My wife is starting to get spring fever. That means more (unpaid) work for me. Now I have to deal with some over carb-ed brews. My Coopers Heritage lagers. I opened up one, and most of the beer came fizzing out. I opened up a second one and the same thing started.
Yup, I don't miss bottling. I bottled for a friend some from the Tap with 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. I told him to open them in a few days--interesting experiment. The 24 oz. got about 1/3 teaspoon and capped--so no opening. My heiniken is a disappointment, but tastes better than most commercial lagers. I think I had stalled fermentation in my Texas Red. I racked after a week, and the temps are 58 to 63 range (guessing). It's going though, but I will wait more than a week to rack.
I created a counter-flow cooler (?) and it cooled the boiling water down to 80 degrees in the time it took to syphon out of the brew pot. I am going to make a prechiller for the hose water because I have 1/2inch copper sitting around. I can also use it as a wort chiller. I want to get the temp. as cold as possible out of the counter flow--that's just cool! Not to mention on the hot days it will save tons of time. I think the turkey fryer saved 40 mins a batch and the counter-flow will save another 20. A guy at work told me he uses the "immersion wort chiller" and it cools the wort in 15 mins. He places it in the wort for the last 15 mins of boiling to sterilize it. I didn't know the process and that is pretty easy but my counter-flow has cool points and I am going to build an immersion anyway.
I think I might have an infection. Massive over carb'ing. Used two Coopers carb drops per 22 oz. bottle. I crack open the top a bit (PET bottles) about twice a day for a few days and it's still as hard as if I'd poured concrete into it. When I do open it, it foams like there's no tomorrow. We'll see....
I never used the coopers tabs, but they look like a good option. I gave some of my belgium white to a friend from the keg in flip tops, I primed them with 1/2 than teaspoon. He said they were slightly sweeter. I thought it was interesting. The bottles had yeast in the bottom so it did ferment. Your connection between beer and concrete is quite interesting--I may pass though. I just kegged AHS Texas Red and AHS British IPA. I dry hopped the IPA with 1/2oz nugget. I def. taste the nugget, and l think I lost some character of the British IPA, which has more malt/grain characteristics. It tastes a little more american IPA (strong hops). Not a bad beer at all. Ready for a bday party. We'll see if I have an approving crowd. The Red is good, but they are not quite my deal. Next up is the AHS Irish Red (again), and Hopped brown ale (to be brewed Sun.) I ordered a bunch off AHS, and lost my coupon codes. Would of saved $25. I screwed up and did not take your advise on the $20 kits. I figured they would still be available. I think what I have in the mail is a Session Saison, Summer I. Red, I. Red, and the Rose Ale (from belgium). I figure to keep the kegs going I need 2 full, 2 fermenting, and 2 kits. It's embarrassing when they run out!
FYI: the one beer I had with an infection (my friends IPA) was my fault. I bottled with bottles that were cleaned a day or two earlier. Some were awful, some were okay, and 1 was pure bliss. I dumped a bunch out after having the good one. I just had very bad off flavor, which took away from the hops.
I also have a Bull**** light beer for some queers I play golf with in Virginia once a year. It really is a light beer--no kidding. Special enzymes as well.
Walt, here's a couple of pictures of my over-carb'ing/"gusher infection" issue. The first one is right after pouring, the second about 5 minutes later. The beer doesn't taste all that bad. Kind of a PIA to have to wait for the foam to subside. I thought that maybe the infection would render the beer undrinkable, but I'm glad to say it ain't so. Now I just have to figure out where this came from.... Where in Va. will you be golfing with "the queers"?
That's tremendously impressive. We golf near Fredricksburg. Gauntlet is an every year course. I just brewed AHS Belgium Rose, the counter flow did not work well today. Siphoned some by mouth--wtf. I was pissed. I got a new racking cane (steel) so I could put in the wort, but it's 30'' too high to get the siphon going.
Atleast it's drinkable, pour it in a pitcher and refill the pitcher.
Yeah, I guess I should quit my whining. Like my mom used to say, "There are kids in India who don't have any beer at all to drink." Okay, she didn't say that exactly.
I determined that aging my AHS Irish Red 5 weeks is the ideal. It improved every week until then. It's 5 weeks after the brew date. So I plan on kegging 5 weeks after the brew date for now on. BTW, my counter-flow wort chiller takes longer than the 15 minutes that it takes to cool the wort with an immersion wort chiller. This is due to problems with siphoning. It's cool though, but I do not plan on using it. The wort chiller is ez to make, and I highly recommend it.
Walt, Yeah, That's (the wort chiller) one of the better brewing investments I made. I bought it at Karps before the price of copper went through the roof. In the winter, it goes from boiling to 70? in about 11 or 12 minutes. My cousin gave me another Mr. Beer kit. I decided to try and improve it using some hints from the Mr. Beer site and Notty yeast. I'll be bottling that and an AHS porter around the 24th. I'm also going to make another Fire in the Hole Chile beer. (Mr. Beer) I'm just about done with the volcano beers (pictured above). I kept my wife and FIL "well lubed" Mother's Day with some homebrews. Now he wants me to brew the AHS Greenbelt Pale Ale for him for a sort of family reunion at the end of July. I just have to make a trip upstate (Windham) a week or so earlier to let it settle. Got my partner at work into brewing now. He likes a lot of dark beers that have been pretty good. Side work is starting to pick up, so brewing will be a little tight. I have to pay for this somehow. How'd your golf outing go?
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