Earlier this month I brewed a citra IPA and realized how inefficient some of my processes are. I found that I spent a large chunk of time setting up my saw horses and hulling up my equipment to the garage so I could brew a batch of beer. I also realize how much of a pain it was to hand crank a corona mill just to crush the grain. So in order to fixes those things I decided I would do two things – start looking at building a brew stand and look into motorizing my grain crushing.

My first project seems like it would be the most daunting. I regretted for a while not buying the brew stand Eric Goodyear was selling not too long ago. And then thought maybe I could build something similar for around $300.

I have always known that there are two possible materials to use for building a brew stand angle iron and steel pipes. With the angle iron I wouldn’t need to weld anything, but my understanding is that there is always a possibility that the pieces would start loosening up and would constantly have to readjust the connections. I talked to Adam Ross about that and found out that he’s never really had that issue. With the steel piping it looks nice, is durable but you need to be able to weld (for both cutting and connecting the pieces together). I really liked the idea of having something that looks more professional like a welded stand.

I also set my eyes on creating a stand that was gravity fed, so I looked online and started realizing that gravity fed stands require a lot more material and space. I also realized that all stands require a lot of planning. I then started thinking more about the whole brew stand and started thinking that I should work towards a stand that is everything I want from a brew stand (able to recirculate and do more with step mashing). I quickly started watching as my price tag started increasing. I started to decide to make that a multi-year process of putting the stand together.

I ultimately decided that at this point I wanted a brew stand that would hold my bulky equipment while I didn’t use them and be able to use a gravity fed system. So I did more research online and found one instance where someone was using a metal shelving system they bought at the Home Depot. I immediately thought that is what I was looking for. So I looked online and quickly found a heavy duty shelving system online at Amazon for about $75. The shelf has casters that can hold up to 300 pounds which is enough for my 5 gallon batches.

Since I saved all that money on the brew stand I decided I would buy a new burner that didn’t sound like a jet engine, so I bought a banjo burner. I have not had a chance to use all the new equipment but I plan on brewing a Brett English Mild with Whitbread yeast next weekend.

What is everyone else experience with building or dreaming of building a brew stand?

This Saturday, July 5th started out overcast and appeared to be threatening rain.  This will not stop a die-hard outdoor brewer like me.  I brew outside on the deck, and I have a brewstand with I wrap in a tarp to help it withstand the elements.  If it looks like rain, I will get out my ladder to act like a tent pole, and stretch the tarp over my brewing area to shed the rain.

This setup accomplished, I set about brewing my first ever Light American Lager Fizzy Yellow Beer.  I decided to have 25% of the grist be cooked rice.  I boiled water and cooked this on the stove, and then poured it directly into my mash.  I was able to recirculate my mash for about a half hour, but then as I was about to sparge, my volume of wort circulating began to dwindle and then stopped.  I tried my usual method to clear a stuck sparge, I forced some of my sparge water backwards through the system.  This usually does the trick to free the stuck sparge, but not this time, not even after three tries.

It was time for “Plan B”.  I went into the basement and located the cooler and mash braid I have not used for two years, since I inherited my current brew system.  I gave it a rinse and then scooped all of the mash out into it and began to fly sparge form the cooler.  This worked and I was able to collect my wort for boil.  I was off to the races again.

It will be a few weeks from now after fermentation when I can see how it went.  In the meanwhile, there are a couple of options I need to think about to help prevent this stuck sparge if I brew this recipe again.  One common option is Rice Hulls.  This give some larger particles in the grain bed to help set up the grain filter and should allow for better lautering.  The second option is to perform a cerial mash rather than just adding the boiled rice to my main mash.  This option begins the conversion of starches into sugars during the gelatinization of the rice starches.  Given how gummed up my system was with the rice starch, I think the latter option is probably in order.

Hope to see everyone at the next meeting.

Regards,

Jason

When it comes to brewing, the boil is sacrosanct. One of the first cardinal rules all brewers are taught is “You must boil for 60 minutes. No more, no less”.

It’s right before the rule about needing to always use a secondary fermentor and somewhere after the rule about waving a chicken bone over every mash.

But then you learn that it’s OK to boil a little longer and that in some cases that’s actually beneficial (but don’t boil too long!). But what happens if you boil for 4 hours? Or 40 minutes? Or not at all? Does it ruin your beer? Does it bring shame to your family and ancestors and require you to live out the rest of your life in solitude? Or does it not really make all that much difference and we’ve all been wasting our time?

I don’t really know, but I plan to find out. I’ll be doing this month’s educational on The Boil – what it is, what it does, do you need it, and how should you use it? Hopefully, I’ll even have a sample or two. Before that, though, I’d like you to vote on the poll on the right side of the page here. How long do you typically boil a batch of beer? If you typically brew all-grain, select from one of the answers starting with “All-Grain:”. Do the same with the extract answers if you brew more extract than all-grain. I’ll reveal the answers and more on Sunday, July 27th!

The seminars at the American Homebrewers’ Association Conference this year were better than ever. Ron Pattinson’s guide to vintage English beer and John Mallet and Andrea Stanley’s talk on the history of malting (with samples of a 100% traditional brown malt beer) appealed to the history geek in me. Matthew Brown’s Double IPA with no kettle hops blew my mind with its hoppiness. Homebrew celebrities like Randy Mosher, John Palmer, and Ray Daniels gave some great seminars as well.

If you went and couldn’t make it to everything you wanted, or you didn’t get to go at all, but still want to fill your brain with beery goodness (sorry, no samples), check out the AHA site where they’ve posted the slide deck and audio for every.single.seminar. Free if you’re a card carrying AHA member. If you’re not, then it’s time to sign up!

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/lets-brew/resources/conference-seminars/

Most seminars had a video camera running as well, so if you’re good at Google, you should be able to find the video for a few of these as well!