Hefeweizen and Chocolate Porter

I checked the calendar and discovered that I hadn't brewed since mid-September. That means it had been almost two months since my equipment had been used! Saturday morning started out with a thorough cleaning of a wide range of equipment. 

On Saturday 11/10/2012, I brewed a German Hefeweizen using Hefeweizen IV yeast. This will be the third time I've brewed this recipe (but I believe only the second time using this yeast). On Sunday 11/11/2012 I tackled a recipe called Jamil’s Chocolate Hazelnut Porter which I have brewed on one other occasion. I’ll be replacing the Hazelnut with Dark Cherries. I also boiled the 2 gallons of runoffs from the end of the mash on both brews. I boiled that Sunday night without hops and threw in an unlabeled (probably CA Ale) yeast. So that’s a total of three new things fermenting. Woo!

2nd Gen Irish ale starter

Since the brew store didn't open until 10 AM, I organized a bunch of stuff and went and got my automobile Smog checked for California Certification. Passing a test first thing in the morning is a great way to start your day.

German Hefeweizen IV
A very simple grain bill of 6 lbs Wheat and 4 lbs pale malt with one hops addition of Northern Brewer makes this simple beer one of the best bang-for-buck. I added 8 oz of carapils and decided on a non-traditional yeast for this style (I guess the Hefe IV is commonly used for a style called Roggenbier). However, with the addition of the carapils and this yeast, I feel this wheat beer comes out very unique. I remember it being creamy and aromatic, light but highly flavorful with a mouthfeel like that of a creamy stout.

Saturday was a very cold day and I made the mistake of using my notes from 2 month ago in order to reach mash temperatures. The mash dropped from 154°F to 150°F in 15 minutes, so I moved it into the sun and it remained at 150°F for the rest of the 45 minutes. This isn't that bad, in fact, it makes for a drier fermentation which would be great for the wheat beer. The sparge lasted about 20 minutes and I drained 6.5 gallons in the kettle. From that, I ended up with almost a gallon of smallbeer from the end of the mash tun at OG 1.025. I put that in a bucket and saved it. However, after boiling the main wort for an hour, I was left with 4.75 gallons which was well under my target volume. This happens to me time and time again, so I made sure it didn't happen when I brewed the next day.

  

Jamil’s Chocolate Hazelnut Porter

This all-grain kit costs twice as much as the Hefe kit, but I am not making this beer to save money: this chocolate porter is my favorite that I have brewed. But this beer was a very different beast than the wheat beer I brewed the day previous. The biggest difference between the two beers was the amount of grain, which caused a few bumps in the road.

The first problem I had was heating my mash water (yes, this was within the first 20 minutes of the day). With a mash thickness of 1.5q H2O per pound of grain, the Choco Porter calls for 5.7 gallons of H2O. Well, my HLT can only hold 5 gallons exactly. So I had to heat my mash water in two parts, in lieu of going with a thicker mash. I heated 5 gallons to 180°F, transferred 4 gallons of it to my Mash Tun, and then proceeded to heat up about 3 more gallons to 180°F (I chose such a high strike temperature because of my issues with unexpected drop the day before). It really wasn't much of a setback because I started so early that day. I had almost 6 gallons of 175°F H2O in my tun by 9:30 AM. The reason I have detailed this is because, in the past, I have simply used the 5 gallons and didn't heat up extra water. This presents a thicker mash, which isn't so bad, but there are certain aspects of the conversion which are better done with a thin mash. I don't know the details, but many homebrewers that I have talked with use the 1.5q per pound ratio. The MoreFlavor Inc. all-grain brewing instruction explains that, as a basic rule, you use 1.1q per pound. 

At one point during the mash, my digital thermometer started acting wacky. The temperature started to go up! I checked the analog thermometer I had in there (I always throw one in the mash for emergencies I guess) and sure enough, it was reporting in the low-to-mid-50s while the digital thermometer was at 165°F. I used the analog thermometer for the rest of the brew. I guess after two days of being used at high temperatures, it sort of wonked-out. This happened one other time to me and I almost threw the digital thermometer away. Good thing I didn’t because it worked fine the next day.

Sparging, I dealt with HLT volume problem again but I was prepared. I heated 5 gallons to 174°F and did a vorlauf of about ¾ of a gallon. I ran the sparge until there was a little more than a gallon of hot water remaining in my HLT (about 10 min), then I closed the valves on the Mash and the HLT. I filled the HLT back up to about 4 gallons and turned the heat way up to get the new water to the 170s. My mash only rested like this for about 10 minutes before the water was hot enough and I finished off the Sparge (another 10 min). I sparged until I had 7 gallons of wort. This left me with a gallon of extra wort at a low 1.025OG. I added this to the Hefe runoffs and stashed it for later.

After cooling, I hooked up the oxygen for a while then pitched my 2^nd generation Irish Ale yeast starter. A couple days later, the krausen as risen and fallen and the beer is looking great.

The Little Things

On Sunday evening, my girlfriend and I sat by the heat of my small Bayou burner and boiled up the 2 gallons of 'small beer' wort we had gathered for the two days prior. We didn't use any hops and did a shortened 45 minute boil. We lost a good half gallon in volume. We pitched a mason jar of yeast (we didn't decant any of the liquid) that I had in my fridge. It wasn't labeled so I am going to venture a guess that it's about 3 month old 4th generation CA Ale yeast which may have been gathered from a blow-off. I plan to blend it with the 2 gallons of pale ale that I accidently froze and give it to a friend who has a still for a distillation run.

Kegerator Project

I haven’t actually brewed beer in about a month (although I have made some wine!) because I have been dedicating any free time to the construction of a two-tap tower mini-fridge kegerator conversion. With help from homebrewtalk and /r/homebrewing I have recently completed this easy project and stepped up my game with style and class.

The Fridge

I purchased a Sanyo SR-4433s mini-fridge from a nearby dude on craig’s list. Smaller ones like it are for sale on Amazon.com for $579 but I was fortunate enough to talk the guy down to $110 bucks. I was told the fridge had been used for 3 months before the company who bought it closed down and sold a few fridges like it. It fit perfectly standing up in the back of my girlfriend's Honda Fit. Expensive for a mini-fridge, but it's energy efficient and sleek looking.

It’s a 4.4 cubic ft. model with a cold plate for making ice cubes at the top. There is a shelving unit on the door which holds on the rubber fridge seal. Looking into the fridge, it’s hard to imagine fitting two kegs in there but I have done it. A quick rundown of what will be done: door shelf removed, all inner shelving removed, temp controller unmounted, cold-plate bent 90° down, two holes in the side for gas lines, a hole and a tap-tower bolted to the roof.

The Door Mod

Removing the door was easy. It’s actually made to switch to the other side if you want it to swing open the other way. I removed all the screws holding it in (probably about 20 screws total) and slid the rubber seal off of the plastic shelving unit. I kept the shelving unit in tact so that I could trace it when making a replacement board. I started with a piece of plexiglass, hoping to cut it into shape and drill some holes for the screws. It did not go very well: tutorials on the internet said to score it and break it but my immediate family said it would splinter that way and to try and cut it. I decided to use an electrical hand saw and basically destroyed the piece of plexiglass. It had rigid edges all the way around and even broke some shards off large enough to destroy the screw hole areas. Plexiglass would be ideal because it wouldn't rot or warp in the cold temperatures of the fridge. I settled with some laminated particle board. I painted the board with some primer and I reinforced the edges where the seal and the board met by laying down some weather stripping. The door shut fine and the seal isstrong.

Priming the shelf replacement

Tracing the particleboard. It was
much easier to cut and drill
than the plexiglass, although,
 not ideal inner-fridge material.

Seal affixed with the assistance of
weather resistant weatherstripping.

The Inner Mods

The next step was modifying the inside of the fridge so that two kegs would be able to fit in there. Because of the design of the cooling unit on this Sanyo, I could only ever find a confirmation that two of the tall, narrow Pin Lock style kegs would fit. I went ahead with the modifications to see how much room I could get in there. First, I un-mounted the thermostat by removing the screw and unhooked it from the wall of the fridge; pretty simple once I got in there with a flashlight and could see where the one screw held it together. The scary part of the fridge mod was the bending of the cooling plate. To do this, you first allow the fridge to come to normal temperatures by having it unplugged for a day. Then, you just bend it down! There are two plastic pins holding the cold plate to the back of the fridge. The tutorial I read just left them there, so the bending fulcrum point was on these two pins. As a pure accident, I didn’t read that part, so I removed the pins then focused on bending the plate down where it was connected by the (covered) copper tubing. This is the main line that the coolant flows into the cold plate, so I was very scared of breaking it. But it all went rather well and I was able to bend the whole plate down, then I bent the shelved part that was previously held up by the pins. I highly suggest leaving it pinned in there and bending it that way. I’m unable to re-pin the cold plate, but so far this has not caused any problems.

The Gas Holes

Inside

For the gas line holes, I stuck my electric drill as far back and up as I could on the right side of the fridge. I used a normal drill bit and punched through the thin plastic, foam insulation and thin metal sheet on the outside. Once that hole was in there, I used a step drill bit until the hole could fit my gas lines. Once the step bit had made the proper sized holes in the plastic and metal, I used the normal bit again to clear out the foam, using unsafe methods of pumping the drill back and forth like a saw. Make sure there are no burrs in your hole to get the gas line caught when feeding it in, you can file them down once you’re finished. Once the first hole was in, I decided on placement for the second hole by measuring appropriate room for two lines on the outside of the fridge, then drilling from the outside this time. The inner hole was placed perfectly next to the first hole. The reason this “measure never, cut once” method worked was because of the fridge’s design: there are no cooling coils in the top corners of the side panels. Furthermore, the bulkiness of my hand drill determined the location of the first hole which gave me plenty of room for the second, it being closer to the back of the fridge. 

Outside

The Tower Hole

Creating a hole and support for the two-tap tower was the most involved process of the project. But still, it was easy and online tutorials guided me the whole way. I had to purchase a hole-cutter drill bit, but in hindsight, this was not necessary. Some elbow grease with a utility knife could have achieved the same effect. 

Foam is about 3 inches thick

1. Find the appropriate center/positioning on the fridge’s top and drill a small, shallow hole.

2. Remove the plastic top of the fridge. Use gentle force.
3. Remove insulation foam from around the shallow hole until the thin plastic roof is exposed.

4. Use the hole-cutter and cut a hole into the fridge’s thin roof.

5. Line the roof hole with aluminum temperature resistant tape.

6. Use the hole-cutter and cut a hole into the plastic top of the fridge you removed.

7. Use a utility knife and remove the ridges on the underside of the plastic top of the fridge.

8. Tower Stability needs:

a. Locate an 8x8x¾” piece of wood.

b. Using the hole cutter, cut a hole in the 8x8 piece of wood.

c. Cover the wood in aluminum temperature resistant tape

d. Locate 3 pieces of 8x8x¼” foam

9. Trace the shape of the 8x8 wood into the foam insulation on the fridge, and then use a utility knife to remove all of the foam all the way down to the thin roof of the fridge. Ensure your 8x8 wood fits snug.

10. Line up all your pieces (tower, wood, 2 pieces of the foam, fridge top) and position your tower.

11. Use a pen to mark the four spots that your tower’s bolts are to be placed.

12. If your wood is snug enough, drill your holes right through plastic, foam sheets, wood, plastic roof. Otherwise, carefully mark the intended locations of bolt holes and drill separately.

13. Once the holes are set, get your final sheet of foam in there. You’ll want to compress this piece with the bolts, but make sure not to press down too hard on the fridge top to squish it. Only use the bolt tightening pressure. You don’t want to cave in the roof of your fridge!  

14. Once the bolts are in and the nuts are tightened, use a dremmel tool to cut the extra bolt lengths off.

15. Put the freakin’ door back on finally.

And that’s it! You now have a kegerator. The issues I have found with this model are all fixed with the above steps, except the final issue of a consistent temperature. For that, I purchased a temperature regulation unit that plugs directly into the fridge. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about Sanyo Fridge Conversions. I've only done it once, so I will give you the best advice I can! Cheers!

Here is a closeup of my rugged custom tap handles. Assembled from firewood, bark, rebar tie wire and nails then painted with chalkboard paint.

Pressing 29 lbs. of Merlot

Links:

my reddit post

homebrewtalk post about this Sanyo

Two-Tap Tower

Temp Regulation Unit

Hole-Cutter Drill Bits

Wit White, Pale Ale, Red Ale, Sour

Updates are few and far between for me because of my schedule. I’d like to apologize for not updating in what seems like forever. I have a few projects in the works and I’d like to touch on them and upload some pictures just to keep us sane. In fact, I think these projects are what keep me sane during this busy time of my life.

A Short Look Back

When last I checked in, I was fermenting the Maple Pecan Nut Brown ale. The beer came out as one of my best to date, but there were pros and cons to this: I only got to bottle less than 4.5 gallons, but those 4.25 gallons were thick and strong.  A common issue I experienced doing my all grain 5 gallon batches was failing to hit target fermentation volume. This was due to my inability to measure the amount of wort gathered during sparge. So, in a nutshell, I only gathered 5.5 gallons to boil, then boiled off almost a gallon, then lost about a half-gallon to fermentation goop. This left me with my rough estimate of 4.25 gallons of the beer that was thicker and stronger than it was supposed to be. Not all that bad since I didn’t have any specifics to adhere to. Hitting that exact same recipe won’t be difficult, because I kept good notes the whole time. I would aim to make the beer more ‘sessionable’ next time.

Since then, I have made 4 beers: 10 gallons of Belgian Wit, 10 gallons of American Pale (single hopped!), 5 gallons of Irish Red and 5 gallons of a Belgian Sour (Abbey style). I have also updated my current hardware in some places and started a kegerator project.

The Wit

This was a very light, summer beer. We used coriander and bitter orange peel to match the style. I wasn’t particularly fond of the lightness of this beer and I have complaints of the level to which it was carbonated. However, the beer was favored among my friends who enjoy a lighter beer. At times I would even call it watery and flat but I imagine my intoxication at the time of tasting caused me to be bitter about it. A thick heffeweisen is closer to my preferred style for wheat beers.

Jonny uses the dremmel to cut a notch
in our bayou burner so that a
BBQ grill can fit snug.

Kyle stands by.

The Pale

As an experiment, my buddies and I wanted a basic grain bill and single hop variety while also trying out a new dry hopping method. Instead of racking to secondary at the full end of fermentation, we simply added the hops about 3 days into primary fermentation. This method was revealed to us from the internets somewhere, and we felt it was a great idea especially for (1) saving time on the ferm and (2) creating less work by not racking to secondary. We were not disappointed and in fact my buddies used this method in a recent IPA clone of one of our previous batches. I still have about 4 gallons of the pale in keg and I am picking up my CO2 tank this weekend: I’ll finally be able to hook it up and tap it properly and probably bottle a bunch of it for saving (but note, pales/highly aroma hopped beers aren’t meant to age because the characteristics of the aromas apparently fade with age). 

The Red

Of beers I have crafted, Reds and Porters are the most abundant. Of both I had first made extract batches and of both I feel I have started to hone my all-grain styles. I have experimented with hops a great deal in my reds and I may have found my balance (well, not in this red, but because of this red, I have discovered the balance). I’ve used this recipe a number of times but with an increase in efficiency in both method and madness, the red this time came out full bodied and full of both malt and hop flavor. I personally find the bittering level slightly high, it’s a crisp and lingering bitterness that is best tasted at warmer temperatures (60°F – 70°F serving temperature) in order to allow the smooth and thick dark malt body to slide in side-by-side with the Fuggles bittering. Not only was the chosen hops Alpha Acid percentage count higher than the suggested bittering hops for the recipe, but I also used more of the hops. One of the reasons for the change was because I have had these hops in the fridge for a while and I wanted to use them before they went bad. Some other things to note were that the beer came out much more red (read: darker) than previous batches of the same beer and this could be due to a number of reasons: my most likely culprit is that I over-weighed the specialty grains when I bought them.  The recipe called for 1 lbs. of Crystal 120L malt and a quarter pound each of Black Roasted Barley and Special B. This combination, in conjunction with the large amounts of fermentable malts, usually makes for a rich red color. My guess was I used closer to ½ pound of Black Roasted Barley or Special B by accident.

The Red, after adding oxygen

The Sour

I’ve been trying a lot of sour beers lately, as many as I can get my hands on. The first sour I ever knowingly tried was from a brewery in Dexter, Michigan called Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales. I am not sure which of their beers it was that I tried, but it was a sour with a raspberry on the label. Then, I picked out a Flemmish sour red from a brand called Strubbe’s which doesn’t have any advertised fruit characteristic but really hits home on the sour front. It might even have some dark cherry undertones. I really suggest that beer. The next I tried was Rodenback Grand Cru sour red ale. This one wasn’t as punchy as the Strubbe’s, but was more session-able. It came in a large wine bottle, corked, so it felt a little classier, or something. After trying a few different sours, mostly imports (Jolly Pumpkin was the only American sour I’ve tried), I decided to try and make one. A buddy found the recipe, and he, too, brewed this sour. Our plan is to blend our two sours together after 6 months of secondary fermentation. The way a sour works is, you brew a beer (usually  a Belgian style or ‘Abbey Ale’) then after primary fermentation, you add a culture of lactobacillus and let it ferment in a cold, dark area for a long time (recipe said 6 mothts).

11 lbs. Pilsner Malt

1 lbs. Wheat

1 lbs. Munich Malt

1 lbs. Aromatic Malt

1 lbs. CaraMunic Malt

4 oz Special B Malt

4 oz. Chocolate malt

90 minute boil – 1 oz Challenger Hops

@ 30 minutes – 1 lb Organic Cane Sugar

@ 2 minutes – 1 oz Fuggles Hops

OG: 1.085. The recipe suggests adding oak or dark cherries during this ageing/secondary fermentation. I have not done either of those, but I would like to age on both. As I mentioned before, my buddy and I will be blending about a gallon each of our two sours which will then be tasted and most likely put away for further ageing. I plan to age a large portion of mine for a year at least.

The Sour, Abbey Ale Yeast kicking ass