BeerNewbie
Well-Known Member
I got all tingly inside when I read this!
Wow, nice setup. Looks like you have a pressure guage on your oxygen tank. How does that work?
Those first runnings look like extract. Amazing.
Thanks, just did a major upgrade two brews ago.
The pressure gauge is recent addition because I went to inline oxygenation. From that picture you can see the inline oxygenation assembly attached to the therminator, which feeds into a quick disconnect, small ball valve, a brass tee, which is fed by the oxygen. The gauge is a standard gas gauge like you would see on a CO2 regulator, but it only goes to 30 psi. I got it from mcmaster carr. The reason for the gauge was so that I had something to indicate how much gas was going in for reproducibility. With a manual oxygen setup I could tell from the bubble action, but with inline I had no way of knowing the amount going in.
The regulator on the disposable tank is one of the adjustable homebrew ones. I just removed the main connector and added a 1/8 to 1/4 NPT converter to go into the brass tee. I have to say it works better than expected. Heres a close up.
Thanks. I'll be switching to a CFC setup when my pumps and chiller arive. I have an extra pressure guage sitting around. I may have to try the inline O2 myself. Where do you typically set it?
Been awhile since I've posted an update on this... so here goes
I boiled for over hour hours, obtaining 4.4 gallons of 1.140 wort. I didn't sparge enough to get great efficiency. I was hoping to boil down to 3.5 gallons, oh well. To make up for the volume difference, I will be adding some sugar directly to the fermenter, as opposed to the sugar syrup.
I oxygenated with pure o2 for the first four days, and pitched a TON of WY1056 (1200mL of thick slurry or so). The reading is down to the 1.040 range, which I am extremely happy with so far!
I made a 2.75 gallon starter of WLP099 (Super High Gravity) that has been chugging away for a few days now. I considered bumping up the gravity, but in the end the OG was 1.040 for the starter. I'll be taking a gravity reading on it tonight and, if it is finished, will cold crash it to get the yeast to floc nicely. Once the yeast have collected at the bottom, I'm going to siphon right on top of the cake. After getting on the WLP099 cake, I'll begin sugar additions, bumping up the starting gravity to a normalized 1.200. After this finishes off, I'll drop it into a tertiary on dry hops (Columbus) for a couple of weeks. With a week left in the tertiary, I'm going to add bourbon soaked medium toast Hungarian oak cubes. I'll taste after a week to determine if there is enough "oakyness." Once the oak character is significant enough, I'll transfer to a corney for a bit of bulk aging prior to carbing it up!
A few local HBT brewers had a sample out of the primary. I've had a couple so far, it is tasty stuff!
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