I had a stupid childish grin on my face that Lisa couldn’t help to notice when I had the first bottle. At any rate this beer is my first true success!!!
I used the extract kit provided in the link above and added 1oz falconer’s flight hops added with the other dry hops.
This was the first time ever and used my new flask. I used 6.5oz DME to 1.8mL of water for the first step up. I had a hard time pouring DME into flask and should pour water into measuring cup then back into flask. I also had a major boil over and lost about 0.100mL. For the second step up I used fermcap-S and have zero boil over!! Water took longer to get to boiling since there was so much water stretching the time out more than it should in the future.
This batch went pretty well on brew day. I didn’t do any of the pre-brew day tasks except for buy the ice and water and managed to do the rest while I was brewing without any delays between steps. After about 10 mins into the boil I had to run to the restroom and somehow managed to have a boil over in that time. I was concerned that I might have lost a lot of wort since I wasn’t there to witness the boil over, but after a few questions to the home brew forums I think I was able to determine what happened which caused me to miss my ABV by 0.66%.
The fermentation took off quite vigorously and foamed out of the bucket on the second day. I noticed I had an issue when I saw a fruit fly buzz across the webcam. I was afraid that when I opened the fermentation chamber that there were going to be flys and larva everywhere, but fortunately there was just the one fly. This was a pretty sticky mess to clean up, but wasn’t too bad to wipe out of the chamber. I cleaned out the airlock and let to do its thing
I used a secondary (cold crash prior to transfer) and gave it my first try at dry hopping. I finished things off with gelatin and a cold crash prior to bottling. I also tried something new this time when transferring to the bottleing bucket. I placed the siphon in a fine nylon filter which I think helped keep out some of the muck. I don’t know how affective this was, but it is simple to do and will add this to my normal routine.
Yeast: White Labs California Ale V WLP051
Watch the boil over. I lost about 0.15G affecting the OG.
In a fortunate sighting on Craigslist, and a very understanding wife, I was able to get some “new to me” equipment for very very cheap to allow me to do all grain brewing for up to 10G batches. The stuff could use some cleaning, but I got:
[singlepic id=165 w= h= float=center]
I had this great plan on how to do incremental upgrades from 5G extract brewing to 5G all grain brewing then to 10G all grain brewing, but this purchase basically jumps me right up to being able to do all grain brewing now! I’m still going to do a couple of 5G batches to start so that I can figure out how to all grain brew and to understand my equipment a bit more, but stepping up to 10G batches will mean that I have/need/get to brew less and will have to do more fun things with Lisa and Chase.
I’m getting ready to make the leap into all grain brewing and am pretty excited, but I want to do it right. I don’t want to buy things to turn around a few batches down the road and wish I had bought something else. So I want to either make sure the things I buy now will work for future upgrades. A couple of key things to keep in mind is that I am doing 5 gallon batches now, but might want to do 10 gallon batches in the future. Also, I like high gravity brews which requires more grain to get the more sugars, so again I need to think about the volume capability of the upgrades.
Key Items for all grain brewing
To get into all grain brewing from what I have now (see my tools here) I will need to get a mash/lauder tun (MLT), a mash paddle, and a large kettle. I’ll explain my logic as I go through each one.
A HLT is a fancy brewers way of saying a pot or kettle for heating water. The hot water here will go into the MLT. I have an existing 5G stainless steel pot which will be sufficient for 5G batches. For 10G batches I’ll need a large pot, but my plan will be to buy a larger pot when time comes for this. At the very least I’m not buying something now that won’t be used later.
I have an existing 38,000 BTU burner from the turkey fryer kit I bought to get into home brewing. From my calculations my burner should be good for batches up to ….TBD
To eventually do a 10G batch I have calculated that I’ll need about a TBD burner.
Since a MLT isn’t needed for extract brewing I don’t have any existing equipment and will have to buy something new. Seems like when someone gets into a really fancy brewing setup the MLT is a stainless steel pot, but many successful and far cheaper options use a converted cooled as they can easily be converted into an MLT and are fairly inexpensive. Additionally, MLTs can be made for fly sparging or batch sparging. I’m going to plan to do batch sparging as it seems this is relatively foolproof and the advantages for fly sparging aren’t too great. I want to be sure that the MLT that I end up with will be good for 5G batches now and 10G batches in the future.
A high gravity (barleywine) 10G batch will have 45lbs amount of grain and at most 27.25 gal of water in the MLT at one time. Remember the space in lid usually counts as part of the volume for a cooler so plan for a slightly larger cooler. From this I get a cooler size with at least 94qt of internal space. Well a 100qt coleman extreme cooler is going to only have about 80.25qt of internal space, but I figure I won’t be making any 10G batches of barelywine and will call it good. Also, many poeple have recommended that a 70 qt (17.5G) is good for up to 10G batches. The coleman extreme cooler comes highly recommended since it has a drain groove through the bottom. With this cooler in mind a 5G batch will have a volume of 18 qt. So with that in mind a 70-100qt cooler should be good into the future.
So I received a 100qt coleman extereme cooler for my birthday, but I have some questions about it as it isn’t as I thought it would be. Read more on the Home Brew Talk Forums.
I’ll need a mash paddle. I’ve read to use a hardwoord such as maple makes a good paddle. Also, when making the paddle drill/cut good size holes in it to break up the dough balls well.
As I mentioned below I’m planning to use my existing kettle 7.5G kettle to become my HLT and then will purchase a new kettle. Since I want to to small brewing upgrades without having to discard things in the future I’m planning to buy a kettle that will work for 5G and 10G batches, but to save money now I’m going to pass on any of the extra gizmos (thermometers, valves, sight tubes) for now.
Other posts suggest that a 80 qt (20G) stainless steel pot/kettle can do 10G batches.
In my quest to selecting a kettle I asked for some help with the selection criteria on homebrewtalk.com forums (here).