Back in the Game IPA

Ingredients-

Grain:
24 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt
3 lbs Crystal 40L
2 lbs Maris Otter

Hops:
2 oz CTZ @ 75
1 oz CTZ @ 30
3 oz CTZ @ 5
2 oz Citra @ 5
2 oz CTZ dry hop in Secondary for 7 days

2 oz Citra dry hop in Secondary for 7 days

Yeast: Safale-05 (direct pitch)

O.G. 1.066

Yield- 11 Gallons

Well, it’s been nearly nine years since I’ve brewed. I finally acquired all the parts to put my home brewery back together and got it up and running. My buddy Tim came over and this was his first time brewing. Things went about as flawlessly as they possibly could have. 

UPDATE 31OCT2024: Down to 1.036

UPDATE 03NOV2024: Down to 1.020

UPDATE 05NOV2024: Down to 1.014, transferred to secondary and added dry hops.

System Update

Well our system collaboration has now turned into a business venture. Andy and I are going to try and open a commercial nanobrewery with no debt and no investors. A feat that is difficult but will hopefully become profitable.

We've brewed on the new system once so far. Basically we just took the last ingredients we had on hand and made a hodgepodge beer that we affectionately named StupidBrew. We'll be ordering a bunch of ingredients soon to start some test batches of our flagship ales. Only problem we are currently encountering is our ability to screen out hops. I am almost done constructing a new hop screen that should work better. I'll take some photos soon and post them.

Below are some pictures of how things have progressed. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures of the process. These pictures and more updates can be seen at our facebook page.

The overall system. One day we'll build nicer stands

Me in a kettle

Mounting the Counter Flow Chiller mid-brew

Our first conical. 110 Gallon capacity

 

False Bottom

As stated in a previous post, we decided to fabricate our own false bottom. Basically I just ordered a 24" x 24" stainless perforated sheet with 0.09375" holes with a 0.15625" stagger. After I climbed inside the kettle my wife placed the perforated sheet on top and I used a sharpie to trace the shape of the kettle. Then I cut out the circle with my angle grinder.

The handle and the leg supports will be made out of  0.125" x 0.75" stainless flat bar and bent into shape. I cut each support/handle at 10" and make marks where I want the bend. Placing the flat bar in my vice at the appropriate mark I hit it with a hammer until it has a 90 degree bend.

As of now I have the sheet cut into a circle, the handle shaped, and the handle attached. Hopefully this weekend I can clean up the cut a little bit, fabricate the supports, and then install the supports.

The false bottom so far. Still need the edge cleaned up and
supports installed.

 

System Progress

Andy went and dropped off our HLT and Boil Kettle for welding. We are having three 2-inch tri-clamp ferrules welded into each. These are where the heating elements will be attached. Going this route versus a weldless set up allows us to easily remove the elements for cleaning. Hopefully the welding will be finished by the beginning of next week.

We are constructing our own false bottom. The lowest price we could find for a custom built one was upwards of $250. We are building our own for less than half that price. The materials arrived at our house today and will hopefully be fabricated this weekend.

As of now the only items we need to be able to test our first batch on the new system are:
4-heating elements
4-element adapters

We will need more than these items to brew the way we want to. But these are the last items we need for this system to be able to run.

 

Collaboration System Progress

Our system is progressing. We were able to order our larger kettles, read: 55 gallon stainless steel barrels. All three of them have arrived and we have begun converting them. We are going to have tri-clover ferrules welded in for the element attachments. The boil kettle and hot liquor tank are off having that done right now.

I only currently have a picture of the mash tun in progress but all three kettles look the same. Eventually I will polish them all to a mirror finish, but for now they will be used as is.

Mash tun with outlet and sight glass. Sight glass
still needs to be trimmed for height. Hole in the top
right is for the inlet, I was short a washer so I was not
able to install that fitting.

Inside view of the mashtun, fairly simple.
Now I just need to order the parts to build a custom
false bottom.

Yet another new system... (progress)

My kettles and cheapo stand have been moved into the basement. This is what we will use until we have the money to build a new stand and order the large 55 gallon kettles.

Almost everything is in place, just a couple modifications need to be made still. We switched the flow from starting on the left side and moving toward the right. It now flows from the right toward the left. This necessitates moving pumps and couple other small changes.

The vent hood has been fabricated and ducting purchased. It will be installed today or tomorrow and first full wet test, mock brew, and calibration will happen tomorrow.

Hoses in this pic are stretched weird. Once the pumps are moved
over it will look and operate better. 

A better view of the Control Panel. 

Panel is complete! (well, almost...)  All wiring is finished and has been tested. The only thing now is to add a little bit of silicone to some of the joints to keep it waterproof.

The picture looks the same as the previous post but the amp meter is now reading the amperage going through. I only had one element hooked up so its showing 22.1 amps. If I run both it will show the total 44 amps.

Another note, only the boil PID is showing temp.
I didn't bother to bring out all the temp probes while
testing. I just moved from one to another to make sure
each one works correctly.

An update on "Yet another system"

Panel tags have arrive and been installed. Wiring is going well. At this point the only things we have yet to finish are the following:

1. Install top plate with heatsink
2. Run 6 Gauge power wiring to the heating element contactors (this includes the SSR connections)
3. Run wire from the temperature probe receptacles to the PID's
4. Run wire from the AC Shunt to the ammeter
5. Run 2 hots to the voltmeter
6. Final testing

Pics:





A look at some of the wiring inside. Not everything is
finished. Once the wiring is complete everything will
be attached well with no loose wires hanging around.

The bottom with all receptacles installed and tags installed as well

Everything lit up. Volt/Amp meters have power
but are not reading anything yet, same with PID's

Yet another new system

A few months ago, Andy and I decided to collaborate our two homebrewing systems into one large one. It makes perfect sense. Andy is better at brewing and I love building stuff. I get to design and build a brand new system, bigger and better than before. Andy gets to design better recipes and eventually we will be brewing together a lot more often. What's better than homebrewing? Brewing with a friend!

The plan is to build another electric system with 55 gallon kettles so we can brew a full barrel at a time and split it. It will be located in the basement at Andy's house and provide a comfortable place to brew year round with easy cleaning. It will have blichmann boilermaker kettles, utilize HERMS for temperature control, and have a 50 amp control panel running 11,000 watts of power.

At this point the main structure of the CP (Control Panel) is built. Wiring was started yesterday and we are still awaiting the arrival of panel tags. Once the panel is done we will look to start acquiring kettles and attachments.

The build so far in pictures: (sorry about the poor photos, I use my old iPhone and the light coming through my kitchen window can screw things up)

Here is the panel with the parts just placed on top. I was so excited when the parts arrived I just had to put things in their general place to see what it looked like.

The CP front panel with the holes cut for
 the 22mm lights and switches

The CP front panel with all holes cut including
holes for volt/amp meters and PID's



The back plate with components attached



The CP body with backplate installed and receptacles
placed to get a feel for what it looks like








Main CP body with receptacle holes cut and custom paint job

The CP with all components installed





















 

15% Rye IPA

Ingredients:

Grain-
16.5 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt
3.5 lbs Rye Malt
2 lbs Victory
1 lb Crystal 60l

Hops-
2 oz Columbus (17.1%aa) @ 60
1 oz Columbus (17.1%aa) @ 20
1 oz Columbus (17.1%aa) @ 10
1 oz Columbus (17.1%aa) @ 5

Yeast-
Safale 05 American Ale

OG- 1.064
FG- 10.14
Yield- 10.2 gallons
Efficiency- 80%

27APR2013: One of the better brew days I've had. No problems at all. I realized as I'm was recording all this though that I was supposed to do the 20, 10 and 5 minute addition hops with Chinook but did all Columbus instead. Oh well, should still be good. I just built a stir plate so I'm running a test on this brew. Fermenting in two 5 gallon batches with the same yeast. Half with a started run on the stir plate, the other half with a packet directly pitched. Hoping to have time to record times to start seeing CO2 production, time to terminal gravity, and if terminal gravity it equal.

UPDATE 27APR2013: 8 Hours from pitching the half with the starter is producing CO2. The direct pitch half is showing no signs so far.

UPDATE 29APR2013: Checked the buckets. Both are fermenting away. Side that had the starter came out so much that there is actually visible yeast in the airlock. Below are the pics side by side.

UPDATE 12MAY2013: Transferred the half with the starter to keg for carbonating. Down to 1.014 for an ABV of 6.6%

Red Rocket Clone

Ingredients-

Grain:
24 lbs 8 oz 2 Row Pale Malt
2 lbs Crystal 40
2 lbs Munich
1 lb Crystal 120
1 lb Victory
8 oz Chocolate Malt

Hops:
2 oz CTZ @ 60
2 oz Cascade @ 10
2 oz Centennial @ 10
2 oz Cascade @ 0
2 oz Centennial @ 0

Yeast:
WLP 001  California Ale (starter)

OG: 1.084

16FEB2013- Randy wanted me to brew him so beer so I did a 10 gallon batch. He got the recipe online and didn't realize it was for a 6 gallon batch not a 5. Also, the recipe was set for 70% efficiency but my system has been hitting around 82-83%. All in all we ended up with 11 gallons at 1.084 which means this beer will be a little bit bigger than intended. we'll probably hit the 8.5% ABV mark.

Rye IPA

I did a Rye IPA recently. I sort of made up the recipe offhand and didn't save it. I think it was like 15-20% Rye, used a lot of CTZ and Cascade and came out around 1.066. Other than that I have no idea what I did.

Scottish Wee Heavy

Ingredients-

Fermentables-
26 lbs Pale Ale
3 lbs Crystal 90L
3 lbs Munich
4 oz Simpsons Peated
3 lbs corn sugar (beginning of boil)

Hops-
2 oz Magnum @ 60
1 oz Fuggles @ 10
1 oz Fuggles @ 5

Yeast-
Safale-04 English Ale

OG: 1.105
FG: 1.028
ABV: 10.1%
Brewhouse Effeciency: 80%

01JAN2013- Had the mailmen and their families over for this one. Crazy day, but good to hang out with some friends on brew day. This beer should be interesting.

15JAN2013- Bottled Randy's half today. Came out with 52 12oz beers. Tastes sweet and alcoholic.

Stepheweizen 2.0

Ingredients-
Grain-
4.5 lbs Malted Wheat
4.0 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt

Hops-
1 oz Fuggles @ 60
1 oz Fuggles @ 10
 Yeast-
Hefeweizen Ale WLP 300

 OG: 1.059
FG: 1.018
ABV: 5.4%
Collected: 4.5 Gallons
Efficiency: 82%

 30DEC2012- This was a last minute brew after church. Stopped by the brew store down the street and grabbed some yeast. I thought I had some hops left over at my house but was out, so I stole some from the recipe Randy and I are doing on New Years Day. I'll need to get some more before then. Smooth brewing, no hiccups.

15JAN2013- Transferred to secondary and cold crashed over night. Transferred to keg this morning. Fresh, light Hefeweizen with some mildly strong banana flavors.

Another Simple IPA

Grain:

13 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt
1.5 lbs Victory
1.5 lbs Munich
1 lb Crystal 40L

Hops:
2.5 oz CTZ @ 60
1.5 oz CTZ @ 30
1 oz Cascade @ 15
2 oz Cascade @ 5

Yeast:
Safale-05

OG: 1.066
FG:

19NOV2012- I calibrated and added volume marks to my boil kettle sight glass. This helped me get some exact numbers. At 0 minutes I had 8.7 gallons in the kettle. After sending everything through the chiller ended up with 7.5 gallons. That's a lot of wort loss. But whatever, 1.066 is a good IPA and I'm excited to see how this turns out.

Winter Seasonal (7.5 Gallon batch)

Ingredients:

Grain:
15 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt
1.5 lbs Crystal 120L
12 oz Crystal 80L
3 oz Roasted Barley

Hops:
1.5 oz CTZ @ 60
0.75 oz Cascade @ 60
1.5 oz Cascade @ 30
0.75 oz Cascade @ 5

Yeast:
Safale-04 English Ale in 5 Gallons
Safale-05 American Ale in 2.5 gallons

OG: 1.068
FG:


10NOV2012- Brewing went well again without a hitch. I decided to start doing seven and a half gallon batches so I can Keg five for myself and bottle two and a half to give away. I'm not a big fan of doing ten gallon batches, being careful of boil overs and having to bottle a full five gallons. I think this will work out nicely. We'll see if I like it and keep it up if it works out.

I'm not sure how much I collected as I ran out of fermentation vessels and had to use a carboy for the five gallon portion. I know it's at least five and a half gallons but it could be closer to six. Ended up with exactly two and a half in the other. Can't wait for this to be ready.

Mashing:

Cooling:

Mini CDA (2 gallon Batch)

Ingredients:

Grain:
6 lbs 2 Row pale malt
6 oz Roasted Barley (500L)

Hops:

0.5 oz CTZ @ 60
2 oz Cascade @ 5

Yeast:
Pacman Slurry

OG: 1.080
FG:

03NOV2012: This batch was done on the mini system. Basically a 4 gallon pot and a 3 gallon beverage cooler mash tun. Before homebrew club I heated the strike water and mashed in. The cooler is small enough that even when full it's easy to tote around so I just put it in my car and mashed on the way over to Andy's. Brewing while driving, never done that before. Everything went well and is in the basement fermenting away. (hopefully, I haven't gone down to check yet.)

Radical RIPA (Rye IPA)

 Ingredients-

Grain: 
9 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt 
1 lb Rye Malt
1 lb Crystal 20L

Hops:
1.5 oz CTZ @ 60
1 oz Cascade @ 30
3 oz Cascade @ 5
2 oz of some unlabeled hop from my freezer @ 5
0.5 oz Northern Brewer @ 5

Yeast:
Safale-05

Additives:
2 ml of 88% Lactic Acid to Mash (brought down to a pH of 5.2) 

Wort collected: 4.5 gallons
OG: 1.076
FG:


28OCT2012-I lost about a gallon of wort to hops. I previously used a hop spider and would pull it out and let it drain the fluid out of them at the end of the boil. With the new hop stopper I'm using they remain soaked after everything is drained and I lost a gallon. If I would have had that gallon it would put me at 93% efficiency, without it I'm at 76%. Need to figure something out to fix that. Brew day went super smooth. New system is still working perfectly. Enjoying brewing again and loving not fighting things on my system.

Hand Crank Crush IPA

Ingredients-

Grain:
10lbs 2 Row Pale Malt
1 lb Crystal 20L
1 lb Munich
1 lb Victory

Hops:
1 oz CTZ @ 60
1 oz CTZ @ 30
3 oz Cascade @ 5

Yeast:
WLP-01 California Ale

Additives:
3.5 ml of 88% Lactic Acid to Mash (brought down to a pH of 5.2) 

5.5 Gallons Collected
OG: 1.076
FG:
Brewhouse Effeciency: 89%


12OCT2012- Steph wanted to crush the grain with the hand crank instead of hooking up the drill. I weighed it all out and she cranked through all 13 pounds of it, hence the name. Steph also wanted to be able to hang out on Saturday so she asked me if I would brew Friday night last minute. Started brewing at 7:00pm, finished just before midnight. 

Almost there

Wiring the control panel is done (besides the volt and amp meter)
After much headache all the plumbing and leak testing of the kettles is finished.
All to do is install the GFCi breaker and plug, wire the element plugs and mount the control panel.