How to pour an over carbonated beer

Here is a short video on the best way I have found to poor a beer which is over carbonated.

This is a American Style Dark IPA (Cascadia Dark Ale) which is over a year old now and damn damn tasty.

A side note while you watch the video if you get bored....

I was reading about seaweed (of course I was right?) and it turns out that seaweed improves with age as long as it is stored properly. "becoming sweeter as complex carbohydrates fragment to simple sugars, and meatier as proteins fragment to amino acids." Very interesting. This would apply to many things... Something to think about.

Spring Hops 2011

 Perle Hops coming up strong!

Cascade coming up now as well! Top pic is the first shoot and the bottom is the root coming up with lots of nodules. I'll mound (cover with dirt) it up tomorrow and hope they come through strong. 

New brew pot

It's massive!! 70L woot!!

American Boot to the Head - Failure or Fantastic?

Some of you might know my friends Eric and Adge from the States came over for a visit. While here Eric helped me brew up an American Style Pale Ale

The brew went great until the end. As some of my more avid readers out there will know, what do you mean there are not avid readers? Okay if you go back and read my old posts you'll see I have been getting brewing plumbing parts to help progress further... Anyhow, I had never used these before and most of them worked fantastically... Until the end

The whirlpool and side pickup to remove the wort from the kettle got blocked by the fresh hops and drastic measures were taken.

Infection was very high on the list to say the least....................

The fermentation kicked off fine and I left it for a solid 2 weeks + a few days for good measure.

I bottled all 30 some odd bottles with mixed feelings. That contamination at the end... I was worried...

Waiting a week I cracked on open just as a taste test, carbonation wasn't in full swing because I keep mine at a lower temp to get a finer bubble. Technical stuff aside I didn't expect any carbonation (This is important trust me you louts). What I got was the following

On the nose:
Banana
Sweet malt
A sure sign of contamination!


Taste:
Bitter and sweet
Malty but leaning towards the mild side

CARBONATION

My fears were confirmed. The whole batch was ruined!

However, I am ever the optimist. I let them sit for another 3 weeks just in case I was crazy. During those three weeks I organised all the beer being aged and this weekend I went out and saw something odd. One of the Session Pale Ale's had crap in the neck of the bottle. Inspecting others I found the same scattered through my collection.

Problem? Damn Woolworth's shitty caps and maybe my caper which is an old one handed down to me from Peter (Kasey's dad).  Ultimately it's my fault for being slack and getting crappy caps at woolies. Damn them though!

So throwing two into the fridge I did a blind tasting on Kasey not telling her I thought the batch was infected (How nice am I?!) and she came back with

Lightly malty, Quite bitter but nice

I thought to myself... She is being nice this can't be right.... So I tried it and combining her notes and mine

On the nose:
Light malt, hint of hops

Taste:
Very bitter (Astringency )
Lightly malty flavor
Tasty!


More of the floral hops would have been nicer but this but since we didn't dry hop all our aroma would have come from the last 5 minutes on the brew and with all the screwing around at the end I think the temp was too high for too long before we could start cooling.

Still nice beer :)


For some of you who have made it this far down the screen, I have been testing my beers on anyone and everyone and to date we have two winners. One I think would fit in with Australia now and one which might take 5 years before its ready to hit the market.

Session Pale Ale 2 is a big hit

Eric Killer 2: Oil Barrel now to be named Oil Barrel because it didn't kill Eric (Sorry Adge, life insurance will have to come in another way).

Both are hoppy fantastic but Oil Barrel takes a hop head to suck it down and go back for a second.

Over and out!

Solar USB Charger - Results

I'll keep this short and sweet :)

I have put all the components into a case and done a days testing in the patchy cloudy day.

Full sun - 4.7 volts @ 197 milliamp   WOOT!

Part shade - 4.7 volts @ 50-90 milliamp less woot

Shade - 2 - 4.7 volts @ 10 or less milliamp. Not worth mentioning

The charger hasn't done the 2000mA battery full but I tested my mp3 player and my mobile phone both were very happy to charge off it.

Phone reported 130mA coming through the charger (Android phones rock)

Links

Solar USB Charger Parts

Solar USB Charger Assembled 

Solar USB Charger Results

Solar USB Charger - Assembled

My last post was on the parts and what I was trying to achieve. The parts arrived and I quickly got to work!

Here we have the parts, small huh!
We have 4 x 5v @ 100mA (.5 watt) solar panels
The 2000mA battery
The board which charges the battery and ultimately to  the USB device

Some perspective

This is my 5v @ 100mA (.5 Watt) solar panel.

Soldered them in parallel to boost the amps from 100mA to 400mA
(5v @ 400mA which is 2 Watts)

Here is the size of the panels, almost exactly the size a CD case.

Take it into the bathroom and I find a sleeping monkey! Saru! oh and the completed solar charger :P Is it working I wonder?

YES! (See Red light under the CH)

Awesome :D Next will be to take it out into the real world and time the charge.

Links

Solar USB Charger Parts

Solar USB Charger Assembled 

Solar USB Charger Results

Solar USB Charger - Purchased Parts

Well folks I have decided to make my own solar USB charger with battery.

I have bought a usb solar charger from china and it works fine but the solar function on it is less then adequate for multiple USB devices and it seems to take a long time to charge up. Thinking what the heck I should be able to build something better right? I jumped in the deep end tonight and bought the following parts

4 x	0.5w Solar Panel 55x70 - $23.80 ($5.95 each) SKU: POW112D2P
2 x	Seeed JST 2 Pin power connector - $2.98 ($1.49 each) SKU: ARD110C4M
1 x	Seeed Polymer Lithium Ion Battery - 2000mAh - $19.95 SKU: POW103C1P
1 x	Seeed Lipo Rider (Charger) - $9.95 SKU: POW115D2P

So these solar panels are the correct voltage of 4.5-5.5v for USB charging and are a nice 100mA size. I got 4 to give me a max of around 2watts of charging goodness. The device I bought previously was between .5-.7w so my new kick ass setup should go 3-4x faster on the old charge :D

I added in a Polymer Lithium Ion Battery (Like in all your mobile/cell phones) to allow the gettup to bank some power.

All of this is nicely regulated by the Lipo Rider which will be doing all the power transfer from Solar to Battery and Battery to USB.

I'll take photos and see what the end result is :D   Any ideas for cases / mounting for this charger?? The 4 panels I am thinking it put in some kind of plastic sleeve so I can fold them up into a nice travel pack.

Links

Solar USB Charger Parts

Solar USB Charger Assembled 

Solar USB Charger Results

Esky (Cooler) conversion

Second post of the day! I was busy on the weekend after my parts from bargainfittings.com arrived :)

This was a pain in the ass build I don't mind saying. My esky has a HUGE wall and bulkhead kit was not long enough to make it through with enough threads. So out came the drill! Punching through with enough to absorb that nut shown below but not enough to go over the soldered washer.

Why did I do this? The solder is under the gasket show below and I wanted that outside not inside and it gave a little more room inside.

3x 1/2" NPT Washer 304 stainless

1x Stainless steel mash braid

1x flat silicon gasket

1x silicon o ring

1x 1/2" SS Camlock Dust Cap Style Quick Disconnect

1x 1/2" SS Camlock F style fitting Quick Disconnect

1x 1/2" SS Camlock B Style Quick Disconnect

1x 3 - piece SS ball valve 

1x 1/2" NPT FEMALE x 1/2" hose barb

This might seem excessive, but I want to continue to use my esky for beer and ice! So I added a quick release and cap so I can disconnect my ball valve and barb while not brewing.

Internal is the braid, 2x SS Washers (Needed to chew up some thread) and a flat silicon gasket. The hex nut show in the soldered keg bulkhead at the top is in the esky wall, hence the drilling.

The outside is a silicon o ring with a third washer and the SS Camlock F style fitting Quick Disconnect. I put one on the floor on the left. The threads are on the concretion floor. The SS Camlock Dust Cap Style Quick Disconnect is shown attached to the esky keeping the water in and acting like a normal bung. On brew day I'll remove the dust cap and attach the ball valve show here in the picture with a SS Camlock B Style Quick Disconnect attached to the ball valve.

It will attach as so

Woot :D

When I get my next big kettle I'll be moving away from the esky to an insulated pot and all of this SS gear will transfer perfectly to the new mash tun.

No more (Or less) burned hands from wort transfer now! :)

Hop Back Build

Bit of a long time since I have posted but here goes!

Today I got my parts from bargainfittings.com (Shame on your Australia for boosting prices. I kick you in the nads!)

Now on with the build!

304 Grade Stainless Steel
http://www.ashnjuls.com.au/Stainless-Steel-Food-Storage-Airtight-Canister-p/taihsinjuniorcanister1800.htm

Its a bit expensive but I believe in quality so well worth the price.

Next was the fittings.

2 x 1/2" NPT Female x 1/2" Barb
2 x 1/2" NPT flat silicone gasket
1 x 1/2" Silicon O Ring
2 x 1/2" NPS locknut
1 x 1/2" NPT nipple 2" long
1 x Keg Bulk Head Kit


Now if you have never worked with a curve surface and SS, I suggest extreme caution. Also, get as much SS 316 as possible, 304 is the next best thing but I wouldn't go any lower then that. Go for quality! Okay enough of the public service announcements on to the construction

I started a pilot hole with a smaller drill on the upper side of the canister. From there I got my step bit for drilling SS, should be able to find these at any big hardware store or the fittings place listed above.

After burning yourself a few times on red hot SS metal you should have a hole about 1/2" around. Keep checking as you drill. Then get a grinder for removing any nasty SS edges. Its hard I know, I spent good part of 2 hours drilling, grinding and polishing. The second hole is at the bottom. Here is a photo to help you on your mental imaging.

Now time to attach the plumbing!

To the top section I used the 2" nipple and put the barb naked on the outside without a gasket, I don't think it will need one but time will tell. Inside I put a silicon o ring because I couldn't get the gasket to fit and a locknut to tighten it all down. It was a hard fit but I got it on :)

I did this so the hot wort would spill out into the middle of the canister instead of close to the side of the canister and might not take advantage of all of the hops.

The bottom is a locknut and gasket inside and the outside is another gasket with a barb on the end. The connecting piece is part of the keg bulk head kit

As this is linked image I'll drop them a line 

http://www.bargainfittings.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=167

I have done water tests with it and it seems to hold just fine! Perfect.

Europe Trip - Paris Day 2

Europe Trip Posts

Journey Begins

Vienna Day 1

Vienna Day 2

Vienna Day 3

Paris Day 1
Paris Day 2 (This Post)

(As I have allergies today I thought I'll try and knock a few of these Paris posts out :) )

So we came up with a few rules/games which makes traveling a lot more fun and helps you not being an ass in a foreign country.

Flash back to Japan; In Japan we used to keep score with Bunka points, (Bunka mean culture), so every time we did something very Japanese we gained Bunka points. Eating pickled mountain vegetables in a Buddhists monetary? Heaps of bunka points. J-Walking or doing things which goes against the grain of the local culture - bunka points lost!

In Paris we didn't have as long as in Japan so we shortened the competitions down to a 1 vs 1 outing. So we needed to hit up the boulangerie and the grocer, Kasey would take one and I would take the other. The person who got away using the least amount of english and used french instead wins! Simple. Its easy to pair things like this up, motivates everyone to try and be more sensitive and accepted. It works like a champ trust me.

So the break down of the rules/games for Paris.

• Win against each other by using French and not English in dealings with people
• Never eat at the same place twice; this keeps you from going to the same western hole over and over. You McDonald's people should be ashamed. 
• Always try something new on the menu, the more extreme the better! Go for it. 

Our place

View Larger Map

We woke up on our first full day of Paris,France fun. What to do first? Go out and get some breakfast of course. So down our little street we went to the first boulangerie, where we stocked up on bread, croissants; then a quick cut across the road to the tinny grocery store for wine, coffee, tomatoes, etc. I won this round the outings, using more French then Kasey :D Go me! Its okay this victory is short lived.

View Larger Map

Simple but tasty! And yes, wine with every meal :P (If you look hard you can see the glass.


And a little lay down to let everything settle

Once we were fed and rested it was time to head out and into the wide world of Paris. Our first stop was to look at the huge line of people waiting to get into Notre Dam which we saw everyday as we left the islands.

Passing the crowds we headed to the city's IVe arrondissement (The whole city is broken up into arrondissements) 

See the little islands in the river in the middle? We are on the bottom right one heading to the IV Arrondissement.


There we checked out the Hôtel de Ville, and took some fun pics :)


Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

(Statue representing Art)

(Statue representing Science)

After a fun few shots we headed in a random direction and came upon the most hiddious building I have ever seen Centre national d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou

Terrible! But I know a lot of people find it fascinating. Ohh and the question I asked was "Is it finished", I received a punch in the shoulder saying "Be nice" which means it is finished! Imagine that.....

 So we hurried away before getting some sort of urge to go inside and down a random street (No this is not an alleyway) where we found a Japanese Calligraphy shop! (Japan and France are very close and trade a lot of culture/food). The shop had everything I could have wanted to do some shodo but I was worried none of it would survive the trip back. They had some really nice paper in there.... I'll have to go back and pick some up ;-)

Leaving the paper shop Kasey being a magnet for disaster found some Paris graphite which is a special kind of paint they fling at things. In a most Hermione voice she started to tell me about this paint and the culture behind it as she steps in it and then promptly touches her shoes and smears it all over the shoes and her hands. Being oil based (As she was telling me) its very hard to get it off! 

Then of course it starts to poor :) Rushing back the way we came we headed to a large department store which sold paint thinner in the art section; As all new up coming artists come to Paris there is loads of expensive and nasty painting supplies. I wouldn't paint some of my miniatures with the stuff they were selling at top prices! Anyhow, we bought a bottle of thinner and headed back to the apartment. Kasey kept the shoes past this trip as a memento; DURP!

For lunch we decided to duck into the cheese and cured meat shop along our street. Enter the shop was an assault on the senses, since the cheeses and meats are allowed to age and mature in the open air even in the shop. The jolly fellow who ran the shop was a lot of fun, as far as we could tell he didn't speak any English or refused to but he was a kind fellow and helped us through naming each of the cheeses and meats until we left with a booty of salami, two goat cheeses (Fresh), and some wine. Rushing back like kids with a new toy we set up the table for lunch

If you can not tell, the foodie stuff alone is worth it for us on this trip. 

With full bellies we resolved to resting and planning our future trips and what we wanted to do. 

That evening we went and had pizza with a sangiovese which was OK by every day standards but wasn't the pinnacle of foodie enjoyment.  

We had an early night because we needed to be up and out of the apartment at 5am the next morning to make the first mas at Notre Dam, as it was Easter. Thats some freak'n culture points there.

100 IBU - Eric Killer v1

Holas all!

In tribute to Eric and his love o' hops I am questing to make the killer of all super hop beers. To this end I created a beer which has somewhere in the range of 100IBU. To give you an idea of what this means most PA have an IBU between 30-50, an Indian Pale Ale around 50-75 and above that is some strong stuff!

So if you think your hopped up enough come have one! I have about 2 cases worth of this deep amber liquid.

Next on the list is Eric Killer 2: Oil Barrel. I am making an oily beer, the hop oils will be just sitting in suspension ohhhh gonna be nice.

Whaaa? Just want to get on with the beer porn? Right!

Today I take the cap off the first Eric Killer and since I got some good comments about the back drop I went back outside :D

Among the hops this beer is happy

BTW just for fun here is an old picture of our front area before we got in there planted another tree, bamboo and all that other good jazz out there

Ozzie Session Pale Ale

Well it is time for more beer porn.

Thats right, I take you to see some naked beer and you all love it!

The latest on the camera is what I am calling a Session Pale Ale but really it is what I hope to be a Gate Way drug... err beer for ozzies. Something that the general populous (No you good craft ozzie beer drinkers need not take offence) will warm to the wonders of bittering, flavorsome and aroma beers with hops.

So I am questing for the the pale ale that ozzies will consume vast quantities of in a single sitting. That will have them hopping (hehe) for more IBU!

Look tasty? Ozzie? Come round and drink this stuff! Even if your a seasoned beer drinker I need opinions people