hardware

DIY Spunding Valve – one-stop parts shopping on amazon

Spunding valves are an interesting little tool for brewers that let you control the pressure in your fermenting vessel (almost always a keg for homebrewers) They are an adjustable blow off valve that will release at or above a certain pressure point. The benefits of using one  are primarily that you can end up with carbonated beer straight out of the fermenter, and that they can allow increased fermentation temps (specifically in lagers) with fewer off-flavors. I don’t know if I have seen any proof of the second point, but I have certainly read it often.

The auxilliary thing I like about having a pressurized keg that is still fermenting is that it is VERY easy to take a sanitary sample using a picnic faucet, and there is essentially zero chance of O2 entering the keg, as the gas pressure is far more reliable than an airlock (that may require topping off.)

One down side to spunding valves is that some yeasts put out off-flavors in their gas, especially early into fermentation. If you’ve ever smelled cabbage or eggs coming out of a vigorous ferment you can see how disconcerting that could be coming off of a pint glass.  Most commercial breweries vent off any natural carbonation so that they can inject the beer with pure co2 at bottling, and some people say that this gives a cleaner taste.

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Brew Session

Batch #28 – ApfelWine

Batch# 28 – ApfelWine (AKA apfelwein)

Date Brew:12/04/2014 Rack:0/00/0000 Bottle:0/00/0000
Days 0 0 0

Recipe:

Here is EdWort’s recipe. It’s also mentioned here in popular mechanics?!

I don’t know much about how this recipe tastes, but I know that the forums seem to be going insane over it. The only way to find out is to brew some! It’s a pretty cheap and super easy recipe, so here goes nothing!

Goals:

Put something in the fermenter on a day that we were doing a double-batch bottle and some other housekeeping.

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Brew Session

Batch #27 – Beer, Wheat

Batch# 27 – American Wheat Beer

This is a mysterious brew.  Very little is known about its origins.  It appears to have been brewed at Chris’s home sometime in November.  It is now in bottles with yellow caps.  It contains wheat.

As far as we can remember, it was an extract kit Ross got online in some kind of sweet deal and contained about two ingredients.  I think we brewed it after a minor hiatus as an easy one to get back into the swing of things.

IMG_5971

Finally bottled it in early January and gave it a taste.  Wasn’t bad!  Funny that sometimes the brews for which you don’t plan, worry, strategize,  or expect great things can be the ones that turn out OK.  Of course, we know the inverse can also be true.

We’ll have to see how this matures a bit, but this could be a good one to sit on until spring arrives.

 

Brew Session

Batch #25 – Pumpkin Porter

Batch# 25 – Pumpkin Porter

Date Brew:10/16/2014 Rack:none Bottle:12/1/2014
Days 0 0 47

Recipe:

Extract kit from strange brew. We waffled on adding the pumpkin, but ultimately decided to go for it.  The people at strange brew are super nice and they have an interesting stock of new and used kegging gear. I only wish they were closer to my house.

Goals:

After both of our houses flooded, we hadn’t brewed in a few months. We decided to start back up with a simple extract kit. This was also our first test of Ross’ Electric kettle.

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Uncategorized

The selfish gift guide for homebrewer’s wives.

disclaimer - not all brewers need to be men, and not all gift-givers need to be married. I just titled it that way to sound catchy :) If you are looking for homebrewer gifts for your significant other (who happens to be a woman) BUY HER EVERYTHING ON THIS LIST. You are in a relationship with a talented woman and you need to do everything you can to encourage her to continue being awesome!) Now, back to the list

So, you’re married to / dating a homebrewer?!

First off: you have my condolences. Sticky floors, steamy kitchens, and closet after closet of bubbling concoctions are a plague that many significant others have to deal with. This list is a sneaky thing, because it is entirely designed to show you how each “home brewing gift” specifically can give you back your kitchen, reduce their total brewing time, or get rid of those piles and piles of bottles. There are also a few general gift ideas thrown in at the end, just in case your little home brewer has been very, very good this year.

Making less mess

The single biggest complaint about homebrewers is making a mess in the kitchen. Brewing can be messy, and sometimes it’s better to focus on safety over spotlessness. The single easiest way to keep the kitten clean is to move the brew operation out of the kitchen! It will also give them more horsepower to get the temp up to boiling faster (and therefore cut down on total brew time.)

Here is a Blichmann outdoor propane burner – You could go with one of those cheaper turkey fryer ones, but you could also probably walk to work, right?

 

 


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Brew Session

Batch #23 – Hop Hammer

Batch# 23 – Hop Hammer

Date Brew:7/26/2014 Rack:0/00/0000 Bottle:0/00/0000
Days 0 0 0

Recipe:

Brewing Classic Styles, Hop Hammer. We previously brewed this in batch #15. This is our first re-brew of this recipe, but this time we are doing it as all-grain. I didn’t end up putting this recipe into beersmith because I was lazy.

Goals:

Recreate the big DIPA that we knew and loved last time around (, but with more complicated ingredients this time!)

Continue reading Batch #23 – Hop Hammer →

Brew Session

Batch #22 – BYO SMaSH Citra IPA

Batch# 22 – SMaSH Citra IPA

Date Brew:7/22/2014 Rack:7/24/2014 ttle:7/25/2014
Days 0 22 23

Recipe:

BYO Magazine issue Vol 20, #4

PDF from Beersmith

If you don’t have a subscription to BYO, you should. They have great articles that apply to homebrew, and they don’t get overly bogged down in commercial beer stuff. I really look forward to every new issue.

BYO Magazine

Goals:

Work on a simple SMaSH IPA and better understand the flavor that the hop and malt provide.

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hardware

Considering buying a Beerbox?

Screen Shot 2014-07-10 at 4.19.11 PM

I fell down an internet wormhole recently and found myself looking at the Beerbox from Brewing Tools. It’s a ~2 gallon plastic keg that you can fit in your fridge and pressurize with a hand charger. For $199 you get a charger, 2 beer boxes, and some co2. Screen Shot 2014-07-10 at 4.18.52 PM

At first glance it seems like an easy way to get in to kegging, but not a particularly cheap way. The plastic (HDPE?) box will be difficult to sanitize, and it will definitely require replacement at some point. You probably can’t force carbonate in it, and those co2 cartridges are much more expensive than a bigger tank.
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