Since our system upgrade back in June, we’ve brewed a total of 10 batches of homebrew in just five months, more than half of what we brewed all of last year! Since our system upgrade back in June, we’ve brewed a total of 10 batches of homebrew in just five months, more than half of what we brewed all of last year! Since our system upgrade back in June, we’ve brewed a total of 10 batches of homebrew in just five months, more than half of what we brewed all of last year!
Our most recent brew day yielded four batches total: Chinook Ale (5 gal), The Great Pumpkin (5 gal), Homechuck (2.5 gal) and Homechuck Dark (2.5 gal). We had planned on brewing two additional batches, 2.5 gallons each of Bog (Cranberry Lambic) and Norte (Berliner Weisse) but experienced our first major issue with the electric brewhouse; heating element failure in our hot liquor tank. Fortunately, we were able to salvage the brew day by utilizing our brew kettle for both hot liquor heating and wort boiling, but it added a couple of extra hours which prevented us from brewing Bog and Norte.
When looking at repairing the HLT element, we decided to spent the extra money and buy commercially available, pre-assembled heating elements from eBrew Supply. I highly recommend these guys for all of your electric brewhouse needs. From a cost standpoint, they are hands down the most affordable option for pre-assembled electric/control panels and/or individual electric/control panel components. And best of all they have top-notch customer service! Two of these bad boys were ordered last week and we are anticipating their arrival so we can get back to making beer!
Since brew day, Chinook Ale and The Great Pumpkin have both been transferred to kegs and will be available on tap this weekend. Homechuck was bottled this past weekend; Original primed with dextrose and Dark primed with real Vermont maple syrup. We are excited to have added Dark to the lineup this year, particularly since it was brewed with Belgian candi syrup to impart some pleasant notes of fig and dark fruit. And bottle conditioning with maple syrup should add some residual sweetness and maple notes to round out the flavor profile. Should go well with Thanksgiving dinner!
The next two batches will be Hoppopotamus, our IPA, and Little Red, our winter seasonal. We are hoping to brew these before Thanksgiving to have available for early December. We also plan on updating the On Tap page this weekend.
Take the Leap!