Beer Gun!

I received a Blichmann Beer Gun for Christmas this year, and I finally had a chance to hook it up and use it.  This was the first time that I have bottled beer from a keg and it was so easy.  The Beer Gun allows you to shoot CO2 into the bottle to get rid of the air that would oxidize the beer.  Once the bottle is full of CO2 you just pull the trigger and it will start filling from the bottom of the bottle.  So quick and painless.  While I had help with capping the bottles, I could see how the Beer Gun makes bottling easy for one person on their own.  The Beer Gun is also easy to disassemble for thorough cleaning.  I can take it apart and put it back together in a minute or two.

What finally got me off my butt and putting the Beer Gun to use was the National Homebrew Competition.  I am entering My P-Dub Vanilla Stout and Guinea Pig IPA.  I am not expecting to win anything, but I am looking forward to getting feedback.

How To: Brew an Extract Batch

So you've decided you want to homebrew. You've got your equipment and ingredients and you are ready to go. But where do you go from there? I wanted to put together a how to with pictures to help you out. The recipe I am brewing for this example is Programmer's Elbow. The recipe can be found in Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer. This is an excellent book for extract recipes. It has an award winning recipe for every style so no matter what beer you want to make you can find it in this book.

Grab a beer and take a seat.  There are a lot of pictures and wisdom after the break!

Why Brew?

People sometimes ask me why I brew my own beer. Why don’t I just buy it from the store? To me the answer is pretty simple. Brewing is fun. I like handing someone a beer and being able to say, “Yeah. I made that.” For me brewing is also a stress reliever. When I am brewing, it doesn’t matter what happened at work this week or anything else that is going on. I can just focus on the sweet smells coming from the kettle.

There are plenty of other reasons that people homebrew. Maybe they can’t get good beer near them. Maybe they discovered their new favorite beer while travelling and want to be able to drink it at home. Some brew to have beer cheaper than they can buy it for. Others brew for the pride of making something better than they can buy at the store.

There is some aspect of brewing that will appeal to just about anyone. Here are a few examples:

Artists – brewing provides a creative outlet to make a delicious beverage to share with friends and family. You can use endless combinations of ingredients to bring together wonderful flavors and aromas.

Scientists – brewing involves thermodynamics, chemistry, and biology. You can scratch the surface or dive deep into the processes and reactions that brewing entails.

DIYers – building homebrew equipment is a large component of the hobby for many homebrewers. There are projects large and small that can make brewing easier or just plain cooler.

Why do you brew?

Finally... Progress!

After my setbacks with the hole saws, I was finally able to make some progress. I had a terrible time getting the hole saws to work, so once I was able to do that I felt like I was on top of the world. The holes for the receptacles are now cut.

Once I had all of the holes cut, another issue popped up. The two inch holes that I cut were not the right size. Thankfully they were too small rather than too large. The receptacles for the heating elements have a very slight taper to them that makes them 2-1/4" at the flange. Had I noticed this I could have just cut the 2-1/4" hole from the start and skipped the 2" hole saw altogether. Now I had to file/grind an eighth of an inch off of the four holes in the middle of the picture above. It was time consuming, but I am glad it is over now. I also cut the first holes for the heating element enclosures, but I did not take any pictures yet. I'll have some up when I make more progress on that front.

I did a test fit for all of the holes that have been punched or cut in the panel. Above are the receptacles and below is the front panel. I am very happy that everything fit as expected.

I still have some work to do before I can paint. I need to get the holes drilled for screws for the receptacles and the front name plate. I also need to cut the hole where the SSRs will attach to the heat sink on the top of the panel.I am getting close and hoping that once I can get everything painted that I will have some smooth sailing for once.

For more information on the plans I am following please visit The Electric Brewery. There are wonderful write ups detailing every step of the way.