It’s hard to believe that it’s been 7 months since I posted on this blog last. I’ve been busy with the two kids and a few backyard projects. Ooops! Did I say 2 kids? I meant 2.3 kids. Yup, it’s true, for those of you who don’t know, the wife is pregnant again and due to deliver the next one on my 40th birthday. So maybe I had one or two indoor projects to keep me busy too. Anyway it’s about time I updated the blog.

The brewery is operational and knocking out 10 gallons of beer every chance I get to fire it up.

Ever heard the joke about being a home brewer if you have 2 propane tanks but only use briquettes for your BBQ?

In addition to the Silver Luce, Lee and I have cobbled together a 5 gallon gravity system using my old 8 gallon kettle as a HLT, a cooler converted by Lee to a MT and Lee’s 8 gallon kettle. It has it’s own immersion chiller so we can run both systems simultaneously.

Having 2 rigs gives us a chance to maximize our time and brew 2 beers at once. Last weekend we brewed 5 gallons of a Kolsch style and 10 of an Alt Bier inspiration. It helps when we can figure out where all the hoses go.

We fly sparge both rigs. This is the sparge arm on the cooler.

The main difference is that the Silver Luce is controlled by pumps. It’s taken me quite some time to get both pumps working correctly but now they make the sparge fairly easy once the flow rates are adjusted.

I’ve also adopted a new technique for many of the latest brews. It’s called First Wort Hopping or FWH, where a hop addition is made to the kettle as the wort is transfered over from the MT during the sparge. Apparently the hops are utilized differently while the temperature is lower (i.e.- not boiling) and supposedly give a more mellow flavor than the standard flavor addition. I’m not sure my pallet is that discerning but I like the beers we’ve been making so…

Nothing like hops in the kettle. If only I could add smells to this post.

We do love hops around here. If you don’t know there is a shortage of hops so like many other brewers I’ve taken to growing some here on the compound. We just harvested the first of the season off of a 1st year Brewer’s Gold plant.

It turned out to be almost 8 oz (before drying), which is pretty good for the 1st year. They really don’t start producing until the 2nd or 3d year. Harley is already a connoisseur and is instrumental in determining the proper time to harvest.

Dina, on the other hand just wants me to get to brewing so she can smell them in the kettle.

But before they are used in a brew or stored we dry them out for a couple of days on a screen with good airflow.

The other little gadget I just built is a 1 gallon setup that uses a 1 gallon cooler as the MT. I use it mainly for making a gallon of wort to be used for starters but my plan is to use it to try out test batches and ferment in one of the gallon jugs I have.

Initially I was batch sparging this setup but I never was able to get the amount of water right in my additions so it always came up short. Not anymore after I calibrated a mini-dipstick.

I also put a cheap shower head on the hose from the HLT and made it into a fly sparge setup.

Well now that I’ve begun updating the blog, I guess it’s about time I got serious and made a page for the keggerator (6-taps…nice) and a complete breakdown of the SIlver Luce. I should get that done is say…7 months?

As much as I love making my own beer, there is a downside to it. Basically having all this beer laying around the house can lead to a little temptation for the kids. It would seem that Harley really likes “Berg’s Homebrew”. Can’t say as I blame him but still.

It all started when Lisa, being the great marketer that she is, decided to surprise us with new T-shirts, which have the logo on them. We got Harley into his and plopped him on the couch to show it off. In the middle of the photo shoot he suggested that it might be more of an artistic statement if he had a bottle showing the logo on the label to hold up beside the shirt. We agreed that it would be a nice shot so we gave him one.

Great shirts aren’t they! Send a check for $20 to get yours before they run out.

After a few shots we became a little uncomfortable with the way he was snuggling the bottle and calling it “My Precious” so we tried to take it away from him before Child Protective Services showed up. He didn’t want to let it go and started to throw a fit.

Lisa just couldn’t wrestle it away from him. Eventually, after a long struggle where some things were said that shouldn’t have been (I’m sure he didn’t mean to call his mother that), Harley just took the bottle, stormed out of the room and locked himself in his bedroom.

All we could hear through the door was the hiss of the carbonation as he opened the bottle with a bottle opener he had hidden in his toy chest. It’s sad but on the lighter side he did sleep in the next morning.

What I’m saying here is that Homebrewing is a wonderful hobby but make sure that if you have young, impressionable kids around the house only exposed them to something like broccoli flavored beer or there could be problems.

Anyway the next brews up are going to be a California Common and an American Red Ale. And maybe starting the keggerator project…