Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day 2013 is upon us, the weekend that tends to be the swan song of summer around these parts. From here on out it is a long slog down into the depths of winter. I've also extended the normal 3 day weekend into a full blown week of vacation as my list of tasks to get done around the house has grown quite long, especially with the birthday party for the little one coming up next weekend.

Earlier this week I kegged the Pale Tranquility so that it will be available for the party next weekend. Putting it in the keg on Wenesday only allowed for 11 days to carb up, at normal serving pressure that has usually not been enough for the beer to be at its prime. As a consequence I upped the pressure to around 30 lbs to speed it up a little bit. I don't want to over carb so I pulled a sample this evening and it is doing very well. At this point I'd put it close to 90% of what I'm looking for, so I turned it back down to serving pressure and will consider it good. One more week at normal pressure and it will be at that sweet spot that I love.

Oh, and for how it tastes, pretty damn good if I do say so myself especially given that it was an American Pale recipe that I built mostly from available grains that I had on hand. The only ingredient I had to pick up was 1 oz of Simcoe for flavoring, I reused the yeast from a prior batch of Sky Blue.

One of the more enjoyable tasks that is on the list is to take up the brew club challenge of cloning Stone's Arrogant Bastard. I had planned to brew it this coming Sunday morning, but the weather forcast is not looking good so it looks like it will be pushed to Monday morning. Close enough. I've yet to settle on the recipe for the clone, a bit of research is in order to find out what I already have on hand and what I'll need to complete the brew. The next brew after that is also in the planning stages. Our club has volunteered to help out with a fundraiser the first weekend of November, all German style beers. I've volunteered to supply a Dunkleweizen. It'll be my first, but it's a style I like so will be happy to showcase to the public and enjoy the rest.

Another project I'm hoping to complete this week is the ribcage immersion chiller that I've been wanting to make for quite some time. I have all the necessary hardware already sitting around I just haven't had the time to put it all together. If I can get to it on Sunday it'll be ready to use on Monday for the clone.

Cheers

The eternal Krausen

The Blue Moon Clone I brewed over the weekend still has a 2 inch Krausen on it. It first formed within 18 hours of being pitched and has been going strong ever since. You can see the little yeasties happily chugging up and down in the carboy, and it has been 6 days already!

The Smithwicks won't be finished in time for St Pats tomorrow, unfortunately. There is still airlock activity as of last night, albiet quite slow. I don't even have time to cold crash and do a super-fast carb job on it, not and do it justice. It has to be ready and able to bottle from the keg by the 23rd though, so I'm hoping it hurries up. I need at least 48 hours to crash the yeast or it will be way to cloudy for judging.

Ranger Danger in the Kegger

Took the Ranger IPA clone out of the fridge from cold crashing tonight. It had a lot of hops floating on the top when I put it in, cold crashing made all of it sink. That kind of surprised me a little. I know it helps particulates to settle out, as in yeasts, and other small size matter. But the whole leafs that were floating on top were also affected.

Tested the gravity as well.
OG: 1.059
FG: 1.005
ABV 7.2%

Tasted very very good even though it was not carbed yet. Looking forward to this one very much as it was the first AG brew I finished.

One of my brewing friends will be over this weekend, but I don't think this one will be quite ready by then, although sampling will be done with gusto!

Choices

During the holiday weekend (which I took a break from the 'nets so no new posts here), my family visits helped with emptying out the English Pale that had been on tap since just after Thanksgiving.

Now I have to pick between 3 different ready to keg beers:

Dunkleweiss
Ranger IPA clone
Northern English Brown

The Dunkle has been in the fermentor the longest time, and I already have a Black IPA on tap...
The NEB hasn't even been checked for final gravity yet...

Dunkle it is!

Also, my lovely wife gave me a pressure cooker for Christmas, now I can sterilize jars, lids, implements, etc, for yeast washing and storing.

I'll be getting to that next, washing the yeast cakes in order to store my own like bank.

Brewing Pipeline

So I've come to a point where I have quite a bit of beer in the pipeline. When I started earlier this year I knew it would take a while before I could build up a stockpile of brewed beer given that I was drinking my product from kegs as soon as I made it.

For months I kept on a schedule, trying to get ahead of consumption. This barely kept me stocked with ready to drink beer, as it was being consumed almost as fast as I made more.

In September my wife and I gave birth to a new baby girl, this had two effects on my brewing stockpile. In the short run it interrupted my brewing schedule for a good month, and I had nothing on tap for a long time. I thought that this would set me back for months in trying to build a stockpile.

Interestingly enough though, in the long run it has increased my stockpile as my consumption has gone way down. While my wife was still off of work I was free to indulge in a pint or two a couple times a week, thus I was still managing a consumption rate that kept up with my brewing rate.

However with my wife having gone back to work now my consumption has dropped to about 4 pints a week at most, and never more than 1 a day during the work week. Most nights I do not even have one. You see, my wife works third shift, and while she is at work I am tasked with being a responsible adult. Such is the sacrifice that we make for our children.

I've had a busy brewing schedule since just before Thanksgiving, even while my consumption has plummeted. This now has me in the position I originally envisioned where I had multiple beers ready for kegging as I empty a prior tapped keg.

As of right now, I have the last of an English Pale Ale, which my wife likes alot, so I've been saving that for her (she has even fewer than myself per week), and the Black IPA on tap (which is freshly tapped). Once the English Pale is gone I will be kegging the Dunkle.

This still leaves me with the Ranger Danger IPA, and the newest Brown Turkey still in fermentors.

All told, discounting the English Pale, I have 20 gallons of beer to cycle through before I run out. At my current rate of consumption this might keep me stocked with beer through February of 2013. I may end up brewing only once more over the coming winter. Brewing outdoors in the winter is a major deterrant.

It was just a haphazard strategy that I used to get to this point, but I think that I will be attempting the same in the future. Brew a lot before winter comes, then enjoy the fruits indoors where it is warm.

Keg Setup

So if anyone was interested in seeing my bar/keg setup, here is a brief overview. This is my dual tower with the drain. The drain snakes under the bar and goes into the sink installed in the counter, the counter is out of the pictures to the left. Comes in quite handy to have the drain rather than just a drip tray.

Having two is nice for variety.

 Next up is the kegerator that sits below the bar. Notice that the air tank sits on the outside to the right. I could move this inside as well as I have room in the back of the kegerator. I have a single line for air going into the top, and the dual beer lines coming out of the top as well. The kegerator is offset to the left of the tap by about 18 inches, thats the only place I could put it due to the structural support incorporated into the bar (The maroon/red 4x4 seen just behind the CO2 tank, which can also be seen above directly behind the tower).

Inside the kegerator I can only fit the two 5 gallon corneys due to headspace in the back of the fridge being lower than the front. In the future I plan to invest in a couple of 3 gallon corneys as well and be able to keep 4 styles in the fridge, even tho I can only have two on tap. It is easy enough to use quick disconnects to swap back and forth.

Here you can see the limit of the headspace in the back (which contains the compressor for the cold plate). The CO2 line that comes in from the top is split with a T fitting in order to run two kegs at once. A much cheaper option than a dual regulator (another future purchase).

And that is my setup. It took a couple years to finish my basement, but it was all worth it.



Here is the rough finish on the bar, prior to the tower being installed in front of the support pillar. You can see the countertop with sink with the mirroed backing. Underneath the counter is where I put the fermentors, both empty and full.