Beaverdam Brewery - 2012 The Year in Review

<!--[if gte mso 9]> Carroll, Keith D Normal Carroll, Keith D 2 31 2013-01-02T23:22:00Z 2013-01-02T23:22:00Z 1 198 1129 Philip Morris USA 9 2 1325 14.00 <![endif]

I wanted to take a look back at my brewing from this past year.

Number of batches brewed: 6 (down from 8 in 2011)

Number of gallons brewed: 38 (down from 47 in 2011)

First brew day: 2/3/12 (97 days earlier than 2011)

Last brew day: 10/5/12 (43 days earlier than 2011)

Batch with highest alcohol: 7.5% B24 Hoptologist IPA (down from 7.7% in 2011)

Batch with lowest alcohol: 5.1% B23A Citra Ass Down APA and B23B Citra Funky Ass Down 100% Brett APA

Weighted average ABV of all batches: 5.623% (up from 5.36% in 2011)

Favorite batch to brew: B26 Man Down! Hefeweizen

Favorite batch to drink: B22 Once You Go Black, You Never Go Back (Dry Irish Stout)

Worst brew session: B24 Hoptologist/B25 Redneck Saison/B26 Man Down! It was a triple-header brew day and it lasted forever.

Favorite name: Hoptologist IPA

Amount of grain used: 87 lbs 9 oz. (down from 97.2 lbs in 2011)

Amount of hops used: 20 oz. (down from 29.65 oz. in 2011)

Biggest equipment upgrade: The faucets, manifold, etc. from my keezer

Biggest trend: brewing with wild yeast and bacteria; this started in 2011 but I currently have 4 carboys filled with lambic, flanders reds and an IPA that has been bretted

Goals for 2013:

1. Brew two more times than 2012
2. Brew my first temperature-controlled lager
3. Brew flavorful session beers

Taps are Mounted

Over the weekend I drilled my collar for the taps and gas line. I stuck the taps on and they look pretty good. I still need to buy a 4^th tap and assembly and of course stain and mount the collar, but progress is being made.

Keezer Status

A couple of weekends ago, I started building the collar for my kegerator. I went to Home Depot and purchased a 2’’x6’’, stain, pre-stain treatment, brackets and some weather stripping. I had decided that I wanted to make 45^o cuts because they typically look nicer. Well, unfortunately these looked like crap. For some reason my cuts were not straight from top to bottom. I’ve never cut anything larger than baseboard trim on this miter saw, but I’ve never had trouble with angled cuts before. Regardless, the best I can do right now is to make straight cuts, so I bought another board and proceeded to cut my four pieces and bracket them together. I now just need to drill holes in the front for the taps, in the rear for the thermostat and gas line, stain it, insulate it, and mount my manifold, shanks and taps. Hopefully there will be beer on tap in the next two weeks.

More Keezer Parts

I ordered or procured the rest of the parts for my keezer build this week. The main part that I was missing was the CO2 manifold. I previously purchased most of my parts for the keezer from Austin Homebrew Supply, but I was not enamored with their manifolds. I was looking for one that I could expand in the future, if I wanted. The four-way manifold at MoreBeer fit the bill. It will allow me to serve four kegs on tap, but also give me the flexibility to expand if I feel the need in the future.

I also went to Lowes over the weekend and bought 2x6s, stain, angle brackets and weather-stripping in order to build the collar for my keezer. I have two kegs ready to go in, so I really need to get on the stick so that I can start serving some hand-crafted draft beer.

Keezer parts are in

I’m trying to get ramped up so that I can get my keezer put together. I placed my first order with Austin Homebrew Supply and among my goodies are most of my kegerator parts. I keep hearing that the Perlick faucets are the only way to go, so I went ahead and bought 3 Perlick forward sealing faucets as well as my 4” shanks and the liquid and gas disconnects for my pin lock kegs.

I now have 1 ball lock keg (I purchased the single keg draft system from More Beer a couple of years ago) as well as 9 pin lock kegs I bought from some folks that failed to get their cidery off the ground. My plan was to put 4 kegs on draft, but I measured my keezer based on the size of my ball lock keg and the pin lock kegs are a bit fatter, so I’ll probably just put 3 on draft to start. If I acquire another ball lock keg down the road, I might add a 4th tap.

To complete my keezer, I still need to build the collar – my tentative plan is to go with 2x6s to get some height in case I want to stick a 4th keg or a fermenter on the compressor shelf. I also need to purchase a gas manifold and the gas and beer tubing. Hopefully I can find some time this weekend to get started.