New Brewery!

[Apocalypse Cow]

I scored a freshly emptied barrel from Haven HIll Distillery as a door prize yesterday.
Now I need enough local home brewers and a good Stout recipe to help fill this bad boy.

[Nytelyte]

I've been busy this past week. Brewed an IIPA & my Christmas. The Christmas smells nice, and an IPA of some form or another is our house beer. I'm going to bottle my WeeHeavy in the next few days.

Its a good time in BrewLand!

[Dansrc51]

I feel blessed that the two hobbies I love are both experiencing a golden age. Motorcycles have never been better and beer has never had such a boom in the US, in terms of quality and craftsmanship (both MC and beer actually).

The hops are coming in nicely, and I'll be harvesting soon. Going to have maybe a few pounds to do a couple of fresh hopped beers next month. Thinking a big IPA and maybe a sessions style ale that is low abv/medium IBU.

[Dansrc51]

Originally Posted by Apocalypse Cow

I scored a freshly emptied barrel from Haven HIll Distillery as a door prize yesterday.
Now I need enough local home brewers and a good Stout recipe to help fill this bad boy.

A friend and professional brewer for Deshcuttes brewery, told me that you want to use the barrels within a reasonable time. Apparently the staves will begin to separate and will leak if they are not kept moist. Just what I've heard.

[levain]

Originally Posted by Dansrc51

I feel blessed that the two hobbies I love are both experiencing a golden age. Motorcycles have never been better and beer has never had such a boom in the US, in terms of quality and craftsmanship (both MC and beer actually).

Well said

[P B G]

Originally Posted by Dansrc51

A friend and professional brewer for Deshcuttes brewery, told me that you want to use the barrels within a reasonable time. Apparently the staves will begin to separate and will leak if they are not kept moist. Just what I've heard.

Cannot you just soak them for a bit prior to adding the elixer?

Got 72 bottles off a cider batch, transfered an amber ale to the secondary, and have a flask of seison ready to prime and bottle.

Gotta clean some kegs for that secondary to cross into tomorrow...

Yum

[Apocalypse Cow]

Originally Posted by Dansrc51

A friend and professional brewer for Deshcuttes brewery, told me that you want to use the barrels within a reasonable time. Apparently the staves will begin to separate and will leak if they are not kept moist. Just what I've heard.

That wouldn't suprise me, they are wood after all and it tends to shrink when dried. I am hoping that with it being sealed and stored in a shaded place it will help keep some of the moisture in it.
With any luck I will have a group together shortly and we can work on filling it. Otherwise if I am too late we can always dice it up soak the pieces in Bourbon and add them to our secondaries.

[tootal]

When we received our barrel it still had some whiskey in it. You should be able to lay it on it's side and rotate it once in a while to keep it sealed. Worked for us. We also kept it in a cool basement so it wouldn't dry out as fast. The beer is amazing and people are just shocked that some home brewers could make such a beer! Have fun! it's as much fun to share as it is to drink!

[Apocalypse Cow]

Hey folks looking for some tips.

This past weekend I bought a set up to keg my Vanilla Porter and carbinate/dispense with a C02/Nitrogen mix. I would like to serve this beer this coming Saturday. Some of the forums I have read state that they carbinate for a coupled days at a certain pressure and then serve at another.
Does anyone have any experience with this and could you tell me what pressures I should be setting my reg at? This is my first attempt and I would like to get it correct.

Thanks.

[discochris]

Originally Posted by Apocalypse Cow

Hey folks looking for some tips.

This past weekend I bought a set up to keg my Vanilla Porter and carbinate/dispense with a C02/Nitrogen mix. I would like to serve this beer this coming Saturday. Some of the forums I have read state that they carbinate for a coupled days at a certain pressure and then serve at another.
Does anyone have any experience with this and could you tell me what pressures I should be setting my reg at? This is my first attempt and I would like to get it correct.

Thanks.

I've never worked with Nitrogen and don't know anyone who has.
That said, I keg 90% of the beer I make, only usually bottling a six-pack or so of each batch to save for later, unless I brew a batch specifically for bottling (I usually do a batch of porter for this purpose every couple months).

The instructions I've followed for kegging are:
Keg the beer (I use Corny Kegs).
Attach to the gas at 30 psi for 24 hours in the fridge. Release the gas. Let re-pressurize. Check the beer. It's usually not carbonated enough.

Release the gas from the keg. Turn the regulator to 20 psi for 24 hours. Release the gas and check again. It's usually good to drink, if not perfect. Another day or so will improve it, but you can drink it at this point.

Midwest recommends turning it to 10-12 psi from that point for serving going forward, but I've found the beer to be
too foamy. (I also had a shitty regulator that I just replaced, which could have been part of the issue). I've been keeping it at 8-9 psi now for this current batch, with the new regulator, and it's just about perfect. Not sure if Nitrogen makes a difference, but it well might. I'm currently drinking a Stout I made a couple weeks ago, and it's excellent.

[Dansrc51]

I've not yet worked with nitro, but for CO2 there are many factors including temperature of your fridge, length of the hose from keg to tap, time on the gas and pressure. My method has been to place the beer at 48* at 12 PSI for a week and then serve at 10PSI. I find that slow carbing builds the levels needed and gives the beer a chance to condition.

there are multiple tables online for carbing your beer at the correct pressure. Most breweries use a device to check CO2 levels before kegging or bottling. over carbing can be just as bad for your beer as undercarbing. It's true you can get your beer carbed early with the tricks like the one above, but if you take your time and do it right you'll be surprised how much better a beer can be. just my $.02

[tootal]

If you want to do it faster and maybe more accurate you can find one of those tables spoken of. If you know how many "Volumes of CO2" a certain style has then use that information along with the temperature of your beer to figure out what psi to set your gauge at. An example is, on my Oktoberfest they want 2.5 volumes of CO2. I had my beer at 40 degrees so I looked at the table and it said 12 psi. I set it at 12 and started to rock my keg back and forth holding it at the bottom with my feet. You rock it until you don't hear anymore CO2 going in. Now when you hook up your CO2 be sure and connect it to the OUT side of your keg. This way it will bubble up from the bottom. Now if you do it this way you can immediately enjoy a beer. I store it at 40 degrees and 12 psi to maintain head. When I serve I usually drop the pressure to 8 or so psi. I repressurize when finished serving.
Now, you must rock the keg for around 15 minutes. If you want to speed up the process you can put it at 25 psi and rock it for 5 minutes. Stop and reset the tank to 12 and continue. This usually cuts the time in half. Just don't go too long or you'll get too much carbonation. If you ever do over carbonate just bleed the pressure off and it will come out of solution. May take a couple of days depending on how bad it was.

[Apocalypse Cow]

Thanks for all of the info.
Turns out I cannot get my nitrogen tank from the supplier until Friday. So with that I kegged the porter tonight and pressurized it with co2. Once I get the other tank I may relaese the pressure on the porter and switch over to try to add some creamyness to the pour.

[levain]

I store my kegs at 45. Mostly pale ale. I keep regulator the same at around 10-12 psi. Hook up the kegs and forget about them for a week or so. Sounds simple cos it is. Works for me.

[tony the tiger]

I just SWAG it, mostly.
~20 PSI Co2 x ~1 week in the beer fridge, not quite cold enough for the beer to freeze in the keg.
Works good enuff for me... after a week I turn the regulator down to 10 PSI, I like my beer to have lots of little bubbles and a thick head.