Brewday - 26th April

[Amac47]

Thanks Chris...looks as though I will have to put together an order of grains and hops etc to help balance out the delivery costs. The Brew Company have a fantastic range of products including PVC tubing and some spares for Corny Kegs.

[sub82]

Finbarr - for the valve I'm currently in the process of trying to fit one of these to our stockpot:

Weldless Spigot/Tap

What sort of hassle did you find with the bag?


Alan - no problems glad to help!

[finbarrmc]

That's the kind of tap I was looking at. Will you use the same method as shown in the link? Where do you get your parts? Would you think of fitting a bazooka screen or false bottom?

The hassle with the bag was just the weight of it holding it to drain/sparge, so I was looking for ideas instead of physically holding the bag while doing the sparge.

[sub82]

I got ours and a QMax Metal Punch from Angel Homebrew. Just have to drill a 10mm hole for the punch and it should be good to go! Might fit them at some stage but at the minute we use a sparging bag and boil our hops in a straining bag so shouldn't need a screen/false bottom.

For the bag we use a fermenter bucket with a tap to hold it and sparge through. Once we get a tap in our stock pot we'll be able to sparge through it instead.

[sub82]

That weather seemed the perfect time to sample the brewday beer.



Really good! Nice and hoppy with bit of malt sweetness.

[Bazza]

Funny; I sampled my first bottle of this on Saturday too.

First impressions were pretty damn good; exactly as you described, Chris; nice tangy hoppiness balanced with the toffee-sweetness of the crystal malts. Granted this was sampled after a long line of other beers that day, so it hasn't been given the proper 'first beer on a Friday' test, but seems very promising indeed.

I guess we should arrange a June meet and get these babies sampled.

Andy: Any update on yours? Has it improved with time?


-Barry

[sub82]

Good point Barry! How's yours tasting Andy?

Oh yeah Barry - on Sunday I heard about a friend of a friend who was at a wedding BBQ where the groom's brother had brewed 3 amazing beers! Sound familiar?!

[Bazza]

Oh yeah Barry - on Sunday I heard about a friend of a friend who was at a wedding BBQ where the groom's brother had brewed 3 amazing beers! Sound familiar?!

Haha! News travels fast (although it was only 2 beers: Galaxy PA and Anchor Steam clone). It wasn't until a conversation on Sunday, after the event, that I realised that you and James O. knew each other.

Aye, went very well; I brought the whole kit down, set up 2 taps with the CO2 and 2 cornies in the old silo (where there was shade and a cool breeze to keep the beer temp down), and spent till almost midnight pouring pints for folk , until both cornies gurgled dry. The silo fast became Ballygawley's newest night spot, to the point where, as the night went on, it was wired up with flood lights and an amplifier. I never thought there'd ever be fear of annoying the neighbours in such a supposedly remote farmhouse but it was very real by the end of the night

-Barry

[sub82]

Good stuff! Sounds great - how did you set up your taps? I only have the plastic picnic tap but was thinking of upgrading at some stage.

[sub82]

I guess we should arrange a June meet and get these babies sampled.

Just saw this! A June meet would be good - not sure if I can make it but will certainly get some bottles of my split of the brewday to you. Would this include the liffey judging or will that be a different session?

[Bazza]

Good stuff! Sounds great - how did you set up your taps? I only have the plastic picnic tap but was thinking of upgrading at some stage.

Hi Chris,

Here's a couple of pics of my somewhat rudimentary setup:



2 chrome taps mounted in two bits of skirting board which are screwed together and held to the table or counter top by means of a small vice. It's amazing what you can do with things you find lying around your garage

As you can see, I had enough skirting board and an old door sill to make a simple drip-tray attachment too. Craftsmanship at its best. Took me a whole hour on Friday morning to fashion this baby, but it worked well and did the job.



The taps are connected to 3/8 or 3/16 (depending on CO2 levels of the beer) lines and connected to 2 cornies via the usual black disconnects and JG fittings. I've various JG connectors: straight 3/8 to 3/8, 3/16 to 3/16 and 3/8 to 3/16. Lines are connected to the taps using jubilee clips or plain brute force..


Used my JG 3/8 splitter for the first time to have 2 separate gas lines from the one cylinder:




The bride took a few pictures of the whole setup in action on Saturday but she's in Wicklow at the minute so I'd best not disturb her.

You should deffo invest in a couple of the chrome taps, especially one with flow control. Well worth it. I've still some old skirting knocking about if you want it too; free of charge 


-Barry

[sub82]

Looks class man! Thanks for the offer of some old skirting board but think I might have part of an old shelf so should be ok! 

[Bazza]

I guess we should arrange a June meet and get these babies sampled.

Just saw this! A June meet would be good - not sure if I can make it but will certainly get some bottles of my split of the brewday to you. Would this include the liffey judging or will that be a different session?

Hi Chris. Yeah we'll probably try and make the one meet do for both the brewday tasting and the comp judging. So sometime after 23rd June would have to be chosen, possibly even early July, although we don't want to get too deep into holiday time.

-Barry

[BrewBilly]

Hi Chaps

Apologies for not posting sooner.

The brewday brew still has that taste - a DMS type flavour. I believe its from fermenting in the bathroom with big environmental temp fluctuations - I will be fermenting in a spare room in future which doesnt fluctuate very much. I plan on getting some galaxy and redoing the brewday here at home so at least I have something to offer. I really want to ace an AG brew and break the streak of bad luck I've had.

The Kit brew is fantastic, good flavour, head retention - bottles available.

Cheers
Andy

[BrewBilly]

Ahh, forgot about the questions posted by others regarding the off tastes I keep experiencing.

I used a different FV this time so no indication of infection, the other FV I used in the past is also ok as I have fermented successfully using it as well. I think its still down to temp fluctuations