Hazelwood Brewday

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Now at this point I decided to do another little job.

I fitted three gas manifolds and secondary regulators to give me different pressure for different beers; 6psi for low carbonation beers, 12psi for well carbonated beers, and 18psi for more effervescent beers. The problem is that I now brew more low carbonation beers and my six-outlet manifold is on the end of the high pressure pipe. My next job was to swap the six-outlet manifold (top) with the four-outlet manifold (bottom).

Before and after…

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

After fitting the gas and beer pipes (you can see the new pipe on the left), I opened the tap to let the beer flow

So now I have seven kegs connected up and just had a couple of finishing tasks outside - I made another tap bung to stop beasties nesting up the tap spout, refitted the beer mats, and updated my list of beers on tap.

Job done!




…now I have an odd number of taps

 

[Clint]

When drilling...recruit Mrs H. to strategically position of vacuum cleaner nozzle...just below drill point.
Yes,that space was like a yawning chasm,the grand canyon...the halls of Montezuma...Good job you sorted it out. What's going on the new tap then?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

When drilling...recruit Mrs H. to strategically position of vacuum cleaner nozzle...just below drill point.

I normally do that indoors but she was out while I did this job.

What's going on the new tap then?

Saison!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Push the shank through the wall…
View attachment 57138 View attachment 57139

…then fit the retaining nut and John Guest shank adapter on the inside and the tap on the outside.
View attachment 57140 View attachment 57141

Top job - very neat.

It seems to me that Santa needs to bring you one of these. Suction keeps it stuck to the wall while you drill:

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I made another tap bung to stop beasties nesting up the tap spout

Very interested in that - please can you say how you make them?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Very interested in that - please can you say how you make them?

Just using what I had around the house. My cooler came with caps on all the inlet and outlet pipes. These are just the right size to fit snug inside a piece of the silicon hose I use for all my transfer pipes. The silicon hose is also just the right size to fit on the ends on my taps.

You can buy purpose-made plugs from BKT and others.

I dare say something like these will do the job (several sizes available).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0..._3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AIF4G7PLKBOZYp13NParams

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Top job - very neat.

It seems to me that Santa needs to bring you one of these. Suction keeps it stuck to the wall while you drill:

View attachment 57149

…with the added advantage that when I drill a hole in the wrong place I can claim my wife moved the vacuum nozzle and dragged my drill bit off target!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Just using what I had around the house. My cooler came with caps on all the inlet and outlet pipes. These are just the right size to fit snug inside a piece of the silicon hose I use for all my transfer pipes. The silicon hose is also just the right size to fit on the ends on my taps.

What you said reminded me that a while ago I bought some silicone blanking plugs - I can't even remember what for... but fortunately they fit nicely into the taps

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

What you said reminded me that a while ago I bought some silicone blanking plugs - I can't even remember what for... but fortunately they fit nicely into the taps

View attachment 57174

You could well have bought them for this purpose and just forgot. Getting older is such a bitch!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

You could well have bought them for this purpose and just forgot. Getting older is such a bitch!

Nurse... Nurse!! It's time for my nap...

 

[YeastFace]

Glorious. I will definitely have to let you know next time I'm in Maidstone

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Glorious. I will definitely have to let you know next time I'm in Maidstone

You’ll be very welcome!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve just kegged the last of my warmer-fermenting beers and turned down the heat to my smouldering fermentation cabinet!

The raspberry sour finished at 1004 which is the same reading as the beer before I added the fruit. This means I can be sure the sugar has all fermented out and the beer is 5.4% ABV.

I think the colour is looking good but I don’t expect this is the final colour, the the sediment settles out I think it will look nice.

The flavour at the moment is quite like a watered down raspberry juice. There’s no hint of alcohol and the beer isn’t actually sour, it’s just a bit tart. I may be making it sound a bit boring but it’s actually quite nice.

One thing I wasn’t expecting is the amount of fruit slurry in the bottom of the fermenter. I put two litres of fruit purée into the fermenter and I have nearly four litres of loose slurry! This is one beer that might have benefitted from cold storage before kegging.

In the end, because I don’t want to block my keg with slurry, I was a good litre short of my normal 19 litre batch size

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

That sour is gonna be epic!

I'm so jealous of your setup and all the kegs you have. We need to get ourselves into that sort of position, as at the moment we can't age any of our beers because by the time it's ready there's nothing left!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

That sour is gonna be epic!

I'm so jealous of your setup and all the kegs you have. We need to get ourselves into that sort of position, as at the moment we can't age any of our beers because by the time it's ready there's nothing left!

You’ll get there. A cheaper option in the meantime might be to keg your beer and drink it from the keg but when you have just half a keg left transfer the beer to bottles for storage. If you get the timing right you can be drinking one beer from keg while fermenting another - when the fermenting beer is ready, bottle what’s left in the keg and start the cycle again.

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

That would be good, but it's more of a money thing. We can only afford one brew each a month, sometimes only one person does one. When there's two of you it goes down pretty quick. Then I share with the eldest as well. Humph. After Christmas it'll be a lot better I think.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

That would be good, but it's more of a money thing. We can only afford one brew each a month, sometimes only one person does one. When there's two of you it goes down pretty quick. Then I share with the eldest as well. Humph. After Christmas it'll be a lot better I think.

Understood. Fingers crossed for you that all is good after Christmas and you have a bit more beer money

 

[Clint]

That would be good, but it's more of a money thing. We can only afford one brew each a month, sometimes only one person does one. When there's two of you it goes down pretty quick. Then I share with the eldest as well. Humph. After Christmas it'll be a lot better I think.

If you can put up with bottling vast quantities then this can get you in the sweet spot for having lots of drinks to sample. You can get your bottles for free by asking people to keep them or burgling the recycling boxes before the bin man does!

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

We have a million and one bottles in the garage lol

We need to make vast quantities to be able to bottle vast quantities though Clint. Not sure I understand?