Strawbeery Beach Blonde Ale Brew Day

Here's a few pics from the Strawbeery Beach Blonde's brew day!

Hoppin' it up! I use a thin mesh paint straining bag to control the hops in my boil. It really cuts down on the trub going into the fermenter. There is a trade off though, with a minor decrease in hop utilization.

Mother Earth Brewing's cellerman Pete (Do you have my business card?) Frey. He stopped over to offer some great brew day advice. We had 4 people in the beer business over that brew day. It was great to get some insight on the distribution business from our neighbor Kenny, as well as Pete's friends from New Bern.

After the brew feremented out in the primary, I added 5lbs of strawberries into the secondary fermenter.

This brew is on tap right now. While there is only a slight hint of strawberries, this is a great light summertime brew!

Kegerator Build - Part Four (Final)

A few of you have been bugging me to finally put up the final pictures of the kegerator. Since I finally have her cooling, serving, and fermenting beer, here's what she looks like:

I needed to find a way to secure the CO2 tank in the back of the fridge...this is what I came up with. Not the most ingenuitive ideas, but hey it gets the job done. The bungee cord pulled the legs on the table towards eachother. In order to mitigate that I attached a piece of thin angled aluminum stock to the two table legs.

Here's another view of the CO2 setup with the tank secured. This should be nice and easy when I have to switch CO2 tanks.

I wanted the temp controller's probe to be close to where I inserted it into the fridge. I took a piece of aluminum left over from the turkey fryer parts I bought when I went to all grain. This allowed me to put a small shelf on the inside of the fridge. I have the temp probe sitting in a beaker of water. This will prevent the fridge from switching on and off more frequently.

Here's a look with the kegs in the bottom of the fridge. That's One Love Wit on the right, and Strawbeery Beach Blonde on the left. Notice the long lines. The friction inside long beer lines help to slow the flow of the beer to the tap. This allows the beer to come out in a nice slow pour instead of 15psi and all foam. For more information on balancing your keg lines, see Kegerators.com

Here's a look at a keg of Schulz Kolsch priming with CO2 on the top shelf. I'll eventually hook this up to tap #3.

The Convenience Center rocks!

Here's the final product on the front. I made the left two tap handles from some wooden figurines I found. The far right one is a Leine's seasonal. I think the wet erase markers look awesome!

Well that's my project! After a few months of off and on work, tons of gluing and polyurythane, and plenty of beer, it's all ready to serve up. It is very nice having beer on tap at your house...however this also leads you to drink ALOT more.

Strawbeery Beach Blonde Ale

I've been a slacker in posting lately! The kegerator is finished, I just haven't been getting any pictures of it... (I'm too busy using it). I did a strawberry beer last month. And I have a Kolsch right now lagering in the fridge.

Here's the strawberry recipe:

Amount  Item                  Color    %Grain Bill
8.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US  3.0 SRM  51.61 % 
2.00 lb White Wheat Malt      2.4 SRM  12.90 % 
0.50 lb Oats, Golden Naked    10  SRM   3.23 %

Amount  Item                 Time
0.50 oz Pallisades [6.70 %]  60 min   Hops    11.8 IBU 
0.50 oz Pallisades [6.70 %]  15 min   Hops    5.9 IBU 
5.00 lb Fruit - Strawberry   2 weeks secondary

1 Pkgs German Ale/Kolsch (#WLP029) Yeast-Ale

75 min single infusion mash 150°.  Double batch sparge.

Est Original Gravity: 1.057 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG 
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.63 %  
Bitterness: 17.7 IBU 
Calories: 233 cal/pint 
Est Color: 5.5 SRM