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http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rock-Creek-Brewery/207243439336102
In the past couple of weeks I have made some serious purchases to upgrade my brewing setup. This is all in preparation for the upcoming one-tier brewing system build. I am purchasing parts in little spurts so it takes the burden off my checkbook. So here are some things (expensive things) that I have purchased in the last month.
Blichmann Therminator:
The Blichmann Therminator is considered by most to be the top of the line wort chillers on the market for homebrewers. It is a counter-flow stainless steel chiller. Wort flows in one direction and cold water flows in the opposite direction. The surface area of the area is spread out over stainless steel plates and the wort is instantly chilled. As fast as you can pump boiling wort in one end, it comes out around 70 degrees F on the other end. Very necessary purchase that I have been putting off for a long time because of the price…but if you have the money…it is well worth the price.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/default/therminator.html
Don’t forget to add a backflush assembly (or build one) to get all the hop gunk out of the chiller so it doesn’t contaminate future batches.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/default/therminator-backflush-assembly.html
March 809 Pump:
Letting liquid flow by gravity alone is a pain in the ass. In order to get around lifting and dumping heavy pots, or sitting pots way up high on a shelf, GET A PUMP! The only thing you need to make sure of is that the pump is rated for high temperature fluid (near boiling). The March 809 pump satisfies these requires. It is not self priming, so you have to make sure the pump is primed each time you use it, but after you have it primed, the pump works like magic….transferring liquid from one vessel to another with ease. Integrate it with the therminator to make chilling your wort a breeze. Once you start brewing above 5 gallons, a pump is a REQUIREMENT. Theres no way to lift 13 gallons of beer and dump it into a fermentor..it’s just not going to happen. Buy one..or two..of these now. I will be purchasing a second March pump in the future for inclusion in my brew stand set up. Highly recommended is a ball valve on the outlet side of the pump to control flow rates.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/default/march-pump-w-fittings-product-group.html
Inline Water Filter:
Over 80% of beer is water! Need I say more? You need to have clean water to make good beer. If the water tastes like crap, then expect your beer to taste like crap. Getting ride of chlorine and organic tastes can vastly improve the quality of your brew! And trying to pour over 15 gallons of water through a Brita filter is just not economical. Therefore, an inline water filter is what you need! It snaps right onto your garden water hose and filters the water as it moves through. A must have if you ask me!
http://morebeer.com/view_product/16762//Water_Filter_Kit_-_10_inch
Oxygenation Kit:
After having several beers with extremely long lag times (over 48 hours), I decided enough was enough. Up until now, I have been shaking my fermentor vigorously prior to pitching the yeast. This is a good basic way to oxygenate the wort so the yeast will be happy. But you can only shake so much and sometimes the results show. Therefore, a handy tool to own is an oxygenation kit. This kit uses a 0.5 micron oxygenation stone along with a standard oxygen tank to inject pure oxygen into your wort prior to fermentation. This way there will be plenty of oxygen for the yeasties to get started! And lag times will be reduced…always a sign of a good, healthy fermentation. Oxygen tanks can be purchased at any standard hardware store.
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=2437
Check out my companion Youtube website for the specific details on all of my projects.
The club homebrew competition is over. There were a total of 43 entries in seven different style categories. My Imperial IPA, named ‘The Majestic’, placed third overall in the competition. The beer finished out at 8.9% alcohol by volume. It had a slight alcohol warmth on the back of the tongue that is true to style. It finished out with 90 IBUs from a combination of Nugget, Warrior, and Amarillo hops. The beer had a great, citrusy hop aroma and flavor. Bitterness was strong but not overpowering due to strong malt backbone. Overall, it was a good beer. Great for a cold winter night when you need a slight alcohol warmth!
I bottled the ‘Clarksvegas Cream Stout’ on Friday. The beer finished with a final gravity of 1.028. The aroma was one of espresso. Chocolate hints, slight roastyness, and a slight sweetness. Taste followed the aroma. Strong notes of chocolate and caramel with a slight roasty flavor. Sweetness from lactose is present and upfront, gives sense of espresso. Full in body and creamy texture. Very good! I will give this one 2 weeks to bottle and condition and then it will be ready to drink! Cheers!
Today I racked the ‘Clarksvegas Cream Stout v2’ to a secondary fermentation vessel in order for the beer to mellow and age. I check the gravity and it was 1.031 from an initial starting gravity of 1.064. That puts the beer at approximately 4.2% ABV currently. I expect the final gravity to drop 1 to 2 points before bottling day. The higher final gravity is good news. This means the beer will be sweeter and have more body. The only complaints I got from the HBT Homebrew Competition judges was that the beer should be a little sweeter for a Cream Stout. I thought it was pretty sweet, but this one will be even sweeter…so good news. Speaking of the BJCP HBT Homebrew Competition…..I got results.
I ended up placing second overall in Category 12 and 13. This is the Porter and Stout category combined. I was pretty pleased with placing second in these two categories. The beer is coming along and should be ready for an April 29th bottling date. This means the beer will be ready to drink in early May. If you haven’t requested one..go ahead and ask now so I know who all wants to try one! Cheers!
Today I am re-creating the ‘Clarksvegas Cream Stout’ that advanced to the Best of Show round in the HBT national homebrew competition. I am still waiting to hear back the final results of that competition to see what I placed in the BOS round. Anyways, I am doing the exact same recipe, only a larger batch size. The alcohol will be a little lower on this one because of the increased batch size, but not by much. This one will be ready to drink in Mid-May ….great time for a stout I know right??? not really. But it is still delicious. If you want a bottle of this brew to try, post a comment and I’ll be sure to send one your way. Cheers.
Since the university decided to rid our club of our website privileges, I will just be updating club news on my own blog. First thing is first….Goat Scrotum Ale. We have been planning to brew this for almost a month now. We finally found a decent enough time to get people together to brew. This beer is part of our clubs twice-yearly random brew. Each member of the club picked a random ingredient and we formulate a recipe. Last semester it was ‘America Hell Yeah Chocolate Wheat’ and it came out quite delicious actually. This time around, the ingredients were VERY random and did not sound like they would go well together, so we named it ‘Goat Scrotum Ale’. This is partly due to the fact that it will probably taste worse than goat scrotum (never had it). The recipe includes pale malt, flaked oats, biscuit malt, hops, American Ale yeast, and the special ingredients…..nutmeg and spruce essence. We shall see how this one comes out. Below are some pictures from brew day and then when the beer was racked to secondary.
Rockcreek’s Clarksvegas Cream Stout Advances to Final Round of Competition
Posted: March 31, 2011 in HomebrewThe Clarksvegas Cream Stout of Rockcreek Brewing Co. has advanced to the final ‘Best of Show’ round in the homebrewtalk.com BJCP competition. This is a national competition with over 600 entries from over the entire United States. 300 entries from the east of the US were judged as well as 300 entries from the west. Final winners were advanced to go onto the final ‘Best of Show’ round. We shall know the results in the next couple weeks!
The cream stout is a dark, malty beer. The aroma is of malt and roasted dark malts, including roasted barley, carafaIII, and chocolate malt. Hops are entirely of the English variety. Hop aroma is low to none. Mouthfeel is medium to medium-full. The beer is very smooth and creamy, due to the addition of lactose. The flavor is of roasted grain, with a sweet finish from the lactose. Almost has an espresso flavor to it. Coffee-like flavors as well as a creamy sweetness dominate the flavor.
In honor of this beer advancing this far, I am brewing a second batch of this beer in the next week. I am waiting on ingredients to arrive right now and then I will get on it. If you are interested in trying this beer, let me know and I’ll see what I can do to get one out to you (but you are going to have to wait at least a month :)) After this next batch, I am going to experiment with different yeast strains to see if I can make it even better. Cheers!
Check out my girlfriends new blog, Kash Kakes. She is an avid baker and enjoys anything and everything baking, especially cupcakes. Follow her progress at www.kashkakes.wordpress.com
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