Friday, March 29, 2013

Catching up

It's been far too long since the last post. Between work and projects it's been tough keeping up with the daily deeds.

The Basement Brewery is pretty much done now. Since the last post I've brewed several batches, Winter Warmer (aka JC Xmas Ale), Lola's Legacy Lager, Randy's Rye IPA and Piper's Pilsner. The last of the Bad Dog Brew series is Pru's Porter and on schedule for next week.

Lola's lager was renamed Lola's Legacy Lager as she succumbed to the long term affects of Lyme disease just a few days before I brewed the batch. It was a pretty tough time for us all, especially her 'dad' Calvin. Still hard to 'talk' about it. She was such an awesome dog, and taken way too soon. Here's the picture I used on the caps.



I've also built a new fermenting chamber. 4 compartments each with it's own temperature control. I tried several ideas on making my own heating coils, especially since we have a heating element business, but in the end I gave up and bought these cool heater units from Mcmaster. They mount right to standard 4" fans, which I found on ebay cheap. You can see them in the upper right of the top pic. I'm still working on the control mounting and making a panel that will sit on top housing the 4 controls and various wiring. A chance to play with electronics again, yeah! Not sure what to do for cooling yet. The controls and panel will accommodate it, but the cooling source is TBD.



Here is an action shot of the brewery, but not sure what's about to be bottled here.


I also upgraded the burner on the brew pot system. The original burner was sooooo cheap it did not heat evenly. I spent about $20 and got a much better unit that seems to be pretty even. I need to raise it up an inch or so for ideal heating.

Ashley and I will be brewing the Heffleberry II batch in a few weeks. I spent the last month or so reading up on the BIAB process at HomeBrewTalk. 151 pages covering about 2 years. Lots of great info, and enough to convince me that it's time to try it. I stopped at Princeton Homebrew and picked up the supplies we'll need yesterday. The proprietor there has a very negative view on this process. I guess he's never tried it, and  thinks traditional All Grain is the only option. I hope the Heffelberry II comes out great so I can give him one!

I've been reading the Mitch Steel IPA book Mary gave me for Christmas, and looking forward to trying some of the original recipes from the mid 1800's. I also found an interesting pdf from him online that includes the recipes not specifically listed in the book for the earliest IPAs. I picked up some Marris Otter grains and a variety of English hops while at the LHBS, and plan to do an IPA batch, with different finishing hops. I've got Cascade risomes ready to plant so I am looking to use them as a base hop in future brews.

Also made up a load of custom cases for standard 24's and the Franz 20 from Jim. Here is a case of Marshy's Maibock. Looks good and tastes pretty good too.



Enough for now. Oh, a good closing line - Brew Strong! (Lance is in no position to complain!)


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