The Brew Gods Giveth, The Brew Gods Taketh Away

I have been stuck with my control panel build because I was waiting for the last tools to arrive that I needed. Nothing was supposed to arrive until Tuesday at the earliest. Imagine my surprise when I came home to find the mandrel for my hole saws had come two days early. I was so excited that the first chance I got I went down to drill the holes. I was hopeful that I would even be able to put the first coat of primer on the panel before going to bed.

I put the first hole saw on the mandrel, applied some cutting oil and I was ready to cut the holes for the pump receptacles. I started to drill the hole when disaster struck. The drill bit suddenly grabbed the control panel and sheared itself in half!

I called Amazon and they are sending a new part right away. Hopefully I won't have the same issue again. I am just thankful that the bit stayed in the control panel and didn't fly off somewhere.

Front Panel Cut

Progress on the brew system build has gone slower than anticipated. Due to a lack of tools and time I haven't been able to get as much done as I wanted. However, I now have all of the necessary tooling in my possession or on order and it should arrive this week. I did manage to get the front panel cut out.

The round holes were made using a 22mm punch. The punch was very easy to use and it gives perfect circle cuts. For the square and rectangle holes I drilled a hole in opposite corners and then used a jigsaw to cut the shape. Then I filed down the edges to make the cut the right size for the components (PIDs, timer, and volt/amp meters). The volt and amp meters also require a notch in the side for it to clip into. I just used the file to make the notch.

In order to punch one of the holes I needed to remove the grounding post. I used a rotary tool to cut the post off then grind it down flat with the rest of the panel. I will now be grounding through a screw that will be holding a faceplate on the front panel.

Hopefully the updates will start coming at a faster pace. 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.

So It Begins

This weekend I was able to officially start working on my brew stand. I am starting with the control panel build because I have all the parts and it takes the most time to complete. The control panel will be housed in a 20"x20"x8" box. The box is designed with a removable plate on the bottom of the box for cable hookups. However, the plate is not big enough for all of the cables that I will be attaching in the box. I will be sealing the plate to the box permanently with JB Weld and flipping the box to make the sealed plate be on the top of the box. Thursday night I sealed the plate with the help of my zombie dog.

I let the JB Weld cure for a couple days. On Saturday night I used my rotary tool to cut the ends off of the screws and grind them down to be flush with the box. Spraying sparks all over the garage is always fun. It looks rough now, but once it is primed and painted it will look a lot better.

Using a great layout from one of the users on the Electric Brewery forums, I then was able to start measuring and marking the locations for all of the cuts I will need to make. All of the circles on the picture below encompass the center point of the hole that needs to be punched. These holes will be for the various lights and switches that will be on the control panel. The two rectangles at the top of the panel are for the volt and amp meters. The four squares in the middle of the panel are for the PID controllers and a timer. The PID controllers will manage the temperature in the kettles by controlling the heating elements.

On what is now the bottom of the panel I marked the locations for the receptacles. You can see the two scribbled out marks where I caught a mistake thanks to the old "measure twice, cut once" adage. The circle on the left is for the main power feed coming into the box. The four staggered marks just to the right of that are for the heating elements. The two marks in the upper right are for the two pumps, and the three marks in the bottom right are for the temperature probes.

I will have more updates coming soon as I make my first cuts of the project. 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.

UPS Guy Was Good To Me

Three boxes were bright to the door today and they were filled with all kinds of toys. I now have all the parts to build the control panel for the brewery, my temperature probes and the heating element enclosures. Also included were the stainless steel HERMS coil and the counterflow wort chiller. I am now just waiting on some tooling so that I can start the build. I am very excited for the build to start.

Brewery Upkeep

Over the past couple months I have recommitted myself to brewing. Part of that is doing more of the little things between brew days to ensure that I am getting the most out of the beer that I am working so hard (...right...) to make. Some of the things I need to keep on top of are:

• Equipment Cleaning - having the mash tun, pots and other associated equipment clean before the next brew day
• Manage Fermenters - checking the temperature of the closet, keeping enough sanitizer in the air lock, etc.
• Keg/Keezer Maintenance - cleaning kegs, cleaning beer line, keeping inside of keezer ice and mold free

There are probably more things that I should be doing, but already I am seeing an improvement in not only my product, but the brew day as well. Tonight I spent time cleaning kegs to have them ready for the beers that are currently fermenting. I also cleaned 2 lines that were about to be hooked up to kegs. If I am going to be serious about making good beer, these are the kinds of things I need to keep in mind between brew days. I'm not on a break because I got the beer in the fermenter.

Hop Profile: Zythos

As I was peering through the door to the hop fridge at the homebrew store I as getting worried. I couldn't find Simcoe or Amarillo hops for the new version of my Guinea Pig IPA. Then I noticed a sign on the door that introduced a new hop 'variety,' Zythos. It was described to provide similar flavors and aromas to Amarillo and Simcoe so I grabbed a couple ounces to substitute into my recipe. I knew I needed to learn more about this hop, but I figured it was worth a shot.

Zythos is not a hop variety. It is a proprietary hop blend being offered by Hopunion. The following is from a Sept. 26, 2011 press release:

ZYTHOS™ ─ a proprietary hop blend created to embody the powerful tradition and aroma you expect for your finest ales and IPA brews. With targeted brewing values of 11.9% alpha and 5.0% beta, ZYTHOS is an IPA style blend created to optimize and exceed the aroma characteristics you require.

The high alpha-acid levels provide a big bitterness boost to the beer. This hop blend is also said to have low co-humulone levels. That means the hop blend should have a smoother finish. Hops with high co-humulone levels are associated with a certain harshness that can be left in a beer.

I don't know if this hop can replace the rather unique flavors that Amarillo and Simcoe provide, but I am certainly looking forward to the results.

Change Is Coming

And for once change is a good thing. I mentioned in a recent post that I was going to have some new gear coming into the fold. I will be building a new brew system. The system design comes from the wonderful work of Kal over at The Electric Brewery. I am following Kal's design almost exactly. My system will be designed to handle 50 amps instead of the 30 amps that Kal's initial design details.

You may have noticed my price per pint skyrocketing over the last couple weeks. That is because I started ordering parts for the system. The first parts arrived today. They are easily the second coolest part of the system. I present my new 20 gallon Blichmann Boilermakers! The decision to get the Blichmann kettles was difficult. I could get other kettles cheaper, but I decided to just build exactly what I wanted in the brew system.

I will be documenting my system build here on the blog. I am still waiting for some tooling and additional parts before I can really get started so updates on the system will be slow at first. While I wait I will just be staring at how shiny and cool my new kettles are.