12 Aug
2005
12 Aug
'05
1:56 p.m.
Jim,
No way to chill kegs? Hmmm... where there's a homebrewer's need,
there's homebrewer's solution:
1. Cold plate -- roughly $100 new. Put it in a cooler and fill with
ice. Temporary, but very effective. Works best if you have your own ice
maker. Used are probably much less and just as a good as new, with
proper cleaning and maintenance.
2. Cold box -- roughly $180 for new components. Buy a dorm frig from
Home Depot or Menards when you see one on sale. You can find them for
around $80. Remove the door. Build a box out of rigid foam insulation,
construction adhesive, silicone and duct tape. Buy a Johnson Controls
Refrigerator Thermostat ($50 new) to control. ALT: Malt Boy & I use to
use a cheap appliance timer, and 1 Gallon glass apple juice jar with a
floating candy thermometer. We assumed the thermal mass of the 1 Gal
jar was roughly equal to the fermenters/kegs. Adjust appliance timer
according to temp. Requires frequent monitoring. WAF could be an issue.
I don't recommend used dorm frigs -- they're just not meant to last,
especially with the forced power on/off from you temperature
controller.
3. Chest Freezer -- a new one starts around $250 + $50 for the above JC
controller. Very effective and has a good WAF. Used ones can be much
less, but are often not very energy efficient. Color and condition can
affect the WAF.
4. Old Refrigerator -- Almost always free to acquire, but you pay for
it in higher electricity rates. After having done this for years, I'm
not an advocate of it. The new refrigerators are _much_ more energy
efficient, but can be expensive. Given the choice between paying now,
and keeping energy production/use low in the future vs low cost now and
potentially expensive energy (and included environmental) costs in the
future, I'd recommend the former. Depending on condition and color, WAF
could be an issue.
5. Homebrewer's equipment swap -- no telling what little you could pay
or what others have come up with. Always a good idea to talk to other
people about how they handle the situation.
Andrew
--- Jim Imbertson <imbojim(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
==============================================================================
Andrew, Very good post it will be very usfull.I will
use it for a
good reference. I have no way of chilling my kegs right now. I work
out of 2 liter pop bottles or drink it at room temp. A cooler for the
kegs is high on the list right now. My wife is supportive after
tasting the GREAT beers at the home concerts. She really liked Al's
WIT and Steve's Saision and dry mead. I am now worried that I might
have to take a turn at being the driver.
Andrew Ruggles <arruggles(a)yahoo.com> wrote:Jim,
--- Jim Imbertson wrote:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do the entreies need to be dropped off by
8/12/05? Or is just the
online part due by Friday?
Don't know -- probably need to be dropped off.
I have some cornies of beer but haven't
tried my bottle filler yet,
I
would need to do some experimenting to get the
carbonation right,
in
going from a warm keg to a bottle and then
chilling.
IMHO, warm keg bottling = bad idea (presuming the presence of CO2 in
solution is desired).
The 2-Wheel and Sputnik Master Brewers stopped by last night to fire
up
the ol' CPBF (counter pressure bottle filler). It's a lot of work for
just a little bit of product.
Here are my tips for effective CPBFing:
1. Have a brew-buddy present. With all the hoses, kegs, bottles, and
sanitizer all over the place, another set of hands helps out
tremendously.
2. Chill the beer to just above freezing. You can't talk about the
"P"
in CPBFing without talking about T (whether Celsius or Fahrenheit).
The
closer the beer is to 0C or 32F, the more likely the CO2 will stay in
solution. The warmer the beer, the opposite is true. (Related tip:
get
temp and CO2 in the keg adjusted _a week_ ahead of bottling.)
3. Use a dilute Iodophor solution for final sanitizing rinse. We just
kept a bucket on the nasty, dirty basement floor and put the bottles
in
the bucket (which was clean on the inside). Dump out the solution,
and
insert the CPBF.
4. Have a backup tank of CO2. For whatever reason, I left my CO2 on
when I left it last, and the tank was empty. It was probably close to
being empty, but not a good thing(tm). I keep a little 4# tank for
parties and backup. Very nice to have that after doing all the work
cleaning and sanitizing.
5. Don't move your kegs. Moving them can stir up sediment. Put enough
hose length to CPBF without moving your kegs.
6. CPBF operation:
a. All valves closed. Insert into clean, sterile bottle.
b. Turn CO2 on full. Even though I keep my kegs around 12-15psi,
CPBFing seems to work better around 6psi. Again, this is where T
comes
in to play. If you have your regulator set to _lower_ than the keg
CO2,
the keg's CO2 will fill the bottle.
c. Open bleed valve to release an Oxygen that was in the bottle.
d. Close bleed valve. Hold CPBF in tight to the bottle as the bottle
will now pressurize. The CO2 in line to the keg, the keg, and the
bottle should now all be in equilibrium (as far as pressure is
concerned).
e. Close CO2 valve to bottle.
f. Open the liquid in to bottle on full. There may be a little
movement of beer, and there may be a push back on the beer in the
line,
depending on how equal your equilibrium is.
g. Ever slow slightly, crack the bleed valve. Beer will begin to flow
into the bottle. Keep it very slow until it reaches the bottom of the
filler. You can open the bleed valve more, and get a faster fill
rate,
though it will foam more. If you have your beer as close to freezing
as
possible, foaming will be a minimal, acceptable level. Warm beer will
foam all over and you may never get a full bottle. Having the bottles
wet from the dilute sanitizer also reduces foaming.
h. When fill has reached near the top of the bottle, close the liquid
in valve.
i. Close bleed valve. (Some people reverse h. and i. Both should
occur within 1 second of the other, so I'm not sure it really
matters)
j. While keeping the seal on the CPBF, grab a cap out of the
sanitizer. (This is where a brew-buddy comes in handy)
k. Remove the CPBF. It should foam slightly (this is a good
thing(tm)), and place the crown cap on top of the bottle and crimp it
down in a capper as quickly as possible (easier to do with 2 people
as
one person should be holding the CPBF at this time. Alt: put next
bottle to be filled next to just filled bottle before removing he
CPBF,
giving a place for it to go.
l. Rinse off bottle and store in a cool, dark place. Be sure to mark
caps either with a removable office sticker (I like the 1/2" round
Avery labels) or a black permanent marker.
Also a style Q does the add of 1 1/2 cup of honey
change the style
of
a American pale ale (6A)?
Yes, and for the better IMHO. Probably not appropriate, though it may
be difficult to tell as the hops in an APA will tend to overpower any
nuance contribution by the honey. I'd still submit it in the APA
category.
Andrew
alboyce(a)bigfoot.com wrote:
Only FOUR MORE DAYS to get your entries registered for the
Minnesota
State Fair Homebrew Competition! Entries may be
dropped off at
either Midwest Homebrewing or Northern Brewer, and may be shipped
to
Midwest Homebrewing. Winners will have their
beers and awards
displayed in the Creative Activities building throughout the run of
the MN State Fair!
So far, MhBA has 24 entries, SPHBC has 16 - no other MN clubs thus
far.
Go to: http://www.mnbrewers.com/events/mnfair/
VOLUNTEER AND JUDGE REGISTRATION is also due by this Friday. We
still need LOTS more judges, stewards and volunteers! A reminder if
you are a BJCP judge - you need to judge at least once every two
years to keep your certification current. Judging will take place
entirely on Saturday, August 20, from 10am to 6pm.
Go to: http://www.mnbrewers.com/events/mnfair/
- Al
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