Just checked the temperature of my beer fridge before bed and it was down to -0.5°C, so definitely possible to use for cold-crashing.. however, given the green beer will be in kegs rather than the fermenter and they currently feed from the bottom, I might want to wait until I’ve bought the floating inlet pipe kits for the kegs before testing this.

Just kegged my Alice Porter attempt after a record 18 days in the fermenter. After my recent intestinal adventures I was very much on top of the yeast dumps this time, the beer looked very clear as it transferred to keg. Had a nice aroma and I had a taste when taking the final gravity measure.. so long as it remains non-oxidates and conditions well this is going to be good!

TODO list over the next few days:

• Fix the slight CO2 leak that still exists in my kegerator set up - may require shaving a little of the end of the pipes to ensure they are completely flat against the back of the John Guest fittings and possibly even drilling into the wall of the kegerator to fix the gas splitter in place.
• Identify why gas doesn’t seem to be filling the kegs (beers are pouring flatter than before, but still quickly) and fix, may be resolved by above step.
• Clean line and keg in preparation for conditioning the porter which is patiently waiting in the fermenter
• Keg and condition the porter
• Replace thermometer batteries and test the beer fridge’s capabilities for imminent cold crashing use.

It seems my eagerness to replace the barb and clasp system of connecting the gas and beer lines with John Guest push-lock fittings might have been premature, with little space to play with in the kegerator ensuring the lines connect flush with the JG connectors is pretty tricky. In a cellar environment the fittings are generally fixed in place so movement is minimal and the risk of gas leak also low but we are where we are and I will make it work!

Brew day number 12 is this Sunday and I’m thinking of going full Sorachi Ace with the 80 shilling.. for science!

Learning first hand what it is like to be a fermentation vessel this weekend.. too much live yeast still in the small sample of newest beer that has been fermenting and conditioning for four weeks.. will give it longer and also look into conversion kits for my Cornelius kegs to draw the beer from the top, rather than the bottom and avoid the sediment.. This is a lesson that I could have done without!

I replaced the gas regulator for my kegerator set up this evening s the last (cheap) one was leaky despite much tightening.. also started phase one of swapping over from barb and clasp connections over to john guest push lock connections.. the clasps were probably fine but I prefer the push locks as that’s what I’m used to from almost two decades in beer cellars. That said, the pushlock connectors are more sensitive to movement so I’m going to have to see if I can somehow connect the gas splitter to a wall of the fridge..

Spent a few hours cooking for pleasure today, it’s a bit of a rarity as I try to compress as much brewing into the year as I can but happy with results so far!

Made a Scotch broth inspired soup to go with the rye bread that Sakino is baking and a batch of chili non carne for nachos later.. will make guacamole and salsa once Islay is asleep.. first time cooking with chillies since Islay started eating the same food as us and am very excited about eating it! All #vegan of course.

Will post some photos later when the remainder of the dish is made and nachos constructed!

Replaced by continuous integration process flow, which automatically updates the website when I post, with a very simple script. It seems to work well on my other site so testing here.. fingers crossed

Something keeps breaking my website.. when I delete a post the site doesn’t appear to rebuild correctly. Hoping that this post will fix it again.

My next brew day is Sunday and for the first time I’ll be kegging a beer on the same day as making the next one! Going to try and focus on reducing potential oxygen uptake during kegging.. thinking of doing a CO2 purge of the keg before pouring and then do a gas release and refill after sealing to push out any stowaway oxygen.

Learned a bit about barrel-aging and environmental issues and factors relating to packaging, today.. Both very important to our future plans but I don’t think the course will go into any more depth about the former, so I’ll need to focus on it after I get through the mid-course assignments relating to filtration, pasteurisation and sedimentation.. Somewhat drier and less relevant to someone who doesn’t plan to filter or pasteurise their beers..

I’m not really enjoying this semester’s course so far, it was always going to be the least interesting of the brewing related courses, but the 3+ hour lectures and dearth of links to further reading are taking a toll.. Hopefully, it’ll improve in the coming weeks. Just a shame that the first assignment doesn’t interest me at all.. Low enthusiasm but will do what needs to be done!