Anna's Brewdays

[KegThat]

@DocAnna ,

Thanks for finally giving us a try :) Hope everything went okay with the order !

Cheers :)

 

[DocAnna]

So I felt awful Friday night, and not just because I'd sat through the Avatar movie! Saturday and struggled to get out of bed, feeling a bit panicky walking around as a bit breathless. Had one of the secret santa beers (will write up my tasting notes later) and felt much worse. Finally the penny dropped and I did a COVID test - strong positive . So I haven't tried the other SS beer yet. I have though taken some photos of what I put in place for my lagers.

Since these are fementing in the unheated garage, the temperature is just a bit too low for even a lager. The two fermenters have now been jacketed in a seed tray heater each, with an inkbird controller and then wrapped in bubble wrap for insulation. It's all a bit messy but it is working well at keeping the temperature on target. I am though now thinking about making a simple box frame with kingspan to use these in for future, but it needs to be something that can be packed away when not required. I know you all said otherwise after my Kegerator construction, but I am a bit intimidated by the idea of making something with powertools like that, and If I did make something it would have to look attractive - I do have some standards and appearances count as well as function.

However for now - here's the messy ad hoc arrrangement, with and without insulation.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Sleeping bags work well, and insulate underneath well

 

[DocAnna]

Sleeping bags work well, and insulate underneath well

Yep. I reckon more insulation needed. For complicated reasons I have a thermal camera (Dispute to do with window work) and this shows I’ve more to do.

By comparison my fermentation fridge is on the left with inside currently at 23 C

Mind you it looks like I need more insulation on the hot water pipes too!

 

[SMP Brewery]

However for now - here's the messy ad hoc arrrangement, with and without insulation.

Mine from today’s brew to keep it up to temperature looks a bit Heath Robinson

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

This stuff is very good for the price too. there’s enough on a roll to wrap around a good few times.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/radiator...UxiJIGhxPZwnHPTnx0hoCyW0QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
I used it to wrap my Peco Boiler.

 

[DocAnna]

This stuff is very good for the price too. there’s enough on a roll to wrap around a good few times.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/radiator...UxiJIGhxPZwnHPTnx0hoCyW0QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
I used it to wrap my Peco Boiler.

View attachment 80749

Hmm... that's given me some ideas though about a collapsable fermentation unit.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Hmm... that's given me some ideas though about a collapsable fermentation unit.

Hmm, I’m intrigued!

 

[RoomWithABrew]

You can get foil backed sleeping mats from Kmart they look good on my friends brew system.

Love my FLIR camera as well very useful it's on my phone. Good for finding dog in the dark and checking if my beer in the pub is too hot or cold..

Also for spotting people with a temperature from a fever, like @DocAnna !!

 

[DocAnna]

It is friggin freezing in the garage, well not quite, but it's -4 outside brrrr

Bit of a moving things around session this evening:
1. Clementine and passionfruit Gose, is 27 litres after all the juices. Added 33 g cracked corriander and 32.5g Himalayan salt after boiling both in 500ml water for a few minutes. Added 43g Citra as a dry hop as well.
Moved out of the summery 23°C fermenting fridge into the brrr chilly garage to cold crash

2. Raspberry, passion fruit and pomegranite sour had a dry hop of 40g of Opus.
Moved out of the summery 23°C fermenting fridge into the brrr chilly garage to cold crash

3. Core-F A v2 and Core-F C moved into the fermenting fridge to raise temp from 12 to 15°C

Core-F, A is the same yeast as last time but a smidgeon more bitterness thus the v2. Core-F C is the same wort but with CML Hell yeast instead.... simples (really )

So here's my two baby sours now piped up to their shiny CO2 balloons in for a bit of a shock given how warm they've been used to the last week and a half . Who me anthropomorphise my beers... no not me .

 

[DocAnna]

I had an interesting taste experience last night. I'd left my two jars of supernatant from my OYL-111 starter in the fridge far longer than usual, and was decanting off the now crystal clear liquid to wash the yeast ready for longer term storage. I thought I'd have a taste of the 'beer' ie fermented DME, and it was surprisingly pleasant, picked up lemon and lime notes. Now this is an unhopped plain starter with the yeast fully settled, so the flavours could only have come from the products of the yeast. It made me think that maybe a good way to assess the characteristics a yeast brings to the party is to taste the liquid from a starter after its had time to settle. I'm certainly going to try that next time.

 

[Wynne]

I had an interesting taste experience last night. I'd left my two jars of supernatant from my OYL-111 starter in the fridge far longer than usual, and was decanting off the now crystal clear liquid to wash the yeast ready for longer term storage. I thought I'd have a taste of the 'beer' ie fermented DME, and it was surprisingly pleasant, picked up lemon and lime notes. Now this is an unhopped plain starter with the yeast fully settled, so the flavours could only have come from the products of the yeast. It made me think that maybe a good way to assess the characteristics a yeast brings to the party is to taste the liquid from a starter after its had time to settle. I'm certainly going to try that next time.

@DocAnna - interesting! It would also be interesting to try the effect at different fermentation temperatures for each yeast strain. The resulting beer could then be analysed for particular flavour compounds and/or by a tasting panel for its flavour profile.Possible basis for an MSc project?

 

[DocAnna]

I've an interesting problem. I've too much beer.

Thing is that I have committed to drinking a lot less, not that I drank a lot to begin with, but after a glass or two I get nibbly and end up eating crisps or crackers, and it has been making dieting difficult. Not that I'd consider myself huge by any means, but shifting the weight post COVID and home working is proving harder than it used to. So I'm not drinking at all during the week and less at the weekend, which is working. It does mean I've nicely conditioned beers to drink when I do but they may be there for quite some time. Why is this an issue, well I enjoy the process of brewing and the outlook is that I won't have a free keg for months at this rate.

My plan is to refocus on design of my brewing space that has to cohabit with bikes, tools and storage boxes in the garage. In particular wall mounting my new regulators and properly fitting the CO2 tubing to the walls. A couple of months ago I sourced a can filler - just the one fill point version, which will also need a mounting point and CO2 supply. This will mean I can set up a proper canning station rather than my Heath Robinson set up I have now. This will allow me to commit to properly canning in slightly larger amounts, and I can clear out more beer sending out larger parcels/cases to friends and family. It's going to mean a new focus on process for labelling, packaging and schedule, all of which makes me happy as it's still 'brewing' and means I can make more beer too. This feels like a natural progression but is going to take a while to get right.

So a couple of questions about CO2 piping:

• Is it better to have one long pipe with a curving corner, or use JG fittings and a right angle bend, if there is space to do either?
• I've some condensation in one of my clear longer CO2 pipes - should I replace the tube, is there some way of drying it out, or should I leave alone? Thanks x.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I'm with you on keeping the drinking mostly to the weekend: I don't always achieve it, but it certainly helps :-)

Regarding the CO2 elbows vs. swept bends, the viscosity of CO2 is so much less than that of the beer that I really don't think it matters unless you're trying to achieve really high flow rates. I fairly recently switched all my gas lines over to 1/4" and it's quite a bit more convenient.

As for the condensation in the gas line, that's not something I've experienced. I'd say it's definitely worth drying it out. I'd suggest blowing a hair dryer on it until the condensation all evaporates, and then flushing it out with CO2.

 

[YeastFace]

I use 90° elbows in my setup as bends wouldn't work. I guess there are more potential points of failure with elbows as opposed to bent tubing, but *fingers crossed* so far I've had no issues. I use a mix of JG and Duotight fittings.

 

[DocAnna]

I use 90° elbows in my setup as bends wouldn't work. I guess there are more potential points of failure with elbows as opposed to bent tubing, but *fingers crossed* so far I've had no issues. I use a mix of JG and Duotight fittings.

Thanks, this is really helpful. I've been looking at duotight fittings for this as they are cheaper but will be fixed so less likely to flex. What kind of mounting clips do you use if using 3/8" pipe?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

What kind of mounting clips do you use if using 3/8" pipe?

These are pretty good, but getting them into masonry can be tricky: British General White Round Cable Clips 10mm 50 Pack - Screwfix

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

An easier option might be self-adhesive cable tie bases like these: Cable Tie Base Natural 20 x 19mm 100 Pack - Screwfix
and 4.8mm cable ties.
You might find the bases don't stick all that well to porous brick/concrete blocks so you might want to dab a pit of paint on first if that's the case

 

[Buffers brewery]

Going off piste a bit and depending how good your wall surface is you could use plastic conduit to contain your pipes?

https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Self-Adhesive-Mini-Trunking---White-16-x-25mm-x-2m/p/712947

 

[DocAnna]

An easier option might be self-adhesive cable tie bases like these: Cable Tie Base Natural 20 x 19mm 100 Pack - Screwfix
and 4.8mm cable ties.
You might find the bases don't stick all that well to porous brick/concrete blocks so you might want to dab a pit of paint on first if that's the case

Ooh those are neat, I had no idea such things existed. I'm just at the stage of properly planning out the piping for the space and don't want to have to redo it. This is a bit more than the ad-hoc piping I have at the moment.

Going off piste a bit and depending how good your wall surface is you could use plastic conduit to contain your pipes?

https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Self-Adhesive-Mini-Trunking---White-16-x-25mm-x-2m/p/712947

It's a real mix, powdery plaster on one side, bare wood and gaps on the 'ceiling' and painted plasterboard on the other side (built as an extension in the 70's). The regulators will need mounted onto a board which will itself be mounted on the wall. There used to be a worryingly not regulation mains cable that came in from the road and was embedded in the wall. That was disconnected and made safe last year and an expensive large armoured cable put in its place, so at least I'm less worried than I would have been about drilling into the wall. I think I'm going to stick with 3/8 pipe but use 10mm pipe clips and use the 90° connection bends.