Grains (steeped 30 minutes at 150(ish) degrees)
1lb crystal 60L
.5 lb carapils

2 cans Briess Golden (light) LME
1 lb Munton’s DME (light)
1 oz Amarillo hops (60 minutes)
1 oz Mt. Hood hops (30 minutes)
1 oz Cascade hops (15 minutes)
1 oz Cascade hops (flameout)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale)

Also 1 tsp of irish moss at 15 minutes.

I just started brewing my next batch… another IPA to serve at a LAN party in a couple of weeks. Trying out some new hops in combination with some old standbys… Amarillo, Mt. Hood, and Cascade. Should be pretty tasty!

Once I’m done with that batch I’ll have to see about bottling up an imperial stout that I brewed darn near a year ago… assuming I’ve got any energy left.

And today I finished the shelves to hold everything:

Just after I took this picture I replaced the hose barbs on the kettles with my new quick disconnect fittings from Northern Brewer.  Next up is painting and sealing, then I need to mount the water filter, pump, and chiller.  After that, time to water-test it (check for leaks, see how much water stays in the tube/pump, etc), then on to making beer!

I should also consider putting sliders or casters or something on this thing… moving it around is fun at the moment.  It’s pretty hefty.

First thing was to make a mash tun.  I used a five gallon Rubbermaid beverage cooler.

Step 1:  Remove the plastic spout.

Step 2:  Install the new ball valve

I decided to make my own manifold for the mash tun rather than using a false bottom.  It was surprisingly easy…

Step 1:  Don safety glasses!  Look how stylish!

I used about 2 feet worth of 1/2″ copper pipe to make the manifold, along with a couple of elbows and  T.

After I made sure it fit it was time to cut some slits to let the wort out of the mash.  Lots of hacksaw-ing later…

Mash tun complete!  And it was relatively easy, so I decided to move on to my water filter.  This is where things started to get irritating.

I got all of the stuff together, and immediately noticed that one of my fittings didn’t match up.  I very specifically picked up IDENTICAL packages at Lowe’s after finding the correct piece … so someone had opened a package and put the wrong thing in one of em.

Ah well.  Back to Lowe’s the next day to get the correct part, right?  Not so much.  I got what I THOUGHT was the right part, but ended up getting the wrong size.  Back to Lowe’s again that evening!  After the third trip I finally have a completed water filter.  The amusing thing … when I returned the initial part I explained that it was in the wrong packaging.  When I went back for the final time I found the spot on the rack for the correct part … with the incorrectly packaged piece back on the rack waiting to trap someone else.

On to my new brew kettle!

Pulled everything out of the box… huge new burner, flawless shiny stainless kettle … time to cut some holes!

So far so good … so I mounted new new ball valve and filled the kettle with water to leak test it.

Wouldn’t you know it .. it leaked.

I took apart the valve assembly and wrapped the whole bulkead with teflon tape thinking “Ahh, that’ll take care of it!” Started to put things back together and managed to destroy BOTH of the silicon O-rings, so now I get to order some more.  Bleh.

After I get the new O-rings and a couple of other small fittings I’ll be ready to construct the stand itself.. more pictures to come!

One of my biggest complaints about the kegerator-as-it-was was the fact that the faucets would get sticky after a couple of days of non-use.  (Yes, it’s amazing to me too … a few days when I don’t drink beer?!)  I’d have to haul on the lever and feel like I was about to break things to get them loosened up again.

The NEW faucets are supposed to take care of that.  They use a different type of seal that is never exposed to air, so they don’t dry out and get sticky.  They also look cooler … more of a tap-room vibe than the old ones.  For comparison:

Old faucet: And the new one: 

I guess I was just feelin’ cheap when I bought the initial setup… the new taps are a little more than twice as expensive as the chrome ones were.  But if they work as advertised I think they’ll be worth it!

(I kinda yoinked those images from Nothern Brewer’s website… but since I bought the new taps from them and continue to recommend their services to others maybe they won’t mind too much.)

Edit:  Ariel points out that I forgot to list what I have on tap!

1.  Ariel’s Cranberry Ale
2.  Oatmeal Stout

I didn’t actually brew today .. but I kegged 3 batches and bottled the remains of the pale ale from the competition a couple months ago.  I had 11 bottles worth of beer left after kegging 10 gallons!

I tried some of the Oatmeal Stout (fantastic) and Ariel’s cranberry ale (only got a small sip, but it’s pretty good.)  It’s pink!

I also kegged a pale ale that I brewed from a kit a couple of weeks ago.  Kit brews are nice… everything is included and ready to roll as soon as you open the box.  I’m always pleasantly surprised by how fast/easy brewing from extract in the kitchen seems after doing a couple of all-grain batches outside.  I swapped out the dry yeast that it normally comes with for a nice American ale yeast, and it tastes decent.  Our pale ale recipe is better, of course!

Now comes the hard decision … which beer goes on tap first?

Currently on tap:

1)  Holiday Ale
2)  Rye Porter

Currently 2 on tap and one chilling for a party this weekend.

Ariel and I transferred our beer yesterday.  Both of them came out right around 6% ABV.  We added about four pounds of  cranberries to Ariel’s beer, and they’re floating merrily along.  Both of em taste pretty good, though I think my stout will benefit from a nice long secondary fermentation.  It’s nice and roasty though!

Currently on tap:

1.  Holiday Ale
2.  Smokestack Porter (competition entry)

2.5 (’cause it’ll be on tap this weekend until it’s all gone) – Weed Weasel Pale Ale (another competition entry!)

At any rate, I have continued to brew even if I haven’t written anything about it.  I have a new kegerator (bigger and easier to get stuff in and out of … can even get 3 kegs in it!)  Clint found us a huge chest freezer that I bought a thermostat for, so now we can make lagers in addition to our ales … lots of cool stuff.

We even had a homebrew competition in Cookeville!  Something I never thought I’d see… It was a fundraiser for the Rail with Trails project (a long hiking/biking/etc trail being built alongside a renovated rail line).   There were 8 to 10 brewers that participated, with 15 different beers for people to vote on.  My rye porter recipe came in second!  All in all, it was an awesome day.  I served beer to people for two hours and was completely surprised when they announced that our time was up… it just flew past.  We entered 4 recipes:  our pale ale (made with some homegrown cascade hops), the rye porter, an amber ale, and an ESB.  (See?  Told you we’d still been brewing…)

We brewed again yesterday, as a matter of fact.  Ariel even brewed a batch!  Clint and I brewed a batch of oatmeal stout which is supposed to be pretty close to Sam Smith’s Oatmeal Stout, and Ariel started a batch of a cranberry cream ale.   I’m really looking forward to trying them both.

We also brewed a batch of Russian Imperial Stout back in August.  I’ve snuck a couple of bottles since then, and I gotta say that it’s awfully good.   It was brewed to be a Christmas present for some folks, so the plan has always been to age it.  Our original gravity hit 1.125 (Which is HUGE) and finished up at 1.035 … pretty darned close to 12.5% abv!  We had to make it as a 5 gallon batch since our mash tun (a fairly large cooler) wasn’t big enough to hold all of the grains needed for a 10 gallon batch… and we’ve made some pretty hefty beers in that cooler.  Only problem is, it’s too strong for the yeast we used so it’s just baaaaaarely carbonated.  Next time I’ll either use a champagne yeast to carbonate, or I’ll keg it and force carbonate before bottling.

Maybe I’ll even get better about posting!

Now on tap:

1.  Holiday Ale (spiced brown ale)
2.  ESB (competition entry)