Wow. Competition Scoring is Crazy.

History of competition entries for the Old Ale.

Comp 1:

Score 42 (1st in class)


Comp 2 (2008 NHC 1st Round):

Score 27


Comp 3:

Score 36 (2nd in class)


Comp 4:

Score 41 (1st in class)


Comp 5 (CA State Homebrewing Competition):

Score 42 (Best of Show)


Comp 6 (2009 NHC 1st Round):

Score 44

Wild.

At the recent World Cup of Beer, the Russian Imperial Stout didn't do well with judges. They indicated that there was a solventy flavor and aroma as well as sweetness due to being underattenuated. They also suggested using a lower fermentation temp. Score was a 26. The same beer scored a 43 in the 2009 NHC 1st Round. A 17 point swing.

Wild.

Prioritizing

Got a lot of brews floating around in my head and I need to prioritize what gets brewed and when.

In no particular order:

Old Ale

2009 Holiday Spiced Cherry Dubbel v 2.0

Russian Imperial Stout v 2.0 (for collaborative blend)

Berliner Weiss (for collaborative blend)

Nut Brown Ale

Hopprehension Imperial IPA v 2.0

Raspberry Vanilla Porter or Stout

Todd's Porter

something or somethings for upcoming Graham mini-reunion

Creamsicle Ale v 2.0 (I've had a request)

something high gravity if we're going to attempt the aeration experiment

something high gravity if Brent wants to age something for his bachelor party next year...

Help!

World Cup of Beer 2009 Results

Finally got the results and was pleased to see that Raz's Fine Ales managed to pick up a second place for our Sourwood Honey Mead (dry). Was a bit disappointed to see that the Russian Imperial Stout didn't do very well. The chocolate stout made it to the second round of judging but didn't ultimately place. The Hopprehension Imperial IPA had a higher score than the chocolate stout but didn't make it to the second round. Tough competition!

First Batch Sparge a Success!

There were a lot of guesses as to strike temps, grain absorption, dead space, evaporation rate and what not, but the in the end, the first batch sparge was a success. We wound up with 15 gallons of weizen and a couple of extra gallons of what will be a funky "imperial" berliner weiss. 10 gallons of weizen is currently fermenting at 61* and 5 gallons is currently fermenting with an ambient temperature of 67*. The same yeast strain was used for both. The berliner weiss is sitting in the coolest part of my house where in the late afternoon ambient temps are around 80*. Why is it that on the rare occasions I ferment without temperature control there is ALWAYS a heat wave? And why is it the heat wave only lasts two to three days (during the most crucial part of fermentation)? Hopefully the berliner weiss will be drinkable...

A big thank you goes out to Todd and Brent for all their assistance and input.

Below is the setup. The cooler is connected to the pump to runoff into the kettle. Strike water and water for runoff were both brought up to temperature on the sculpture and transferred into the cooler via pump as well.

Here the wort is flowing into the 26 gallon kettle. We're getting a pretty good rate of transfer. The thermoplastic rubber tubing is 1/2" ID.



Lastly, just a touch above 23 gallons of wort boiling away...

The only significant issue for the day was cooling 17 gallons to pitching temperature (58*). For batches of 5-10 gallons, I've been able to get away with recirculating ice water (cooled with frozen water bottles) through an immersion chiller. This method was only good enough at dropping the wort temperature down to 84* on a relatively warm day. I ultimately had to use 60 pounds of ice to get the wort down to pitching temperature. On the plus side, once adding the ice, it only took ten to fifteen minutes.

Going forward, I'm going to have to look into making a hop hanger of sorts or using hop bags to minimize what winds up in the fermenter.

Oh, and I used Fermcap-S for the first time during the boil. Awesome awesome awesome foam control! I used it in the fermenters as well so hopefully no repeat of the Exerweizen...

Spontaneously Fermenting With Wild Yeast Taking Too Long?

Raz's Fine Ales is proud to announce that we've developed a state of the art and technologically advanced new method for dramatically and drastically speeding up the spontaneous fermenting of your beer with wild yeast. These days, who has time to wait for things to fall in from the rafters or be blown in by the wind or come out of a barrel? Instead, we send children out into the woods to run around and play for a day. When they come back, we pitch the children directly into our oxygenated wort. If the children have been active enough to achieve a healthy layer of funk during their daily adventures, we've seen fermentation start up within mere hours of pitching. No children in your brewery? No problem. Ours are available for a minimal fee. Please email for a quote. Cheers!

Finally!

It's taken a while, but I've finally got my pump reconfigured and mounted properly on the sculpture.

For some inexplicable reason, the pump was originally mounted so low that a ball valve handle was literally resting on the bottom of the sculpture frame (the pump wasn't sitting all the way down in it's mounting plate).

I attempted once before to drill into the 304 stainless sculpture to move the pump mounting plate up, but I couldn't find a drill bit strong enough to get through the steel. My alternative was to reconfigure the pump itself. And while that succeeded in having the pump seated properly in the mount and getting the ball valves moved around, the actual functioning of the pump (while brewing) seemed to be negatively affected. So I lived with it...

Recently I've been hitting up various hardware stores to look for parts for the cooler conversion (batch sparging). While doing this, I also started to scope out drill bits again as well. I found a couple that specifically mentioned they were to be used for drilling stainless. Got home, took out some WD-40, and about a half an hour later, after using three different bits and with a touch of grunting, groaning and sweating, I got through the steel! (There was no excessive swearing as that's reserved for when I build computers.)

Last night I moved the mount, did the pump reconfigure, tightened all the disconnects, setup the sculpture, and ran some sanitizer through the hoses, pump, sparge ring, mash tun, etc. Everything seemed to work quite well. Finally!