Since we are building a brew house that creates more volume we needed larger burners to heat the water faster.
The good news is that the burners are much larger the bad news is that they need to be controlled somehow.
Check out the video and you will see what I mean.
10:20 AM
7:49 PM
The project that started this whole new home brewery was the modified "brewhouse".
When I started brewing I used a cajun burner with one pot. Since I am not a welder by any means I needed to have someone do the fabrication when I stepped to a single tier all grain system. Brad, is a friend of a friend who last year helped me construct this single tier brew scuplture.
Realtive to the new system is was very simple, quick disconnects, one pump and three 55k btu burners.
The new system about 1/3 of the way through the modications. Once it is done it will be entirely hard plumbed, have two pumps (one for sparging and the other for wort transfer), HLT heat exchanger for step mashes, inline temp readings, several polycarbonate sight glasses, an expandable / swinging control panel supprt, a tipping mash tun, integrated plate chiller and a way to reuse the hot water from the chiller. So I guess this brewery will be "green" in the way it conserves water.
These pics include one of Brad who has done a very good job of coming up with problems with constructing the brewery. More pictures will be included as Brad's part is done and as we hard plumb it.
6:21 AM
It wasn't pretty but... What did you expect from a beer that has been "conditioned" for 4+ years.
If you have tried this beer post your comments about your experience.... That is if your still alive to talk about it.
Checkout the video review.
If you have tried this beer post your comments about your experience.... That is if your still alive to talk about it.
Checkout the video review.
7:40 PM
We made a blackberry lambic recipe in the summer of 2004. We followed the recipe to the letter and like some other things in life my gut did not feel right following the recipe exactly. However, I thought "we have never have made a recipe like this maybe I should just do it". So we did. We added a second yeast addition, just like the recipe said and that is where I believe we went wrong.
So fast forward to four years later, and how has it aged??
It has decent head retention, a light mouth feel and a light sweet flavor. HOWEVER, this overwhelming yeast taste beats down all the other flavors. It is kind of embarrassing to talk about but twice now when I follow a recipe that does not sound completlely in line with a style it has not turned out the way we like.
Ira has the video of us tasting the batch. I will ask him to post it.
So fast forward to four years later, and how has it aged??
It has decent head retention, a light mouth feel and a light sweet flavor. HOWEVER, this overwhelming yeast taste beats down all the other flavors. It is kind of embarrassing to talk about but twice now when I follow a recipe that does not sound completlely in line with a style it has not turned out the way we like.
Ira has the video of us tasting the batch. I will ask him to post it.
7:25 PM
We (Adam, Ira, Tobias, and Matt) did a fair amount of work on the brewery components tonight. Pictures will follow here in a few days.
We have most of the cold box completed we only need to caulk a few seams, paint the outside of the box and put on casters and affix the heat exchanger to the inside of the box.
We also started the cart that the glycol chiller will sit on. This will be somewhat complex in order for the glycol reservoir not to leak.
However, the most interesting piece thus far is the "Brain" of the fermentation process which Ira is building and programming entirely from scratch. We are using a touch screen to control and monitor the process. At this point we will be able to program manually or use preset modes for the temperatures and times for fermentation.
This is a lot of information but I promise to include video and pictures to make the whole concept more intriguing.
Later....
We have most of the cold box completed we only need to caulk a few seams, paint the outside of the box and put on casters and affix the heat exchanger to the inside of the box.
We also started the cart that the glycol chiller will sit on. This will be somewhat complex in order for the glycol reservoir not to leak.
However, the most interesting piece thus far is the "Brain" of the fermentation process which Ira is building and programming entirely from scratch. We are using a touch screen to control and monitor the process. At this point we will be able to program manually or use preset modes for the temperatures and times for fermentation.
This is a lot of information but I promise to include video and pictures to make the whole concept more intriguing.
Later....
7:39 AM
Rain is great for the growth of our hops but we cannot work on the brewery then...what a dilemma.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
10:21 PM
Here are a few pics to update the Glycol Chilled Conical. We are improving the straps to hold the coil against the bottom of the cone. We were torn on where to put the coil for two reasons. One the Blichmann Conicals do not allow you to place coils around the top part because of how the legs are attached, and Two because we will not always be doing 21 gallon batches most of the test batches will be at most 5 gallons. I have to say that the construction of the Blichmann conicals is very high quality, exellent job John! I included the picture of the cold box again because that is where we are placing the conical within the brewery. I have to say it looks tiny on top of that box....
