I brewed today!

I was planning on brewing today, but then my gardener showed up drunk as skunk, so I ended up doing the work.
Afternoon duty was preventing goats from coming into my garden and prventing my dogs from killing goats ...
So not conductive to brewing.
Maybe tomorrow
Life on the Zambizi river!
 
Life on the Zambizi river!
But also this
(You need to zoom in though)
IMG_20250706_171336_577.jpg
 
My son tried out a glass of my Lynn's Lager and said I should make a batch for their Polkatoberfest party.
Sooo I brewed it yesterday. I used S-189 instead of the 32/70 .
Now I have to make a portable cooler / tap to serve it from. I have an old tap tower so the one built on a trash can I saw here looks promising. I do have one of the square ice chests , might make a good bottom.
 
Going to have to wait until the morning to pitch. Temp is still at 70 eight hours later. Using the kegerator set at 64. I can’t imagine the tilt malfunctioning but wow this is taking long! But I guess the physics make sense.
Tilts can be wrong. Do you have a meat thermometer? Tape it to the outside of the keg with a folded paper towel or bubble wrap and check the temp that way to confirm

I’ve noticed a sometimes vast difference in wort temperature in the fermenter from proximity to the cooling element to the outside of the fermenter - so the tilt vs. the thermowell sensor reading can be 7-8F different. My workaround was to
1) wrap the outside of the fermenter in 1/4” duo tight hose, connectors and valves
2) wrap the fermenter in insulating wrap and then the fermenter jacket
When needed - which is always in the summer months... March through November ;-) I use the 2nd chiller circuit to cool the outside lines.

I can now stabilize the temperature faster and more consistently, but all of this only buys me about 1-2F difference in cooling capability.
 
Just about to start the boil on a batch of "Shore Leave" Cali Common...still one of my favorites.
 
Wort went into the fermenter this morning, added some water to get to required OG (normal way of brewing for me). In the fridge for about 10 hours now. No action yet.
Mostly been brewing with kveik Voss, so I got to switch from "kveik" mode to "normal" mode.
@Craigerrr : I didn't check expiry date of the yeast. Maybe I should retrieve the empty pack from the dustbin ;)
 

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