Category Archives: kegging

Lab Bench Pale Ale Kegged

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Tonight I kegged my Lab Bench Pale Ale, after 13 days in the primary fermenter. The yeast had dropped out pretty nicely, leaving a golden beer with a smooth bitterness and a crisp, slightly malty aroma. The gravity was 1.010, down from 1.047, which equals 4.8% abv and ~78% apparent attenuation.

I got around 4.75 gallons of beer. Before sealing up the keg, I added 2 oz. of Cascade hops in pellet form (7.5% alpha, 5.5% beta). In about 5 days, I’ll start carbonating (leaving the hops in place); the goal is to have this ready to go on Easter!

 

Vitamin K Kölsch Clone Kegged

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Last night (March 14), I kegged my Vitamin K Kölsch Clone. The beer had been in the primary for 13 days, fermenting from 1.045 down to 1.009. At 4.7% abv, this is exactly on target from the original recipe. Due to another beer in the fermentation chamber, I ended up not cold-crashing this one.

The kölsch is delicious at this stage–clean and lightly fruity, which I suspect will only continue to improve as it matures. I was also impressed by how well the batch has clarified, resulting in a beautifully clear and light yellow beer. A good yeast strain (as an aside, the sulfur production for this one noted by White Labs was indeed prominent–but thankfully it dissipated by kegging time).
This beer will be very nice for the upcoming warm months. I kegged just a touch under 5 gallons of beer, and am carbonating it at 13.5 psi at 42°. This is approximately 2.5 volumes of CO2.

Beringea IPA Update

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Tonight I transferred my Beringea IPA from the primary fermenter into the keg, where it will be dry-hopped for 14 days before carbonation begins. In a slight switch from original plans, I changed the final hops addition from Simcoe to Amarillo. Although I like the aroma of Simcoe, I’ve heard so many good things about Amarillo that I wanted to try it out. I put the hops pellets (2 ounces total) in a largish nylon hops bag, weighted it with a small ceramic dish, and tied it to the outside of the keg with a piece of thread. Then, I sealed up the keg.

The final gravity for this beer was 1.013, down from 1.060. This works out to 6.2% abv, right on target for the recipe. Taste and appearance for the beer are quite nice–it will be hard to have the patience for my first taste! After my two weeks of dry-hopping at between 60 and 65 degrees, into the keezer it goes for carbonation.

Eagle Face Oatmeal Stout Update

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Three and a half weeks after brew day, it was time to take care of the Eagle Face Oatmeal Stout. Over the holiday break, I worked on getting set up for kegging. I converted a 7 cubic foot deep freezer into a “keezer”; I’ll probably detail that in another post, but the short version is that it has a redwood collar made out of 2×4’s, with a three keg (and three faucet) capacity. This oatmeal stout is my first beer kegged in a 5 gallon keg (I’ve done some 5 L mini-kegs using the Philtap system), and was wonderfully easy to package!

The beer was brewed on Saturday, December 13, and was happily fermenting by the next morning. On the evening of December 14, I noticed that temperature of the fermenter had risen to 74°, a few degrees over what is ideal for this strain. Part of the problem was that I had my temperature sensor for the temperature controller hanging in the air, rather than taped to the fermenter. Lesson learned, and I was able to drop the fermenter down to the mid-60s by the next morning. Not ideal, but it seems like the extra conditioning time cleared out any negative flavors.

On January 1, 2015, I pulled the fermenter from the chamber and set it on the floor. This was in the midst of a cold snap, so the whole setup was soon down to the ambient temperature of 52°. The temperature increased a little bit over the next few days, to 60° or so, but didn’t exceed that.

In terms of overall character, the English Ale Yeast (White Labs WLP002) was fast-acting and extremely flocculant. In other words, true to the strain. This was coupled with relatively low attenuation (see below), as expected.

On January 7, 2015, I kegged the beer. Final gravity was 1.022, down from 1.057. This works out to 4.6% abv and 60% apparent attenuation. The beer was slightly sweet (as expected for the yeast strain), with a nice background bitterness and just a subtle fruity aroma. If I do this recipe again, it would be interesting to try another strain to see what a drier version of the beer is like. I transferred 5 gallons (virtually all of the beer in the fermenter) into a refurbished cornie keg.

After kegging, I put the keg in the keezer, which is set for 42°. Following suggestions for force carbonation from Midwest Brewing, I set the CO2 pressure to 40 psi. I’ll do this for 24 hours, lower to 20 psi for another 24 hours, lower to ~13.5 psi, and then sample. Thus, I should be ready for at least preliminary sampling by the weekend!