Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

Quarter Keg For Homebrewing

On July 19, 2010

My brother “acquires” items from time to time. I saw him yesterday and he gave me something he thought I could use.

A quarter keg:

I had some hesitations but took it anyway. He said he was going to throw it out if I didn’t take it. I just couldn’t see something like this go to waste.

My main hesitation in taking the keg was how to properly clean and sanitize this quarter keg for dispensing homebrew. I have not done much investigation into it, outside of reading some posts that confirmed my fears that this thing is hard to clean and sanitize. 🙂

What do you think? Is there a way that I can use this for storing and serving homebrewed beer?

Should I just open up the top and make it a secondary kettle?

What are the options?

Pilot Hops

By John Krochune

On July 15, 2010

In Hops

This is a pretty new variety – it was just named in 2002 by Charles Faram & Co Ltd. Its working title was S24 with a nickname of Ros. The name Pilot was picked from 100 entries in a contest. It appears to be still a hedgerow variety so probably won’t see a wide distribution of it yet.

Here is some more information about Pilot hops:

Origin: UK

Aroma/Flavor: Mild herbal, lemon hints, fresh mowed grass

Alpha Acid: 8.0 – 12%

Typical Usage: Bittering

Beer Styles: Bitters. Could be good in some APAs.

Challenger Hops

By John Krochune

On July 12, 2010

In Hops

Here is a English variety for you to try out: Challenger hops.

They are bred from Northern Brewer from our friends at Wye College in England. They were developed originally as a Goldings replacement with the thought that this new variety would be more resistant to downy mildew. What they got instead was a good dual purpose hop. From what I read, their really sweet spot is to be used as a bittering hop with other English hops that are primarily used for aroma/flavoring such as East Kent Goldings.

Origin: UK. Released in 1968 but I think made available in the US in 1972.

Aroma/Flavor: Refined spicy notes, fruity, more orange or tangerine than

Alpha Acid: 6.5 to 8.5%

Typical Usage: Dual purpose, but use as a bitter hop along with other British aroma hops.

Beer Styles: All English Ales.

Thermostat For Fermentation

By John Krochune

On July 8, 2010

In Equipment

With a beer fridge, I needed to buy another piece of equipment to really take advantage of its climate controlling abilities.

That piece of equipment is a thermostat that you can override your fridge’s internal temperature gauge.

This device will enable me to keep specific temperatures for fermentation. Instead of having to depend on cold winter basement temps and ice, I can ferment a lager any time of year. Plus, it should help me with ale fermentations in the summertime too.

I am pretty excited to give this thing a go. The next lager I am brewing will be a rauchbier and the fermentation will be happening on an “away game”. I think we will be brewing at my friend Brian’s house and fermenting there too.

I bought this one at Northern Brewer. Let me know if you have had experience with it.

Homegrown Hops Update

By John Krochune

On July 6, 2010

In Hops

It’s been two months since I planted my Magnum hops rhizome into the ground and they are coming along nicely.

I have two strong bines climbing up twine and they are starting to sprout more bines. Not bad compared to a month ago.

Plus, I didn’t get a close up shot but it appears I do have some hop flowers/burrs starting up. They are pretty small but hopefully they grow into some nice cones.

Hopefully by the start of August, we’ll have some pretty good results.