We brew. Jeff hides in our fermentation chamber.
While brewing went off without a hitch last night (we brewed another batch of our wildly popular Eye Patch Ale), Jeff spent a good chunk of the night dodging work by hiding in our fermentation chamber:
Jeff was actually cleaning the bottom of the chamber, which can get a little nasty after multiple fermentations. Joel will soon be posting on the build of the fermentation chamber in case anyone is interested.
Thanks to all who came out last night! We had some new folks, and we also had all three (3) of our potential launch beers on tap. For probably the first time ever. We’re looking forward to even more busy nights as the weather gets less oppressive. It still takes us forever to cool the wort. There has to be a better way…
Homebrewing gets a facelift
We’ve been talking with John Carnett, creator of The Device, about his innovative cooling techniques (using a cold plate to chill water running through copper tubing that runs around whatever you’d like to chill). These talks originated from our pilot brewery discussion in which we were trying to find the best way to control temperatures during fermentation. John started acting all weird and mysterious, saying things like:
Sadly due to IP I can’t tell you about everything that we learned but we are no longer using cold plates in our process at all… If you can wait a a bit my patents will be fully filed.
Whoa. Ok NOW we’re intrigued. Turns out John was on to something big. An entire business, even, called Nanobrewing Technologies. And what they’re selling puts the original device to shame. A beautiful all-in-one brewing solution that even the wife or girlfriend might allow inside the house. Check out the article on PopSci.
Photo used WITHOUT permission from John Carnett
Remnants of Joel
I mentioned yesterday that Monday’s brewing went smoothly because of the absence of Joel. That’s not ENTIRELY true.
See that picture? Those are random boards of wood. Those boards were supposed to be part of our temperature-controlled fermentation chamber, which would have been exceedingly useful when fermenting our Drafty Kilt. Unfortunately, our “operations” guy wasn’t able to complete the box in time. We didn’t think it would matter, but it did. Because while the conical fermenter technically fits inside the chamber as-is, it does NOT fit when you add an airlock. Or even a blow-off tube. So to sum up, this is why you never send a Joel to complete any task of any kind.
P.S. It’s not personal, Joel. It’s just… oh never mind, you probably aren’t reading this anyway…
P.P.S. If ever you clicked on a “Joel” link, today is the day to do it.
Tonight, we brew!
We got some good feedback from the party on our Swashchuckler IPA and so we decided it’s time to give it another go. (Though we would have brewed our Drafty Kilt Scotch Ale if a certain Joel had gotten our fermentation chamber built). The moral of the story: come by tonight. And don’t trust Joel. Ever.
New levels of dorkiness
We’re building our fermentation chambers for our new pilot brewery, in which we hope to be able to control fermentation temperatures to within a degree or 2. The “hope” part of this is pretty crucial. We’ve had our eye on this temperature monitor to actually verify whether or not our control is unrelenting and supreme.
When my roommate Steven volunteered to buy us a new toy, we begrudgingly conceded. And thus the USB temperature and humidity monitor was ordered. We can plug this up to any computer and transmit temperatures in realtime over the internet. Say whaaaat? Instant monitoring. From work. From home. From the toilet.
(Don’t act like you’ve never brought a laptop into the bathroom.)
There’s more than one way to drench a Joel
Ah, conical fermenters. Ever since we bit the bullet and bought 2 stainless steel conical fermenters from Blichmann about a month ago, we’ve spent probably 30 minutes of every day staring at their shiny surfaces. I’ve actually given up looking for a wife and have settled for Gertrude, Stainless Steel Conical #2.
When it came time to drain the yeast off the bottom of the fermenter for the first time, we thought we’d capture it on video. It’s a good thing we did, because Jeff screwed up royally. There are 2 valves on the fermenter ? one to drain the yeast and one to sample beer. Jeff opened the wrong valve and… well… just watch the video.
Sorry Joel. Our bad.
Danger: busy Saturday approaching
Tomorrow is arts-and-crafts day at Jeff’s house! Joel will be building out a fermentation chamber for our new conical fermenters. The chamber will involve an insulated box that ducts cold air from our freezer, similar to the one built here by the Duo Team.
And while Joel is doing his best to not kill himself, I will be transplanting the rest of our hops. No longer will they grow (or not grow) on the volleyball court in my backyard. Nope, it’s only the sunniest areas of Jeff’s yard from here on out!