Looking back at the last few years, things have really changed in the way I brew:
1. Hot side processes
I've done away with my old analog electric mash tun, and bought a shiny new Grainfather in late 2017. It wasn't an easy decision to make, given the price of the Grainfather. However, I've now got 2 very active boys running around and I really wasn't comfortable with the electrical safety of my original (both the tun itself, and also my DIY recirculation pump). The analog thermostat was also a big PITA, needing almost-constant attention.
2. Fermentation
I've moved away from plastic kit fermenters, and exclusively ferment in Corny kegs now. This ties in well with no-chill brewing, where the hot wort is pumped straight into the Corny kegs, left to cool overnight, placed in the fermentation freezer and later pumped with oxygen - all in 1 vessel. I must say that I've been quite happy with this approach, since everything is so contained and neat.
The major downside though, is that I lose quite a good amount of beer. Even with foam reducers, there are certain yeast strains that result in huge amounts of blowoff. There's also yeast at the bottom, so I've bent the liquid out dip tube and that leaves behind beer when I rack.
Of late, I've ended up buying a couple of upgrades (more on that in another post) and found myself still looking at yet other areas to upgrade - this time, more on the cold side processes and serving workflows. I found myself thinking about efficiency, smoothing of processes and in general just increasing the throughput of beers.There's really little that relates to improving the QUALITY of what I brew.
And looking at it more closely, there's really nothing wrong with how much I brew. As of now, I actually have a saison, a gose, a mixed fermentation sour and a Norwegian maltol that have completed their keg fermentations, just sitting there but not packaged for serving yet. Why the tardiness though? I find myself making up excuses - mostly along the lines of not having parts to facilitate the packaging/serving. And this morning, the answer came to me that it's not that I lack the equipment/parts to achieve that outcome, but rather a lack of elbow grease!!
So why am I writing this post and baring it all then? I think it'll be a useful record of my thoughts and occasional realizations, and to remind myself once in a while to rethink what I do. If my aim of brewing was to simplify/automate each and every single process to the point of leaving the manual work undone, then I might as well use one of the many online shopping avenues to order a cold one each time.
Alas, no - it is the joy of creation, the sense of achievement after putting in effort, and (I hate to admit it) the ability to tweak and control variables that draws me in. And it'll do me good to remind myself about this, every once in a while.
1. Hot side processes
I've done away with my old analog electric mash tun, and bought a shiny new Grainfather in late 2017. It wasn't an easy decision to make, given the price of the Grainfather. However, I've now got 2 very active boys running around and I really wasn't comfortable with the electrical safety of my original (both the tun itself, and also my DIY recirculation pump). The analog thermostat was also a big PITA, needing almost-constant attention.
2. Fermentation
I've moved away from plastic kit fermenters, and exclusively ferment in Corny kegs now. This ties in well with no-chill brewing, where the hot wort is pumped straight into the Corny kegs, left to cool overnight, placed in the fermentation freezer and later pumped with oxygen - all in 1 vessel. I must say that I've been quite happy with this approach, since everything is so contained and neat.
The major downside though, is that I lose quite a good amount of beer. Even with foam reducers, there are certain yeast strains that result in huge amounts of blowoff. There's also yeast at the bottom, so I've bent the liquid out dip tube and that leaves behind beer when I rack.
Of late, I've ended up buying a couple of upgrades (more on that in another post) and found myself still looking at yet other areas to upgrade - this time, more on the cold side processes and serving workflows. I found myself thinking about efficiency, smoothing of processes and in general just increasing the throughput of beers.There's really little that relates to improving the QUALITY of what I brew.
And looking at it more closely, there's really nothing wrong with how much I brew. As of now, I actually have a saison, a gose, a mixed fermentation sour and a Norwegian maltol that have completed their keg fermentations, just sitting there but not packaged for serving yet. Why the tardiness though? I find myself making up excuses - mostly along the lines of not having parts to facilitate the packaging/serving. And this morning, the answer came to me that it's not that I lack the equipment/parts to achieve that outcome, but rather a lack of elbow grease!!
So why am I writing this post and baring it all then? I think it'll be a useful record of my thoughts and occasional realizations, and to remind myself once in a while to rethink what I do. If my aim of brewing was to simplify/automate each and every single process to the point of leaving the manual work undone, then I might as well use one of the many online shopping avenues to order a cold one each time.
Alas, no - it is the joy of creation, the sense of achievement after putting in effort, and (I hate to admit it) the ability to tweak and control variables that draws me in. And it'll do me good to remind myself about this, every once in a while.
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