The Beer is Coming, The Beer is Coming!!!

Yes, that's right!

Drew transferred the beer to Secondary the day after President's day, so we have secondary fermentation going on!

We ordered 8 kegs from Adventures in Homebrewing and we are planning to keg our creation next weekend. Then it will be time to Carb up and cold condition the beer for a couple of weeks...can't wait! it's gonna be goodness...i can feel it.

On a familiar note, man I miss getting to be there to rack to secondary....This must be what it feels like to miss your kids first words or first steps...hehe But, Drew said the beer smelled great and the color looked good too. I will be there for Kegging! I'm also planning on bringing down my kegerator so we can cold condition and force carb the beer. I'll try to post some pics soon.

Cheers and Hoppy Brewing!

20 Gallons of Love!

Wow! The 20 gallon brew day(s) went off without a hitch....well kinda anyway.

Saturday went pretty well. We did get a later start than we were hoping, I think I had a tough time getting out of bed, but once we got started things went okay. We did run into one snag...we got ready to cool the wort using the magic of the therminator and that's when we figured out the water in line had the wrong type fitting. Well a trip to Home Depot later we got everything worked out. Our brew day took a little longer than expected, but we did get 10 gallons of Peckerhead Red brewed up on Saturday.

We then headed over to a little Mardi Gras celebration that was taking place in the neighborhood. The Gumbo was fantastic as was the camaraderie. Also, let me go off on a tangent how great a selection of beer TX has. At a little grocery store near my sister's house they have more microbrews and craft brews then most liquor stores in OK. I know its our laws that were written during prohibition, but wow, we drank some nice beer this weekend. Beers sampled (that I can remember): Pyramid's Apricot Weizen, Young's Winter Warmer, Chimay Blue, Shiner Dunkelweizen, and New Belgium's Frambozen Rasberry Brown Ale. And, yes, I did have to make a stop on my way back to OK to get more of that Apricot Weizen and a Chimay gift pack of their 3 types of beer and a glass, how cool is that!

Sunday, we brewed up 10 gallons of American Wheat. Things went really good today, we got an earlier start and were finished in about six hours. With these two run throughs we should be set for our big "drunken" brew day demonstration.

So now it's just a waiting game. The beer is happily bubbling away, the yeasties fermenting out all of those sugars washed from the grains and converting it to alcohol. Drew is the keeper of the beer as all 20 gallons is currently in my sister's kitchen. I'm sure he is speaking to it softly and nurturing it to be all the beer it can be.

We should be able to rack to secondary in about a week and let it sit some more.

Current plans for the beer include: Peckerhead Red Leave one 5 gallon as is and complete a normal primary secondary ferment. The second 5 gallon we are planning on dry hopping at secondary. The American wheat we have added American wheat yeast to one 5 gallon, and Belgian Wheat Yeast to the other. So by brewing 2 different beers and these changes we should actually have 4 different beers.

Cheers and Hoppy Brewing!

Picked up the Grain!

Well I stopped by the LHBS today on my way home from work. Wow, those grains smell so good...they should make that scent in a room freshener.

All the gear is ready to go so I should be loading up the equipment tomorrow and heading down to McKinney, TX.

Cheers and Hoppy Brewing!

3-days and counting...Parts for the Therminator

Well had to make a run to The Home Depot...man is that place great or what, 8:30 PM and just enough time to get the parts I needed before they closed. I needed some parts for the wort side of the Therminator to reduce the opening to the 3/8" line for the line from the BrewPot and from the Therminator to the carboys.

I bought the quick connectors that fit the therminator, but they are for 1/2" ID line, well the ThruMometer attaches with 3/8" line? I don't understand that. So until I find the right 1/2" NPT with 3/8" barb my southern engineering skills will have to do and although the parts I bought at HD aren't pretty, they should work fine.

I did send the grain bill for the two beers Drew and I will be brewing over to Dave yesterday. So I need to go by High Gravity and pickup the "stuff."

I'm getting excited about the big brew day, it should be a blast.

Cheers and Hoppy Brewing!!!

One Week and Counting!!!

Well, it's Saturday the week before our 20 Gallon pre-brew-brewday. I purchase some fittings for the Therminator and some goodies at the LHBS today. I don't know why, but I think I buy airlocks everytime I go to the LHBS. I should have hundreds of them it seems, but I bought 2 more today and have a total of five....I don't know I guess I just lose them somewhere...

I also brewed up a starter today for the Irish Ale Yeast. I just brewed a 600ml starter and pitched the Wyeast 1084 smack pack. It's been a couple of hours and things seem to be churning! I might step it up one time, but doubt it. I just did the starter this time to split the yeast between the two carboys. Yeah it only costs 6 bucks for another pack of yeast, but then I wouldn't have gotten to brew up a starter...hehe

I talked with Drew today and I think the American Wheat batch we are going to split with an American wheat yeast and a Bavarian wheat yeast. This should be interesting. The bavarian wheat yeast normally give the beer a more bannana and clove characteristic (can you say Hefeweizen?) It will be fun to try the beers out side by side to see to see the differences.

Well all looks good for the big brew next week. I've got the grain bills ready to go to my LHBS and will send those over on Wednesday. Other than that I just gotta make sure to get all the equipment ready for the haul to TX.

Cheers and Hoppy Brewing!!!

P.S. Sorry if this post is sloppy, I'm on my thrid Irsh Red and I'm already feeling it...shessh

20 Gallon Brew Day Coming!!!

Well, I've got a big brewday coming up. I haven't brewed in a long time...since June! so I hope I can remember how!!!

It's kinda funny how this brew day came about. My bro called me up and said that his neighborhood was going to have a big neighborhood party thing with boiled crawfish and shrimp and they needed beer! Well, trying to save the world from BMC's one pint at a time I of course said, "Sure we can brew the beer for that! It'll be fun!" The guys from the party also wanted to see the process so I'll be loading up my equipment and moving it down to McKinney, TX and Drew and I will put on a little brewing demonstration...

After thinking about this a little longer, I came to realize...CRAP!!! I probably don't have enough beer for those guys to try homebrew... so to get enough I'm going to "have" to brew beer for the beer brewing party...hehe (sure any excuse to brew will work!)

So the plan is to head down to McKinney, TX on February 11th and brew up 20 gallons of beer. I'm planning on making two, ten gallon batches, an American Wheat and an Irish Red.

It should be a good time! I haven't brewed in so long I can't wait!

Cheer's and Hoppy Brewing to You!