Sunday, July 20, 2008

Stepping up production

It's been a little while since I posted. Not too much has happened in terms of brewing, and I mean that in all ways. The Jalopy 4 IPA has been in bottle for a good 4 weeks and is still completely flat. It looks like my yeast got cooked a little too much and aren't doing well. I also had my original problem of not finishing at a low enough gravity. So if I'm going to produce anything decently consistent (or drinkable at this point), I decided I need to get another fridge so I can control my fermentation temperatures better. I have a standard Ranco temperature controller coming to me from eBay, and I recently found an open box dorm fridge at Best Buy for pretty cheap. I had to make a few changes. As with most dorm fridges, the one I purchased has a small step in the bottom for the compressor. Though this step is smaller than most, I had to make a modification to the fridge in order for the 6.5 gal carboy to fit. I could either:
1) Place the carboy on the bottom, in front of the step. To do this, I would have to remove the shelving from the inside door.
2) Place the carboy on top of the step, and give it some supporting shelving. To fit it this way, I would have to bend the freezer box coolant element out of the way of the carboy neck and airlock.
I decided removing the shelves would be a safer bet. I hear that if you pinch a coolant line in the freezer shelf, it can mess up the whole thing. Unfortunately, the plastic mold of the inside shelving is what holds the rubber seal in place. So I went out and purchased a sheet of thin wood to replace it. The result actually looks pretty nice, though I'm going to have to give it some hefty sealant so it doesn't hold moisture and mold.

Also, as a utilitarian modification, I decided to turn the door into a chalkboard. That way I can know what's in there (if I never start getting that busy or senile w/ brewing), date started, temperatures, and whatever else seems useful. With a few coats of primer and a couple coats of the chalkboard spray paint, this has also turned out well.

Lastly, to solve the issue of needing to cool 5 gal of wort in the new stockpot, I also purchased an immersion chiller. I'm going to try to recirculate ice-water through the coil instead of just pumping a silly amount of not-so-cold tap water through it. I will also have a food-grade pump coming to be once it's back in stock.

I'm looking forward to getting this working and getting more serious about my beer brewing. I'm expecting the temp controlled fridge to go a long way to creating more consistent beers that will actually get to a decent final gravity! I'm thinking I'll make a Belgian Wit beer again, it would be nice for the summer (you might think I'm a little too late, but it'll be warm here for a while).

Cheers! I hope to post again soon with a new batch!