Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

I try to make it a habit that when I brew something big, or different, I try to photograph the whole process.

Here is a Mild Ale I made:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/13403253@N00/fq7Jhx

Here's a Double Chocolate Stout:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/13403253@N00/DFPG69

And here's my first time brewing in Virginia:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/13403253@N00/Z43VS4

Got any photo threads you want to share?

Very, very cool. 

I take pictures, but your equipment is so much nicer than mine (Brewing equipment, that is.  Where do you get these dirty thoughts?), so refuse to post mine out of insecurity.

Great stuff, though.

Thanks-
Someday I PROMISE I'll have people over and yes...I'll share my beer. You have my word. (But you can't touch my stuff.  )

Here are some pictures from the "Teach a Friend How to Homebrew" event I had at my house last fall.  I should have snapped some pictures of Jason and my brew day on Saturday, but I forgot.

Ingredients for the recipe, which was a spiced winter ale
http://bp1.blogger.com/_LZfgRAymvXM/RzPOL4VpFGI/AAAAAAAAADM/SI5dFQSSnpU/s1600-h/11-3-07+Ingredients.jpg

The all grain equipment (hot liquor tank and mash tun).  Notice my daughter is already reading Brew Your Own Magazine.  We are starting her early.
http://bp1.blogger.com/_LZfgRAymvXM/RzPO24VpFII/AAAAAAAAADc/HU1zvSNBlQc/s1600-h/11-3-07+Sid+and+Erin.jpg

The boil
http://bp2.blogger.com/_LZfgRAymvXM/RzPOgIVpFHI/AAAAAAAAADU/81bUiQfFnGk/s1600-h/11-3-07+Bryan+Meghan+and+John.jpg

John Baker pitching the yeast.  You can see dinner, which included grilled eggplant and burgers, was getting ready in the background
http://bp3.blogger.com/_LZfgRAymvXM/RzPO3YVpFJI/AAAAAAAAADk/ZEGClKznXDA/s1600-h/11-3-07+John+Pitching+Yeast.jpg

CFAP:

I'm curious about the modified half-barrel keg you use for a mash tun. If you did that yourself, could you describe the modification process?

Hi,
That's actually a 15 gallon keg that I use to brew in. I use two Igloo 5 gallon coolers for my mash / lauter tuns.

I like to do things myself when I can, so I modified my coolers myself. For the keg, I can't weld stainless so I bought it  from Sabco, and at the time (two years ago) I was able to buy a used keg that they modified (cut and ground top, welded on two fittings and general cleaned) for about $120. Man, the prices seem to have shot up! (Actually, I didn't see any used kegs on their site anymore, maybe their supply of used ones dried up?)

This is not to say that you can't still do this. First off, don't steal a keg. Brewers have class and arn't crooks. Get a keg legally. You can ask around at some places for damaged/defective kegs that they'll sell you cheap...cheaper than I paid. (don't get one with a hole in the side or bottom, yes they can be patched, but gunk can still live in those areas.) Some good places to start are distributors, scrap yards, some bars...just ask first, don't take. (Not to get sidetracked, but scrap yards are great places to look for Corney kegs too. (5 gallon tanks that used to be used for soda, now homebrewers use to condition and serve in instead of bottling.) I used to live in Cleveland and found a source that sold me and my friend 16 corneys for $8 each. Do NOT buy any kegs that were used for root beer. You will NEVER get the smell or taste out.) 

Once you have your keg, you'll cut the top off and grind it smooth. You do can do this with patience and a grinder. Get some ear protection 'cause it's frikin' LOUD!!! (There are plenty of sources on the net for showing you what to do.) As for your fittings, you can go two routes: weld or no weld. Welding onto stainless is a special process that you can hire out. After you get your fittings (form some place like Beer, Beer and More Beer www.morebeer.com) you can take them to your local machinists shop and for a nominal cost, they'll weld them on for you. Heck, if you promise to bring in beer, they may even cut you a deal. The other option is weldless fittings (any homebrew place worth it's salt will have these). These are simple and easy to install...so what's the downside? They recommend changing out the o-rings on them every 4-5 batches due to the heat. (Pain in the a$$ if you ask me.) The o-ring can take the high temps, but just as a safety precaution, swap 'em out because the rubber can break down over time. It would really suck to be 3/4 through a boil and have one go out on you. You could get burnt really bad if it sprays. Some also think that gunk can live where the bulkhead meets the keg wall, whereas stainless is a smooth seam.

Next, I got my 2.5" probe thermometer online (actually through eBay), and my ball valve through morebeer.com. You don't need quick disconnect fittings, but it makes life a LOT easier. I got those through McMaster Carr. They are brass (which beer will corrode) but the contact time is so minimal that it's not an issue. Plus I rinse everything immediately after brewing. I ended up getting six connectors, three female and three male. One for the keggle, one for my mash tun and one for my lauter tun.

I hope that helps. If you're interested in seeing more, let me know and I'll try to bring some of the other equipment to one of the meetings.

Nice pix. I scrolled through the Mild slide show and noticed the "Beer Captured" book. Was that the Black Cat Clone that you were brewing? Is it me or are the OGs and FGs a bit off in that book? I'm sure my efficiency and attenuation aren't the same as theirs but nonetheless I couldn't seem to get as high up in target OG points as they recommended. C'est la vie.

Let me know if these links don't work.  The albums are on facebook because some friends requested to see the process.  The links supposedly are publicly accessible.

The Infamous Lo-Tech, El Cheapo All Grain Brewery Process :

http://uva.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2147738&l=b57fe&id=1518533

Brewing Sake, from Sophmore Year of Undergraduate :

http://uva.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2148647&l=6aca5&id=1518533

The fact that I was able to brew sake with only a large pot as the only equipment expense is amazing.  What's even more amazing is the airlock I jury rigged without even knowing what a real airlock looked like!  Unfortunately, there isn't a picture.  I try to describe it in the text.  Amazingly enough, that sake wasn't bad.  I'll post some other info about sake somewhere else.

Yeah, the links worked fine.

Very cool, thanks for posting!

So...how was the sake?

Thanks for posting the pictures.  I really want to get around to trying to make sake.  Maybe later this year.

The sake was pretty good, despite the usage of bread yeast.  I think the bread yeast actually makes that batch the most "authentic" with regard to the goal of making sake like my former roommate's cousins in Taiwan.  I should mention that only the base forms of sake are consumed warm; homebrew sake is meant to be consumed at the same temperature as a good lager.

There is a closeup of the rice somewhere that shows what Koji mold looks like up close and personal.

Brewing sake is less complicated than all grain brewing, in my opinion.  The most similar, commercially available sake to homebrew sake is called Nigori sake.  I think homebrew sake is technically called "Doburoku" (cloudy) sake.  I can write something up about it, but I don't know where to put the post.  I guess I can put it somewhere, and an admin can put it in an appropriate location.

Dear Mr. H. Allusions,
I am writing to you on behalf of the "Bike Helmet Brewers Guild & Support Group". Having found another of our kind is such as joy given that the number of brewers including bike helmets in their brewing applications are quite limited! We here at BHB/SG currently advocate and endorse bike helmets as alternatives to conventional sparge arms (simply run water over the suspended helmet for a great sprinkle), and as a jazzy brew-day ensemble accessory. Good luck with all your helmet-related endeavors.
Sincerely,
Ned "Helmet Head" Flanders

P.S. Thanks for sharing your ingenious AG system and I'll be the guy wearing my helmet at the next meeting. 

Here is the site that I looked at when I first started thinking about brewing sake.  There is an interview with the author on Basic Brewing Radio(http://www.basicbrewingradio.com), which is one of my favorite podcasts.  Very informative.

http://www.taylor-madeak.org/

One of the largest repositories of information about all things brewing, including sake, that I have found is brewery.org, specifically, http://www.brewery.org/library/.  Unfortunately, I can never remember the URLs to anything correctly and the main page is a good example of terrible navigation design for a site.  So, I just search the docs on the site with Google.  For a list of the ~32 documents they have online about sake, try "sake site:brewery.org" in Google's search box.  The only problem with brewery.org is that sometimes, it is down, but if Google is used to search it, all the pages are available anyway through the Google "cache" links next to the results.  There appears to be an entire web-ized book on sake available.

Clearly, brewing is more important than cleaning house!

As for the helmet, I bike almost everywhere I go in town, so the helmet is usually locked to the bike or sitting somewhere in my not-so-big residence (it's cheap, like the all grain set up).  It is kinda hard to lash a keg to a bicycle... (haven't actually ever done that - I'm not _that_ crazy).