all posts relevant to ‘brewing’

no, i’m not adding Nitrous Oxide injection to my car.

we’re assembling the parts to finalize our kegging/draft beer setup. since we started homebrewing, we’ve grown more and more tired of collecting, stripping, cleaning, and sanitizing bottles. read on for more info and pictures that only a homebrewer could love.

the first picture is all the supply-side equipment boxed up and together, CO2 cylider on the floor and a big length of gas supply tubing.

here’s the ball-lock valves for the supply (gas) and the service (liquid) sides of the kegs.

this is a 4-way manifold to split off the supply gas to 4 different kegs.

these are (on the left) the gas pressure regulator, that meters the CO2 out of the supply tank. (on the right) is an inline regulator. i think i need to re-assemble these — the splitter needs to go on the tank regulator (higher pressure) so we can tap off one high pressure line for carbonating beer, then send the other line to the subsequent regulator for serving beer at a lower pressure.

a motley assortment of used cornelius kegs, previously used to store the syrup that makes soda-pop as it comes out of the soda fountain. these are excellent for homebrewers, as they can have a lid that can be removed for cleaning, and can hold 5 gallons. this is a whole, or one half, of a typically sized batch of homebrew, depending upon whether your brew 5 or 10 gallons.

another recent purchase not pictured here, is a chest-freezer that we will convert into a refrigerator to hold all (or most) of these.

more pictures & information as the project progresses. we expect to have it almost complete within a week or so. exciting!

we’re back from a week spent in new york (and briefly in new jersey). we visited with my family, for the first time in a number of years. it was a good trip! exhaustive & boring details follow.

a picture of my mom’s greyhound, spirit, sleeping with his christmas bells on

tuesday

we arrived in newark tuesday night on the 20th, rented a vehicle and drove to saugerties to sleep for the night.

they didn’t have any more “jeep grand cherokee or similar” so they upgraded us to a durango SLT. i bought more gas in the last week than i have put in my focus in months. (granted, i drive my focus a round-trip of about 4 miles a day).

wednesday

anyhow, wednesday morning we drove to albany to check the city out and stop at Mahar’s Public Bar (BeerAdvocate review). turns out we were early — they didn’t open until 4. we had planned on being on the road to buffalo by then, so we skipped it. loved albany, however.

to buffalo, where we stayed with my parents & their kitty & their 2 greyhounds.

thursday

we got up early (by pacific time standards) and went into downtown buffalo, for a couple of reasons.

first was a stop at the currently-being-restored Darwin Martin House. much activity there, couldn’t get too close to it of course. (stark contrast to when the University @ Buffalo School of Architecture & Planning first acquired it — i remember having a professor say we would meet @ the Martin house, and got to walk around and sketch it from all angles.)

second stop was Pearl Street Grill & Brewery (BeerAdvocate profile) in downtown buffalo.

great beer, great food, great service. waiter found out we were beer freaks & homebrewers and we were in town from seattle — so he arranged for us to be able to bug the brewer for a while. Paul (self-described as a part-timer who was previously the master) was quite nice and seemed to genuinely enjoy a grilling about their beers. maybe he doesn’t get enough beer geeks coming in?

upon prodding for a recommended local package store we were directed to Premier Gourmet, and we were not disappointed. many many local micros, as well as the better-distributed micros from other regions.

friday

drove out to visit my brother & his wife and family. was good to see his little farm & kitties & dog, and my nephews and niece.

saturday

christmas eve means family gathering at my aunt & uncle’s house. the whole extended clan was there, many of whom we hadn’t spent any measurable amount of time with since our last christmas visit (in 2000).

sunday

christmas day was fun, got to spend a lot more time with my brother & sister-in-law and the kids. hopefully they’ll actually recognize their uncle mike next time he shows up.

monday

back to the reportable action. we left monday morning to head back down to joisey. drove I-90 out for a while, cut down on rt 96 to go to ithaca. there we stopped by Finger Lakes Beverage Center and picked up 12 bottles of local NY/PA microbrews.

we continued down 96 though many charming little towns, to the Southern Tier Expressway. then it was east on 17 through binghamton and through the southern foothills of the catskill mountains. what a gorgeous little collection of towns nestled in nooks and valleys, all covered in snow.

about 60 miles outside of NYC, we started hitting rushhour traffic. but we got to the Courtyard Newark within an hour of projected ETA. our room contained the most comfortable king bed we’ve ever slept on in a hotel!

tuesday

on a plane at 9am, out of newark and back to seattle. we kept alive our travel traditions of parking at doug fox parking, and enjoying lunch & a pint at bison creek pizza in burien before returning home.

overall, i think a great trip. the only downsides would be the fuel consumption of the durango, and the fact that newark is unbelievably confusing. would we do it again? next time we’d probably drop the extra coin to fly to buffalo. we’ll visit albany again, but it will be a more deliberate and more encompassing vacation.

now we’re almost still on eastern time (maybe central time) and we’ll probably stick to this schedule for a week, since we’re heading back to new england to visit with carrie’s family soon!

homebrewers, or alcoholics?

that would be “homebrewers.” 5 points!

(i know, it might be both.)

we bottled 5 gallons tonight.

32 is a batch of beer that carrie brewed up for my birthday. it’s an India Pale Ale recipe, with a few modifications (which are a secret, even to me).

an update: it just went from primary to secondary fermenter, with an gravity drop from 1.083 to 1.020. if you’re playing along at home, that’s an ABV of 8.332%! yow, looks like we’ll be putting this exclusively into 12oz bottles.

will report again in a few weeks with the finishing gravity.

edinborough is a scottish ale, and our 5th batch brewed. we recently bottled it and will report more when we drink it. (brewed from a scottish ale kit from homebrew heaven). we modified the recipe by adding more malt, and priming it with DME instead of corn sugar.