Our beers have been working nicely for some time now. We have one that has all, but stopped so that means only one thing.

Time to keg that beer!

I would be kegging it today, but I determined that I was out of CO2. (You need to fill the keg with CO2 prior to filling in order to remove the air.)

Normally, I keg my beer in soda kegs. This time, I had wanted to use Fass Frisch Mini Kegs which hold about 1 1/3 gallons. I received these as a gift years ago from my mother, but I have never used them. I am missing the bung which seals the keg. I may have to switch back to using my soda kegs, but I want to try these mini kegs so that I could take keg to parties. “Have beer will travel” has always been my idea planning ahead.

We are starting out by testing our immersion chiller. It worked well. We were able to reduce to temperature of 2 gallon to the 80 in just a few minutes. But, failure struck with the outlet hose burst do to over heating.

Chalk that up to not thinking!

New technique:
We are putting the chiller in after we turn off the gas burner. This should allow the temperature to start dropping.

Our first beer is High Red Tide Bock which is made from 7.7 lbs light malt extract, 1 lb Weyermann Light Munich, and 4 oz. Muntons Roasted Barley. I don't remember the type of hops. I'll be using a White Labs German Ale/Kolsch yeast.

Our second beer is called Vincent's Wee Heavy. It is called this because of the 11 lbs of light malt extract used. The speciality grains Muntons Crystal 60 and Roasted Barley are inlcuded.

Karen and I built an immersion chiller to speed up our brewing. You can easily make one of these for your homebrewing. All you need is 25 to 50 feet of copper tubing. The 1/4 inch diameter tubing is cheapest and will work well. You will need two adapters to convert the 1/4 tubing to garden hose. HomeDepot has all these parts. You can get it all for about 20 to 30 bucks.

The chiller will shorten brewing time greatly. With all malt or partial malt recipes, the chiller will reduce the cooling time required prior to pitching your yeast to 15 minutes or less.

To use the chiller, you connect your garden hose to one of the inlets on the chiller. You connect another hose to the outlet. This second hose is just to direct the waste water away from you and the beer so any hose should work. (I have heard some people connect the hose to a sprinkler to water their yard at the same time.) After connecting everything together, you place the chiller in your brew pot and turn on the water.

It should be noted that the chiller should be cleaned just as all brewing equipment must be sanitized prior to usage. If your brewing method includes boiling the malt, you can sanitize the chiller by placing it directly into the brew pot during the boil to sanitize the chiller.

It has been sometime since Karen and I have brewed beer, but we are planning on brewing two batches over the Thanksgiving break.

We have already picked up some beer to drink during the homebrewing session. (This first is critical to the success.) Now, I just need to order the homebrewing supplies.

We are going to use pig kegs instead of Cornelius or Firestone kegs. Karen want to be able to transport the beer easily.

Karen and I have thrown our support behind the Alabamians for Specialty Beer. The organization goes by Free The Hops. The group “is a grassroots, citizen-driven movement solely committed to lifting the 6% alcohol by volume and 1 pint container limits for beer brewed or sold in Alabama.”

There are many beers sold that are not allowed in the state of Alabama due to these restrictions.

I am sitting on the back enjoying the free beer that Brian from the New Knoxville Brewing Company gave Karen and I while in Chattanooga, TN for the Southern Brewers Festival. (Sorry about quality of the web-cam picture)

The New Knoxville Brewing Company has been reborn many times from what the guys working the taps told us. Originally, the brewer was founded in 1886. According the company, beer is brewed in small 25 barrel batches using brick-clad brew kettles and open-top fermentation, which is uncommon in United States.

I have the Traditional Pale Ale and the India Pale Ale. The beers are very true to their styles. I would have to say that I enjoyed to taste of both, but the clarity was so so.

Karen and I had good selection of Paulaner beer at Redstone MWR's Oktoberfest this year. This year selection was limited to Coors, Becks and Paulaner. Karen and I only sampled the Paulaner beers.

The Paulaner selection included Hefeweizen, Oktoberfest (so course), Salvator, and Premium Pils.

The Premium Pils was a full body pilsner.

The Hefe-Weizen was a cross between a Germany Pilsner and Hefeweizen. It was not too fruity and more lingering in the back of the mouth like a lager. Heavier than a typical Hefeweizen.

The Oktoberfest was malty with very little hop tones. Sweet aroma the prepares the mouth for the sweet maltiness. Similar to the a honey brown, but lighter sweetness and malt.

The Salvator was very malty as a dopple bock should be. It was not dark. Its taste clings to the palate.