Saturday, April 24th, 2010, I brewed my first solo all grain batch of beer. I am eager to see how it turns out, since I failed on so many levels.
- Killed my thermometer, and didn't know the exact temp of sparge water.
- Apparently when I took the pre-boil specific gravity reading, the first running and the second running weren't mixed properly, so it showed 1.060, freaking me out.
- Added approx 3 quarts of water, to the boil correcting the then feared "to high of efficency."
- At end of boil, wort was at 1.050, way under what I wanted.
- Took longer to chill than I wanted.
- Forgot to aerate wort.
- When pitching yeast, found that the Activator smack pack wasn't "smacked." Before brewing, I tried for 20 minutes to break the tiny inner pouch, thought that I did. However, at pitching time the pack was swelled tight.
Looking back at the few facts:
After boil and water addition specific gravity: 1.050
Starting pre-boil wort volume: 7.5 Gal
Freakout water addition: 0.75 Gal
After boil wort volume: 6.75 Gal
Entering that info into several online calculators, I can deduce:
The actual pre-boil SG was: 1.045, which translates to a mash efficiency of 80%. (Pretty Good!) Had I left it alone and not diluted the wort, it would have been fine, with a OG of 1.056, or 5.6% ABV. Instead with the 0.75 Gal of water added, I'll get 4.9% ABV, which is what I would have had with a 70% mash efficiency.
Lessons learned:
- Stir wort before taking preboil gravity
- Buy waterproof thermometer
- Need 50' wort chiller
- Don't brew on empty stomach, low blood sugar affects brain function
- Make checklist to follow while brewing, I.E. don't forget to aerate.
- Make a yeast starter
Who knows, it will probably turn out to be the best beer I've made yet.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
New Brew Kettle
I've been wanting to get my brewing out of the kitchen. Beth, my wife, isn't as enthusiastic as I am with the beer brewing, and it fills the house with the wonderful aromas of malt and hops. After many hours looking up info on the web, I decided on the electric keg kettle as the brewpot I will be making/using.
I scored the 15.5 gal sanke keg from my uncle. He found it abandoned. It wasn't the most desirable keg, since it has a rubber coating on the top and bottom. It wouldn't have worked at all for a propane heated pot, but I think that it will be ok for electric. This was the only straight sided keg that found.
Here is how it went. I took the keg down to my uncle's shop and had my cousin Larry help me:
1. Cutting the top. This proved to be the most difficult. I wanted an approximately 12" opening in the top. We started by removing the top layer of rubber. Scoring it with an utility knife, and prying it off with a large screw driver. Then we drilled a starting hole and used a reciprocating saw to do the cutting. It was not going very fast. Actually it wasn't going at all. We discovered that there was a layer of metal, then a 1/4 inch layer of rubber, and then the keg wall. I gave the OK to use the plasma cutter, we filled the keg with water to prevent the slag from messing up the inside, and less than 15 minutes later we had a ragged smoking flaming hole in the top of the keg. The rubber was burning and it was really awful smelling.
2. Cleaning up the top. This took a lot of time. Larry, finally got it so it wasn't like a razor blade all the way around the top. The OCD in me wishes that it was more perfect. It is 11.5" in diameter and has a 1/2' rim so if anything was to spill or condense it will not run in the pot, it will run off. Since this keg was rubber coated, it realy complicated this process, as we had to fiddle with the rubber.
3. Prepping the couplings. I decided to put three couplings in the keg. One 1" for the 4500 watt electric water heater element. I chose a RIPP style element, and this made the process more difficult. The 1" coupling had to be cut shorter because it would not slide around the curves of the element. We cut about a 3/4 inch piece off with a bandsaw and faced it with the lathe. Next was a 1/2 inch coupling for the drain. And last, a 1/4 inch coupling for a thermocouple. These didn't require any modification.
4. Drilling the holes. We drilled the keg with a slightly smaller bit than the actual coupling. We didn't want to make the hole to large, as I wanted a really nice weld job. The element hole and the drain hole we enlarged with a reamer in a die grinder, and then pulled the coupling through from the inside. This yielded a thight fit, but the last coupling turned out perfect. For the 1/4 inch coupling we drilled a 5/8 inch hole for the coupling that measured 3/4 inch. We didn't enlarge the hole, and pulled it through. It was hard to pull through, but it was perfect.
5. Welding. We chose TIG welding as the means of welding the couplings in the wall. Larry did this while I wasn't there, and did a nice job. He said that he burnt through a couple of times, and had to use filler in those places. We didn't have the necessary equipment to back gas, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I told him that I didn't want chunky bumpy yucky weld on the inside. This is bad because it can harbor bacterial and is impossible to keep sanitary. I was impressed with what he did, the only less than perfect spot is where he tried to TIG it on the inside around the element coupling. He did all the welding on the out side, and it looks good to me.
6. Leak test. We cleaned up the threads with a thread tap, and screwed in the element, valve, and a plug in the thermocouple coupling. We filled it with water and it didn't leak a drop. We drained ti through the drain, and I'm glad I used a 1/2 in valve, as a 3/8 inch valve would take forever!
Lessons learned:
1. Don't try to use a rubber coated keg, it isn't worth it. We would have been done in less than half the time and had a much better looking finished product if we had used a all stainless keg.
2. Use a straight folded water heater element. We could have left the 1 inch coupling full length. (and saved even more time)
3. Leave the holes 1/16 inch smaller than the object you are putting in, and pull it through with a bolt, nut, sleeve arrangement.
When all was said and done, I had a 15.5 electric brew kettle for only the cost of:
$ 0.00 - Keg
$10.00 - Stainless Steel Couplings
$ 3.00 - 1/2" Brass ball valve and coupling
$24.99 - 4500 watt RIPP water heater element
and the welding and machine work cost me our old coffee maker.
There will be more costs for the electrical stuff needed to drive the element. I have a few things on order, and will do another post when they get here and I get that part finished. I also am going to make a dip tube for the drain so it will empty the kettle.
I scored the 15.5 gal sanke keg from my uncle. He found it abandoned. It wasn't the most desirable keg, since it has a rubber coating on the top and bottom. It wouldn't have worked at all for a propane heated pot, but I think that it will be ok for electric. This was the only straight sided keg that found.
Here is how it went. I took the keg down to my uncle's shop and had my cousin Larry help me:
1. Cutting the top. This proved to be the most difficult. I wanted an approximately 12" opening in the top. We started by removing the top layer of rubber. Scoring it with an utility knife, and prying it off with a large screw driver. Then we drilled a starting hole and used a reciprocating saw to do the cutting. It was not going very fast. Actually it wasn't going at all. We discovered that there was a layer of metal, then a 1/4 inch layer of rubber, and then the keg wall. I gave the OK to use the plasma cutter, we filled the keg with water to prevent the slag from messing up the inside, and less than 15 minutes later we had a ragged smoking flaming hole in the top of the keg. The rubber was burning and it was really awful smelling.
2. Cleaning up the top. This took a lot of time. Larry, finally got it so it wasn't like a razor blade all the way around the top. The OCD in me wishes that it was more perfect. It is 11.5" in diameter and has a 1/2' rim so if anything was to spill or condense it will not run in the pot, it will run off. Since this keg was rubber coated, it realy complicated this process, as we had to fiddle with the rubber.
3. Prepping the couplings. I decided to put three couplings in the keg. One 1" for the 4500 watt electric water heater element. I chose a RIPP style element, and this made the process more difficult. The 1" coupling had to be cut shorter because it would not slide around the curves of the element. We cut about a 3/4 inch piece off with a bandsaw and faced it with the lathe. Next was a 1/2 inch coupling for the drain. And last, a 1/4 inch coupling for a thermocouple. These didn't require any modification.
4. Drilling the holes. We drilled the keg with a slightly smaller bit than the actual coupling. We didn't want to make the hole to large, as I wanted a really nice weld job. The element hole and the drain hole we enlarged with a reamer in a die grinder, and then pulled the coupling through from the inside. This yielded a thight fit, but the last coupling turned out perfect. For the 1/4 inch coupling we drilled a 5/8 inch hole for the coupling that measured 3/4 inch. We didn't enlarge the hole, and pulled it through. It was hard to pull through, but it was perfect.
5. Welding. We chose TIG welding as the means of welding the couplings in the wall. Larry did this while I wasn't there, and did a nice job. He said that he burnt through a couple of times, and had to use filler in those places. We didn't have the necessary equipment to back gas, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I told him that I didn't want chunky bumpy yucky weld on the inside. This is bad because it can harbor bacterial and is impossible to keep sanitary. I was impressed with what he did, the only less than perfect spot is where he tried to TIG it on the inside around the element coupling. He did all the welding on the out side, and it looks good to me.
6. Leak test. We cleaned up the threads with a thread tap, and screwed in the element, valve, and a plug in the thermocouple coupling. We filled it with water and it didn't leak a drop. We drained ti through the drain, and I'm glad I used a 1/2 in valve, as a 3/8 inch valve would take forever!
Lessons learned:
1. Don't try to use a rubber coated keg, it isn't worth it. We would have been done in less than half the time and had a much better looking finished product if we had used a all stainless keg.
2. Use a straight folded water heater element. We could have left the 1 inch coupling full length. (and saved even more time)
3. Leave the holes 1/16 inch smaller than the object you are putting in, and pull it through with a bolt, nut, sleeve arrangement.
When all was said and done, I had a 15.5 electric brew kettle for only the cost of:
$ 0.00 - Keg
$10.00 - Stainless Steel Couplings
$ 3.00 - 1/2" Brass ball valve and coupling
$24.99 - 4500 watt RIPP water heater element
and the welding and machine work cost me our old coffee maker.
There will be more costs for the electrical stuff needed to drive the element. I have a few things on order, and will do another post when they get here and I get that part finished. I also am going to make a dip tube for the drain so it will empty the kettle.
Fixed Screen Resolution on Ubuntu 9.10
I restarted my ubuntu machine today and was presented with a glorious 800x600 screen resolution. After a few minutes of looking for the xorg.conf file and not finding it, I found this which got things working again:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8595940
Now if it were this easy to fix the mac keyboard that the cats spilled water on...
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8595940
Now if it were this easy to fix the mac keyboard that the cats spilled water on...
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Countdown to the big day!
Things are really gearing up here on the home front. My wife, Beth is due Sept 23rd, so we are in full swing of trying to get the last things done.
Tonight we met with our doula, Laurie Flower, for the second and final prenatal visit. I'm very excited!! Beth and I are sooo happy that we decided to go with a doula. I don't know if it is a first-time parent thing, but she brings us so much comfort. (and we haven't even got to the labor and delivery yet!)
Even though we went through child birth classes, our doula has helped guide us through our expectations, and the reality of childbirth. She is such an encourager!
So as the excitement builds, I hope to get the time to post things to the site!
I'm starting to wonder how these spoiled guys will take the arrival!
Tonight we met with our doula, Laurie Flower, for the second and final prenatal visit. I'm very excited!! Beth and I are sooo happy that we decided to go with a doula. I don't know if it is a first-time parent thing, but she brings us so much comfort. (and we haven't even got to the labor and delivery yet!)
Even though we went through child birth classes, our doula has helped guide us through our expectations, and the reality of childbirth. She is such an encourager!
So as the excitement builds, I hope to get the time to post things to the site!
I'm starting to wonder how these spoiled guys will take the arrival!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Here come the kittehs . . .
Meet Nemo and Sheldon:
Nemo
Platinum Mink Tonkinese
Named for Marlin's son in the movie Finding Nemo. Nemo is curious, affectionate, and wants to be center of attention at all times.
Nemo
Platinum Mink Tonkinese
Named for Marlin's son in the movie Finding Nemo. Nemo is curious, affectionate, and wants to be center of attention at all times.
Sheldon
Champagne Mink Tonkinese
Another character from the movie Finding Nemo. Also, named for a character from The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon is the prettier, smarter, cooler of the two. However, he isn't as affectionate, and likes to spend time by himself. (Ironically just like the Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory.)
Thursday, July 2, 2009
fun with cars @ night
My first attempt at long exposure photography. I am really liking the Canon XSi!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Lookin' for a camera
With the little one on the way, I have declared the need for a new digital camera.
For the past 5 years, I have had my mind made up that my next camera would be a Digital SLR.
In the process of researching camera bodies and lenses, I discovered a few good articles:
Why a SLR? Why not a point and shoot? Answer: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/recommended-cameras.htm
Also, here is an article that spells it out even more: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/2dig.htm
For the past 5 years, I have had my mind made up that my next camera would be a Digital SLR.
In the process of researching camera bodies and lenses, I discovered a few good articles:
Why a SLR? Why not a point and shoot? Answer: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/recommended-cameras.htm
Also, here is an article that spells it out even more: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/2dig.htm
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Seedling Self Watering Rig
I just got back home from a weekend trip to Washington, DC. Before I left, I had been pondering how I would keep the tomato, pepper, and herb seedlings alive while I was gone.
Enter: Marlin's SSWR
One Aluminum Roasting pan
Put a piece of Styrofoam approx 1 inch thick in the bottom.
Drape a layer of paper towels (I used 2 layers of blue paper shop towels) over the Syrofoam block. Pour water in pan.
Styrofoam will float, and paper towel will wick water to plants.
Next year I will use this method from the get-go!
Here is a comparison of two pepper plants. One wasn't in the SSWR, another that was:
Enter: Marlin's SSWR
One Aluminum Roasting pan
Put a piece of Styrofoam approx 1 inch thick in the bottom.
Drape a layer of paper towels (I used 2 layers of blue paper shop towels) over the Syrofoam block. Pour water in pan.
Styrofoam will float, and paper towel will wick water to plants.
Next year I will use this method from the get-go!
Here is a comparison of two pepper plants. One wasn't in the SSWR, another that was:
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
My Most Private Personal Post:
Here it is. This was a long time coming,
I installed a new toilet at home.
We have been having issues with our toilet plugging. Ok, I will confess, I was the one that was causing this problem.
I did some looking on the internet several months ago, and decided that I wanted to get the Toto Aquia II. Review / Manufacturer's Product Page
I wanted a VERY powerful flush. I also was intrigued by the water saving abilities of the powerful 0.9 Gallon flush (for urine and easy flushing solids) and then the super-powerful 1.6 Gallon flush.
I am very pleased with the flush, and feel that I can throw the plunger away!
Here are a few pics of the toilet installed:
Here is the button actuated flush:
And here it is with the lid open, so you can see the waterspot, which is pretty small.
Clean is happy! I bought the soft close seat, so that there won't be any seat slamming. I got a giggle when I noticed the ad that was on the bottom of the lid. If I had a large supply of money, I would definitely have one of these.
I installed a new toilet at home.
We have been having issues with our toilet plugging. Ok, I will confess, I was the one that was causing this problem.
I did some looking on the internet several months ago, and decided that I wanted to get the Toto Aquia II. Review / Manufacturer's Product Page
I wanted a VERY powerful flush. I also was intrigued by the water saving abilities of the powerful 0.9 Gallon flush (for urine and easy flushing solids) and then the super-powerful 1.6 Gallon flush.
I am very pleased with the flush, and feel that I can throw the plunger away!
Here are a few pics of the toilet installed:
Here is the button actuated flush:
And here it is with the lid open, so you can see the waterspot, which is pretty small.
Clean is happy! I bought the soft close seat, so that there won't be any seat slamming. I got a giggle when I noticed the ad that was on the bottom of the lid. If I had a large supply of money, I would definitely have one of these.
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