So I’m short a month and some change from a full year since I last brewed.
I got to brew this week though–yay!–and used the Kama Citra Session IPA All Grain Beer Recipe Kit that I bought from Northern Brewer a long, long time ago (probably just after my last brew session in August of ’21*, the IPA Day sale, I believe). You’d think I’d have had a ton of time to make beer what with the pandemic and all, but alas, mostly what I did, aside from work-stuff, was shop online. My action figure collection is EPIC! (Please don’t tell my wife).
Did I have a brew-day disaster this time? Nope! Not that it was 100% smooth sailing…you know, where instead of sailing on a boat, I’m in the garage trying to make beer. So no, no brew-day disasters, just some hiccups.
First hiccup: I’d run out of calcium chloride (or possibly never had any and probably used calcium sulfate–basically doubling the gypsum–the last time I brewed), so I subbed in some 5.2 Stabilizer**. According to the handy ANVIL Foundry user manual, when brewing with R/O water, I need to add gypsum and calcium chloride at a rate of 1/4 tsp/gal for the entire volume of water I’ll brew with. I’ve made these additions the last couple of times I’ve brewed (maybe?), and I do think it makes a difference. I’ll have to do a more controlled experiment at some point.
Second hiccup (and this could’ve been a huge brew-day disaster): There’s a squarish ring that pops into a ridge at the top of the Foundry (see the photo to the right). When the mash is done, you lift the grain basket straight up, and when you clear the ring, you rotate the basket so feet on its side sit on the square edge of the ring letting you drain the wort. The basket can be pretty heavy, and it feels like the liquid is trying to suck it back down as you’re lifting. It’s also an awkward angle. Anyway, I caught the ring with one of the basket’s feet and knocked it out of its notch. It started to slip down into the kettle, but I caught it before it submerged. Of course, then I was holding up the grain basket with only one hand and trying to pull the ring up and push it back into the groove. I thought I was going to knock the whole kettle over and fall on my ass. Somehow I managed to twist the ring in a way that let it slide back up and pop into place. To the protest of my lower back, I also managed to lift the basket high enough to clear the ring with all the feet and then rotate it so they could find purchase.
If I was going to point out a flaw in the Foundry’s design, it’d be that the ring is too easy to knock out. Yes, I believe they recommend having a second person or rigging up some kind of overhead winch, but I mostly brew alone and the landlord won’t let me put a winch in the garage. Maybe I could get one of those engine hoists from Harbor Freight? But I don’t know, they’re kind of pricey, and then I’d have to find somewhere to store it (you’ve seen pictures of the garage; the last thing I need is another big piece of metal crap in there). Anyway, I’m going to have to figure something out that can be managed by one person.
This isn’t a hiccup–it didn’t have any affect on this brew session–but it is sad; I lost a leg from the grain basket trying to dump the spent grains into a garbage bag. It won’t stand up on its own now. It would probably still work in the kettle since it can lean on the side, but that might interrupt flow through the basket. For a few minutes, I thought this might be my opportunity to upgrade to the newer Foundry model with the controls on the top. But ultimately, I decided that was wasteful, and despite our size, MelloMooseBre.ws, is committed to finding ways of being a greener brewery (and in that spirit, I’ll be dumping my spent grains and hops directly into the food waste bin instead of using a trash bag moving forward).
What isn’t a flaw with the Foundry, is ANVIL Brewing Company’s customer service (and probably their parent company, Blichmann Engineering too). After finishing the clean-up for the day, I went to ANVIL’s website to order a replacement grain basket. I couldn’t find one listed in the spare parts section, so I sent them an email asking how I could buy one. I told them I had the older model–controls on the bottom–and found and shared the original order number to ensure they new which one I meant. Carolina wrote me back the next day asking for my shipping address; they sent me a new basket covered by their warranty! I’ve only had great experiences with their service team, like that time the fan was making a weird noise and Doug told me how to fix it. So, unless the MelloMooseMedia Legal Team has an issue, consider this an official unpaid endorsement!
[We’re cool with it -the MelloMooseMedia Legal Team]
**08/06/2022 updates**
[FYI, this post has been a draft for almost a month now, so these are updates, but also part of the original published posting. I doubt anyone cares, but I thought I’d be transparent–we try to be *green* and *transparent* whenever we can at MelloMooseBre.ws]
07/18/2022: I dry-hopped the beer in the primary vessel, the Brew Bucket, at around 7PM PT. I know some schools of thought say to transfer the beer into a secondary vessel before dry-hopping, but I subscribe to the belief that the fewer times the beer is exposed, the better. I haven’t run any sciencey tests or anything, but I haven’t had any issues with my beer sitting in primary for too long. I know there’s a term for it–when the beer sits on dead yeast for too long and can be spoiled***–but I’ve read that it really only happens in large volumes. It’s been my experience that at 5 gallons, I’m fine with one fermentation vessel.
07/31/2022: I’d only meant to dry-hop for 5-7 days, but I didn’t get to keg for 13 days. I guess you can start to get grassy flavors after a while, so this wasn’t ideal. The beer smelled good going into the keg though. In the future, I’m going to try to be better about hitting that 5-7 day mark.
08/05/2022: I tapped the beer today after 5 days of forced carbonation. A first for me, I let someone try the beer before I’d had a chance to taste it. I’m pretty confident in my brewing skillz and I always make cleaning and sanitizing a priority, but I was still super nervous about how this was going to turn out. Were my ingredients too old? Did I introduce some contamination at some point? To a lesser degree, was it going to be flat?
My buddy liked it and had a second glass. I think it’s good too. Maybe a little on the thin side, and the ABV is only about 4% (that’s about right for a session IPA, but my efficiency was off; I was expecting closer to 4.5%). I’m going to call a few neighbors over this afternoon to see if they want to give it a taste.
Brew-Day notes:
- link to Beersmith recipe
- link to Brew-Day checklist
- equipment used:
- had a pretty bad boil over, so maybe drop power to 75% when boiling (using 240 volts)
- be more careful when lifting grain basket
- order some calcium chloride (Amazon)
*Yes, that’s a long time to store grains and hops and there is a risk that the grains are stale and the hops have lost some potency, but I’ve pushed the limits on shelf-lifes before and still got good beer–I’ll keep you posted.
**I’ve read online (so absolutely reliable) that there’s some debate over whether 5.2 Stabilizer actually does anything. I do think I get better tasting beer when I make the extra effort to ensure good water quality.
***This link points to an excerpt from the first edition of How to Brew by John Palmer. It’s a great resource, but some of the information is out of date. You should buy the current edition of this book.