Aquarium Heater for Temperature Control

As soon as the active fermentation phase starts to slow, I use a $10 aquarium heater to maintain temperature and then let the bath water slowly rise to 70 F or so. The heater was too tall for my bathtub, so I put it in a bucket. I installed a GFCI outlet in my bathroom per the heater instructions.

My New Hop Spider in Action

I built a hop spider based on the instructions in Brew Your Own Magazine:
http://www.byo.com/component/resource/article/2494-build-a-hop-spider-projects

Not following the directions, I removed of the bottom of the PVC coupling with a hack saw. I didn't like the idea of the extra PVC in my boil. I also used only three legs, that way it will always fit (you know, 3 points define a plane in geometry).  I forgot to measure the brew pot diameter, these carriage bolts just barely fit, I'll get some longer bolts next time I go to Home Depot. That will keep the whole thing from falling in the wort.

When the boil is done and the wort has cooled, I'll use some sanitized latex gloves and squeeze out as much wort as I can out of the nylon hop bag. I used to just leave the trub in the fermenter, but getting rid of most of it with the hop spider allows me to put more wort into the fermenter, and hopefully a full 5 gallons racked to the corny.

Poor Man's Fermentation Temperature Control

Here's my bucket fermenter in the bathtub. I usually use my keezer to control the temperature but, happily, it is full of beer at the moment. The large volume of water helps keep the wort temperature stable. I had to plug up the drain with some plastic wrap to keep it from leaking. In the fermenter is a mostly Cascade hops pale ale, I plan to dry hop with three ounces of Cascade when the active fermentation slows down.

Additional Comments on the Monster Mill

One quick observation on grinding grain with the Monster Mill, or any mill driven with a drill. Yeah, it's fun to watch the grain as it falls into the rollers. Don't watch that, keep you eye on the drill connection to the grind shaft. Mine started slipping, slightly stripping the shaft. As it turns out, I needed to tighten the connection with the drill chuck key after every minute or so of grain crushing. Make sure that connection doesn't come loose and save yourself a lot of potential trouble. Carefully follow the mill's directions about alining the fingers of the drill chuck to the three flats machined onto the shaft.

My New Monster Brewing Hardware Grain Mill

Here is my new Monster Mill MM-2 Standard 2-Roller Grain Mill. I might have gone for the 2-inch rollers version but I don't have a 1/2" drill. You have to draw the line somewhere, I guess.

Per the recommendations in the instructions, I set the shaft towards the center of the base. That way, the mill will counterbalance the weight of the drill and balance on the grain container. You can also mount the mill under the base.

I don't usually read instructions, but I really recommend reading them in this case before you touch anything. I messed with the thumb screw and changed the preset gap on at least one side without realizing it. I guessed which side I had changed and set the other side by eye. I confirmed this with a spark plug gapper to .045". The instructions recommend marking this pre-set setting with a Sharpie magic marker, or a center punch for a more permanent mark. More on this below.

Here is my new mill all assembled.

The bird's eye view.

I did my first grind yesterday, brew day. Perhaps I had the gap all wrong. Nothing was going through. I know this isn't very scientific, but I just kept opening the gap a little bit at a time until the grain started going through. Above is the resulting crush. I had to stop milling about four times because the drill started smoking. But it only took five to ten minutes or so to crush 14 lbs of grain. I got about 77% efficiency from my mash.

Conclusions

This is a REALLY nice grain mill. There is nothing cheap or make-shift about it. The hopper is a heavy gauge steel. This is perfectly adequate for my needs and should last at least as long as I do. About the only thing I hoped for that wasn't included was a sticker or decal with their cool Monster Brewing Hardware logo. Now that I have a grain mill, I can buy uncrushed grain in bulk, save some money, and crush it only when needed resulting (hopefully) in fresher tasting beer.

Additional Comments

My Oxidized Beer Experiment

 I couldn't get my siphon restarted last time I racked off my beer so I decided to just pour the remaining beer into a 2-liter Diet Pepsi bottle. A plain soda water bottle would have been better, but you go with what you have. There was plenty of air space. I usually keg my beer but I have some carbonation drops on hand. I added 3 drops. For the volume, I should have used 4, but I don't need any bottle bombs. Will the airspace ruin the beer?

Two months later, the answer is yes. My kegged IPA version of the same beer was very nice. This beer was still drinkable, but it was dull with some slight sherry-like flavors. I didn't taste any Pepsi flavor. People talk about cardboard flavors from oxidized beer but I didn't get any of that, maybe it's just me. Next time, if there is a next time, I'll squeeze all the air out and add the four carbonation drops. If the pressure gets too high, I'll just release a little by loosening the cap temporarily. I think the 2-liter bottles hold quite a bit of pressure.

Antique Drill Saves the Day

I finally put the first tap on my keezer/kegerator/chest freezer. I plan to put in two more eventually. The only problem was I needed to drill a hole through the 2x6 collar wood and I didn't have a 7/8" spade bit for my drill. Then I remembered poor old Uncle Andy's antique tools collecting dust in our garage. He had a 7/8" drill bit for his hand drill. It has a fluted end that won't fit in my electric drill, so I had to mount it on the old hand drill. It's sitting there on top of the keezer in the picture. Would it really work? Actually, it worked pretty well, considering. Sure beats a trip to the hardware store.