Moving Again....!

Hi all...!

Hope you read the latest issue of BYO as my brew rig was featured in it. Thank to all the BYO people for making it happen!

On another note.....Just to let everyone know... if you have signed up for my newsletter...I thank you for doing so. I have to let you know that I have not sent out any issues yet as I am waiting until I have a reasonable amount of sign ups before starting. As all of you probably know....I have a very busy life and updates to this blog don't seem to happen often enough. I truly apologize for that. Please note that your email addresses are safe and secure and I don't share them with anyone.

Like I said....we will be moving this Saturday to a way nicer location in the country. I have the go ahead to upgrade the electrical service to suit my needs...and we all know what that means....!  yayyyyy!!!! 240/30 amp service is a week or so away....and so is the re-design and upgrade of my brewery! The upgrade will be very easy for me as I already have the required components that's needed. I'll get my licensed stepson to do the wiring and we'll be all set! I'll do the best I can to document the process and get it posted. I hope all of you can be patient as moving is always a big chore.

I visited my friend JD today as he was brewing up one of his delicious Pale Ale's.
Anyways.....getting late....and i'm tired....sorry ....no pics today....wayyyy too busy getting ready for the move..

Keep Brewing...!

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Maiden Voyage Results

The maiden voyage brew session was successful but with a couple minor glitches to correct. I had cavitation issues with the pumps but managed to get them primed. Overall the session went real smoothly and my brew buddie JD was on hand to help out. Since then I have changes a couple of things with the brewery's plumbing configuration and installed the Blichmann easy connectors on both pump's suction lines. I also re-installed the drainage plumbing to be on the pumps out going side and added a HLT above the mash tun to hold hot liquor for the sparge. I guess you can say that I now do a modified batch-fly sparge using 3 vessels.

Using the 30 plate heat exchanger instead of an installed coil for the HERMS system was a huge improvement on performance and it serves double duty during the wort chilling process as well.

I have since brewed on the system 5 times and it is performing very well. It is real easy to use and the results have been better that I anticipated! Seems that the quality of the beer has improved quite a bit too! Yayyy!

Below are a few pics of the brewery as it stands now....but I already have a couple minor changes in mind which concerns the control panel and the SSR wiring....more on that later....!

Here's the reconfigured system in full operation performing the mash. The cooler is for storing sparge water when pumped to it from the boil kettle (on left)

Here's the control panel holding temperature at 151 degF

This is a shot of the home made sparge and liquor return arm.

The sparge arm in action returning the wort to the top of the mash.

Running off the wort into the boil kettle.

Wort coming up to a boil using 3 heatsticks.

While the wort is boiling, the mash tun is cleaned of spent grains and filled up with 60 lbs of ice and enough water to prime the pump and start the cooling process.

Here's where I had to change the plumbing for the pumps. The drainage system is very useful to purge hot or cold liquids. It also allows me to capture quite a bit of wort that gets trapped in the system. I can then return this wort to the boil kettle.

This is the output side of the chilling process after the boiling of the wort has been completed. This is a 1 pass operation and cools the wort from 200+ degrees F directly into the fermenter at the desired fermentation temperature. The temperature is controlled by either slowing down or speeding up the flow of the hot wort which is being pumped through the plate heat exchanger. The first time I used it, the wort was cooled too much (48 degF) and I had to wait for it to warm up to be able to pitch the yeast! I just added the thermometer so I can now regulate the exiting temperature of the wort. The entire cooling process takes 15 minutes from the boil kettle to the fermenter in 1 pass.

Well that's it for now as I have to go downstairs and bottle the Imperial Rye IPA and check up on the Belgian White that's now fermenting. My next session will be next week and we'll be doing a Hefeweizen complete with decoction.

I'll be posting more next week.....until then....

Keep Brewing!
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New Electric Brewery

Hey everyone....

Sorry for not being around but i've been busy putting together a new brewery...this time an electric one so I can brew indoors during the cold RI winters! It is a 2 vessel brewery that recirculates the wort and mash and sparge water around itself to produce a suitable wort. I finished testing it today and performed a final cleaning of all components, and it is now ready for i'ts maiden brew session. I'll be brewing with it before the week is out.

I'd also like to thank Kal over at theelectricbrewery.com for his inspiration  and insights concerning the build. I did implement a few of his ideas for my system but not many!

Below are a few pics of today's testing session and final cleaning.

Hope you enjoy the pics!
I'll be adding more pics during the brewery's maiden voyage soon!

Keep Brewing!

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Coastal Extreme Brewing Co Wort Give Away!

Hey all...

Last Saturday I went down to Newport to visit Coastal Extreme Brewing Co., home of the Newport Storm beer brand. They were conducting their annual brew session of their 2011 beer for this year and the homebrewers of the area were invited to come and take the tour, sample some great brews in the sampling area, then take home the left over wort to boil and ferment themselves! For the '11 seasonal beer, they only kept the first runnings and gave away the second and third to us homebrewers. This year's specialty beer was a collaboration of Rhode Island's best commercial brewers and it went well! It will be released in Nov 2011 and is a BIG beer! Can't wait to try it!
The collaboration team consisted of the following brewers:
Derek Luke - Coastal Extreme Brewing
Sean Larkin - Trinity Brewhouse
Aaron Crossett - Union Station Brewery
Dave Sniffen - Mohegan Cafe and Brewery
Marshall Righter - Coddington Brewing Company


The brewery tour was a lot of fun and very informative and was a bit of a history lesson not only about the brewery, but also about the history of brewing in Rhode Island, as this state is rich in brewing history!
The tour was conducted by Laura Blackwell, and she was great at answering our questions and was very entertaining too! Great job Laura!


Coastal Extreme also brews and distills their own line of rum by the name of Thomas Tew Rum. You can learn more about the brewery and about Thomas Tew Rum by visiting their website HERE.

The brewery even allowed a few homebrewers to bring their boiling gear and boil their wort at the brewery!


I managed to bring home 10 gallons of wort, one from the second runoff and one from the third.


I brought it all home and with the addittion of some extra specialty grains, I boiled up a Dopplebock using the first runnings, and with the second, I bolied up an Oktoberfest. They are fermenting away as I type.


I also ran in to a couple of fellow RIFTers there and we had a great time discussing our plans for the wort.


I managed to take a couple of pics and they are shown below.


I'd like to thank everyone at Coastal Extreme Brewing for their generosity and hospitality. It was a great day!

Below, members of the South Shore Brewing club boiling their wort.

Running off some wort.

Below: View of the mash tun and boiling kettle.

I need to get a few of these...!

Here's John showing off his damaged finger. Ouch!

And this one's for John: ;D

Well that's it for now...I'll have some new pics of my new electric brewery posted soon and some more informative information about how it all works.

Thanks for stopping by....and....

Keep Brewing!

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We Moved!

Hi All,

We have completed our move from Florida to Rhode Island as of last week and am now spending our spare time unpacking and organizing our stuff. The brewery is almost unpacked but some more organization is still needed.

I have hooked up with a local RI club called the Rhode Island Fermentation Technicians ( RIFT), and on last Saturday, I attended one of their group brew sessions and met quite a few of the members. They are a knowledgeable and very friendly group as we hit it off right away! The style for the session was an American Amber Ale, and 55 gallons was brewed. We had 11 carboys filled and it is also part of a yeast experiment, where each one will be fermented with a different yeast so that a comparison will be made later at a future meeting. The grain bill used a total of 106 lbs of grain!

Everyone had a fantastic time and I look forward to their next meeting.

Here are some pics of the event:

Here's John's malt mill with 4" rollers. It gave a fantastac crush!

 And here's John's 55 gallon brew rig:

 Malt mill again:

Here's John feeding the mill

Here's where John stores his grains. The big 55 lb tubs are all full!

Here's Andy selecting the specialty grain for the day's session

Close up of the mill in action

Mashing in the grains.

Here's the lunch and beer sampling table.

Mashing in

Close up of the mash in process

Here's John hooking up and adjusting the transfer pump

Steam from the boil kettle!

11 Carboys in line to be filled with wort! All were filled!

I sure did have a fantastic time meeting these guy's and taking part in the Big Brew event. I look forward to their next meeting too!

I am in the design process of constructing an electric brewery and will write more on this in future posts.

Thanks for stopping by....and

Keep Brewing!

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Brewing With David!

Hello Everyone!

Well look at that...! It's my birthday!  LOL!

I went over to David's and Stacey's place yesterday to give him a hand brewing and to enjoy his award winning BBQ chicken n' ribs n' beef brisket! Boy was that BBQ good! Yummmmm!

I arrived there around 11:30 and he was inside measuring out the grain bill. I volunteered to get the water dumped into the HLT and to start heating it up. While it was heating, we crushed the grains using his Barley Crusher and we were ready to dough in the grains. After the strike water reached 170 degF we transfered the allotted 4 1/4 gallons to the mash tun and proceeded to dough in. The temp came in a little warm, so we had to add about 1/2 gallon of cool water to lower the temp to our mash temp of 154 degF. It worked out well. We hit the target temperature then wrapped the tun with a blanket for insulation purposes and set the timer for 60 minutes.

It's BBQ time! David and Stacey announced that the BBQ was ready and we followed him into the house, grabbed our plates and served ourselves to the spread! It was fantastic.

After the hour was up, the timer went off and David, Jeremy and I tested the wort for conversion by performing an iodine test. It was converted to our satisfaction! We then re-heated to sparge water back to 180 degF and started to recirculate the wort to get a clear run off, and then started to run off into the boil kettle. The wort looked nice and clear. After we completed the runoff and got our 7.5 gallons we checked the pre-boil gravity and found that we were about 2 points low, so we decided to boil the work for a little longer just to bring the OG to the desired gravity. We ended up at 1.054, and David was very happy with the result.
This was David's 3rd brew session on his new rig, and he is getting used to the routine and of getting his efficiency locked in. He's been making adjustments with every brew session ans is improving. This was his best session so far.

We completed the boil and chilled the wort using his home counter flow chiller and completed the brew session. Jeremy and Cheryl stopped by with an array of his amazing homebrew and we had a mini-beer tasting with David's friends and family. I brought a  2 liter growler of a Brown Porter that I made 4 weeks back and shared that with everyone too.

David had some Fullers Porter and some Fullers Pale Ale to have in between and everyone had a fantastic time.

Here's a few pics of the day's happenings:

Here's Davids new Brew Rig:

Here's David keeping an eye on things and explaining the operation:

Jeremy and Allen checking out the rig and temperatures:

Running off the wort into the kettle:

Recirculating to clear the wort:

Chilling the wort and filling the primary fermenter!

Time for award winning BBQ!

Everyone had a fantastic day!

Well that's all for now...

Thanks for stopping by....

Keep Brewing!

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Brads Porter Session!

Well....!

I awoke this morning at 5:45 AM and got up and got dressed and had a cup of coffee before heading out to Brad's place to witness his brew session. The sun was just coming up over the horizon when I completed the 20 minute drive and I pulled into his driveway to see him already sanitizing the brewery's plumbing and getting the equipment ready for the mornings brew session.

Brad greeted me and asked if he was late or if I was early! I stated that I was a bit early and he then chuckled and went back to work getting ready to start today's brew session. He got me a chair and handed me his brew recipe...ahhh....a nice Robust Porter!

Within 15 minutes we started heating up the strike water and when that was at our desired temperature, we started to dough in the grains. It was then that our long time friend and brew pal Bob rolled into the driveway and he assisted with the stirring of the mash while Brad fed the mash tun the grains at an even pace.

The session was highly successful and fun for all. We ended the day with food and drink and we were all satisfied and tired out from the day's events.

Here's just a few pics of the session:

Bob stirring while Brad pours in the grain!

Close up of the grain being doughed in:

Bob finishing up with the mixing:

Here's Brad,  Bob and I bringing the wort to a boil:

It was a great session and we had a lot of fun too! Now the hard part....waiting until the final product is finished!

Thanks for stopping by......Keep Brewing!

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