Bottled some Porter last night, added some Wild Turkey to the last gallon in the bottling bucket - the flat sample tasted delicious, can't wait for this one to be ready :-)
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Good find! I scored a 7 cf chest freezer on craigslist for $50 when I got started. It was and still is in great shape. I built a temp controller to compliment the freezer.

About to kick a keg of american brown ale and my blond ale is cold crashing before racking to keg.
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Question about cold crashing. How do you do it? As fast as possible? Over a couple of days? I just set up a fridge that can hold a carboy, and rigged up a temp controller. I've been over-reading about yeast. I'm a dork and like the science aspect of the living thing that's making my booze for me. It sounds like there is some evidence that you risk pushing esters out of the yeast if you cold crash too fast. Is this something that might happen but just isn't an issue like hot side aeration, or is it something you take into account for and crash slowly (oxymoron).

Dark IPA I'm calling Hoppy Halloween in the fermentation chamber right now, Brown ale into my first keg (so much easier than bottling) last week, and a simcoe/chinook IPA that got dry hops 4 days ago about ready to go into my second keg. Just had the first bottle of a Founders breakfast stout clone yesterday, delicious, but I haven't ever had the original so I can't say whether I cloned it well.
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I will cold crash at 38 degrees F for 2 days prior to kegging. It usually takes about 3-4 hours for my wort temp to drop from 65 degrees F to 38 degrees F. I feel this helps settle all of the solid particles and provide a clearer beer.
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10 gal pumpkin ale (9 lbs of baked pumpkin in this one)
10 gal of citra pale ale (blew thru the other 10 like it was nothing lol)
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Quick drop. I think I can achieve that pretty well in my fridge. Giving it a shot with the next batch to hit the keg.

Recipe for that Citra Pale? Trying to get my hands on a pound of Citra in a couple of days.
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I will post it up asap. I do mini-mash kits....so if you do AG you might have to convert it. Also do a dry hop that the recipe does not call for ;o).
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Beware of suck back from the airlock or blowoff. Dropping temp creates a vacuum and for those people who have an elevated blowoff this could create a siphon. I use a S-style airlock and I noticed last night that the sanitizer solution froze before the wort reached 38 degrees.
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I found a floor-model 7cf freezer at Menard's for $90 on Saturday and was psyched! I had a couple rebates from prior purchases so it only ran me about $50.

Then I got home, plugged it in for 36 hours, and it never got cold. It was returned last night. Back to the search :-)
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Around here they are few and far between now that deer season in underway.
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How bout using vodka and not the san solution so there is no worries about freezing? ;o)
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I don't usually have vodka on hand but I'm not too worried because once the wort reaches the temperature set point the freezer turns off and the sanitizer thaws.
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Just put the Pumpkin Ale in the fermeter. I was slacking on this one.. I am hoping to have it ready by Thanksgiving.
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Have a dunkel ready to bottle. Next up is an irish stout that I am going to try to "breakfast stout" it up.
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Frigidaire 14.8 Cu. Ft. Chest Freezer (Color: White) ENERGY STAR on sale at lowes for $364. My brew bro has the same one. Holds 8 corney kegs and a small co2 tank. Now that I have the old inside fridge in the garage for fermentation I might as well build a keezer next to it....right? ;o)
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Just put a pale ale hopped with chinook and simcoe into a keg. Awesome citrusy aroma. I'd drink it all right now if I hadn't brewed it with a pal that needs to at least get a chance to taste it :-)
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Better late than never. Went over today to keg and remembered to pick up the recipe sheet:

Mini mash:

1/2 lb Crystal 75L Malt
2 Lb 2-Row Malt
1/2 Lb Munich Malt
1/2 Lb Cara Pils Malt

You know the drill...155 deg for 45 min then sparge with 170 deg water. Approx 1 qt of sparge water for every 2 Lb of grain

5 Lb of Extra Pale ALe Extract

Bittering hops 1 oz Citra 60 min

Flavor hops 1 oz Citra 15 min

Aroma hops 1 oz Citra 5 min

White Labs California Ale V 051 or Weast American AleII (I use WL)

Final Gravity should be appx 1.013

I dry hop after the primary in the keg with another 1 oz of Citra. This time one keg had the pellet Citra the other had 1 oz of whole leaf Simco hops. We will see what a difference it makes ;o). One thing is for sure the whole leaf hops float like a mother....I thought I used enough marbles to weig them down but it was only enough to make the hop bag look like a bobber lmao.
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Started drinking a porter we brewed about three monthe ago. Now that it has some age one it it is flat out wonderful!
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Just brewed an IPA with Galaxy,citra,centenneial,chinook,and columbus
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Thanks! My pound of citra should be in this week. Some citra single hops are definitely in the works.
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