Two Stage Plate Chiller Build Kills The Summer Heat

Posted on August 1, 2016 by mikehoover
Chilled wort exiting the two stage system gets down to "really cold"!

Chilled wort exiting the two stage system gets down to “really cold”!

I pieced together a two stage wort plate chiller recently and tested it out on some real time brews. It performs very well in the hot temperatures of South Carolina in July. I started with a Blichmann Engineering Therminator that I have used for years. After seeing a post on the Homebrewtalk.com forums about a two stage counterflow chiller, I decided that I need to build a two stage chiller. The thought had occurred before to perhaps have two plate chillers in series, but I surmised that once the coolant (hose water) got hot, it would do no good in the second plate chiller. After reading the forum post, the light bulb lit up in my head – two different plate chillers, two different coolants! Since I do not have glycol cooling capabilities, I decided that the first stage coolant will be hose water at whatever temp I am stuck with. Lately, here in South Carolina in July, the temperature of the hose water has been 80-84 °F.
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Brews for 2015

Posted on March 20, 2016 by mikehoover

I only had seven brews in 2015:

  • Gone To ‘Ale Pale Ale (one week after the great SC flooding only two blocks away)
  • Crazy Blonde Pale Ale
  • Black Cat Black Ale (a staple around here)
  • Celebration Ale Copy (a little light on the grain bill, but close and good)
  • Bitter Bitch Black Ale (got a little to much bittering hops, hence the name)
  • Bumble Bee Helles (a bee fell in the kettle during the boil)
  • Light Christmas Bohemian Pils (brewed on Christmas Day)

 

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Inkbird ITC-1000F Fermentation Controller Build

Posted on March 20, 2016 by mikehoover

I built my third fermentation chamber controller box. I have two with the STC-1000 controllers but they display only Celsius. So I got smart and ordered an Inkbird ITC-1000F controller from Amazon.com. The price was about the same and this one can display Fahrenheit or Celsius. Now I don’t have to do the mental math each time I use it.

Inkbird ITC-1000 Controller

These boxes are really simple to build. The box is a 6″ electrical box from Lowe’s. I used a standard wall outlet and a 10 foot 12/3 cord from Lowe’s as well. I added the blue and red dots to indicate the cold and hot sides. I used a plastic cable gland to secure the electrical cord at the box but you could just tie a knot on the inside to keep from pulling it and damaging the wiring. That is how I secured the temperature sensor wire.

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Second Pilsner: 2B or not 2B?

Posted on November 18, 2014 by mikehoover

Hangar 92’s second attempt at a Bohemian pilsner was made on Sunday, November 9, 2014, on the BrewDeck.

The recipe:

19 lb Best Maltz Pilsen
1 lb Melanoidin malt
1 lb Munich malt 10L

5.0 oz Czech Saaz 2.4 AA at 80 mins
0.5 oz Czech Saaz 3.6 AA at 80 mins
3.0 oz Czech Saaz 2.4 AA at 20 mins

White Labs WLP800 Pilsner yeast (2 vials)

I made up two each two liter starters the Friday before using light DME. I made the standard 100 grams per liter mix. I stirred them frequently and kept them at room temperature the first 24 hours then dropped them to 50 degrees up until they were pitched Sunday night.
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First Attempt at a Pilsner

Posted on October 27, 2014 by mikehoover

Hangar 92 Brewing Pilsner Urkel

On Sunday, October 5, 2014, Steve and I brewed a Pilsner at Buckfield on the Brewdeck. It had not been used in two years, so we had to learn the system again, most of it on the fly and a little haphazardly.

The recipe is:

20 lb Best Maltz Pilsen malt
0.5 lb Melanoidin malt

3.5 oz Czech Saaz 3.6 AA 90 mins.
2 oz Czech Saaz 3.6 AA 20 mins.
2 oz Czech Saaz 3.6 AA 1 mins.

White Labs WLP800 (2 vials).

Steve added a little bit of lactic acid to the mash to help bring the pH down a bit. Our measurements were within the recommended pH level. Steve also added enough lactic acid to the sparge water to maintain proper pH.
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Bee Cave Brewery Haus Pale Ale Brew Day

Posted on January 30, 2011 by mikehoover

On Saturday, January 29, 2011, Steve and I brewed a recipe he found on the Home Brew Talk forum that has apparently become quite popular. A poll showed that members of the forum have brew 3620 gallons of this beer recipe and was listed the second most popular brew recipe by Popular Scientist magazine.

I stocked up on the things I needed to complete this recipe from RebelBrewer.com and we were ready. This brew day we decided to attempt a fifteen gallon batch – the first for us ever. We usually do ten gallon batches and Steve does five gallon batches at his house. The recipe is a five gallon recipe so we calculated it for fifteen gallons.
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White Christmas Pale Ale Brew Session

Posted on December 28, 2010 by mikehoover

Me and my good friend Steve decided to have a brew session on Christmas day, Saturday, December 25, 2010. He and Lori were staying in town and so was our family so we decided to get together and enjoy a great Christmas day.

I worked up a 10.5 gallon post boil recipe that is a slight modification of a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (SNPA) clone.

Grain Bill:
20 # 2-row pale malt
1 # 60L
1 oz Carapils (that was all I had, oh well)
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Black Cat Ale Brew Day – November 29, 2010

Posted on November 30, 2010 by mikehoover

Brewed up 10 gallons of Black Ale – Black Cat Ale – on Monday, November 29, 2010, with the help of my good friend Steve. He arrived at Two Finger Head Homebrew (TFH) around 11:00 AM. We measured out the malts, started heating water in the hot liquor tank (HLT) to 165 degrees, milled the grain and mashed in at 1:10 PM.

The recipe is a bit different from my usual black ale in that I did not have enough Carafa III that is required, so I substituted what remaining Chocolate Malt I had and some Roasted Barley. We’ll see how this turns out!
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My Homebuilt Homebrew Motorized Malt Mill

Posted on October 11, 2010 by mikehoover

I have been wanting to start a homebrew blog for a long time and finally got around to it. Hope you will enjoy your visit. With this, my first post, I have posted a video on YouTube showing my motorized malt mill in action. I am using the Barley Crusher grain mill with the larger hopper I bought from Midwest Homebrew Supplies, a 1/3 hp motor and sheaves that I bought from Grainger.com.

Orienting the V-belt slot and malt mill hole in the table top was the most difficult part. And once finished, some minor gap adjustments to the Barley Crusher rollers and the mill works great. It seems that some side load pressure from the V-belt caused me to have to adjust the mill rollers’ gap some to get the crush just right.

I did get a pebble or something in there once during a crush and the rollers stopped. The motor is strong and caused the belt to slip in the sheave. I just cut the motor off and reversed the rollers by hand and restarted the motor and it worked fine.

Here is a list of the major components, not including the wood:
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