Moving a brewery

[Reviled]

I moved house in the weekend, to a much better place with more room, not only for me and my family, but for my brewery :o) I now have a garage/man cave and a rumpus/bar to play with...

Ive moved plenty of times before, but this was the first time ive ever moved my brewery, it got me thinking that once again im glad that I just do BIAB, as everything can be carted in the car boot instead of the need for a flat deck truck or trailor. It must have looked funny, a car full of fermenters, empty bottles, an immersion chiller, and a big stainless steel kettle driving through browns bay ;o)

The other fun part, was the realisation that we were going to have to move 4 fridges/freezers! The funny thing is tho, if I was offered another working fridge, id take it, ive never needed refrigeration so much in my life but with brewing theyre just so damn handy! You need to keep your hops, yeast, and of course, your beer in a fridge and you very quickly use up all of the available space lol.

After the move was finished, we needed a drink, badly! I managed to get the keg fridge set up with the kegs in by lunch time, I set it at -1*c so that hopefully it was semi clear come dinner time, which it wasnt :o( The move obviously shook everything up something chronic, so I figured, since id only kegged it that day, and it was going to be cloudy anyway, wed all have a taste of my Cereal Pest APA ;o)

I used rice in this beer, and it finished alot higher than I anticipated, 1018 from 1062, and I mashed low... The problem is one of two things, either I had unconverted starch from the rice, or due to the lower temps and the fermenter getting as low as 13*c, so the yeast could well have dropped out? Im not sure which it was, but I had to keg it cos I didnt want to move a full fermenter, id rather have a blanket of Co2 protecting it :o) I was about a litre off a full keg due to the dry hopping as I lost a bit more than anticipated...

All in all tho im really happy with it, its got that resinous, slightly piny US hop character with overtones of citrus, the extra body actually balances the bitterness out a wee bit making it really tasty! The bitterness is still a bit sharp, but a bit of conditioning will smooth it out. So all in all im happy, will bottle some from the keg Mike and send your way soon, ill also bring some to the WBC and get some feedback..

I also managed to really treat myself last night, with a bottle of Mikes Brett infused barley wine which I shared with my new flatmate, to me I got a massive aroma of bretty cherry pie and sweaty socks, my flatmate seemed to get alot of strawberry on the nose, but the best part was the look on his face at his 1st sip before he quickly proclaimed "I just, I, I havnt had anything quite like this before!!" :o) haha - Mike, this is truely an awesome beer, nice and warming as youd expect from 13.3%, but youve got a perfect balance of brett character in there, well done mate! Props!

And then today im at work, feeling bruised, broken, and a little bit run down from too much heavy lifting, and yet I have to get brewing ASAP to get my stocks back up... Maybe tomorrow after work ;o)

[Pilgrim]

Here's hopping, you and your beers settle well in your new abode :-)

[Pint_of_Bitter]

Tyler - a man cave + a bar room. You're living the dream mate!

[Reviled]

Haha cheers Jeremy, pity im still only renting :o( lol