More Kegs!

Now that we’ve got 2 beers on tap (soon to be 3) and more brews planned out in the future, we are running out of kegs. To keep our pipeline steady, we need to have extra kegs carbonating in the kegerator. There is room for 5 in there, so if we have 3 on tap, we could potentially fit another 2 kegs. Those 2 beers could be carbonating (and lagering if they’re lagers) while we wait to empty the current beers. That way, when one keg is empty, we’ll have the “on-deck” beers to change out and  they’ll be ready to drink right away instead of having to wait a week like we normally do.

I recently found some cash in an old drawer and thought it would be put to good use buying some equipment off Craig’s List. I have been using Google Reader to search Craigslist for homebrew equipment over the past few years, and it was how I was able to find our kegerator. Luckily for me, the service is still operational until the end of this month (http://www.denverpost.com/technology/ci_23435727/googles-reader-is-going-away-but-you-have). I did a quick search after the brew session and found a post for some used kegs at $45/each that were posted earlier in the day. Normally, to buy online, new kegs are around $130 and used about $60 + shipping. Needless to say, $45 is a pretty good price, and most other people agree as used kegs don’t typically last long on Craig’s List.

We got another 2 kegs, which now brings our total to a modest 6. I would still like to grow that number so we could do our high-gravity seasonal beers (like our Snow and Russian Imperial Stout) in kegs. Those beers really have to be aged to get the best beer, so if we could avoid bottling and have enough kegs to age in the keg, that would be ideal. Also, in a year or 2, we are going to upgrade the kegerator to a chest freezer which will be able to support upwards of 8 kegs, but we’ll probably keep it to 4 on tap. With the extra room, we’ll have plenty of beer on deck and we can make more lagers and lager them properly for a few months before we serve. In all, we’ll slowly grow the supply when good deals pop up on Craig’s List, probably to about 10-12 kegs.

Next beer planned is going to be the Black IPA (Sublimely Self-Righteous Clone). We are thinking probably Next Saturday or Sunday. The Pale Ale is done fermenting now, and we'll give the yeast a couple more days to clean up before we cold crash and then keg. Hopefully we'll be drinking that beer in about 10 more days. 

Belgian Dubbel & Hop Update

Now that Elise’s parents are in town to help with the impending arrival of Cody, I was able to get a brew session in. The dubbel is now on tap and as soon as Cody arrives we’ll open the Schwarzbier for business. As both are of the darker persuasion, and neither is hoppy, I thought a pale ale would be a good Summer beer. We’ll make an IPA soon, but I wanted something a little tamer on tap for Elise as she’ll need some time to get back into the swing of things.

This grist is essentially the same we’ve done for our Double Pale Ale in the past which is a combination of  Crystal 40L and Carapils and a small amount of Crystal 60L for some more color. The hop bill will be different this time around though. The online site I buy hops from is all out of Amarillo for the season (which we normally use), so this time we’ll sub some Ahtanum hops. They are florally/citrusy like Amarillo, but a little more herby and definitely less grape-fruity than Amarillo. We’ll bitter with Chinook, then a combination of Ahtanum + Centennial + Chinook as our aroma hops/dry hop.

The brew day itself was uneventual; so much in fact, it was one of the fastest days I can remember. Normally, with a 60 minute boil, from start to finish (everything cleaned) I usually take 4-4.5 hours. On Saturday, I started at 7 and was completely done by 1040. The original gravity came out to about 1056, which should yield a respectable 5.4-5.6% alcohol in the final product. I’ll let this one ferment for about 10 days, then cold crash for 3 days, and then it’ll be kegged. Hopefully, this one will be ready to drink on tap in about 3 weeks.

In other news, the hops are growing up the house nicely. They have definitely used the extra climbing height we gave them this year as a few bines have already reached the roof. I’ve been having some issues with fertilizers (I think?) as the leaves are a little yellow, especially near the bottom. Hopefully it’s nothing to worry about and the hot weather that is coming will make for some good growing conditions. I haven’t seen any bines yet this year, but we still have a few months before harvest season starts. Looking back at old pictures from last year, we didnt have any cones until around the end of July, so we're still on track as of now. Hopefully we'll get enough hops to make a beer this year. 

Centennial

Newport