Anna's Brewdays

[MashBag]

Be VF careful with the drill. Feel you way. Bradawl is a brilliant idea. Look hard. There are always pipes in the wall for the condenser (different to the bit on the back)

A nasty hissing sound made me say some very rude words and kick a bucket across the yard

 

[DocAnna]

Back to the balloons….

I have been swapping over the Dubbel from temperature control to warm the lager up for a a diacetyl rest then cold crash. The 80 litre fermenters deform a wee bit in lifting so I wanted to fit one of my CO2 ballon reservoirs to prevent sucking in of air during movement and cooling. Problem is they don’t fit the super large airlocks on the fermenters. So it was a hunt around the brewery for something that fitted…. Behold the next generation of CO2. Balloon tech for filling from a CO2 line and fitted to a large airlock .

Quite chuffed

 

[Clint]

I work with a few balloons.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Good fix doc. Now do it properly and have a standardized connection system for all your balloons and all your fermenters etc. You know it makes sense and you have soooo much time to spare.

 

[DocAnna]

Testing and sampling the beers before cold crashing.

Dubbel Knot Too : Fits to style for a Dubbel other than a bit more bitterness but it's that initial bitterness that usually clears once the beer has cleared, nice but not the caramel creamy scruminess I was hoping for. Lets see how it conditions. There's hints of layers here and eek it's strong not by taste but by how I feel after trying a small glass (7.5% based on current readings)
Core F3 : Oh this is yum for a lager, I do like this new yeast. Citrus lemon with a bit of yeasty complexity there. If that stays after it clears I'll be very happy indeed

 

[dad_of_jon]

Worry ye not, it will become more complex. I have a Belgian golden strong ale ready for bottling abv 8.14%+ (est), partly inspired by :

1. Your Dubbel knot - to do a Belgian beer and
2. As a protest against duvel for lowering the abv of their standard beer in the UK. Leffe blonde from 6.6% to 6% apart from in JDW, Delerium tremens to 7.4% from 8.5% Kasteel rouge from 8% to 7% etc.... still Cherry Choffe is still 8% and St Bernadus abt 12 is still 10% so not all is lost.

 

[Twostage]

Belgian golden strong ale

That sounds nice. Without googling or looking up the style I can imagine a slightly dark, lightly hopped, strong lager with a hint of sweetness aftertaste.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

That sounds nice. Without googling or looking up the style I can imagine a slightly dark, lightly hopped, strong lager with a hint of sweetness aftertaste.

Should be very very pale, minimal hop, most taste from yeast and highly carbonated. Pretty dry.

 

[DocAnna]

More cleaning this evening and using caustic which gives me the heebie jeebies but it gets the job done. Things still not properly clean since the roofing disaster a year ago. I’ve cleaned everything at least twice but it still doesn’t seem right. I get quite upset about it if I think about it too long. Caustic is a way of being definitive about it in that ‘all bugs must die’ caring doctor way.

Time for the big pump too as I’m not disturbing the lager that been patiently at -2 or thereabouts for about 3 weeks.

 

[Clint]

Hmmm...cleaning! I'm an expert...but mainly in work as the regime we put the machines through before production (making wound dressings) is pretty brutal! We use solvents,a couple being MEK,methylethylkeytone,and DMF,dimethylformamide. The latter is particularly effective but quite dangerous as its a kill everything sort of product.
But then everyone knows the only way to be sure is to nuke them from orbit.

 

[DocAnna]

Ooops…Well it tastes interesting.

I was making the transfer and the fluid level dropped far far faster than expected, I was expecting two full kegs- instead I have one and a tiny bit. What on earth is going on - ah that -2 ish I’ve been keeping it at has frozen I’d guess at least 15 litres in the fermenter. So the beer is a bit concentrated and strong. I have no idea what alcohol strength it will be now other than quite a lot. I’m going to have to leave this to defrost before I can do anything with it .

 

[samale]

Just call it an Eislager

 

[Deadhead]

I’m heading into a mega clean of everything myself. I definitely have something wild growing that shouldn’t be! Caustic soda sounds a bit hardcore , hopefully I don’t need to. Hopefully it helps you!

 

[DocAnna]

I’m heading into a mega clean of everything myself. I definitely have something wild growing that shouldn’t be! Caustic soda sounds a bit hardcore , hopefully I don’t need to. Hopefully it helps you!

It’s Chemclean, and yes it’s good stuff but a tiny droplet on the skin stings and the dust when opening the tub or handling the powder is enough to make me cough so I use a face mask while dosing it.

 

[MashBag]

If you thaw it, you can add it back and the alcohol will not be affected.

If you what to know the strength, thaw it, measure how much you have got, and then reverse a dilution calc to work out the new strength.

 

[MashBag]

I’m heading into a mega clean of everything myself. I definitely have something wild growing that shouldn’t be! Caustic soda sounds a bit hardcore , hopefully I don’t need to. Hopefully it helps you!

Caustic Truck wash is similar stuff, and it's easily poured in a squirter so the dust is not an issue, and you find you use it more often because it's easier to access and more accurate.

 

[Deadhead]

It’s Chemclean, and yes it’s good stuff but a tiny droplet on the skin stings and the dust when opening the tub or handling the powder is enough to make me cough so I use a face mask while dosing it.
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Ahh, of course!

 

[DCBC]

It’s Chemclean, and yes it’s good stuff but a tiny droplet on the skin stings and the dust when opening the tub or handling the powder is enough to make me cough so I use a face mask while dosing it.
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That's really interesting - I'm in a very similar position regarding a brewing hiatus. I have just relaunched my own brewery after nearly two years as part of a house-move garage conversion and did my first brew last week. I have been documenting the process and I will post it as a separate thread in case anyone is interested.

I was thinking of graduating to caustic since the brewing stuff had been sitting around for 18mo and got some black mould last winter. In the end I settled for the cleaner I use after every brew and ... it's Chemclean! I never realised it was caustic and now I am wondering if I overuse it. Though to be honest I do always go with the lowest dose for recirculation. I think I assumed that caustic was TSP and that always scared me.

I'm glad I did use Chemclean/caustic because I got a fair bit of stringy orange goo (mould) from my HERMS coil. This is despite a rigorous post-brew cleaning regime of a.) Chemclean b.) rinse c.) starsan d.) wet vac to dry. It was a real surprise that there could be so much nastiness lurking in there after not that long sitting around.

Wishing you all the best with your brews to come. Exciting times!

 

[Wynne]

Can recommend Antiformin S but it does require safety specs, gloves and careful storage and handling when neat.

 

[DocAnna]

I’m not so active here these days but I do try to check in regularly. Sharing time between Stirling and Orkney isn’t conducive to brewing especially since I need to make up my clinic hours while here so it’s been a long week. I am though well behind on packaging up some of my latest Dubbel - which was a pain to try to can. I could not get the can filler to dispense much more than foam so reverted to using it to purge them with CO2 and fill with a party tap! Having weighed the cans I am now drinking the rejects and feeling a bit Dubbeled out tbh. I’m away tomorrow then working 12 hours Sunday and 16 hrs Monday so the chances of getting these labelled and posted is looking slim.