Weekend Activities

I keg now!  I finally got up the stones to actually use the kegs I have...cleaned three out with PBW, rinsed the heck out of them, filled the first one with sanitizer and let it sit for 15 minutes (or so), and then pushed the sanitizer to the next keg with CO2, effectively purging the keg at the same time!  Great idea, Dale...works like a champ!  Filled keg #1 with Heavyweight Barleywine and keg #2 with American Stout (yet to be named).

Put 20PSI on the Barleywine and it will sit for a while (I'll keep an eye on the pressure), and the American Stout is on 10PSI while sitting in the fridge...it is carbonating (hopefully) and will be drinkable in the next day or two!

So, that was Saturday...Sunday wasn't nearly as exciting.  I took the 4+ cases of unused bottles I had in the basement and de-labelled them all!  Now, I have nothing but clean bottles at the ready in case I need to bottle anything.

Good weekend, overall...and I can't wait until I get to keg something else!  The cider should be ready to go soon...

Brewing Area

So, the area of the basement that is now known as the "Brew Room" is getting a little updating finally!  I bought another set of shelves to put all my brewing gear on and I have a lot more stuff organized and straightened up.  I am really happy with the progress down there and really can't wait until we decide to start taking the bathroom down there apart and start putting up walls!  Granted, I will lose a little space because we are planning on increasing the bathroom's size a little and we will be putting up walls, so I can't spill out like I do now...but that is a small sacrifice!  We will be finishing the basement probably in the next year - a little at a time.

I have set up my old dorm fridge, which will be for commercial beer storage and the current beer fridge will be converted to the kegerator.  I will have three taps flowing soon...I am hoping by December!  Since I don't have any real walls down there now (other than the bathroom), I don't have anything hung up yet.  However, I have been thinking about putting up a couple of my signs or mirrors, though, just to give it a little more of that bar feel!  I will hang them on the small wall outside of the bathroom and IN the bathroom (after a good cleaning and perhaps a quick coat of paint).

That's all I have for now...hoping to brew something in the next week or two, just need to think of what I want on tap!

More Experiments...

Was going through some of the stuff in my brew "room" yesterday and I got a couple ideas for MORE experiments!  I'll run down the recipe for the "winner" for you...

Spiced Peach Cider -

1/2 Gallon     Peach Cider
1/2 Gallon     Indian Summer Cider
1 Tsp.           Ground Ginger
3 Each          Cloves (whole)
1 Each          5" Cinnamon Stick (Ceylon)
3/4 Pound     Brown Sugar (Light)
12 Ounces    Old Orchard Apple Juice Concentrate

White Labs WLP775 English Cider

Think I will be starting this one by Wednesday night.  I am itching to have more things fermenting in the basement...it doesn't look enough like the lab of a mad scientist yet!

Haven't started this one yet, but I will be by the end of the month.  I am currently working on getting my kegging setup going and also working on the beers, meads and cider I currently have fermenting!  Don't worry...it'll be soon.

11/11/10 - Started this tonight...I was racking off meads, which are doing great, and decided it was time.  We'll see how it goes once it goes!