Today marks the seventh year after the horrible attacks on our country. Take a moment to say a prayer for all who lost their lives and those who lost loved ones.

We were just a month away from our wedding, and had a friend visiting. After saying goodbye to him, I turned on the TV in time to see the second plane hit. I yelled up for my fiancee to come down and we sat in stunned silence as it all unfolded.

I’ll be raising a pint tonight in memory, for everyone who died that day and for those who lost loved ones. I’ll be raising a pint tonight hoping those responsible find a special corner of hell to rot for all eternity. I’ll be raising a pint tonight for everyone who has served our country and fought for our freedom.

Tony

I have frequently admitted to having a lack of patience when it comes to kegging my beer and getting it into my glass. It does seem silly that I would be willing to wait up to two weeks in primary and sometimes a couple of months in secondary, but as soon as it is kegged I have to have a pint as soon as possible.

I have outlined my usual process of force carbonating quickly before, but to recapitulate* after filling the keg I put the beer out Quick Disconnect on my gas tubing and bubble in CO2 at ~25-30psi through the beer out tube, rocking the keg as it goes. It usually takes me about five minutes or so of racking to get a reasonable amount of carbonation in my glass. Of course after shaking it, I do let it sit for half an hour before tapping it. Think about shaking a two liter of Coke and opening it right away…

After the keg cools down and is in my kegerator for a day or so, that carbonation ends up to be not enough, and it usually takes about a week at serving pressures before it gives me a nice head in the glass and good carbonation on the tongue.

The time versus quality thing really started to bug me, so I figured on a change of procedure. Here is what I did with steam clone. I did my usual cranking it up to 30psi and shaking it for a bit, but then I left it at 25-30psi and put it in the fridge with the gas on. Not only did I leave it in the fridge with the gas on, I did that for two and a half days!

On the drive home from my outing yesterday I was thinking it will likely be overcarbonated and pour horrible. After I vented off the pressure, reattached the proper QD’s and poured a pint sure as the day is long I got half a glass of head. SHOOT! It didn’t work.

Aaaah, as noted above, I’m not very patient. The second pint poured purrrrrfectly. There are some very good lessons in this for me. First, have a little more patience. Second, always have a second pint. Third … well ok, there are two good lessons in this.

Now I have to pull off the quantities that I’ve promised others before I drain this one!

Cheers!
Tony

*recapitulate, the long form of “recap”. Isn’t that a cool word? Recapitulate.

Today is the day, I have the keg soaking with one step and the auto syphon in there too. My predicament is having too small a beer fridge to fit three kegs. I think the Kolsch is thawed out but I haven’t tried it yet. The IPA is still good, probably frozen and thawed too, but I want to bottle some of that and send … erm, I mean I was planning on sending some IPA yeast samples to a couple SAHD’s and homebrewers.

That would mean I have to test the IPA to make sure it is still good, though. Hmmm. I may very well end up with an empty fridge and have plenty of room for the steam.

I part with a reminder for all keggers. Make sure to take apart and replace your O-rings and clean out the posts really well of your kegs on occasion. That keg the Kolsch is in has been having a misbehaving poppet. It will get an overhaul after its cleared.

Cheers!
Tony

Don’t forget the contest. Its been a week, only one more week before I announce the winner of the prize! If you haven’t commented yet, do so. It takes so little time and the reward is … well, little too, but C’mon!

Thats right, that keg of Kolsch that made that horrible sound of emptiness at me the other day wasn’t fried, it was FROZEN! Almost solid, so when I took it out of the fridge to prep it for the common, it felt a little heavier than normal but there was just that little bit of slosh in the bottom so I assumed.

Once again that old adage about assuming came back to bite me in the …

Yeah.

So, back into the fridge it goes to let it thaw out. I’ll make sure to update how it tastes again once it thaws out. It should be interesting, right?

Cheers,
Tony

Don’t forget the CONTEST!

I just kegged that Kolsch a couple of weeks ago and now its gone! Back to a dry spell? Nope, I need to keg up the steam that has been sitting patiently in the crawl space!

Cheers!
Tony

Yup, its time for me to brag up my Cascade hops! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “A picture is worth a thousand words”

Since I know the image is small, I figured I’d add a nice close up of those wonderfully huge and yellow dusted cones. Time to start harvesting and drying soon. This time I have to remember not to go to far. The last batch I dried ended up so crispy that it was falling apart. If I recall correctly from someone in the know, I want to dry them to 25% of the original weight? Any one know for sure?

Mmmm, don’t they look yummy!

Cheers,
Tony

I was in the neighborhood and decided to stop by the smaller local home brew store yesterday and was shocked and appalled to see that it was no longer there. The signs were down, lights off and the building was empty.

“Oh no!” I thought “the Brew and Grow closed up!” It is sad for me to see small shops close, no matter what kind of store they are. When I go shopping I try and keep it as local as I can supporting the little guy. This little shop doesn’t have a huge selection, but it beats driving half an hour to Midwest when all I need to do is replace a yeast pack or pick up an ounce of hops.

With downcast eyes I pulled out of the empty parking lot and took the kids home for lunch. During nap time I decided I’d search to see when they closed and maybe figure out why.

Lo and behold!

They just MOVED! Yeay!

This morning, after the kids played at the park for a while, I loaded them up and we drove to the store’s new location. The travel time and distance are near identical, they just move up and over a bit. Instead of being in a strip mall they now have their own building, nicely split with the brewing stuff down one side and the hydroponic growing stuff down the other.

Good for them, I’m glad they’re still in town! The down side is they no longer stock and sell their own recipe kits instead offering the Brewer’s Best line of kits. While I have nothing against Brewer’s Best, I’ve cooked and drank many of them, it is nice to get more variety. The reason given was the hop shortage. I’m glad my Cascade is doing well…

So, the long and short of it, I still have my close-by store for little stuff and Midwest for when I want to load up on creative original kits!

Cheers!
Tony

Incidentally, I’m still interested in reading about whats in your carboys, please, let me know!

Oh man, never ever put off cleaning out a fried keg. I went to the garage to grab an empty keg so I can get that Kolsch in my belly for the weekend. I opened the thing up and was hit with a most unpleasant odor and sight.

That little bit of beer left on the bottom after the keg gurgles empty was covered in mold. It moved as a whole, not as a liquid but as a mat of solid nastiness! Because of my laziness, now I have to take the whole thing apart, scrub the goo out of it and all its parts.

I could have sworn I rinsed that one out before putting it up, and I thought I put a CO2 charge on it too, but it must have leaked the charge, or I just opened it and then put it back or something, but wow it is nasty.

I wonder if I have a spare set of O-rings sitting around…

Cheers,
Tony

I just stuck my hydrometer into the Kolsch after three weeks in secondary. The news is better than I was expecting. I recall initially on the rack from primary to secondary I had some trouble because the ferment was still so active and the yeast hadn’t dropped yet.

The wine thief came out of the secondary with a near clear slightly darker than I was hoping for Kolsch. The little hydrometer sang me a tale of a gravity hovering in the 1.011 range. I like it when my beers finish around 1.015 to 1.010, much higher than that and I’m left with a clinging sweet after taste that I am just not fond of. Effects of a low carb lifestyle I suppose. (Hush, everyone knows beer doesn’t count!)

Hi ho, hi ho, its off to keg it goes. With the lovely hiss of force carbing, hi ho, hi ho hi ho hi ho!

TWO BEERS, yes, this will be TWO BEERS I will have “on tap”! I cannot remember even vaguely how long its been since I have had TWO BEERS on tap!

Now all I need to do is get a kegerator… my mother in law has one of those 3/4 fridges in her garage she’s not using… hmmm…

Cheers!
Tony

*Don’t forget the roll call!

I’ve noticed when I was still surfing brewing boards, they would have roll calls for carboys just to see what people were brewing. Since they take a lot of time away from my day, I’ve stopped surfing those boards. One of the things I’ve missed is seeing the roll call of what is on tap, what is aging, what is in primary and what is on deck.

It was fun for me and gave me some good ideas for what beer to brew next. It also added to the camaraderie of the board. I am now putting out a call to everyone who reads my blog:

What is in your cup? What is in your carboy?

Leave a comment with what you have been up to, give me some good ideas!

I’ll go first.

On tap: IIPA, 1 ounce Cascade dry hop, 1 ounce Cascade in the keg. 6 ounces total, yummy!
Primary: California Common, mid 60’s temp, ready to rack
Secondary: Kolsch, also ready to rack or keg
Aging: Dry mead, 1.5years old, recently racked to a purged keg and tucked in a cool spot.
On Deck: Pumpkin ale, apple ale fermented with cider yeast and some red wine kit that I can’t even remember what the name is any more.

Who else wants to play the game?

Cheers!
Tony