Plans for 2016

[Quiet_Man]

Plenty for us to think about over the holiday season.........we should bump this thread occasionally and see if we can pick up a bit more input........

The focus in January / February, has to be on delivering the Belfast leg of the Nationals and I would encourage others to put their names forward and volunteer to help out.

An easy one of the list, and one we have talked about for a while, is the book list / library.

What is the best way to host this? Just a list on the forum, or is there a simple / accessible / and easily updatable way it can be hosted up in the clouds? Over to you guys who know these sort of modern technology things..........

[BrewBilly]

Right, firstly a happy new year to all of you and secondly an apology for my piss poor attendance last year - I am going to seriously be better at attending meets and posting on the forum.

As for 2016, I have already finished my first brew - a Belgian Witbier, I will have to bring long a couple bottles for the first/second meet.
I would also be keen for some build days as I want to start upgrading my equipment.

Anyways, looking forward to see some of you old hands as well as some of the new folk in the club.

Cheers
Andy

[Quiet_Man]

Good to hear from you BrewBilly!..........and great that you are still brewing.

Hoping to get more organised this year with brew days / build days as well as meets.

Belfast is hosting the first leg of the 2016 Nationals on Feb 20 at Brewbot on the Ormeau Road.

Kellie has a call out on the Competitions page for Volunteer Stewards - if you are interested? If not, it would still be great to see you there and a great chance to meet with the wider NHC Community.

Andy_B

[robotmonkey]

Happy New Year! I'm definitely going to make an effort to make it along to the meets this year! Already put myself down to steward the Belfast leg of the Nationals and got a couple of entries to put in and a few brews planned.

Quiet_man you mentioned about a lending library. I can set up a spreadsheet on Google Docs or something to share with the group. I also have a stack of brewing eBooks i'm happy to share a list of.

[banjobrew]

I'll see you at the nationals then robotmonkey! I'm definitely committed to the meets as well! Are we having one first Thursday of February then? I have most of the gear to build my kegerator so that my first goal for 2016. I have a session IPA due on Saturday and will probably bottle condition so will bring a few along with some judging score sheets to our next meet for the craic!

[banjobrew]

Anyone brewing anything for the Nationals?

[Bazza]

Anyone brewing anything for the Nationals?

Don't know.

I'm currently experimenting with fermentation under pressure so the only brew I've done since October is a 17L mish-mash of stuff which has been sealed in a corny at 15 PSI since last Wednesday, so I can't see it, smell it or taste it to see if it's any good or not.

The rest of my stocks got seriously hit over Christmas. Kegs are currently running on vapours.

Also, still not quite got to grips with bottling from kegs using the beer gun. I bottled a variety of brews from the kegs a few months ago and, while some stayed good in the bottle, a number went a little stale pretty quickly, while they're still fine in the keg. Wouldn't be happy to get a load of scoresheets back with the word 'oxidised' plastered all over them.

Anyone else got any prize-winning entries lined up?

Cheers,

-Barry

[robotmonkey]

Got a Black IPA carbing at the moment and got a roggenbier, weizenbock and American wheat beer to be bottled next week (hoping they'll be ready in time). Also, might put a mead in.

[sub82]

Anyone brewing anything for the Nationals?

Have a cali common and a flanders red. Had an APA but it's definitely too old now. Also have a hefeweizen brewed with my bro-in-law on christmas eve so not sure which of us will be entering it.

[sub82]

I'm currently experimenting with fermentation under pressure

Interesting! Had never heard of this until now - what are you brewing?

[Will_D]

If his spunding valve (viz.) sticks its called a bomb!

[Quiet_Man]

Steady on Will_D..............we don't do that stuff anymore up here!

[Quiet_Man]

"Anyone brewing anything for the Nationals?"

.........but, of course! Couple of recent brews, two new ones, and one experiment (which could go either way?).

Sorry for the secrecy...........but Will_D reads these pages!

[robotmonkey]

Sorry for the secrecy...........but Will_D reads these pages!

I'll be happy if I just have something good enough to enter!

[Bazza]

I'm currently experimenting with fermentation under pressure

Interesting! Had never heard of this until now - what are you brewing?

Just a regular pale with leftover chinook, cascade, galaxy and Wilamette hops, munich & pale malts and US-05.
Only brewing to 17L to avoid blowoff in the corny.

After cooling and pitching, I removed the gas post and attached a blowoff tube in its place for the first 2-3 days, then reattached the gas post, fired in a shot of CO2 at 30 psi to seal the lid, then attached a newly-acquired spunding valve to the gas post with a view to keeping it at around 15 PSI for the remainder of fermentation. She's been holding steady at 15 PSI since Sunday, without me having to open the spunding valve. I'll carefully monitor for any rise in pressure between now and next Sunday (when I plan to cold crash), so you're still safe to enter the big bad North, Will 

Plan is this day week to transfer, using CO2, from the fermenting corny to a sanitised serving corny, via a pipe joining the liquid out posts of the cornys.

Advantages of this system are supposed to be that there's minimal exposure to O2 between pitching yeast and serving the first pint, the whole wort to glass process is quicker and you, in theory, have naturally carbonated beer right away due to CO2 produced by the fermentation, so no need to prime or force carbonate.
Disadvantages are, you have to brew smaller batches, you can't see what's going on inside a closed corny during fermentation and, since I haven't shortened the dip tube in my fermentation corny, there's a risk of clogging the posts with trub when racking to the serving corny.

Could be a winner or a complete waste of time (and money on a spunding valve); have to wait and see.

Either way, it helps me through the bleak, hopeless tedium that is January....so dark.....
...and now over to Doc, who's got a humorous photo of a carrot that resembles a penis.


Cheers,

-Esther