Hops Rhizomes, Merlot Bud Break

The heat really came down on Walnut Creek on Saturday and Sunday. We had to start watering the grass, feels like forever since those sprinklers were on! I had some serious growth on the hops rhizomes. Check it out!

scroll down to the previous post to see how much these have grown!

I also noticed that the vines really shot out on the grapes this weekend, too. Here is a picture of the first of the bud-break on April 3rd. 

bud break 4-3-12

And here we can see the lush green image of vines from April 22nd. Progress! My parents use a sulphur  mixture to fend off bugs and plant eating parasites and what not, that’s what the white splotches are sprayed on the leaves.

getting big 4-22-12

This week in Maxfield Beer, my dad and I tried the two Red Ales that we have carbonating. I am fairly certain that my buddy and I only set them to carbonate on Monday or Tuesday, so I wouldn’t normally test them on a Friday, but it was so hot that I figured it would be a good test to see what only 4 days of carbonation could do. So we tried the Irish Ale yeasted Red on Friday and it was borderline flat. There was some feel of bubbles but no creamy head like I imagined. I decided to wait until it was properly carbonated before I have a proper taste. Dad drank the whole thing without complaints. What a trooper. So I left the CA Ale yeasted Red on the 12 PSI (at 35°F it was supposed to reach about 2.65 or 2.7 volumes of CO2) and tried it on Sunday. A small, golden head formed but it dissipated within twenty seconds, so something was going on. So I went to work trying to figure out what was wrong.

The first thing I noticed was that the temperature had changed pretty dramatically over the weekend. The fridge had risen to 40°F! I would need at least 15 PSI to get the desired levels at that temperature,  so on Sunday night I (a) cranked the fridge down from a 5 to a 7 (I can use this opportunity to check the fluctuation of temperatures when using the fridge’s temp control knob) so ensure that the ambient heat doesn’t jack up the old fridge, and I also (b) raised the PSI to 15 on both kegs. At these levels, I won’t dangerously over carbonate, however there is the chance that I carbonate too much for the desired style. But after trying the beer with ~ 2.4 level of CO2, I am pretty certain I will like the smallish difference added with a few extra days and aiming for a 2.75 volume beer. 

Somewhere in there, while I was changing from carbonating pressures to serving pressures, I managed to allow the pressure release of the Irish to get messed up. I don’t really know what happened, but at one point, I could hear hissing and my 50lb CO2 tank has lost about 100 PSI! or whatever the level is: it was at the 500 mark (the beginning of the red) at the beginning of the weekend and then when I was hearing it hiss, it was sitting at 400, a noticeable difference. What I ended up having to do was pop the keg lid off and unscrew and re-screw in the pressure release pin. When it is initially screwed in, the pin part is pushed up and the spring aids in holding it down. So either I had screwed it in too hard (so that there was always pressure being pulled on the spring allowing air to seep out past the seal) or perhaps the piece itself is messed up somehow, like the seal on the inside of the spring mechanism is old and deteriorated. I think it’s time I take the kegs in and have the techs at the home brew store have a look and see if I need some replacement parts. They are all used  kegs, after all.

The moral of this story is to (a) make sure you keep track of your fridge’s temperature on hot days. Our fridge is in the garage which gets especially hot. This weekend got up to 85°F and probably 95°F in the garage. I would also (b) pressure test your kegs before you use them and make note of how tight you make each of the fittings. I ended up tightening all the hose clamps on my CO2 lines, as well as using the wrench to tighten the body connect Gas-In line when ‘repairing’ the issue with the quick release pin.

I wish this post could have been about tasting notes, but nope, of course it has to deal with problems that occurred with used DIY home-brew equipment.