Building a Keggerator

Finished project. Just need to add a drip tray.

This fathers day I got to spend a bit of time with my dad building something great.  We built a keggerator.  It was a simple project in the end but non-the-less an important one.  Work has been crazy busy and I have not had time to see my dad or mom since our vacation in late May.  This is a project that we wanted to tackle well before Father's Day but it just kept getting pushed back.  My dad has always helped me build and fix stuff.  Him and my uncle just know how to do stuff without much instruction.  He looks at the pieces and we build.  This case was a bit different because I had watched 1,000 hours of YouTube video's on how to build this thing out.  Here is what we did and how I got my keggerator set up and ready for its first draft beer in my "brewery".

 Step One: Plan like crazy.  Look at your fridge.  Think of how you want it set up.  Determine if you want small kegs or typical 5G sized kegs. You will be doing this with a lot of unknowns but you should try to visualize exactly what you want.  Watching all of the YouTube videos will help you understand what is possible for your scenario

Step Two: Go to a good homebrew shop or online store that can supply you everything you need while walking you through what part does what.  In my case it was Country Wines in North Hills of Pittsburgh.  I said I have a standard fridge with a top freezer from the 90's and want to fit two kegs and a small CO2 tank so everything can be held inside the fridge.  They then went to the shelves and pulled everything out one by one telling me what the piece does and how to hook it up or put it together.

Step Three: Do a dry run of your system to get a feel for the space and how you might like it set up.  In my case I put both kegs and the CO2 tank in the fridge and tried to move my shelves around to squeeze out as much storage as possible.  I then figured out where the taps would go on the door and had a rough idea of where those would be placed.

Step Four: (Enter my dad)  I discuss my plan and he concludes that it should work out as I planned.  We measure the spot for the taps to go into the door.  I measured to make sure they fit within the one shelf of the fridge door while also being low enough that when I open the freezer the taps dont kick open and pour precious beer everywhere!  We mark the outside of the fridge with our marks for the hole saw.  We made the tap handles four inches apart.

Step Five:  Pre drill through the door to have a guide for your hole saw drill to do its thing.  Then drill the hole saw through the metal side of the fridge door.  Stop the drill and remove the circle of metal.  Continue drilling through to to the other side. Most fridges are not going to have anything in the door other than metal, plastic and foam.

Step Six:  Put a small piece of wood on the inside of the door to distribute the pressure from the hex nuts.  We held up the piece of wood after cutting it to size against the inside of the fridge.  My dad then did a quick drill to mark where the hole saw needed to go through the wood.  Finish drilling with the hole saw.

Step Seven:  Insert the tap shank into the hole and the wood. Put the hex nut on the wood side and then screw on the taps.  Tighten until the taps arent spinning around and you are not flexing the plastic too much.  Snug.  Not death grip.

Step Eight:  Hook everything up. Hook up all of your hoses as outlined by your LHBS.  Use hose clamps on all ends.  Hook up regulator to the CO2 tank.  Hook the beverage tubing up to the tap shanks and the kegs.  Hook everything up. All of it!

Step Nine:  Once you have everything hooked up you should run cleaner through your system.  I had my kegs pre-filled with cleaner solution.  So once everything was hooked up we tested the gas.  Turned everything on.  Tested the pressure.  Put water and soapy solution over all of the placed gas could leak to test for any small leaks.  Test the lids.  I had my lid off center ever so slightly and a nasty hiss kicked in sa soon as the gas was turned on.  Turn of the gas and try, try again.  Once you have a leak free system have 4lbs of CO2 on the water and cleaning solution and let it flow.  Pull the taps forward and run all of the solution through the keg or kegs.  Rinse with water and repeat.  Finally.  Sanitize.  Now you are at the best step.

Step Ten:  Put homebrew in the keg.  Hook it all up and set your regulator to your desired PSI.  (I have not even done this part yet so I wont pretend to know for sure).  I am going to sue this site and calculator to start and see how it goes with my system and particular setup:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/keg-carbonation-calculator/

Wait 7-10 days.  Try the beer.  Hopefully enjoy!

So that's it.  It only took about 1.5 hours for me and my dad to get it set up and the first two kegs cleaned and run through the system.

Once I get some time to finish kegging my beer I plan to do that while bottling a few for long term aging.

Hopefully you see a post on that within the next ten days.

Cheers.

Tasting Day: Barn-Cat Black Sour Stout

Work has been tough sledding lately.  I rewarded my accomplishment of the day (finishing Wednesday) by cracking open the 3 month old sour stout.  I really want to check in along the way to see what this beer is doing in the bottle.  Here is my quick recap:

One month in bottle:  It was way better than it should have been.  Setting expectations pretty damn high.

Two months in the bottle:  It was all over the place.  The fresh stout flavors were really competing with the sour flavor.

Three months in the bottle:  More calmed down.  Still has some abbrassive qualities but they die out after the beer opens up in the glass for a bit.


The good news is that its getting better and I can tell that the beer is starting the meld together better.  After the three sip rule - the rule where someone must take three drinks of a sour beer before truly knowing what the beer tastes like - this beer is really, really good.  The first two and maybe even third sip are tougher than they should be.  You get punched in the face with acidity and some funky roast flavors.  You know you are drinking an American sour.  It let's you know what it is right up front.

As the beer sits and warms up a bit in the glass that abbrassive bite fades and it becomes a great sipping beer.  The sour, tart and slightly tar-like bite form this weirdly refreshing beer.  I kept going back for a sip quicker and quicker.

I drank a full 750mL by myself in a pretty short amount of time.  That right there shows that there is something in this beer.  I plan to crack one more before the fall to see how its doing. My friend who introduced me to sours needs to come out and have one soon just so he can see how it is doing.  He has heard me talk about it for over 2 years now so I think he might deserve a glass or two.

After that bottle is done I am going to sit on it until stouts are back in season - let's say September or October at the earliest.  I will plan to drink one a month to track the progress until I have one left.  That one will sit for a long time.  I want to see how it lasts over at least 2 years in the bottle.

I am going to bottle the Blackberry Barn-Cat Black Sour Stout later this month or early June and start tasting those around September or October as well.

Brew Day - Saison - New Zealand Funk

Today I brewed up a saison.  This saison is different than my last batch.  This one is highly hopped and hopped with New Zealand hops.  I was listening to the sour hour when Sante Adairius Rustic Ales was a guest and they discussed West Ashley, an apricot saison with Chardonnay grapes.  This reminded me of a post from the Mad Fermentationist: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2014/08/new-zealand-saison-and-glycosides.html

I decided to combine the two.  The hops used all have descriptions of stone fruit, citrus fruit and white wine.  Seems to be a perfect fit for the Chardonnay wine addition along with apricot puree.

The brew day went pretty well.  I did have a pretty large boil over which resulted in me getting less than 5 gallons or wort into the carboy for fermentation but that's OK.

There was also a lot of trub.  With 6 oz of hops going into this beer just for primary it had a lot of green left behind.

I added the yeast at 80 degrees since the saison strains love warmer worts.  I used the White Labs French Saison vs Wyeast this time. I hope to get similiar results.  The description online does not mention fruit like the Wyeast so hopefully its just a more tame version of the Belgian Saison strains.

I will update as the beer progresses.

UPDATE:
After about 10 days the airlock finally started to slow.  It was a slow and steady fermentation.  I'm sure the Brett Trois ate through some sugars that the French Saison yeast couldn't.

The smell from the airlock was anywhere from super fruity - almost like fruit flavored bubblegum - to super funky.  The fruity scent has to be from the hops and the French Saison yeast while the funkiness is coming from the Brett Trois and the French Saison yeast.  If the Whitelabs French Saison is anything like the Wyeast strain, this beer should have a more subdued funk and a bigger fruit nose.

I transferred the beer into a secondary carboy along with 96oz of canned apricots.  The beer is currently undergoing another round of fermentation with the added fruit sugars right now. I will give it about 2 weeks to chew through those sugars before putting into a keg and a few bottles.