I’ve brewed 12 times on the new brewery now. I’ve been tweaking the setup over the batches and ended up switching from a plate chiller to a counterflow chiller rather than fight the losing battle of trying to filter pellet hops, I added a valve to the boil kettle so I can recirculate the wort while it’s chilling to do whirlpooling before transferring it to the fermenter, added a quick connect to the hose in the mash tun to make it easier to remove for cleaning, shortened the hoses as much as I could and put 90º elbows on some valves to prevent hoses from kinking (and to make it more ergonomic to connect and disconnect them). The process and cleanup is becoming smoother for me.
Read More »
I finally got to brew on my new brewery setup today. 4 months ago I decided I didn’t want to brew outside anymore, I didn’t want to haul all the equipment outside and back inside, I didn’t want to stand around in the cold and rain and, most of all, I was convinced I’d never be able to brew the same beer twice with the equipment I had.
Moving everything into the basement was a great option except I didn’t feel comfortable using two 70,000+ BTU burners inside the house for 4 hours and worrying that the carbon monoxide would kill the wife and kids or, worse, me! To compare, a high-end residential kitchen stove gas burner is 25,000 BTUs, “normal” stove burners are more like 15,000. I also wanted to brew more than 5 gallons at a time, which was about the maximum for my equipment. Time to upgrade!
Read More »
The home brewery is finally finished. Or, finished for the time being as I’ve already figured out that I will be changing and improving things as I find what doesn’t work well. After the last update, I installed the backsplash. I cut 4 inches off one of the table legs so that it could fit against the wall. It took me 3 days to install the ventilation duct and inline fan to vent the heat and steam outside the house. That was the hardest part of the job, I built it all twice! I tend to follow the carpenter rule “measure once, cut twice”.
I mounted an electrical box with a fan control and switch to control the speed of the vent fan to keep it quieter when I don’t need it to be 100% power, which is loud. Then I punched a bunch of holes in the kettles to install valves, a temperature probe and a coil of stainless steel tubing in one that acts as a heat exchanger. I mounted the pumps underneath the bottom shelf of the table. I drilled a bunch more holes in the wall to mount hangers to secure all the electrical cords.
After assembling all the pipe fittings and testing for leaks and making some hoses, I was done by Thursday, Valentine’s Day. I had wanted to be done by Tuesday and to brew a Chocolate Cherry Porter on Valentine’s Day, but I missed it by 2 days. Oh well. I ran through a trial brew day with just water to get used to controlling the system and was ready to brew my first batch on Saturday.
The plumber removed the old 3-compartment cast iron sink and plumbed in the new sink yesterday. He still has to come back on Monday to run some more plumbing that I need.
The ventilation hood is built and was delivered this morning along with a 4′x9′ sheet of stainless steel that I’ll use as a backsplash. I installed lengths of unistrut on the ceiling and hung threaded rod, which suspends the ventilation hood. I was reminded of how hard it is to drill in the old-growth 100 year-old wood joists in this house!
The control panel I ordered from The Electric Brewery in November finally arrived today. My favorite builder, Schuchart/Dow, let me borrow their hammer drill so I could drill some holes in the concrete wall. I mounted unistrut on the wall and mounted the control panel to that.
I still need to install the backsplash, install the ductwork for the ventilation hood, modify the kettles and install the electric heating elements and plumbing in the kettles and do some other minor work. I hope to get all that done this weekend and then after the plumber finishes the plumbing, I’ll be ready to brew!
I got a tip from my homebrewing club that a distillery wanted to sell some barrels, conveniently sized at 6.5 gallons. Gay, Eva and I took a trip down to Sumner, WA to Parliament Distillery, a new small distiller, and picked up 4 barrels: 2 for me and 2 for the homebrew club. I can’t wait to age some stouts, barleywines, IPAs and sour beers in them!
I filled them with water to keep them from drying out until I have beers to put in them. The new brewery setup can’t happen fast enough.
We picked up the stainless steel table and sink yesterday from the restaurant supply store. We got a smaller table from Costco a couple weeks ago that was too good to pass up. Next week the electrician is coming to add a GFI at the fusebox, add a couple electrical outlets and replace the fluorescent light with a nicer fixture. I also moved my old Klipsch speakers down to the brewery so I can be like Surly and blast death metal while I brew. The plumber should be here next week to remove the old sinks, install the new sink and some other minor plumbing work.
It’s been 11 weeks since I ordered the control panel for the brewery, so if they meet their 10-12 week promise, it should be on its way by the end of this week. I still have to modify the kettles to install input and output valves and the electrical heating elements. I have all the tools and equipment for that now, so I can do that anytime. The ventilation hood should be built in a week or two so I have some time to figure out how I’m going to mount it and connect the vent to the outside. So I could be brewing my first beer on it by mid-February.
I haven’t brewed any beer for 6 weeks as I’ve been busy with the holidays and planning the new brewery in the basement. On Wednesday I made a starter to brew a lager for the first time, a Doppelbock. The pump I bought over a week ago finally arrived so I got to use it for the first time.
I got a late start, didn’t start until after 1pm. I was also baby-sitting Havana and Eva while Gay took Hudson to a birthday party, which slowed me down. Havana helped me stir the mash a little, but her little arms weren’t strong enough once all the grain was in. I finished after 7pm, in the dark, and missed dinner with the kids. I hit an OG of 1.086 exactly as planned and I kept the mash tun in the house this time to keep the temperature more constant, which should help with getting proper attenuation as my beers tend to attenuate too highly.I pitched the yeast and aerated the wort after 8pm and made it upstairs in time to read a bedtime book to Hudson. It was a long day but the pump made my life a little easier, not having to do as much heavy-lifting. And I’m sick of carrying all the equipment outside and back inside. The permanent brewery setup in the basement will be appreciated.
On Thursday I kegged the Barleywine I brewed July 26, 2012 and has been aging since August 15, 2012, over 5 months. I’ve never aged a beer this long and wasn’t sure that I could be that patient. Waiting was easier than I thought, I had forgotten about it with all the other beers I was brewing. I’m confident I could oak-age an imperial stout for a year or a sour beer for 2 years. It should be carbonated in a week and then I’ll bottle it. It was my 7th all-grain batch I’ve ever brewed and was still getting my process down and did something wrong with the mash and ended up with a low efficiency. The OG was only 1.077 so it’s only about 8% ABV. It tastes good, but the lower alcohol level is noticeable (although not a bad thing – I have way too many big beers around here!).
