The Chaos that is a Buffers Brewery brew day

[Buffers brewery]

Well that worked! Fermentation started yesterday around midday and a slow dribble of water appeared from the beer out line on the KK. Got to around a one and a half gallons mark, so I disconnected the gas in line to the KK and turned the taps on to the empty balloon. Half an hour later that was full!

While that was going on I drained the water out of the collection bucket and when the balloon was full switched back to the KK. By this time fermentation was well underway. Three hours later I checked on progress to find the beer out line empty with just gas coming out! KK was empty (just a little water). Disconnected both gas in and beer out connectors to isolate KK and plugged line to the balloon into a bubbler airlock.
So the KK is just going to sit and wait for the fermentation to finish, cold crash and then do another Closed Transfer.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Beer SG has been 1.012 for 4 days so started cold crash yesterday (a couple of days earlier than planned but I want to squeeze another brewday in before Christmas and want the fridge empty) so should be ready to keg on Sunday.

 

[Buffers brewery]

A little early but tried my Abbey beer today....

I'm going to enjoy this one
Trouble is, so is the wife

 

[Buffers brewery]

Back in the brewing saddle today. I was hoping to have a brew day at the end of last year between Christmas and New Year but managed to trap a nerve (according to my doc) in my back which rendered me immobile for the end of the year and most of January!
Usually brew in the back garden under a gazebo but the lawn is like a bog after all the rain we’ve had so had to sort a space at the front of the garage
Managed to squeeze it all in...

Trying out a Simcoe/Cascade ale using pale and crystal malt and carapils. I usually do a first mash for an hour followed by two 30 minute mashes which makes the process quite lengthy. So I decided to try to just lauter (I think that’s the correct term) so at the end of the mash I drained the wort from the tun while sparging the grain with fresh hot water. Gave the grain a good squeeze at the end to get as much as I could out.
A one hour boiled with hop additions at 60, 30, 15 and 0 with equal quantities of the two hops (5, 15, 15 and 20 grams respectively).
Brewhouse efficiency was 10% less than what I’m used to but still 70% ish. Obviously my usual process is more efficient which is good to know.
5 gallons of wort transferred to the fridge and a sachet of MJ M44 yeast sprinkled on the top, of the wort, not the fridge
I was hoping to dry hop by pinching a process used by those of us that have these flash plastic conical fermenters, i.e. place some magnets inside the hop bag and hold it in place under the lid with some more magnets. Sadly, my magnets weren’t strong enough (got some more on order).
Having shut the fridge door the CO2 collection “system” was connected. More on that later.....

 

[Spratt]

Back in the brewing saddle today. I was hoping to have a brew day at the end of last year between Christmas and New Year but managed to trap a nerve (according to my doc) in my back which rendered me immobile for the end of the year and most of January!
Usually brew in the back garden under a gazebo but the lawn is like a bog after all the rain we’ve had so had to sort a space at the front of the garage
Managed to squeeze it all in...
View attachment 40641
Trying out a Simcoe/Cascade ale using pale and crystal malt and carapils. I usually do a first mash for an hour followed by two 30 minute mashes which makes the process quite lengthy. So I decided to try to just lauter (I think that’s the correct term) so at the end of the mash I drained the wort from the tun while sparging the grain with fresh hot water. Gave the grain a good squeeze at the end to get as much as I could out.
A one hour boiled with hop additions at 60, 30, 15 and 0 with equal quantities of the two hops (5, 15, 15 and 20 grams respectively).
Brewhouse efficiency was 10% less than what I’m used to but still 70% ish. Obviously my usual process is more efficient which is good to know.
5 gallons of wort transferred to the fridge and a sachet of MJ M44 yeast sprinkled on the top, of the wort, not the fridge
I was hoping to dry hop by pinching a process used by those of us that have these flash plastic conical fermenters, i.e. place some magnets inside the hop bag and hold it in place under the lid with some more magnets. Sadly, my magnets weren’t strong enough (got some more on order).
Having shut the fridge door the CO2 collection “system” was connected. More on that later.....

I sympathise with the back problem. It can be really debilitating stopping all normal activity not just brewing.

I'm looking forward to hearing where you've got too with the CO2 capture. I have finally given up on mylar balloons. Either the tube was getting blocked on insertion so that it wouldn't release the gas back again, or I was getting leaks round the new insertion point I tried cutting following your suggestion. So I'm now following a tip given by some-one in the forum and using 15 litre water carriers from Mountain Warehouse. They work really well and have their own tap, but capacity is a problem. I hooked up one late in the evening to a particularly vigorous brew I had going in my Fermzilla. Next morning I found the carrier in shreds - it must have gone off with a hell of a bang, because they are quite thick plastic. Good luck with yours.

 

[Buffers brewery]

I hooked up one late in the evening to a particularly vigorous brew I had going in my Fermzilla. Next morning I found the carrier in shreds

I think I posted a question on this very subject as with my first attempt at ballooning I was lucky to catch it before, like your water carrier, it blew up!
I hope with my new set up I might....might have fixed it. I’ll wait and see if it works and report back.

On a different subject, when I was cleaning up yesterday after my brew day, I went to pack away my calor gas bottle and it had got incredibly heavy! So heavy, I couldn’t lift it!

On closer examination I noticed the bottle had frozen to the drive!
Never seen that before.

 

[Spratt]

I think I posted a question on this very subject as with my first attempt at ballooning I was lucky to catch it before, like your water carrier, it blew up!
I hope with my new set up I might....might have fixed it. I’ll wait and see if it works and report back.

On a different subject, when I was cleaning up yesterday after my brew day, I went to pack away my calor gas bottle and it had got incredibly heavy! So heavy, I couldn’t lift it!
View attachment 40675
On closer examination I noticed the bottle had frozen to the drive!
Never seen that before.

Chilly! I thought it was the North that was in the grip of a big freeze while the South Coast was basking in balmy sunshine

 

[Justin Dean]

Very nice . Just wondering what you think the budget was for the things you have done?

 

[Buffers brewery]

Very nice . Just wondering what you think the budget was for the things you have done?

HUGE! There’s a lot more “scrap” from experiments that never got “approval”
But having exhausted my tinkering with my model railway, which can also be a bit of a high budget hobby, I had to find something else to do!

On a more serious note @Justin Dean funnily enough I’m in the process of costing out my equipment including storage and dispensing. I know it’s going to be a lot!

 

[foxy]

I sympathise with the back problem. It can be really debilitating stopping all normal activity not just brewing.

I'm looking forward to hearing where you've got too with the CO2 capture. I have finally given up on mylar balloons. Either the tube was getting blocked on insertion so that it wouldn't release the gas back again, or I was getting leaks round the new insertion point I tried cutting following your suggestion. So I'm now following a tip given by some-one in the forum and using 15 litre water carriers from Mountain Warehouse. They work really well and have their own tap, but capacity is a problem. I hooked up one late in the evening to a particularly vigorous brew I had going in my Fermzilla. Next morning I found the carrier in shreds - it must have gone off with a hell of a bang, because they are quite thick plastic. Good luck with yours.

When catching the gas best to do it towards the end of fermentation, the gas is cleaner and won't be vigorously filling up the container. If you can get the water containers where the cap and tap are separate you could fit a pressure relief valve to the cap. Or get an in line regulator, where it doesn't matter where the tap is.

Blue 10 PSI Purple 15 PSI

A little early but tried my Abbey beer today....
View attachment 36946
I'm going to enjoy this one
Trouble is, so is the wife

Did you use the captured gas to carbonate?

 

[Buffers brewery]

Hi @foxy No, I don’t carbonate with the fermentation gas. I use it to purge a sanitised King Keg pressure barrel filled with water and then collect a balloonful for cold crash purposes and closed transfer from FV to PB. I carbonate using priming sugar.

 

[Buffers brewery]

So, first test of the CO2 collection system was not a complete success however, part of it was.
Following on from @Spratt experience of a burst container due to over inflation, I (of course) made a gadget....

...balloon callipers!
So the callipers fit inside the folds of the balloon..

...so as the balloon inflates, the callipers part. On the top there’s a micro-switch which, when the balloon is full, is actuated and operates a valve fitted in the gas line....

....(note: the red hose is the line from the FV and the blue line goes to the balloon). When the valve is operated the fermentation gas is diverted to the sanitised King Keg full of water in the hope that it would displace the water into a waiting bucket and fill the barrel with CO2....

...this is the bit that didn’t work! The valve switched but no water got displaced, which is wierd as the last time I did a brew it worked, albeit with me doing the changeover. This needs to be investigated.
So I removed the balloon and emptied it using a rolling pin (gently rolling it) and connected it back in circuit to get it inflated for cold crash use. The callipers will stop it getting over inflated.
See my balloon inflate over a 5 hour period (in 15 seconds). Watch the end and you can see were the valve switches

 

[Brianbrewed]

Pretty impressive set-up

 

[Justin Dean]

HUGE! There’s a lot more “scrap” from experiments that never got “approval”
But having exhausted my tinkering with my model railway, which can also be a bit of a high budget hobby, I had to find something else to do!

On a more serious note @Justin Dean funnily enough I’m in the process of costing out my equipment including storage and dispensing. I know it’s going to be a lot!

Hopefully less than a grainfather and fermzilla set up. Its not all about cost of course, it is about the process and setting it up that makes you happy. Good beer is good beer after all.

 

[Spratt]

When catching the gas best to do it towards the end of fermentation, the gas is cleaner and won't be vigorously filling up the container. If you can get the water containers where the cap and tap are separate you could fit a pressure relief valve to the cap. Or get an in line regulator, where it doesn't matter where the tap is.

My container only has the the tap (no separate cap) but I'm attached to a spunding valve so I might just tighten up the pressure overnight. If I do it towards the end of the brew hopefully the pressure won't get too much for my Fermzilla All Rounder. Like @Buffers brewery I'm only using the captured gas to replace the Starsan in my (modified) KingKeg so that the fermented beer goes into an O2-free (well almost) zone.

 

[Spratt]

So, first test of the CO2 collection system was not a complete success however, part of it was.
Following on from @Spratt experience of a burst container due to over inflation, I (of course) made a gadget....
View attachment 40714
...balloon callipers!
So the callipers fit inside the folds of the balloon..
View attachment 40716
...so as the balloon inflates, the callipers part. On the top there’s a micro-switch which, when the balloon is full, is actuated and operates a valve fitted in the gas line....
View attachment 40718
....(note: the red hose is the line from the FV and the blue line goes to the balloon). When the valve is operated the fermentation gas is diverted to the sanitised King Keg full of water in the hope that it would displace the water into a waiting bucket and fill the barrel with CO2....
View attachment 40719
...this is the bit that didn’t work! The valve switched but no water got displaced, which is wierd as the last time I did a brew it worked, albeit with me doing the changeover. This needs to be investigated.
So I removed the balloon and emptied it using a rolling pin (gently rolling it) and connected it back in circuit to get it inflated for cold crash use. The callipers will stop it getting over inflated.
See my balloon inflate over a 5 hour period (in 15 seconds). Watch the end and you can see were the valve switches

Ingenious and very entertaining!

Though I fear someone coming across this thread by mistake might be shaking their head in disbelief at the lengths we all go to......................

 

[Buffers brewery]

Ingenious and very entertaining!

Though I fear someone coming across this thread by mistake might be shaking their head in disbelief at the lengths we all go to......................

I call it occupational therapy......or perhaps I need therapy . Keeps me occupied

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Nice work there!

 

[Buffers brewery]

View attachment 40704
Blue 10 PSI Purple 15 PSI

Hi @foxy I've been searching for these relief valves on line, can't find them anywhere. Can you tell me where you get them from please. TIA.

 

[foxy]

Hi @foxy I've been searching for these relief valves on line, can't find them anywhere. Can you tell me where you get them from please. TIA.

Brew 2 Bottle is getting some in his next shipment.