Judged a homebrew contest sponsored by the St Louis Brews this weekend. Its a tough job but someone has to do it. Entered three beers, and managed a second place on a Flanders red.
Most importantly though, I won the grand prize in the raffle. It was a Brewhemoth conical fermentor with all the bells and whistles. We’re talking a 22gal stainless steel conical (easily ferments a half barrel/15.5gal), tri-clamp version, with the internal cooling coil and the pressurizing attachment. They even included the tri-clamp valves and hardware so it is completely ready to go.
I was totally stunned when they read my number. I’ve been a small-batch brewer but this system will let you brew 5gal just fine so it will see a lot of use. I’m already ordering some extra hardware to explore closed-system pressurized fermentation, something I only learned about when I started looking at Brewhemoth threads on another forum. I’ve also got a plan for temperature control with the chiller unit.
In any case, thanks to Josh and Dale for donating such a fantastic prize. Enjoyed judging a round with Josh on Saturday, not knowing he was one of the guys running Brewhemoth. The company is based in St Louis and the guys are award-winning homebrewers. Go check out their website and be prepared to be jealous.
Yeah like five steps up. Although I can probably make 15gal in two batches with my current system, and I’ve done two batches in one day several times. I’ll stick to 5gal batches in it for the most part, and may even try my usual 3gal. I’ve read it takes 2gal to get to the bottom of the conical, and 3gal would run 2" up the vertical part of the cylinder. Its going to look kind of puny when you look down through the top, but with the ability to purge with CO2 I can avoid any oxidation issues.
I’m most excited to try closed-system pressurized fermentation, I have a suspicion it might give me a result more like the pros get. Supposedly the pressure is simiar to what the yeast is under in a large commercial style fermentor, and it allows you to ferment at higher temps in a shorter time frame. Who knows, I keep looking for the holy grail of maltiness and maybe it just fell in my lap. You can ferment this way in a corny or sanke keg with a fairly inexpensive spunding valve.
Woke up early today so I could fill the fermentor with hot water and PBW. It’ll get a good soak while I’m at work, then tonight I’ll rinse and sanitize. Then it will be ready for a batch later this week.
Got lucky, after putting 22gal of hot water in this thing at 5AM I wondered if the water heater would recover in time for the wife to have a hot shower at 6. Heard no complaints, guess I got lucky.
[quote=“tom sawyer”]Woke up early today so I could fill the fermentor with hot water and PBW. It’ll get a good soak while I’m at work, then tonight I’ll rinse and sanitize. Then it will be ready for a batch later this week.
Got lucky, after putting 22gal of hot water in this thing at 5AM I wondered if the water heater would recover in time for the wife to have a hot shower at 6. Heard no complaints, guess I got lucky.[/quote]
Can you post a photos of this thing? I am real curious.
I intend to take some photos this evening, my daughter already took a couple of me hugging it but hasn’t sent them to me yet. They have a website, just google Brewhemoth. I got the fancy tri-clamp version.
Nice work, Lennie! Seems like I might be the only 3 gallon brewer on here now that you got this beast. You might as well brew 5. Are you the only one who drinks your beer, typically?
I was standing right next to Lennie talking about his Flanders when they read off his ticket number. Let’s just say he had a bit of a stunned look on his face
Congrats Lennie! I’m sure you’ll put that thing to good use.
And Beersk, I still brew 3 gallon batches from time to time.
[quote=“Lynux”]I was standing right next to Lennie talking about his Flanders when they read off his ticket number. Let’s just say he had a bit of a stunned look on his face
Congrats Lennie! I’m sure you’ll put that thing to good use.
And Beersk, I still brew 3 gallon batches from time to time.[/quote]
Well okay then, so I’m not alone. Stovetop all grain brewers unite!
Thats right, Sean was my witness. And he also won a medal for his Denny’s BVIP, that I got to judge.
I’ll still be brewing some 3gal batches, but since I was kicked to propane my volumes have been sneaking up a bit anyway.
My wife drinks certain beers, I keep her in weizens, wits, and cream ales. Everything else is 95% consumed by me, with the occasional brew club meeting accounting for the other 5%.
[quote=“tom sawyer”]Thats right, Sean was my witness. And he also won a medal for his Denny’s BVIP, that I got to judge.
I’ll still be brewing some 3gal batches, but since I was kicked to propane my volumes have been sneaking up a bit anyway.
My wife drinks certain beers, I keep her in weizens, wits, and cream ales. Everything else is 95% consumed by me, with the occasional brew club meeting accounting for the other 5%.[/quote]
Sounds about like me. My gf doesn’t drink beer so I don’t have to worry about that. And I don’t have friends over often to drink my beer and I got sick of getting propane tank exchanges so that then prompted me to brew smaller batches on the stove. My new place has a pretty powerful flat top electric stove that can probably boil 6 gallons if I wanted it to. So I’ve been doing 3.5 to 4 gallon batches. Been nice. Congrats on the awards fellas.
Drained the PBW and filled with Starsan tonight so the sucker is ready for its maiden voyage. I ordered some additional tri-clamp parts and the stuff to make a spunding valve, I’m hoping I get those in this week so I can do a pressurized ferment right off the bat. Fortunately/unfortunately, my Chicago trip scheduled for this weekend got postponed, meaning I have all weekend to play.
I chalk it up to good karma or justice for your helping so many brewers, rather than luck or destiny, although I reserve the right to change my mind about the destiny aspect.
[quote=“brewsumore”]I chalk it up to good karma or justice for your helping so many brewers, rather than luck or destiny, although I reserve the right to change my mind about the destiny aspect.
Congrats!!! :mrgreen:
-Steve[/quote]
Thanks although I don’t know how helpful I am, my best attribute is being online so darn much.
Sanitizer is drained and the Big Unit is downstairs, positioned strategically next to the keezer and ready for operation. When my parts get here I’ll be ready to do pressurized fermentation, natural carbonation, and counterpressure racking to kegs. So scientific compared to bucket fermentor and bottling with a pitcher. I just hope the beer is better, I’ve been wondering about oxidation and this came along at the perfect time to test that hypothesis.
Yes, I don’t know why I hadn’t heard of this before. The link below takes you to a monster thread, on the very first post they have a link to a wiki they put together, as well as a link to a summary. I’m halfway through the thread now, its worth reading.
Some of the interesting features are:
7psi is about what the weight of wort in a large commercial fermenting tank exerts on the yeast.
You can naturally carbonate your beer.
You can do this in a corny, sanke or some conicals.
You can transfer to keg using counterpressure method.
A little pressure enhances yeast health, making the ferment go faster and with lower esters.
