Would you look at this?!? I remembered about Fermentation Friday!

This month is about cleaning and sanitization hosted over at A World of Brews. I’ve written about this a lot in the past, but I can sum up some of my process.

Water is a powerful solvent, often I let my carboys and brew kettles soak in water before doing any other cleaning. I have yet to develop beer stone or fermentation ring in my carboys, and while I am not brewing as frequently now, my 6.5gallon carboy must have close to 80 batches through it. A good long soak and a carboy brush or a washcloth takes a lot off.

My sanitizing will probably make most folks cringe but it works for me. I use bleach on all my glassware. I use onestep for the rest. When I first started I used to have a big rubbermaid container filled with bleach water. It was great for getting my bottles prepped, I had a regular assembly line going back in my bottling days. Out of the bleach, rinse and blast with the bottle washer, squirt of onestep with one of those things that sit on a bottle tree and then hang until ready to fill!

Ahh, I don’t miss those days. Not one bit! Now I use very hot water to rinse out my kegs when they are drained, I also depress the poppet on the beer out tube so some of that drains out too. Again, I use one step on my kegs, usually transferring the solution from keg to keg as needed.

I just mentioned elsewhere that I need to replace my tubing soon.

Cheers!
Tony

Head over to Beer Bits 2 for some more Homebrew 101 questions, he’s got six posted already. Its a great summary of beginning topics! Adam, here’s another I thought about for you to ask.

Q: What book do you recommend for beginners?

My answer would be Palmer’s How to Brew, then Korzonas and then Papazian’s. Palmer is easy to read with enough technical information to be thorough. Korzonas has a TON of technical info, where Papazian writes with a comfortable style and is a fun read.

The other cool thing about Palmer’s book is it is all online.

Cheers!
Tony

Everyone who uses glass carboys should make sure to check the necks and sides for little cracks. No one wants to break a carboy full of beer.

One fellow on a board I frequent took a chunk out of the shoulder of his five gallon carboy with nothing more than one of those metal and bristle carboy brushes! Talk about a freak accident. Remember, if you have a handle attached to the neck of the carboy, never use it when the thing is full. I’ve read a few instances of the neck snapping and dropping the carboy to shatter all over the floor.

The other horror story I’ve read came from placing a full carboy on a cement floor. Apparently there was a small pebble on the ground and that was enough to crack the bottom.

I love using my glass carboys, they were cheap, I can use bleach to sanitize, but man, they can be dangerous if I’m not careful. I’ve lucked out and not broken any yet. *Knock on wood!*

Cheers,
Tony

Adam over at Beer Bits 2 has been asking a series of questions for other home brewers to answer in order to help new brewers. He is up to three questions, here is the third:

For a beginner, what are the five most important things to remember?

Click over and surf his comments to find out what other brewers suggest, and here are my five.

5. Sanitize everything from the boil onward. It takes one dirty spoon in cooled wort to mess up a batch. Beginners are lucky if the equipment they use is new. No scratches for contamination to hide in, pristine tubing for siphoning, etc.

4. Read the instruction thoroughly and ask questions. I had a coworker who was a brewer and I pestered him incessantly about brewing. Finding someone to bounce ideas off of as well as clarifying concepts is something that I think is just as important as having the right ingredients.

3. Brew! It took me two months from the time I had my equipment kit until the time I brewed. Jump in and brew it!

2. Have fun. I have read about some folks getting themselves worked up into such twits that they don’t enjoy the process. It is a hobby, not an exact science (unless you want it to be).

1. Relax. The last two are probably connected, but Papazian coined the phrase “Relax, don’t worry, have a homebrew.”

Cheers!
Tony

I just read on Surly’s website that there are about 30 bars in the Chicago area serving Surly, check out the beer that holds a favorite place in my heart!

Illinois
Chicago – We will have limited availability in the Chicago area. Call the bars if you need to be sure.

The Map Room
HopLeaf
Sheffileds
Kuma’s Corner
Small Bar – Division
Clark Street Ale House
Local Option
Bavarian Lodge
The Firkin – Libertyville
Duke O’brien’s – Crystal Lake
Durty Nellies – Palatine
Twisted Spoke – Chicago
Villians – Chicago
Reggie’s Music Club – Chicago
Handlebar – Chicago
Jerry’s Sandwiches Wicker Park – Chicago
Hackney’s Printer’s Row – Chicago
Jaks Tap – Chicago
Long Room – Chicago
Small Bar Logan Square – Chicago
Paramount Room – Chicago
Risque Cafe – Chicago
Uncommon Ground – Chicago
Underbar – Chicago
Brixie’s – Brookfield
Lush Wine and Spirits on Halsted – Chicago
The Grumpy Bulldog – Naperville
Rodan

I recently fielded a question about a vigorous fermentation clogging up the airlock and building pressure. The simple solution to this is to install blow off tube. My view on blow off tubes is keep it simple. The simpler the better. For carboys just measure the inner diameter, or mouth of the opening. Go to a hardware store and get a tube that has an outer diameter slightly larger. The length should be enough to go from the carboy to the floor.

For fermentation buckets just pop the grommet out of the lid where the air lock usually goes and do the same measuring. The larger the hole the less likely a clog.

Once the tubing is in hand, sanitize the half that will be attached to the fermenter. There is really no reason to sanitize the whole tube, but make sure to get at least as much as is over the level of beer in the fermenter.  Shove the tube into the hole enough to be solid. Not more than where the bung would normally sit in a carboy or bottom of the airlock in a bucket lid.

Get a stock pot or brew kettle with a couple gallons of water and put the other end of the blow off tube in it on the floor next to the fermenter. Ta-da, a mess free way to contain huge ferments!

Wheat beers and beers pitched with large starters should have blow off tubes on them. The basement ceiling at my old house will attest to the power of a clogged airlock. if the cap crud gets far enough through the tube to get to the water, change that out at least once a day, too.

Why only sanitize half the blow off tube? Laziness and logic, of course. There is no way a fermenting beer will somehow reverse pressures and suck up the water and gravity keeps any crud that might pass the downward curve from going back up the tube and returning to the fermenter.

The next time I brew I’ll stuff my blow off tube into the primary and snap a picture to illustrate, but it is really simple and effective.

Cheers!
Tony

The good news is beer related, my fermentation chamber, once called a dorm fridge and kegerator, is holding my lager steady at 42degF. I cannot stop peeking in there to make sure its holding steady. I hate to admit how excited I am for this one to finish clean and clear. Hopefully it will be mind numbingly good.

After a couple months in there I’ll crank it down to nearly freezing to help precipitate out the rest of the yeast, then transfer it over to the keg. In the mean time I still have to brew up that IPA that has been sitting on my shelf for months now. Once that is brewed, the last of the fermentables is a wine kit that has been tucked under my stairs for over a year. I’m waiting on that one until I know if the Maibock is ok.

The bad news is kid related. Man alive, it has been an infected week! Our oldest was feeling crummy last week, but still went to school. I sent her on Friday, and when I picked her up, she was cold even though she had her full winter gear on. Any six year old in a sweater, snow pants and jacket, hat, scarf and gloves when it is barely freezing out should not be cold. She also mentioned her ear hurting.

The doctor discovered a raging ear infection and the beginnings of pneumonia. The ear infection was such that we opted for injected antibiotics followed up with a five day oral course. Sounds unpleasant, doesn’t it? It gets better. Sunday night our four year old had trouble sleeping and woke Monday morning complaining that her ear hurt. Off to the doctors again, sure enough she has an ear infection too.

As if that wasn’t all, last night the six year old complained of a sore throat and the four year old’s eye started oozing goo. Heck yeah, lets just pile it on, shouldn’t we?!?  Since the four year old is already on antibiotics, it isn’t bacterial conjunctivitis. Yippee skippee.

Lets just say my hands are raw from washing them over and over and I haven’t rubbed my eyes in almost 24 hours. I’m hoping for a full nights sleep soon!

Cheers… *yawn*
Tony

The Chicago Tribune caught my attention with this one!

One of my favorite macro-micro brands, Leinenkugels is adding a new year round beer to their line up. Classic Amber is not yet on the website that I can find, but I am looking forward to trying it out this March. I’m still bummed out that I missed the Fireside Nut Brown.

Today is the day to rack my maibock into secondary. It has been sitting at room temperature since yesterday, and the fermenter fridge is recently plugged in. I still haven’t found my temperature controllers, but since this stage of fermentation requires temperatures in the high 30’s to lower 40’s  it should be fine.

This is the first lager that I have brewed where I am able to get the secondary temperature down low enough. At least the first in a few years. Back when I had my first kegerator, a small chest freezer, I did a couple bocks and an oktoberfest that way.

Lagers are interesting and I’m hoping this one will turn out perfect. The flavor issues that I have been having are getting pretty annoying. My next step will be to replace tubing and other expendables that come in contact with the finished beer.

Cheers!
Tony

It has been about 10 days since I brewed that maibock, I have to pull it out and get it up to room temp, rack it, then get it in the fridge.

The down side of this is I still haven’t found my temperature controller. I have two, for crying out loud, but I cannot find …

Ooooh, I bet I put them in the attic of the garage. There are cases of empty wine bottles up there too, we were moving some stuff that we don’t use very often up to the attic, I bet that is where the temperature controllers are! Looks like I’m going up there this afternoon while the kids rest.