We just bottled a batch of ChaiPA™

It's like an IPA but a ChaiPA™.

A 5 gallon batch primed with 3/4 of a cup of dextrose, bottled in a 1L Howe Sound and 373mL Grolsch swing tops - a combination which has worked well in the past.

38 bottles of beer on the wall, 38 bottle of beer.

20 Mintute Wort Chiller

15 minutes at Home Depot and 5 in the workshop....

Up to this point we've been chilling our wort by placing the kettle in a water bath - which worked - but time is money and time is more than money! Hopefully this project will save us at least a few minutes a batch! First, I must say, this isn't the most economical setup out there, we're sure this could be done for much less. Second, if you're concerned about water consumption, you'll need to make some adjustments to this design as we're not recirculating any of the cooling water.

Instructions for the fabrication of our Wort Chiller are as follows:

Bill of Materials:

1 - 10' of Braided Nylon Tubing, $
3 - 3/4" Female Hose Fitting, 1/2" Barb, $
2 - 3/4" Garden Hose Adapter, $
1 - 20' 3/8" Copper Tubing, $
2 - 3/8" Compression to 3/4" Garden Hose Adapter, $
1 - Faucet to Garden Hose Adapter, $

Construction:

Step 1: Cut the Braided Nylon Tubing to Length
Not sure that we really need to say much here. With our current setup we can bring the hot wort directly over to the sink, so we really only needed 5 feet of tubing on the inlet and outlet of the wort chiller. Thus, we bought a 10 foot section of nylon braided tubing ... and we cut it in half.

Tip: When you cut the tubing try to make your cuts as square as possible. It'll help the ensure the tuning seats all the way on the barb of your fittings.

Step 2: Insert Barbed Adapters into your Tubing (x3)
Again, not much to say here. Insert your barbed fittings into the tubing. The barbed fitting should be snug in the tube but should insert smoothly with only slight force - however, they should be difficult to remove. You're going to need to do this at least three times. If needed (or for an extra safety factor), you can put a hose clamp on the tube before inserting the fitting and then tighten it down. Viola, now you've built yourself an inlet and outlet hose!

Step 2a: Add Your Adapters
While we're here, we may as well insert one garden hose fitting into the end of each tube. These connections can be tight, they shouldn't ever need to be taken apart.


Step 3: Time to Form Some Copper
The more surface area the better for a chiller like this. Sure we could have used 40 feet, but we went for 20. We're only chilling ~10 liters (~2.6 gallons) of wort since we're still brewing partial grain recipes and we haven't made the jump to all grain quite yet.

The tubing came nicely coiled right out of the box so it only took a few minutes of hand work to even the coil out to a diameter about 2-3 inches smaller than our kettle. You'll want to connectors to stick out of the kettle at least a few inches when the chiller is completely submerged, we though 8 inches sounded like a good number.

For the inlet and outlet of the chiller coil we used dishwasher fittings to go from the 3/8 inch copper to the 3/4 inch hose fittings we installed on the tubing back in Step 2. The fittings we used are simple compression fittings, installation was a breeze.


Step 4: Put it All Together & Test for Leaks
If you're going to use this with a typical kitchen/bathroom faucet, you're going to need an adapter.
To test your rig, put it all together and turn on the tap! And don't forget, waters not coming out of the tap anymore!

We were able to chill 1o liters from boiling to 30°C in under 7 minutes. A welcome improvement from chilling the kettle in a tub of cold water.

We're not dead yet...

No to worry folks, we're still alive and kicking.
The last few months have been busy and action packed for us, so brewing unfortunately had to take a back seat.
But we're back, re-grouped and ready to go.
Stay tuned after Labour Day for new and exciting updates!

A Hot Liquor Tank From a 5 Gallon Cooler

Although this "Gott Type" beverage cooler may have been destined for fame as a fine dispenser of McDonalds Orange Drink or Purple Jesus, we've got a better use for it! It will be the first piece of the Royal City Brewing All Grain Brew House. We'll use the simple lessons we learn here for the construction of our Mash/Lauter Tun from a 9 gallon rectangular cooler.

Instructions for the fabrication of our Hot Liquor Tank are as follows:

Bill of Materials:

1 - 5 Gal (18.9L) Igloo Water Jug, $33.99 at Costco
1 - 1/2" Brass Hose Barb Adapter, $2.59 at Home Depot
1 - 1/2" Threaded Ball Valve, $8.09 at Home Depot
1 - 1/2" Brass Pipe Nipple, $2.59 at Home Depot
1 - Brass Faucet Lock Nut, $3.49 at Home Depot
AR - Teflon Plumbing Tape, from the tool box

The most important part here is the selection of the Nipple, be sure to select the length that's right for the wall thickness of your cooler! With a total cost of CDN$50.75 + HST, this is a fairly inexpensive first piece of the Royal City Brewing all grain brew house.

Construction:

Step 1: Removal of the existing valve from the cooler.
Simply twist the valve counter-clockwise (left loosey). It will initially be fairly tight, but is should loosen with a half turn or so. The cooler we used had a plastic nut on the inside so if it's stubborn, use an adjustable wrench to stop it from spinning when twisting the valve. The parts will look like this:


Keep the black gasket and the white washer (the middle two pieces), the valve itself and the nut will no longer be required.

Step 2: Assembly of the Valve Assembly
First, we need to thread the 1/2" Brass Nipple into the Ball Valve. To do this, thread two of the Lock Nuts onto one end of the Nipple. Using two wrenches, tighten the lock nuts against each other - this will allow you to tighten the the Nipple into the Ball Valve.


Next, wrap the bare end of the nipple with Teflon plumbers tape. Be sure to wrap in the direction of the thread. Tips for using Teflon tape can be found here.


Next, use the appropriate wrenches to tighten the nipple in the input side of the Ball Valve. Just to be sure, open the valve and thread the nipple into the end opposite the handle.


Next wrap the Barb Adapter with Teflon tape as described above and tighten it in the output side of the Ball Valve.


The Valve Assembly is now complete!

Step 3: Installation of the Valve Assembly
Insert the Valve Assembly from Step 2 into the opening in the cooler. The valve has been rotated to all for the valve to fully close without hitting the cooler. This shouldn't be an issue when we put the liquor tank into operation.


Place the black gasket, followed by the white washer over the threads of the Valve Assembly (ensuring the gasket is properly seated in the washer).


Finally, thread the Lock Nut onto the Valve Assembly and tighten with a 1" Wrench. Well... that was pretty simple.


Step 4: Leak Test
The final step should be a leak test. This should be fairly straight forward, I'll leave it up to you.

If it holds water, which ours did, you're done. If not, try tightening things up a bit, but not to much you don't want to crack your washer.

Done & Done!

Next time we'll build a Mash/Lauter Tun.

Hot Chocolate Hops it up with some IPA

Double IPA aka Imperial IPA aka Bitter Boozy Hoppy IPA

 

So here we are, and it's brewing day and we're making a double IPA. A double IPA (also known as an Imperial IPA), is just a really boozy and hoppy version to your regular IPA. If you're a fan of hoppy and bitter beers this is the one for you. If you're even In the Seattle area, make sure you check out the Pike Place Brewery. They do a fantastic Double IPA, but be careful because it packs a punch. So let's get started. To the right you'll see the ingredient list. We've got two types of whole hops (Zeus and Centennial). You have your choice between whole and pellets. We with the whole since the pellets tend to discentigrate in the wort and leave a lot of fine particles in your beer that take a while to settle out. The Biscuit Malt is a combination of ground malts that we purchased with this intermediate kit. I think there are some roasted malts, and chocolate malts in that mix, but don't quote me on it. There are two tubs of Pale Malt extract (each tub is 6.5lbs) and a package of Nottingham brewers yeast. 

Now let start making beer!!The first this you'e going to need to do is assemble your ingredients. So we've got everything piled up and ready to do. A aslo suggest your crack open a beer or a bottle of wine at this point. Life is always better with a drink in your hand. Now you need to clean all your brewing equipment. The fermenter tub, the siphon, the strainer, make sure you clean them. Not just with hot water and soap but use a sanitizer. If you think it's clean, clean it again so you know it's clean. You don't want all your hard work ruined by some two week old rotten chicken juice that some how managed to get into your siphon. 

If you're a condo dweller like the three of us the best place to do this is in a bathtub. Just follow the instructions on your sanitizer and you should be OK. If you're lucky enough to live somewhere with a large laundry sink that would be even better. 

Start soaking your malt extract in a warm water bath. This will make it easier to scrape out later. 

While the malts are soaking, get a large pot and start boiling some water. Once the water comes up to the boil pull it off the heat and start emptying your malt extract into the pot. Be sure to keep stirring and scrape the bottom of the pot so none of the malt extract sticks and burns. Beer that tastes of scorched malt isn't good for anyone.  If you go to any Indian grocery store they'll have the large wooden spatulas that are perfect for stirring up your malt extract concoction.  

Now that you've got you malt extract in, return the pot to the stove and bring to a boil. See that big wooden paddle? Use something like that to stir and make sure none of the extract is sticking to the bottom of the pot. If it does, it will burn and you beer will taste like burning. 


One this has come up to the boil, set a time for one hour and add your first set of hops. Over the next hour you're going to be adding your hops in stages. So start with the bag of Zeus. 

Your local homebrew supplier I'm sure will be kind enough to label the bags for you in case you get confused. After 45min of boiling it's time to add you second set of hops. 

 Ok, so now we need to back up a little bit. While all this is going on you need your ground malts on the good. Essentially you need to make Malt Tea. Take a small pot and put about a litre of water on to boil. Once it's up to a boil, take if off the heat and add your ground malt grains and cover the pot. Let that sit for awhile. We'll come back to it later.

Ok, so back to your pot of boiling hops. So we left of at the 45min mark when you put your second set of hops in. Now it's time to get your yeast going. The yeast you get with your kit will have it's own instructions on it so follow those. I'm going to take you through what my package told me to do.

Take some of the boiling malt mixture and let it cool in a separate bowl. Once the mixture cools to about 40 degrees Celsius add your yeast and let it sit for 15 min. DO NOT TOUCH IT. After 15 min give it a gentle stir and let it do it's thing till you're ready for it.

 Now you're coming up on the end of the hour your malt and hops you've been boiling. Here is where you get to make some decision on your beer that'll affect the aroma and taste. You've got one bag of hops left, and you can put it in with 2 min left in the boil and get a nice hoppy aroma but none of the taste, or you can put it in for the last 5 min of the boil and get a nice hoppy taste and none of the aroma (it's a sliding scale in the middle). Since I'm going to be dry hopping this bad mother, I decided to put the hops in for 2 min just to get the hoppy aroma. Choose wisely young grasshopper.

Now the hour of boiling is up and it's time to cool the mixture down to about 30 degrees. We do this by filling a bathtub with water and placing the pot in it. If you give the mixture the occasional stir it'll cool down even faster. While that's cooling off it's time to deal with the malt grains you've been steeping. Take your sanitized primary fermenter and place your sanitized strainer over the top and pour in the contents of your pot with the steeped malt grain. Once that's drained through boil a kettle and pour the hot water over the malt grains to extract more of their malty goodness.

Ok, now that your malt and hops mixture has cooled off pour that though the strainer. Add enough water to get up to the 23L mark on your fermenter. You goal is to get the final temperature in the 20-25 degree range.
Once there, stir in your yeast mixture, snap the lid on real tight, put the bung in and let chemistry take over.

Over the next three to five days the yeast is going to go to town on the sugars in your wort turning it into alcohol and producing a lot of carbon dioxide. In an few short hours you're going to see your air lock bubbling away furiously as this reaction accelerates. Once it slows down in 3-5 days it's time to rack the beer in your carboy. But I'll save that for the next post.

If you've got questions comments or queries let us know. 

What’s Brewing?

Post: The First

 
So myself (aka Hot Chocolate), the Ginger Wonder (otherwise known as Matt K), and Captain Underpants have decided to document out attempts to brew homemade beer. Now we're not talking about this U-Brew stuff where someone else does most of the work, we're talking about doing almost everything ourselves. We've bought all the individual ingredients and turned our respective kitchens into New Westminster's newest micro breweries. In the interest of full disclosure thee three of us do not claim to be experts, brew masters, or even good at this. We're just a bunch of bored, broke engineers looking for something to do on a lazy dog dangling Sunday afternoon.

So Matt and I have done this a few times before. We've used the Cooper's beer kits (which are fall off a log easy), and intermediate kits which use malt extract and some grains. The latter type take a little more care to make and I think are a more rewarding experience. Plus it offers more opportunities to customize your beer for your tastes.

So now you're saying to yourself "I like beer and if these chumps can brew their own then I can too. Now for the love of butter where do I begin???" Don't worry your pretty little head; the New West Crew is going to walk you through this as best we can. You're going to need the following things:

1. A fermenter tub. It's a large plastic tub, with a tight fitting lid that has a small round hole in it. It'll hold about 23L and it should be easy to find. Just Google for a local beer or wine making joint and they'll have tons of these.
   
2. A carboy. It's like a fermeter tub, but it's big and made of glass.
   
3. An airlock and a bung. Don't worry there are pictures coming and I've got nice labels on them so you'll see what's what.
   
4. A siphon
   
5. Rinse free sanitizer
   
6. A big plastic spoon for stirring and a smaller plastic spoon for stirring
   
7. A big plastic strainer or colander that fits the mouth of your fermenter tub (only if you're using a recipe that calls for grains)
   
8. A thermometer (a dollar store meat thermometer will work great)
   

Once you have all that you call follow us on our beer making adventures. So sit tight and stay tuned for our first batch of beer. The Bear Brown and Barking Double IPA.