Cutting Up A Keg
So I got my keg yesterday and was so excited that I went straight to Lowes (after my free samples at New Belgium and a stop at Hops and Berries, of course) to get some supplies. I picked up three metal cutting blades for my angle grinder, two skinny cutting types and one fat for smoothing it all out, and also a 7/8 drill bit for my spigot. I was worried this would be a tough job, hence the three blades. I wasn’t even sure my drill bit would get through (it was the only 7/8 bit I could find, it was a Lenox bi-metal metal/wood cutting hole saw). But I worried for nothing. It was a piece of cake.
I looked up how other people had went about this task, and I got some good information from a couple places. Eric’s Brewing has good information on the process, as does Ronblog. There is even a set of YouTube videos by Yuri_Rage of homebrewtalk.com: part 1, part 2, and part 3 that are of some value although they move pretty slow. I also just found a cool jig Bobby M made in this video. Now, on to the process.
First, I put the cutting blade on the angle grinder and fired it up to see how it worked. I made a test cut on the inside of the top and to my suprise, it cut like butter. After I found that out, I just cut a series of straight cuts around the outside of the keg (guided by a circle I drew so that it would come out somewhat straight). After that, I switched to the thicker grinding blade and went to work rounding everything out and getting rid of any sharp points. It’s a little harder than I expected as far as this part goes, and I think that I will go get some fine sandpaper to finish off the job. Just 20 minutes after I started, I had a keg with a nice big opening in the top for some future brewing sessions
The next thing to do was to clean all the metal shards out of the keg. This turned out to be more laborious than expected. I don’t have access to a hose, so it was me, the kitchen sink, and a huge keg on the counter. I ended up mostly wiping it out with paper towels to get the metal shards out. I think maybe the bathtub would have been a better option.
Lastly, I needed to drill a hole for the weldless spigot I bought at Hops and Berries. By the way, this thing cost me $36, more than twice what I paid for the keg itself. 
So I marked out the midpiont between the two handles on top, and marked up about an inch from the bottom. I then traced the spigot and marked its center point. Then I sat on the keg to give it stability, and started drilling into it. I used a little water/dishsoap mixture to try to keep the operation cool. It was really no problem betting through. I still need to sand the edges around that, and then I will just screw on the assembly, and I’ll have a finished brew kettle.
The biggest problem is that my budget is quickly running out, and I don’t have a propane burner. So for the time being, I have an awesome keg, but no way to use it. Hopefully some funds will come my way soon.
New Equipment!
Well, I’m one step closer to all grain brewing. I got a hold on a used keg from New Belgium Brewing. I just need to go pick it up tomorrow and I’ll have 15.5 gallons of glorious beer boiling capacity. Now I just need to get my hands on a propane burner to boil that much liquid. I hope my budget can get me everything I need 
I also went to Home Depot and picked up supplies for a hopback. It all cost about $10 and I’m really excited to try it out on my IPA. I made it out of PVC pipe and a couple of end caps, it’s really easy to make it. Once again, as soon as I can replace my stolen camera, I’ll throw up some pictures. If you don’t know what it is, a hopback is connected between the boil pot and the cooling pot and is essentially a strainer that you put hops into and the hot wort then drains through this bed of hops and takes some wonderful flavors and aromas with it. In addition, because it is a closed system, you stand to keep more of the highly volatile compounds because they cannot evaporate out of the system.
Sketching up an IPA
I haven’t made this one yet, but I just sat down to formulate the recipe. I’m looking for some definite bitterness, but I’m more concerned with having some generous aroma and flavor hops. Here’s what I have this far:
my goal is an OG of 1.070 with BU’s around 45-50. This is going to be a definite American IPA.
Yeast: American Ale Yeast
Hops: Eroica or chinook for the boil (whole leaf) as shown in the chart below and cascade for the hopback (1 oz. whole leaf) and dry hopping (1-2 oz. pellet).
| Batch Volume (Gal) | 5.5 | Wort Gravity (O.G) | 1.07 | |
| Hop Weight (oz.) | Hop Alpha Acid (%) | Boil Time (min) | IBU | |
| Hop Addition 1 | 1 | 12 | 60 | 35.7 |
| Hop Addition 2 | 0.5 | 12 | 15 | 8.9 |
| Hop Addition 3 | 0.25 | 12 | 12 | 4.5 |
| Hop Addition 4 | 0.25 | 12 | 6 | 1.9 |
| Hop Addition 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total IBU: | 51 |
Rooftop Brew IBU Calculator
Malt Bill:
7-8 lb Extra Light Dry Malt Extract
1.5-2 lb Crystal Malt (maybe half ligh, half darker for some added complexity)
.75-1 lb Malted Barley (toasted at 350° for ~10 min.)
I may reduce the malted barley and add .25 lb of chocolate to give it a richer color.
Now I just need to get to Hops and Berries and get my ingredients!
The Liquid Poets
So, I’ve been in Loveland for a few months now and decided it was time to join the local homebrew club. A little Google search and a week later, I was at CB & Potts joining in with The Liquid Poets. I had a blast. I brought my first decent beer (Clementine’s Porter – 002) and even joined a round table discussion about it. They claimed to like it, and gave some helpful hints to make it better. All in all, I had a great time and can’t wait to get to know the group better and sample some more of the awesome brews!
An Amazing Stash of Articles
Looking for some good how-to articles? Check out Main Street Brewing’s Website. It is chock full of great articles of everything ranging from making your first batch of whatever to choosing the best sanitizers. If you live in the Portland area, this is a great homebrew shop.
A Shout-Out to Midwest Brewing Supplies
So for Christmas, I got a wort chiller from Midwest Supplies. I chose them out of all the places I have seen first and foremost, because they were cheap… But beyond that, they seem to be an awesome supplier. They offer competitive prices and an awesome selection. Beyond that, they included a DVD on brewing wine, beer, and more in with the wort chiller as well. It’s an awesome little video with the owners just showing you how to brew. I appreciated that. Check them out. They’re the best, and I’ll be making any purchases I can’t make locally through them.
SB Squared – Batch 004
Here is my first batch in which I largely formulated my own recipe.
Brew Date: Dec. 30, 2007
Volume: 5 Gallons
Ingredients:
3 lb. Light Clover Honey
3 lb. Extra Light DME
2 1/4 oz fresh ginger
less than 1/4 cup ginger powder (to make up for not having enough fresh ginger)
1/2 oz. dried sweet orange peel : 15 min
Hops:
1 1/2 oz Cascade (bittering) : 60 min
1/2 oz Cascade (finishing) : 3 min
Yeast:
White Labs liquid German Ale / Kolsh yeast (created a 1 pint starter with DME)
Process:
- Created yeast starter 24 hrs. in advance.
- Boiled honey, DME and ginger (both) and bittering hops for 60 min. Added Orange at 15 min left in the boil. Added Finishing hops at 3 min left.
- OG: 1.045
01/06/08
Racked to secondary to prevent yeast bite. Sampled it and found it to be sour/bitter. I think it was bitterness and hopefully not a flaw or infection. If it is bitter, it must be too many hops and I should add less or different varieties next time. The wort is so light that the 1 1/2 oz of hops is probably too much and is overpowering. With age it may be wonderful though.
SG: 1.011
01/08/08
I checked the SG and found it at 1.010. I decided to go ahead and bottle it because I am trying to get it ready to drink for when Ian and Stella get here next Saturday. It tasted decidedly better this time, but I was disappointed that I could not readily pick out the ginger or the orange peel. Maybe the carbonation will help.
I’m still trying to figure out what this brew is exactly. I’m tempted to call it a special bitter, but I’m not sure it’s quite bitter enough. Alternatively, it could just be labeled an American pale, but it lacks the crystal malt for that.
Ok, I’ve decided. It’s a Special Bitter. It’s name will be SB². Special Bitter* Shafer Braggot. Sweet.
01/13/08
So, I could wait no longer and so I broke out my first bottle of SB². The smell is a sweet aroma of honey and cascade floral notes. It is a pale orange color. There is zero head retention at this time, and carbonation is not yet adequate, both will hopefully improve with age. I can’t pick up any ginger and hardly any orange tastes or aromas. Perhaps it could have been aged in the secondary for longer, to remove more particles as there is quite the little clump on the bottom and throughout the beer. I’m not sure if it is chill haze or what. It is a very light beer, and very refreshing. The malt extract stays quietly in the background and allows the honey to come through nicely. Thought at this point: It is a very drinkable light beer with enough hops to make it interesting. It needs improvement, definitely in the head department. Hopefully more time in the bottle to condition will help.
For next time: definitely more ginger (4-6 oz) and more orange (or just omit the orange). Maybe even add enough ginger to make it a little spicy. Perhaps increase the malt and lower the honey a bit. Specialty grains? I’m not sure what I could use, but I will investigate. Hops – maybe a dry-hopping through a hop-back could add some character. Maybe 5% wheat to aid head retention.
IBU = (1.5oz*30%*6%*7489)/(5.0*[1+(1.084-1.050)/0.2)])
= 202.2/5.6
IBU = 36.1
ABV = 4.8%
2/18/07
So I took my light braggot/pale ale to the last Liquid Poets meeting, and was very surprised to taste the ginger was quite pronounced in it. I have only been drinking it in the Tap-A-Draft 6 liter bottles, and I am thinking that out of the bottle (normal beer bottles) it somehow picked up more of it. I’m not sure if that is really possible, maybe it just stuck out because I was trying to taste it critically and picked up on it…It’s amazing how different beer can taste in different circumstance. For example, I have been drinking just my SB² lately and then had some Buttface Amber at CB & Potts (The Ram for you Westerners) and it tasted very toasty, much more than I ever remember. I actually thought it was an odd batch until I thought about it for a second. It shed a new light on Ambers for me though.
Sweet Raspberry Mead – Batch 003
This is my second attempt at mead. The last batch was wonderful, but left much to be desired as well. So this time I decided on a sweet raspberry melolmel (mead with the addition of fruit) to try and quench my unending thirst for an elixir fit for the gods.
Brew Date: Nov. 29, 2007
Volume: 2.5 Gallons
Adapted from Steve Mercer’s Sweet Raspberry Mead
Ingredients:
12 lbs. Raspberry Blossom Honey (Bought at Main Street Brewing (Hillsboro, Oregon)
60 oz. frozen raspberries (store-bought)
juice of 3 small lemons
juice of 3 small oranges
1/2 cup English breakfast tea (brewed strong)
1 Tbsp yeast nutrient
1 vial White Labs Sweet Mead Yeast
Process:
- Boiled 1 pint water and 1/4 cup DME (Dry Malt Extract, extra light) for 10 minutes. Pitched yeast into this (after letting it cool) to create a starter. Let it sit for 24 hours (until activity was seen).
- Boiled honey and water at 210° for 30 min, skimming top to remove meringue-like foam.
- Added raspberries (half thawed and sent through the Cuisinart) and covered for 15 min to pasteurize the fruit.
- Cooled in Ice bath.
- Yeast pitched at 69°.
- Placed in 3 gallon bucket for primary fermentation.
- OG: 1.167
- Determined racking schedule of 3 weeks, 2, 4 and 6 months. To be bottled at 8 months.
12/10/07
The yeast was thought to be stuck, so I added Champagne yeast again (as batch 001). Turns out my bucket just wasn’t sealing, so I racked it to the 2.8 gallon carboy and now I may have a very high percentage dry raspberry mead. only time will tell.
SG: 1.106
12/20/07
Racked mead off of yeast and raspberry pulp. The bubbles in this stuff are really white and almost look like mold. But I am fairly certain they are not mold.
SG: 1.088
01/20/08
Racked. SG: 1.078. I was surprised at the amount of sediment still in the bottom at this point.
03/03/08
I tasted this about a week ago and could not be more pleased. If anything, it is a bit too sweet and should perhaps be watered down, but I don’t plan on mucking about with it. I can’t wait for it to age and get even better! I heartily recommend you brew up a batch of this mead!
03/05/08
I picked up a few gallon jugs for my raspberry mead today. I did this because it was in the 2.8 gallon carboy and was only filling that about 1/2 way. So I racked the mead into the (2) gallon jugs and what space was left I decided to fill with water so there was no airspace to create oxidation. One was 1.5 cups added and the other was just a tad.
Clementine’s Molasses Porter – Batch 002
Brew Date: Nov. 3, 2007
Volume: 5 Gallons
Adapted from The Homebrewer’s Recipe Guide: Brown-Sugar Molasses Porter (pg 46)
Recipe:
3 ½ lb light malt extract
3 ½ lb amber malt extract
1 lb crystal malt (60L)
½ lb. chocolate malt
¼ lb. Black Patent Malt
½ cup blackstrap molasses
2 cups dark brown sugar
1 tsp gypsum
½ tsp Irish Moss
Hops:
1 oz. liberty (pellets) @ 60 min
½ oz. Cascade (pellets) @ 0 min
Yeast:
American Ale Yeast (Dry)
Method:
- Steeped grains for 30 min at 155°. Discarded spent grains.
- brought to a boil while adding malt, bittering hops, clarifiers and sugar.
- boiled for 1 hour, adding finishing hops at end of boil.
- added wort to water to make 5 gallons and cooled in an ice bath to 75°.
- Pitched yeast.
- OG 1.060
11/16/07
- FG 1.010
- Bottled using 3/4 cup corn sugar to prime
Stats:
- ABV: 6.9%
- SRM: 30.5
- IBU: 22
Tasting Notes:
- Good beer.
- strong nutty (hazelnut) smell.
- good head retention.
- not much molasses flavor.
Next time:
- Add molasses to secondary or use it as priming sugar for more molasses flavor.
- Cut out the brown sugar and replace with either more molasses or caramel (boiled sugar).
The Lost Batch
This was my first batch of beer and turned out ok. That is all you can expect from a purely extract beer though.
Date: 09/2007
Size: 5 Gallons
Recipe:
- 7lbs Liquid Amber Malt Extract
- 1/2 oz Cascade hops
- Filtered water to make 5 gallons
- Dried Ale Yeast
Method:
- I boiled 2 1/2 gallons of wort in two separate pots (a two gallon and one gallon pot) for 30 minutes. I believe the hops were added at the beginning of the boil.
- The wort was then added to the remaining water and cooled in an ice bath to 80° where yeast was pitched.
- OG was measured at 1.052.
- I did not take any other notes on this brew.
Tasting notes:
- The brew did not ferment enough, or perhaps it was just not very good. Either way, it tasted too thick, too sugary.
- It did mellow with age however and tasted better a month later.
