Weekly Update

Lots of chores going on around the house today, but there's just enough time to update on the happenings of this weekend.

Brew Day: Vienna/Northern Brewer SMaSH

r. to l.: NB hops, Irish Moss, NB hops,
yeast nutrient, NB hops, NB hops

I was originally planning on brewing a 3-gallon batch of Caribou Slobber, but I really only had the energy to do something simpler. A 1-gallon SMaSH (single malt and single hop) beer was just the ticket. The only base malt I have at the house is simple 2-row, but wanting something with a little more flavor, I headed to my local shop and picked up a couple pounds of Vienna. That along with some Northern Brewer hops will get me a beer around 7% abv and hoppy enough to call an IPA.

SMaSH fermenting actively
in a water bath

I've only used Vienna once before, in a SMaSH with Centennial, and I really liked it. It has a subtle toasty/biscuity flavor. And I've only used Northern Brewer in a hoppy, IPA strength brown ale. It gives a flavor and aroma that some describe as a combination of mint and evergreen. I'm interested in seeing this malt and hop variety together.

Tasting Day: Scottish Heavy 80/-

Saturday was (finally!) tasting day for my 80 shilling. It was indeed an improvement on the 70/- I did last year. Starting with RO water and building up my mineral profile with salts (calcium chloride and gypsum, to be precise) definitely helped round off some harsh edges from last year's batch. My final gravity - the specific gravity of the beer post-fermentation - was a bit higher than I anticipated, so it's surprisingly full bodied considering it's only a 4.3% beer. But it's a little sweet in the finish. I need to figure out if that's a fermentation flaw (from under attenuation) or if I just need to adjust my recipe. Or both.

Bottling Day: IPA

I brewed an IPA two weeks ago. I often let beers sit in the fermenter for 3 weeks before bottling, but I'm eager to get on to tasting this, and impatience got the best of me. But I'll let it sit in the bottle for 3 weeks followed by a week in the fridge before I open up the first one, so it's hard to call that impatient.

I'm running a bit of a water experiment on this batch. The sulfate ion in water accentuates the hoppiness and hop bitterness in beers. Our tap water has about 160 ppm sulfate, and I was happy with that concentration when I brewed this recipe last year. I decided to up it to 300 ppm - almost doubling it into a range that some people really like for their hoppy beers. When I tasted a sample last night at bottling, I could clearly tell the difference in the sulfate level. I think I'm going to like it lower, but I'll reserve judgment until I get a better sense of the beer when it's carbonated.

If all goes well, I'll brew that Caribou Slobber next weekend, plus tasting day for my Victory Blonde!

Temperature Controller Project

When I talk with prospective homebrewers, I always tell them the three most important things in brewing are 1) cleaning, 2) sanitizing, and 3) fermentation temperature control.

Cleaning and sanitizing are no brainers, and they are actually pretty straightforward to do.

But it took me a few batches to realize that because brewers make wort and yeast make beer, keeping the fermenting beer within proper temperature ranges helps the yeast make the best beer possible.

To that end, I've been doing very rudimentary temperature control. I invested in a 16-gallon rope handle tub a couple years ago. My fermenter goes in the tub filled with water just below the beer level, and I control the temperature of the water bath by adding ice or frozen water bottles. Because the temperature of the water bath is usually within about a degree of the temperature of the fermenting beer, I'm able to keep the beer right at the temperature I want - usually around 68F, sometimes down near 64F depending on the yeast strain I'm using and what I'm wanting out of the beer.

It's not a lot of work keeping the water bath at these temps, but I do find I have to check on the water temperature every few hours. I consider it a labor of love, but now I'm ready to take it to the next step: setting up a fermentation chamber.

The concept of a fermentation chamber is actually pretty simple. A chest freezer fitted with a temperature controller is a great way to go. You plug the freezer into the controller and the controller into the wall, place the temperature probe from the controller into the freezer, set the temperature on the controller, and it turns the freezer on and off to maintain the set temperature.

Getting the hardware together.
The knock out for the controller is
already rough cut here.

You can buy temperature controllers already wired and ready to go, but I decided to do it on the super cheap and buy one that I wire myself. With the help my favorite homebrewing forum and a handy YouTube video, I was on my way.

All wired up

The hardest and most time consuming part of the whole project was cutting out the holes for the controller and outlet. Drilled holes in the four corners and a coping saw got the rough cuts done quickly enough, but filing back the holes to where I needed them took about 30 minutes per hole.

Project finished!

The wiring was the easiest and most fun part of the project. Since I had good diagrams and was able to source color coded wires, it was a snap.

The total project cost was about $32: I grabbed the controller on a price drop for just under $17 on Amazon, and the rest of the hardware came in at about $15 at my local big box. Considering wired dual stage controllers can range between $100 and $300, I'm going to chalk this up to $100-$200 saved. Yeah, me!

Next step: buy a 5 cf chest freezer!