Fermentation of Jesus "Ryes us"

The batch which we put the american ale two yeast begun showing signs of fermentation within 24 hours while the batch with belgian witbier yeast has not shown any signs. I opened up the fermentor and looked in through the airlock hole and there was a litte bit of krausen forming on top. Other than that there has been no bubbling. Cheap chinese airlocks are not the best way to tell weather or not your beer is fermenting but it is a good guess.

We properly aerated both batches so the lag phase should have been reduced to around two days. I will give it a few more days until I do anything, it is in a safe environment as of now so I am not too worried about an infection. When we were smacking the packs, the belgian ale yeast opened and a little came out. That should not affect it, it might lengthen the lag phase since there will be less yeast present at the beginning. This could be why it is taking so long.

How to build a kegerator

Step one: Find a chest freezer on craigslist or somewhere. It will probably be rusty, if it is then refer to step 6

Step two: measure the circumference of the freezer and take into consideration that you will be building a collar so you will need to cut two sides shorter than your measurement so you can screw them together. I used a 2 x 6 piece of wood and the measurements I took were 57 x 27 x 57 x 27, so I cut two 57 inch, and two 24 inch pieces of wood. A 2 x 6 is actually 1.5 x 5.5 and I was going to screw the two smaller pieces in-between the two larger front pieces. To do this I had to cut the two end pieces 3 inches shorter than the measurement I took.

Step three: buy the parts. Assuming you already have what it takes to keg and dispense your beer from a picnic tap, this is all you will need to turn that constant opening and closing of your keezer or kegerator into a dream come true.

freezer on Craigslist 100$

Co2 gas distributer with 4 way check valves 52$

2 SS Shanks for faucets 17$ each 34$

2 SS perl faucets 39$ each 78$

2x6x10 top choic lumber cut at Lowes 7$

cabot outdoor mahogany flame finish 15$

Sandpaper 220 grit and tack cloth 6$

chip brushs 2$

polyeuethane adhesive 5$

wood screws 8$

Total of 307$

For fixing rust if you have it:

Rust ezz 5$

2 cans of Rustoleum spray paint 11$

Step four: Sand, tack and stain your wood. It took the wood I used about a week to fully dry in my garage.

Step five: Remove the lid of your freezer and place aside. If you have rust present then skip this step and go ahead and fix the rust before you attach the lid. I wish I would have done this. Once the collar has screwed together you will place a bead of the polyurethane adhesive along where you wish to place the wooden collar.

Let this dry with books on top for a day or so and then reattach the lid. The holes might line up, if they don't then go to a hardware store and buy a few sheet metal screws and just reattach where the holes line up. Viola, you have the collar attached and it is ready for the shanks to be attached.

Step six: Go get some Rust-ez from Ace hardware, it is used to convert rust on cars into a paintable surface. Get some rustoleum in the color of what you want to paint. Follow directions on the bottles for both.

Start with this..................

and hopefully end with THIS.............

Now all I can do is hope that this will hold, if not then I still have some paint left over for some touch ups.

Step seven: here you will drill the holes for the shanks you bought and then place them in. Attach the faucets and then make sure to insulate your beer lines. Every bit helps when it comes to foaming, and even a one degree temperature change will cause foam.

The beer on the far left is the India Summer Ale from 10 Barrel brewing company, while the two on the far right are my homebrew. It is an India Summer Rye brewed with belgian witbier yeast and then also American Ale two yeast. In two separate kegs. I hold the kegerator at a steady 40 deg. F.

Cheers

Day after Easter brew aptly named, Jesus "Ryes" Us

Jesus "Ryes Us

Water

start with 13 gallons of water, to end with 8 gallons in the fermenters. The water was left out for a few hours to try and evaporate the chlorine. The original pH is 5.

Grainbill

14 lbs of 2 row base malt

1 lb of crystal 10L

1 lb of crystal 20L

0.5 lb of crystal 40L

2 lb of malted rye

7.3 Lovibond

Hops

2 oz of Golding, 5.7AA @ 60 min

2 oz of Amarillo, 11.2AA @ 20 min

2 oz of Saaz, 3.2AA @ 5 min

Two Yeast strains into two different fermenters both with 4 gallons in them:

American Ale 2

Belgian witbier

No adjuncts

Irish moss at 15 minutes

I brewed my first all-grain brew today and it was a blast! Taking it out of the kitchen throws brewing into a whole new dynamic for me. I was able to have the space I needed and the ability to clean up as I would in a real brewery, with a hose. I started by cleaning my new keggle by heating up water on the propane burner and then adding a few tablespoons of PBW into solution. I then drained that into my fermenters to set for a while. After rinsing the keggle I heated up 7.5 gallons of water to 160F and then transfered into my mash tun. I then added the grains and let sit for about an hour. The temp from beginning to end stayed exactly at 150 F, which is amazing in my opinion.

I performed an Iodine test to check for saccharification by draining a few drops of wort into a plastic tupperware container and then setting into a dish of cold water to cool down. Iodine turns black in the presence of starch, so if there is no color change then your enzymes have successfully converted all the starch into sugar. At first the iodine turned light red, so I let the mash keep going for a few more minutes and checked again. When I did my final test there was no color change so it was time to vorlouf. I did this by slowly draining the wort into a pitcher and slowly pouring it back on top of the mash.

The next step is sparging the grains. I heated up 5.5 gallons of water to 175F and then transfered into the HLT which was elevated above the mash tun. Drained the wort into the keggle until there was about a half inch of wort still present on above the grains, then it was time to start the sparge. I was left with 12.5 gallons of wort in the keggle.

From here it is all the same as before. only I boiled eight gallons instead of two.

It took only about an hour to reduce from 212 F to 70F

And we WAIT..........

We had a bit of a mistake when it came to emptying the keggle into the fermentors, the moral of the story here is that you should always check your spigots and fittings. I did not check the o-ring on my hop strainer in the keggle, it fell apart and got clogged, and then the spigot I chose for one of my fermentors fell off leaking a bit of wort on the ground. All in all it was the best brew ever and I feel much more confident in my skills and in what I have learned from the world brewing academy. I could feel what was taught to me being properly used.

All Grain Set Up

I have completed my all-grain set up today and it was much cheaper than if I would have paid retail. I got two 10 gallon igloo coolers both with new fitted turn valves and a decent sparging arm. The sparging arm is comprised of PVC and cooper tubing. The water flows through the tubing and rotates around the grain bed while the PVC acts as the frame that rests on the lid of the cooler. This is perfect because you want a homogenous spraying of sparge water on your grain bed or else you are not going to get the best extract possible.

The only thing I need to get is a false bottom because there is a small 1/2 inch by 5 inch extract drainer which I do not think will cut it. The perfect false bottom would be circular and take up the entirety of the bottom of the mash tun in order to get quick and stuck free extraction of the wort.

What it came with is pictured below.

Here is the price list for what I've gotten so far:

15.5 gallon keggle with awesome hop strainer, thermometer, and SS ball valve.......$175

58000 BTU propane burner with stand that can be fitted to use natural gas............$65

10 Gallon Hot Liqour Tank with new plastic ball valve.................................................$50

10 Gallon Mash Tun with "liquid extractor", sparging arm, and new ball valve........$50

WHAT I NEED

New circular false bottom to fit the cooler........$50

So far I have spent less than half of what I was expecting spend and I got it all on craigslist. I think the first beer I want to make using this system is a Hobgoblin clone since I can not find it in this town and I love that beer.

Also today was a big day for job progress since I went and talked to the brewers at Three Creeks in Sisters. They are hiring for a part time keg washer starting this summer and I know that it would be a perfect position for me to get my foot in the door somewhere and to get some real world experience. Wish me luck!