we built a new brew stand and brewed up Cap'n Berrill's Crunchmaker yesterday. the brew stand was a success and didn't topple over, however i did bump the stand with my beer sitting on the top edge and ended watching a full glass of Kimosabi explode on the garage floor. we added 2 boxes of peanut butter cap'n crunch to the 60 min mash, but by the time we were sparging all of the cap'n crunch had melted away. usually when we chill a beer we have a solid 4" of foam, with this batch, there was no foam at all. i've heard oil will have a big impact on the amount of head and i imagine there is a shit ton in this batch. when chilling you could easily smell the peanut butter over the hops.

building the brew stand 1


building the brew stand 2


brew stand fully operational


holy cap'n crunch shit!


sparging on cap'n crunch


peanut butter goodness


admiring the new brew stand


home depot doing work


chilling with no foam


pitching on a yeast cake


-bake

went to the beernut today to get some grains for tomorrow brew session. it's going to be an interesting batch. we're calling it Swamp Creature Peanut Butter Ale. essentially its a brown ale with peanut butter cap'n crunch added during the mash. it will either turn out incredibly tasty or unbelievably awful.

while i was there, i looked over and noticed they had the new byo magazines sitting out so i picked up a couple copies. by the way, byo is a great magazine with tons of tips, recipes, and beer talk. if you don't subscribe already, here's the link to get you started.

byo july-august 2010


bronze baby!


full page layout


-bake

check it out, we're on byo's website:
The Abomin-ale Snowman



view all of the byo label contest winners.

prizes we won:

• 25th anniversary double ipa ingredient kit from home brewery
  
• gift certificate from bader beer & wine supply, inc.
• ten sachets of safale yeast from brew-u
• a carboy cleaner from carboy cleaner
• gift certificate from homebrewers outpost & mail order co
• gift certificate from quality wine and ale supply
• gift certificate from above the rest homebrewing supplies.

-bake

it took some time, but every recipe we've brewed has been updated in the batches section of our blog.



-bake

Just heard my label design for The Abomin-Ale Snowman won the Bronze Prize in the BYO label contest and will be in the upcoming issue, very exciting! Also, I see Baker's been hard at work on some brewstand projects, we'll be brewing champs here soon. And, today both the mythic beast and kimosabe are ready to drink, I'll be taking some to baker's tonight for movie night.



(left: mythic beast, right: kimosabe) both smell delicious, i'm excited to taste them when we get to baker's.

-kris

the weldless cooler kits from morebeer finally showed up today. i originally ordered them back in march along with a false bottom and sparge arm. we'll do a brew session in a couple weeks to try out all of the new gear. in the meantime, here's how to install a weldless ball valve:

remove plastic spigot


wrap nipple in teflon tape, center and tighten fitting


attach false bottom to 3/8" barb using hi-temp vinyl tubing and some hose clamps


test with water for leaks


-bake

spent a couple hours this morning learning how to use google sketchup. really cool program, especially for being free. after looking at a bunch of different brew stand designs, i think i've found what i'm looking for. something simple, space efficient, and affordable (2x4's and some screws) and this design can be used with the existing burner and kettle! here is the basic concept, but we'll need to make sure to get the angles right so it doesn't tip. it sure would suck to have to have the hlt or mash tun melt your face off.



-bake

ball valves shipped out from morebeer yesterday, can't wait to suit up the coolers. we'll have to build a brew stand soon. we need a space efficient design that can use 2 10 gallon coolers and a 15 gal kettle. i really like slobrewer's setup but it looks like it will run around $300'ish plus a pump. we may build a wood stand as well. here are a couple of interesting designs i found on the web:





-bake