Kegerator

This last weekend I picked up two more taps for the Kegerator. I should be installing them on Wednesday this week. I have two Cornies that need some refurbishing before they are usable. Excited to get them working and pressurized. Will post pics when I finish installing the taps.

UPDATE: Drilled the extra holes for the taps last night. If I have time tonight I will pull the plastic off the inside of the door and insert the supports and install the taps. Otherwise it will have to wait until Monday when we get back.

UPDATE: Alright, here it is with the three taps installed. I still have a little work to do on the cornies before I'll have them all pouring and I still need one more tap handle.

UPDATE: I have two cornies up and running at the moment. I haven't had enough spare time to try and get the last one sealed. I have two things on tap right now and am planning on brewing two batches this weekend. Guess I better get on it so I'll be able to drink those beers when they are ready.

Brewing Tomorrow

So Randy and I are brewing tomorrow and we are super excited. This will be our first ten gallon batch. Side Note- if you haven't check out Randy's blog at poor house brewing.

After much deliberation over ingredients we finally came to an agreement on the planned recipe. It is as follows:


Imperial NW Red Ale
Grain:
23 lbs 2-row
4 lbs Light Munich
1 lbs Crystal 30
1 lbs Crystal 50-60
1 lbs Crystal 120
0.5 lbs Pale Chocolate

Hops:
2 oz Millennium @60
2 oz Nugget @30
1 oz Cascade @10
1 oz Cascade @0

Yeast:Wyeast Irish Ale 1084 in a 1 quart starter made about 20 hours earlier

Water:12 gallons strike at 175 for 60 min 4.5 gallons double batch sparge at 190

Extra:1/4 teaspoon Wyeast Yeast Nutrient


UPDATE: So this is a little late but Brewing went well. We had a great time with only a few mishaps. See poorhouse brewing for more info on that. Today I sanitized one of the cornies I was able to get to pressurize and racked into it to start conditioning. I wish I would have gone to secondary though. It turned out a little thick and cloudy. Secondary would have helped to clear that up.


F.G. was at 1.014. We forgot to take an O.G. so the only thing we had to go off was the gravity I took the day after we pitched which ended up being 1.060. Overall the flavor is really good, a solid red ale with some extra hoppiness.

UPDATE: I didn't like how thick and cloudy it was. It gave a sort of weird mouth feel so I ended up de-pressurizing it and leaving it in the fridge for a little while. Then I siphoned out of the bottom a pint or two to try and get most of that removed. Its a lot more clear. I like it better. I will carbonate it here starting tomorrow if my CO2 is free.

Kegarator

So the kegarator is almost finished. I have all the grinding done just need to seal it and put everything back together. Hopefully I'll be drinking my first beer from it next week.

UPDATE: The kegerator is basically done. I already started conditioning my first beer. There are a few things left to do on the project but its all touch up stuff that I can finish while its operating.

Pumpkin Cider

My wife and i have 4 left over pumpkins sitting on our front porch. So we decided to try and use some of them for a brewing project. I didn't have the cash to float an Ale, and I want to wait until I have my all grain set-up done before I brew a real beer. So we went for a Pumpkin cider. First Dan pretty much did all the work and cut the pumpkins in half, scooped out the middle and then we quartered them. After that we roasted em in the oven on 350 for about 40 minutes. Next time I will do this the day before and drop the temp down to 300 and roast for a couple of hours to get them softer. Anyways, after that we boiled them in water for about 40 minutes, cooled it down and strained it into the car boy. Then we added four gallons of Treetop apple juice The next morning it was already going crazy. The Red Star Pasteur Champagne Yeast is pretty awesome as long as you reconstitute it right. I am kicking myself though. I totally forgot to take a reading for my O.G. Looks like I will be clueless as to what ABV this turns out to be. Here it is....

UPDATE: So I FINALLY was able to put this in a keg. I am conditioning it currently and excited to try it cold and carbonated. When I transferred, I poured myself half a glass. It is much different than any of the regular ciders I have done. It is ver light in color and smell. The taste is similar to an regular apple cider with some really nice variances. I don't quite know how to describe them. I can pick out the pumpkin flavor if I am looking for it, but it is quite subtle. I wish it would have been a little bit more noticeable but I am happy with how it turned out. Can't wait til its done conditioning. Here it is....

Water Test

Was finally able to do the water test today. I filled the keg with water 3/4 of the way and let is sit for a while to make sure no drops formed under the valve. Nothing happened, I am very excited with the results.

Kegarator

So I started to sand all the stickers off the fridge before I start converting it. But then I kind of liked the polished metal look. I think I am gonna go with it and just spend the time to make the whole thing like this.

I thought it would take me forever but I got this all done in one short evening, and thats following a day of working on converting the kegs. Here is my progress so far.

Keg Conversion

Randy whining that he lost his manhood

Marking the Kegs

Paul cutting the kegs

I forgot to take more pictures of the process but here are the kegs with tops cut off and though you can't see them the ball valves are installed

Working on welding the bottom support of the Brew Tree

The trunk is done, now all I have to do is weld on the supports for the kegs and wait to get some burners