Homebrewing Ball Valve With Pick-up Tube

If you're about to convert that old keg or pot into a mash tun, hot liquor tank or boil kettle, then you may be needing a valve installed to drain the liquid. In my case, I have a three tiered, gravity fed system utilizing discarded Sanke beer kegs.
Each vessel has a ball valve installed to allow the liquid to flow down from one vessel to the next, cascading down from the hot liquor tank (HLT) in to the top to the mash tun (MT) and finally down into the boil pot (keggle). I use valves that do not need to be welded in place but are held secure with compression fittings. The valves are installed several inches above the bottom of the keg and I have attached pick-up tubes which enable me to extract virtually all of the liquid from the keg. The parts that make up this assembly are:

1. 1/2" npt to 3/8" barbed adapter
2. 1/2" x 1/2" (female to female)
   s.s. or brass ball valve
3. 1/2" npt to 3/8" compression fitting
   (male to male)
4. heat resistant washer
5. 3/8" compression sleeve
6. 3/8" compression nut
7. 3/8" x 6" copper tubing

I use some teflon tape on the pipe threads and the washer is thick enough to form a seal against the keg when the compression nut is tightened. The pick up tube is bent gradually down to within 1/4" of the bottom of the keg. I worked with a tube bender to prevent the tube from crimping but, being careful, you can probably do this without using one. On my mash tun I attached a length of stainless steel braided hose (not shown here) to filter out grain husk during the sparge process.

Beer Tasting Selection For July 09

The beer tasting class this weekend was a great success. Students got a chance to sample nine different beers from around the world. I tried to provide a selection that would represent a wide variety but still fall into three categories of West coast, German and Sour beers. Then ascending from mild to hoppy and sweet to sour. The following is a list of the beers in the order of the tasting.

Duschutes "Summer Ale" Paulaner "Helles" Brouwerij Verhaeghe "Duchesse" Green Flash "West Coast IPA" Franziskaner "Dunkelweizen" Lindemans "Kriek" Paulaner "Dopple bock" S'Louis "Gueuze" Anchor Steam "Barley Wine"

It was hard to incorporate the sour beers into the mix because I didn't want to taste all the sours together, I liked the idea of the contrasting flavors between the non-sour with the sour.

Fellow Zymurgeeks Dave and Mark were very helpful and supportive in presenting a couple of the beers and providing some of the technical and historical knowledge. A lot of great brewing information was shared and a couple of the students voiced interest in taking the homebrewing classes in the fall.

English Ales in Marina, Ca.

English Ales Brewery is a modest place to sit back and quaff an English ale. Quietly located outside the tourist hub of Monterey it is located a block off the main street in Marina, California.

You'll be impressed with the army of ceramic beer steins hanging in neat columns from the ceiling as you enter. The name of the patron penned on the bottom for easy identification. After that, what caught my eye was the hand pump at the bar next to a busy row of tap handles that dispensed seven different beers that are brewed on premise.

I settled back with a sampler of all but the stout which was unfortunately unavailable while I was there. I waited for an order of banger sandwich and fries as I sampled the beers.

All were very quaffable. Light in alcohol, low carbonation and mild in flavor. I worked my way from the lightest, a "Big Sur Golden" that had a minimum of hop flavor and aroma, and continued on to the "E.P.Pale Ale" which has a slight hop perfume and a slightly higher alcohol by volume.

I sampled the "Dragon Slayer" IPA with a more pronounced caramel flavor and floral aroma with higher bitterness than any of the other beers. Then the "Fat Lip Amber", the "Monks Brown Ale", the "Black Prince Porter" and finally the "Triple B Bitter" with its low ABV of 4.2%.

Before leaving, I spoke briefly with Tom the head brewer and found out that he uses a 10 bbl system and is brewing 4 times a week to keep up with demand. He was just returning from a keg delivery to the Arroyo Seco race track.

If you are in the area and want to spend some time conversing with the locals while tossing back some traditional session brews, English Ales is a great place to find yourself.

Cider Flavors From Sugar Experiment-the results

Alright, here are the conclusions I have come up with about this long standing wives tale about sugar adjuncts being the cause of apple/cider flavors in your beer. When I say apple/cider flavors I'm talking about the flavors associated with acetaldehyde.

In this case I'm not tasting it at all. This beer was made with 50% cane sugar (see original post)and the volatile compound that supposedly derives from refined sugar during the fermentation process is not present.

On the other hand, the beer doesn't taste very good.

The body is thin and there is a pronounced astringency that seems to be from the high alpha hops. The flavor of the Amarillo and Cascade hops comes through in a big way, overshadowing any malt attributes. Add to that the fact that I used just the basics of 2-row and a small amount of crystal #60 to be able to judge the results of the flavors in this experiment, the beer is two dimensional and lacks the maltiness I prefer in a pale ale.

In conclusion, in spite of its other failings it still doesn't live up to the old wives tale about refined sugar adding the element of green apple/cider. I think what is in order at this point is to brew a batch of beer similar to the above except that I would substitute the sugar with what I believe is the real reason behind the green apple flavor; old liquid malt extract. When I say old I mean oxidized and darkened with age.

I'll keep you posted about that trial.

Summer Brewing Class Finals

We finished the summer five week brewing classes here in sunny California with a fantastic day of homebrew/food pairings and tastings using the beer we brewed in class.

Bottles of Hefeweizen, along with a keg of Pale ale and a keg of Stout were on tap. as we spent the early part of the day going over the mechanics of building a kegerator from a chest freezer and forced carbonation techniques. My co-instructor Dave brought in his computer and spent some time reviewing brewing software like beersmith and promash.

Soon we were evaluating the beers that were brewed in class and finally matched those beers up with food that the students brought. Assorted cheeses, sushi, pizza, chocolate, tri-tip steak and bread pudding were some of the fare that we enjoyed. All was washed down with the beer, the results of our labors in class over the past five weeks.

I believe the classes were a success and that the students took away all the information that they would need to start brewing at home and I was sad to end the day as we said our goodbyes. Now I will spend some time fine tuning the curriculum for the upcoming fall classes. There is some recipe changes I need to make based on the finished beers we sampled and I will need to upload the new material onto the website for the next batch of students to access.

I am finding it very satisfying to teach a subject that I love but it's a hell of a lot of work to prepare and stay focused for those weeks. It is also a great reward when I find some of the students go on to brew their own beer and continue down the path of the worlds greatest hobby. See you in the fall.

Duchesse De Bourgogne

I'm not a big fan of the Belgian sour beers. Although I have, over the years gained an appreciation for the unique qualities that they offer, I still find that it is a rare occasion that I imbibe in the funky offerings of that region of the world.

As a new brewer I was perplexed at the pure joy that would appear on the faces of fellow brewers that considered these beers to be among the best the world had to offer. I would turn up my nose in disgust at the thought of sampling a bottle and beg them for a simple explanation for their odd preference. At the time, they couldn't provide me with a satisfactory answer. Mostly because I wouldn't listen. Now, I think I understand. Over time I have sampled an odd assortment and what I like about the sour beers is the complexity of the flavors, the unique dimensions that the bacteria brings to the blend and how these beers surprisingly satisfy and quench my thirst.

In the case of the subject of this post, the Duchesse De Bourgogne, I look beyond the initial "in your face" apple vinegar, acidic flavor. I can enjoy the way my glands release a dose of saliva with that initial tart cidery sip and the dark dried fruit and caramel sweetness comes to the forefront. My mouth soon dries out and asks for another sip to repeat the experience. The barnyardy, wet horse blanket flavors of gueuse are not present in this beer but for some inexplicable reason my tastebud search it out like flashlights in the darkness of the sour.

This is a good beer to offer the uninitiated, although my wife's face puckered up with aversion when I asked her "taste this and tell me what you think!".
In the beer tastings that I conduct, I like to begin with a beer like the Duchesses when sampling the Belgians before advancing into the depths of something like a gueuse. It has just the right amount of the unusual balanced with the familiar, that can introduce someone into an entirely new region of the beer kingdom. A door opener into the realm of funky.

For more on this beer and the brewery it comes from go here.

Are you a sour beer fan? Leave a comment.

How To Make A Yeast Starter

Besides fermenting ales at cool temperatures, I would rank pitching a large yeast colony near the top of my 'most important steps' list in brewing good beer.

Making a yeast starter is a pretty uncomplicated procedure with the great advantages of quick fermentation starts and the added benefit of good attenuation. The quicker you can get a dominant colony of your chosen yeast in the wort the better your odds of preventing unwanted wild yeast and bacteria from getting a foot hold in the environment. Here are the steps to amp up your yeast culture and get you the results you want.

1. bring to a boil, 900 ml. of water on your stove top
2. turn off the heat and add 1/2 cup of dry malt extract
3. stir extract into solution
4. turn the heat back on and boil solution for 15 minutes
5. remove from heat, cover and cool to 70f. (I place the boil pot in a ice bath in the sink)
6. aerate
7. add yeast

The yeast colony will grow in the new sugar environment and is ready to pitch in about three days. You could also, step this culture up again growing the colony to an even greater population. To do this, repeat the process above and add to the yeast colony that you already started. First, pour off the excess liquid from the original starter, then add the fresh batch of boiled and cooled malt extract. The yeast will go through the same process as before, growing and consuming the new sugars. After several more days you will have an even larger yeast colony that will go to work quickly to ferment your next batch of beer. If you're not ready to pitch when the starter is complete then place it in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Some brewers will pitch the entire content of the starter but I usually decant the liquid off the top of the yeast leaving enough liquid to swirl the yeast into solution so that all of the yeast pours out easily.