Stinky Daddy Brewery & Winery

Hey Santa!

If you are watching you can see that my 7.5 gallon kettle is pushed to the limit. When I run a 90 minute boil it is to the top.

I have been a good boy this year. I have eaten all my peas. I take a shower almost every day. I also cut the grass once a week. I was also able to keep myself from choking anybody I work with this year.

My only wish is for you to bring a 10 gallon Boilermaker with a thermometer, valve, sight glass, and hop blocker.

If you send this my way I promise not to have any more boil overs.

Love,

Stinky Daddy

Woolybooger Oatmeal Stout - B61

What a nightmare. Should have known this was not going to go well.

First - I wanted to brew this last weekend. Ordered Wyeast 1084 for this batch. It came in last Thursday with a hole in the pouch. Replacement came in on Wednesday.

Second - Started to brew yesterday but did not have enough water here. By the time I got to the store and back it was really too late to start.

Third - I thought I had 2 - 6g carboys but only had one! Agggghh! I do not know why I thought that, old age I guess. I do have a 7g bucket that I hate because not a single batch I have brewed in it turned out well.

Fourth - I tried to melt the out flow tube on my wort chiller when I put it in the kettle. I did not realize that it was up against the boiler.

Fifth - The new valve and strainer set up I added to my kettle clogged when I tried to drain it. Happened last weekend too.

Sixth - Because of my fear of the bucket I took it apart and sanitized the heck out of it. I did not realize that I had forgotten to close the spigot until about a 1/2 gallon of wort was all over the kitchen floor.

Finally - My OG ended up at 1.042! That is only 47% efficiency. I may squeeze 4% out of this one. I was looking for 6.5%. I am going to blame it on the crush. I let the LHBS crush it this time. Not again. My mill is dialed in for 70% with my mash tun, think I will stick with it.

Ingredients - 7.5 lbs maris otter, 2lbs oat malt, 1lb chocolate malt, 1lb roasted barley, .5lb cyrstal 160, .5lb carafoam, 1.25oz Fuggles @ 60; 1,25 oz Fuggles @ 30; Wyeast Irish Ale 1085

Guess it will be a session stout ...

 

New Lunch Box!

The kegerator is almost finished! Just needs to be plumbed.

 

Kegerator Under Construction

Well Well. Santa was good to Stinky Daddy. I received a few "green" presents. You know, the kind with a picture of Mr. Franklin on them. I have decided to start building one of these...

Of course mine will look a little different. It will definitely not have a University of Texas Longhorn on it, but I do like the finish of this one.

I found a used 15 cubic foot freezer on Craigslist and will pick it up next week. That is a larger freezer than the on in this picture. Stinky PopPop (my Dad) is going to help with this project. He is a master woodworker and will be able to make it look sharp. I might even be able to talk him into carving a few custom tap handles.

I am planning on 4 taps. Three of the taps will be for CO2. The other will be a stout faucet pushed by beer gas. This will allow my stouts to be poured just like Guinness. I may use one of the taps for soda for the kids. Due to the extra space I will be able to ferment lagers year round!

Can't wait to get this going.

V Vessel Trub Dump

SD's Honey Blonde (B31)

I had a can of Mr. Beer's West Coast Pale Ale extract on the shelf. I added 1lb of extra light DME, 1lb of honey (2mins), .25lb of lactose, .3 oz of Liberty hops (15min), and .2oz Liberty hops (2mins). Before all those additions I steeped .5lbs of 2-row and .5lbs of Honey Malt. It was a 15 minute boil. I did not boil the WCPA.

Brewed it up, cooled it down, and pitched Muntons yeast.

This was the first batch with one of my 3.5 gallon fermenting buckets. I think I am going to like this set-up better then the MB keg. It uses and air lock and has easier access than the mouth of the MB keg.

The OG was 1.062.

My First Mash Tun

I had a long day. About 5 hours with of drive time to hook a client into our server. When I arrived they had yet to buy a printer. 

The grain I ordered on Monday had yet to ship. They had a problem with my yeast request. Fortunately Knoxville has a brew store. I stopped in at the Ferment Station before I headed North and picked up 2-row pale malt and found Cascade and Perle hops at $2.30 and ounce. That's a DEAL these days. Anyway, I was happy to get home, see my family, and still have time to put together my first mash tun. I followed the instructions of Denny Conn. I did use a different cooler and a brass ball valve with a pipe nipple rather than nylon tubing but the rest was the same. I also plan to use his directions on batch sparging. 

I followed the instructions of

I can't wait to brew my first all-grain batch! As usual my wife thinks I've lost it...

Future Home of Stinky Daddy Brewery

My lovely wife has said (relented) that I can turn this extra space in the basement into the home of Stinky Daddy Brewery. I believe she is tired of my stuff being in the kitchen. Regardless of her motives I need to say, "Thank you Honey!!!"

The space is around 11'x16'. Plenty of room for a really nice set up. The gas water heater is on the other side of the left wall so, plumbing should be easy. Except for the fact that they brought the sewer line into the second level!!! I am going to have to install a pump. Gas line is right there too.

Before the plumbing work gets going I need to do something with the flooring. Carpet is not good in a brewery. They glued the carpet to the concrete so finishing the floor with epoxy paint is out. I am thinking a decent grade of laminate or vinyl will be perfect.

I access to outside is right here too. There is a perfect place to put my Turkey fryer for boiling my wort.

Can you tell I'm excited???

Immersion Wort Chiller

As you can see a wort chiller is basically copper tubing that has been wrapped into a coil. Fittings have been soldered that connect to two hoses. The inlet hose also has a "water hose" fitting that will connect to you outdoor spigot or to an adapter for your indoor faucet. The out flow hose has an open end. 

With 15 minutes left in the boil you immerse the clean wort chiller in the brew kettle. This will kill any bacteria that my be on the chiller. After your boil is completed, cover the kettle and attach the hoses. When you turn on your cold water it runs through the coils cooling your wort.

Why use a wort chiller? Two main reasons.

1) It brings your wort to pitching temps quicker than ice and lessens the chance of an infection.

2) It gives you a good quick cold break, forcing proteins to drop out of the beer. This helps prevent chill haze and gives you a clearer brew.

 

Brewing Software - BeerSmith

Check this out. I took the plunge and bought a copy of BeerSmith brewing software today. Among other things this software will help me create recipes, keep track of what ingredients, and it will also become my brewers journal.  It is also pretty inexpensive at $20.

This screen shot is of Becka's IPA. I entered the background information on the Muntons' IPA I used. The program already had the DME info, hops info, and water profile. It also has a bunch of other ingredients (yeast, grain, LME, DME, additives) loaded. It then scaled my recipe from a 5 gallon batch to the 2.5 gallon batch I was brewing. As you can see the program then calculated a color, OG, FG, ABV, calories, etc based on my ingredients. It also printed a brew sheet that tells me when to add what. Pretty Cool.

Besides making sure my batches fit within style/flavor profiles, I will be able to use this software to come up with clones.

Even-though I am starting to branch out from Mr. Beer ingredients, I would still like to be able to use them. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be very good information (that I can find) on MB extracts. I am going to email their brew-master to see what he can provide.