Beer Line Cleaner

I ran across a post on Reddit that mentioned this DIY beer line cleaner:

https://www.homebrewfinds.com/recirculating-draft-line-cleaning-build/

I spent half an hour or so putting one together. I found a pond pump in the garage and various bits of tubing, a liquid post from a damaged keg, a barbed connector that fit the liquid post, a couple of hose clamps, and it's done, easy peasy!

Just connect the liquid line in the kegerator to the pump, use the long hose on the tap, and recirculate. First with PBW, follow that with a rinse with Starsan. Here's a shot of it in action.

A Refrigerator Modification

I bought a couple of wine coolers from Home Depot a few years ago. They look nice, the inside is big enough to hold 2 of my kegs, and it was pretty easy to put a tap tower on top.

However, these are wine coolers. I'm actually using one for wine, so it's just fine, the other I'm using for beer. The problem with the wine cooler part is the temperature really only has two settings, one for red and one for white. The lowest the temp will go is 39F, which is just okay for beer. Personally (and this is definitely an area of personal preference), I like my beer served at 34F. It will warm soon enough in the glass all on its own, especially on hot summer days. So -- I modded it to run at a lower temperature. This was a pretty straightforward project after a little internet search.

My approach is to replace the built-in temperature controller with an Inkbird:

These go for about $35 on Amazon. I have one just like this that I use to run the freezer I use for fermentation. They are very easy to set up and work very well. There are 3 wires, the one on the left is for the temperature sensor, the middle turns on electricity to both a hot and a cold device, and the third is for the power. In this case, I don't need the hot, just the cold. In my fermentation freezer, I have the power cord for the freezer plugged into the cold and a terrarium heater for the hot.

Next, I found the circuit diagram for the wine cooler pasted to the back, it looks like this:

Wine cooler circuit diagram

If you look closely, the wires are labeled with colors, so all I have to do is cut the brown and red wires from the circuit board and connect them, which bypasses the built-in controller completely. This does mean that the internal light and temperature display won't work, but I don't care. The built-in controller is located on the inside ceiling of the wine cooler, and it's held in place by 2 screws. Inside is the circuit board, which looks like this:

Wine cooler circuit board

The brown and red wires are in the lower left corner of the picture. I just cut them and used a wire nut to connect them. The blue wire powers the compressor, so it's essential to leave it alone or the fridge won't cool at all.

There is a drain hole inside the fridge right above the compressor. I widened it a little with a drill and was able to push the Inkbird sensor inside with no problem, so no chance of hitting a cooling line. I ran the sensor up to the built-in controller and used some black gorilla tape to hold it in place.

That's it. I set the temp on the Inkbird and since there is plenty of room behind the rear access panel, I put all the wires and the Inkbird behind the panel, so it all looks like it was never modified.


April 24, 2020: Both of the coolers have crapped out.
Model MCWC50DST
The beer fridge needed 2 parts:
HQRP QP2-4R7 4.7 Ohm 3-Pin PTC Starter/Start Relay Replacement for Mini Fridges, Compact Refrigerators, Beverage & Wine/Beer coolers, Deep Freezers, Beer/Wine Refrigerators
Danby 1.03.01.01.117F B57-120 OVERLOAD PROTECTOR
These were both pretty easy to install.

The wine fridge is showing an EEF code. The beer fridge didn't show any code because I've done the modification above. Those parts look fine on the wine fridge, so I'm going to attempt the same modification as the beer fridge to see if it's the temperature controller that is out. Update -- that didn't work. It seems the best the fridge can do is about 53 or 54F, and it runs all day to keep it there.  A new fridge is on the way.

Batch 200! Pale Ale

Yay! Batch 200! Means nothing! Yay!

Just a pale ale, don't want to run out of good beer!

10 gallon batch

25 lb pale ale
1. lb caramunich
1.5 lb white wheat

Mashed at 154F for 60 minutes, as usual, adjusted pH to 5.2 - 5.3ish with phosphoric acid. Recirc 10 - 15 minutes on each sparge, really helps make clear beer.

2 oz Magnum, 60 minutes
2 tsp Irish Moss, 15 minutes
3 oz Cascade, 5 minutes

60 minute boil.

Wyeast 1272 from previous batch of Panama Red

OG: 1.060 actual and by recipe
FG: 1.016
ABV: 6.1%
SRM: 7.2
IBU: 42

Update June 3, 2017, crashed on Wednesday, kegged on Friday

Some brew day pics:

Chilling

freezer for fermenting and beer fridge

6 cups Wyeast 1272

I made these 6 years ago, and they are still looking great and working great! Look at all the hops that were stopped.

Beer fridge modification

While brewing batch 184, I made a nice modification to my beer fridge. I don't want to drill a hole in the fridge to put the CO2 tank outside, and there isn't anywhere to put it anyway, so I used my Dremel and cut out the shelf in the door to put it there.

Mmm! Edge beers waiting to be opened!

Now it's easy to reach and no fear of it falling out by accident.

Here's a random photo of my grandson with a storm trooper, just for fun:

Batch 150, Hop Burst IPA

I ran across this recipe in Zymurgy a while back, and as it happened, I scored a bunch of free hops yesterday (Thanks Niko!) I had intended to brew an ESB, but with the sudden acquisition of a bunch of nice hops, this recipe came to mind. I have made a few changes to the recipe in Zymurgy -- the original had Simcoe and Sterling, and I didn't have any of those, but I did have some Meridian, so I used that instead, and compensated for the quantities by adding 2 oz of Citra and Meridian.

"Hops burst" is a process of using all late addition hops and no early/bittering additions. I did do a FWH since that was recommended in the recipe, but all of the rest of the hops are at 15 minutes, during whirlpool, and later some dry hops. It sure smelled good!

I'm also doing an experiment on this batch. I want to increase my fermentation capacity, but I really don't have room for another fridge or freezer. So I'm thinking to ferment in plastic bags. I should be able to ferment two 10 gallon batches in the same freezer since the bags will fit in the freezer better than the buckets, less wasted space. The experiment is I'm using Costco trash compactor bags. As far as I can tell, these should be food grade, but they've never been tested for compliance with the FDA rules since they aren't intended for food storage. I'm fermenting half of this batch in a bag, half in a regular bucket fermenter. I'll post some brewday pictures in another post.

YAIPA (Yet another IPA) - American IPA (14B)

Brewer
Date

Batch Size	10.061 gal	Boil Size	12.561 gal
Boil Time	90.000 min	Efficiency	70%
OG	1.059	FG	1.016
ABV	5.6%	Bitterness	43.8 IBU (Tinseth)
Color	8.8 srm (Morey)	Calories (per 12 oz.)	194

Fermentables

Total grain: 25.250 lb

Name	Type	Amount	Mashed	Late	Yield	Color
Pale Malt (2 Row) US	Grain	20.000 lb	Yes	No	79%	2.0 srm
Munich Malt - 10L	Grain	2.000 lb	Yes	No	77%	10.0 srm
White Wheat Malt	Grain	1.250 lb	Yes	No	86%	2.0 srm
Biscuit Malt	Grain	1.000 lb	Yes	No	79%	23.0 srm
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L	Grain	1.000 lb	Yes	No	74%	60.0 srm

Hops

Name	Alpha	Amount	Use	Time	Form	IBU
Magnum	13.5%	0.500 oz	First Wort	90.000 min	Pellet	11.3
Amarillo	9.5%	1.500 oz	Boil	15.000 min	Pellet	10.1
Centennial	10.5%	3.000 oz	Boil	15.000 min	Pellet	22.3
Amarillo	9.5%	1.500 oz	Aroma	0.000 s	Pellet	0.0
Centennial	10.5%	1.500 oz	Aroma	0.000 s	Pellet	0.0
Citra	12.0%	2.000 oz	Aroma	0.000 s	Pellet	0.0
Meridian	6.7%	2.000 oz	Aroma	0.000 s	Pellet	0.0

Misc

Name	Type	Use	Amount	Time
pH 5.2 Stabilizer	Water Agent	Mash	2.029 tsp	0.000 s

Yeast

Name	Type	Form	Amount	Stage
Wyeast - London Ale III	Ale	Liquid	0.528 cup	Primary

Mash

Name	Type	Amount	Temp	Target Temp	Time
Conversion Step, 68C	Infusion	8.344 gal	164.983 F	154.400 F	60.000 min
Final Batch Sparge	Infusion	7.500 gal	181.376 F	165.200 F	15.000 min

Instructions

1. Add 20.000 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US, 2.000 lb Munich Malt - 10L, 1.000 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L, 1.250 lb White Wheat Malt, 1.000 lb Biscuit Malt to the mash tun.
2. Bring 8.344 gal water to 164.983 F, 7.500 gal water to 181.376 F for upcoming infusions.
3. Add 8.344 gal water at 164.983 F to mash to bring it to 154.400 F (152F actual). Hold for 60.000 min. Added 1.5 tsp lactic acid to bring pH to 5.4.
4. Add 7.500 gal water at 181.376 F to mash to bring it to 165.200 F. Hold for 15.000 min.
5. Do first wort hopping with 0.500 oz Magnum,.
6. Bring the wort to a boil and hold for 60.000 min.
7. Put 1.500 oz Amarillo into boil for 15.000 min.
8. Put 3.000 oz Centennial into boil for 15.000 min.
9. Stop boiling the wort.
10. Steep 1.500 oz Citra in wort for 0.000 s.
11. Steep 1.500 oz Meridian in wort for 0.000 s.
12. Steep 1.500 oz Centennial in wort for 0.000 s.
13. Steep 1.500 oz Amarillo in wort for 0.000 s.
14. You should have 11.061 gal wort post-boil. You anticipate losing 1.000 gal to trub and chiller loss. The final volume in the primary is 10.061 gal.
15. Cool wort and pitch Wyeast - London Ale III Ale yeast, to the primary.
16. Let ferment until FG is 1.016.
17. Transfer beer to secondary.

Dry hopping will be with 1 oz Amarillo, 1.5 oz Centennial, and 2 oz Citra.

March 24, 2014, racked to secondary. Harvested about 3 pints of the yeast, which always looks great. After 1272, I think this London Ale III is my next favorite ale yeast. The experiment with fermenting in a bag seems fine so far. No off-flavors that I could detect from the hydrometer sample. I'm actually a little disappointed in the flavor, not a lot of hop flavor and very little bitterness. Since there is a crapload of hops in this recipe, I expected more. I did add dry hops to the secondary:

1 oz Amarillo
1.5 oz Centennial
2 oz Citra

Nitro tap teardown

My nitro tap had the same keg of stout on it since July. It was getting sticky, and since the keg blew last night, I thought it was time to take the tap apart and clean it. This isn't your ordinary tap, not even an ordinary nitro tap.

It looks like this:

That extra knob on the back is awesome, it lets me adjust the flow, and works really well for filling bottles and growlers when the aerator disk is removed.

Taken apart it looks like this:

There ae quite a few pieces and quite a few o-rings. It really wasn't that dirty on the inside, some build up here and there where you'd expect. It's pretty easy to clean. I lubed all the o-rings while I had it apart, and took this picture so I'd remember in the future how it goes back together.

After I got it all cleaned and reassembled, I put a keg of 'End of the World' on tap.

Barley Crusher Tear-Down and Maintenance

 My Barley Crusher has not been working so well lately, lots of spinning, but not much crushing. I've adjusted the gap wider a few times, but when I needed to set it to 0.050 to get any grain to go through, it was time to look at another solution. At 0.050, there were quite a few grains that weren't even crushed. 

It looks pretty simple, so I thought I'd try taking it apart and cleaning it. It turns out it was pretty easy to do. It originally came with an o-ring on the non-powered roller to help make that roller spin, so I added a couple of new o-rings also.

Here are the details in lovely pictures:

Before, not working so well, lots of spinning but not much crushing.

Need to loosen the two screws holding on the bin. They just need loosened, the bottom of the bin has slots, so it will pull off without having to completely remove the screws.

Bin is removed, you can see the small slot in the bottom.

Roller section unbolted from the work bench. There is quite a bit of grain dust.

The side with the adjusting knobs has two long screws with lock washers.

The spinning roller side has two small screws, no lock washers.

Just remove all 4 screws.

Both sides removed.

The ends should pull off easily.

There is some crud build up on the end plates.

The other end needs cleaned too.

I lubed the rollers by putting a drop or two of oil on the brass bushings.

View of the other end of the rollers.

Originally, the Barley Crusher had an o-ring around the non-driven roller to help it spin. That disappeared into the mash about the second time I used the mill. I found these at Home Depot in the plumbing section, thought I'd put on a couple and see how long they last.

Cleaned, lubed, added new o-rings.

All assembled and gap adjusted. I set the gap at 0.038". I was a little worried that the o-rings would be too thick and wouldn't let me adjust the roller tight enough, but no problem.

Looks like a pretty good crush, both rollers moving really helped pull the grain through.

Update, Sep 15, 2013 -- the rubber o-rings wore out the second time I used the mill after the maintenance. Also, the mill was really slow with the second roller turning. It looks like either it needs a larger gap or slower speed. When I brewed yesterday, it was back to its old ways of lots of spinning and not much crushing, so I took it apart again and removed the o-rings. Also, I step that I may have left out when I did this the first time was to make sure that the knobs for the adjustable roller were both set on the mark. I don't know that this makes a difference, but after reassembly, that left the roller gap at 0.045", which seems to work just fine. The grain fed smoothly, and the crush looks good, very little shreading of the husks.