My other obsession

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Cider

A simple one, 2 gallons of Louisburg, three gallons of Musselmans and yeast from the bitter (S-04).

A bitter

15 gallon batch
20 pounds Maris Otter
2.5 pounds of 135l crystal
mashed at 149
1.5 oz Target at 60
1.5 oz Northdown at 45
1 oz EKG at 15
Irish Moss ot 15
S-04 (3 packs rehydrated)
Wind picked up during boil big time, had trouble holding heavy boil, hopefully no DMS
It is now the twentieth and I'm cold crashing. dialed the Brewhemoth down from 19 Celsius to 5. Will dump yeast tomorrow and again in 5 days, then its off to kegs. Taste good now (a little yeasty), no major DMS!

More pears

Have almost two bushels of pears to juice out tonight! Fermenting these on an English Ale type yeast, will see what Friar Tuck has.
They are juiced! Five gallons received White Labs 005 and the other four gallons received Lalvin EC-1118. All is happily fermenting away!


12/14    Kegged both of these. The EC-1118 taste great, the 005 was a bit sour in flavor.

2013 Perry

Juiced out pears from Fred today, got about 2 gallons fermenting on 1010, Wyeast American Wheat. Wish I had more pears!

Beers back on tap

The Blessing is over, beers are now back on tap in the Penrose Pub!
Up are:

Saison
Pumpkin Saison
London Porter
Cyser
Black Raspberry Mead
and on cask is ESB

Kegging

Got everything kegged yesterday. Primed the pumpkin ale, the rest will be force carbed.

Heat Wave

It's 99 degrees outside, might break 10 today, not quite 3 p.m. In my shop, a tin roofed shed, no ac sits two ten gallon batches of beer fermenting away in two Brewhemoths. They are being kept cool by a homemade glycol chiller and the Brewhemoth internal chiller. Its amazing in a room that has to be well over a hundred, I am able to hold a constant 67 degree fermentation temperature. WOW!

Big brew day!

Doing a 12 gallon batch of Bitter today, and if enough time, a batch of wheat ale.After fixing the bedroom door, I am too pooped to make any more beer today!

Pumpkin Ale

12 pounds Idapils
2pounds 40L Crystal
58 oz canned Pumpkin
Mashed at 148
2 pounds brown sugar to boil
.6 oz Northern Brewer at 60
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice at 10 minutes,
Fermented on Llammand Bell Saison.

Seems that pumpkin really does stick the sparge! Sparge started sticking 3/4 thru the run-off. Put the first 3/4 in the boil kettle and it was almost to boil when my sparge fibally finished. But there is 5.25 gallons of very sweet wort in the fermenter, may or may not add more spices to secondary. It seems like a winner. By the way, the saison that went in a keg to donate its yeast cake tasted mighty fine!

London Porter

Brewing up ten gallons of London Porter this afternoon.
Will be in the Brewhemoth fermenting at 65 degrees dispite summer temps! Should be very tasty!

Saison

Did 10 gallons of a Petit Saison yesterday, split between two yeasts. Looking forward to this in the near future, the better one is for Rudy's Blessing.

Holding temps when the shop is over 100

By using the glycol chiller described below, fermenting in my shop, a shed in the backyard that exceeds 100 degrees every day this week (gotta love heat waves), I'm easily maintaining 66 degree (19 C) using water a few degrees above freezing run thru the 3/8 Brewhemoth chiller.

Temp control while fermenting......next best thing to sliced bread.

Constructing a Glycol Chiller

The first step is to remove the front cover, exposing the evaporator coils.

Next, remove the rear cover. You can now see the main components, the compressor, evaporator coil, condenser coil, and fan.

Remove electrical controls and swing out of your way.

Cut bottom of air conditioner off just in front of the compressor mount bolts and the fan mount. Be very careful not to cut into the coil.

Next remove the evaporator fan. If the shaft is in the way you can cut this off too. The condenser fan remains.

Here is the evaporator coil sitting next to the cooler that will be used as the reservoir. The AC unit will have to be raised so that the evap coils can sit inside the cooler without having to bend or twist the copper lines. These are very fragile and with the current cost of R-22, its cheaper to by a new AC rather than fix a goof.

All nestled in and ready to go.

Now for the electric, unplug the motors and remove the capacitor from its clip, don't pull the wires off.

This AC had a digital display, etc, looking at the schematic, you can see two wires from the compressor go to the capacitor, one to the board. Cut the board wire off as long as possible. On the fan motor, two wires go to the capacitor and three to the got to the board. The three wires allow for different speeds on the fan. We are going to use the black wire. Off the capacitor is an orange wire that goes to the board. This is the neutral wire. Using the electric cord from the unit, attach the orange wire to white and the brown and black wires to the black wire on the cord. Securely fasten the green wire to a metal part of the AC. If you are using a Johnson controller, plug the two together put your temp probe in the tank of water (or glycol) and set your temperature. Be sure to place a small fountain pump inside, aimed at the coils to keep the water circulating in order to prevent an ice up.

Thanks for looking, feel free to post questions or comments. If you are not comfortable working with electric, ask for help from a qualified electrician.

ESB

10 pounds Maris Otter
1 pound 65 Crystal
1/2 ounce Northdown ot 60
1 ounce Target at 30
1/2 ounce EKG at 15
1/2 ounce EKG at 0
fermenting on 1968 at 65 degrees.

Dry Stout

10 gallon batch
14 pounds Maris Otter
2 pounds roasted barley
2 pounds flaked barley
1 ounce Target at 60 minutes

It's Bitter Time

Ten gallon batch
14 pounds of Maris Otter
9 ounces of 135L Crystal
Mashed at 148

Snowing, almost up to freezing

But I'm brewing an IPA anyway.
20 pounds of Maris Otter
.5 pounds Carastan
.5 pounds of 60l Crystal
2 pounds of sugar
Mashing at 148
ounce each of Chinook and Cascade at 60, 30 and Knockout

Penrose Mead

My collaboration with Kirkwood Brewing Station. In liquor stores now!

Saturday Kegging

Kegged the last three batches on Saturday. All three turned out really well, will be pleased to offer them in a "mix-a-case" at the auction. Will bottle in 10-14 days!