Cheap, Simple Water Filtering

The water here in Bryan, TX is soft, but stinks of chlorine. I finally decided to put together a water filter for my growing brewery. I got the specs from the January 2007 issue of Brew magazine. They have yet to put that article online, so here it is. I built it for about $40, but you can probably do better.

The Culligan WHR-140 filter is intended to be used in a shower head, so you get much better throughput than a faucet filter. The manufacturer says it is good for 10,000 gallons, or about 770 ten-gallon batches. It is good at removing chlorine, sulfur and heavy metals. I got mine from Amazon for about $20 delivered. You can get that down to $14 if you find it locally.

The five other parts are:

• 2" PVC slip-fit coupling
• 2" x 3/4'" MPT PVC slip-fit bushing X 2
  
• 3/4" MPT x female garden hose adapter
• 3/4" MPT hose bib adapter

If you want to cut costs, switch out the hose-bib adapter (a $7 part) for a the corresponding MPT x male garden hose adapter.

Here the filter fits snugly inside the bushing adapter:
It makes a compact filter and the full-port ball-valve is a nice way to save running around to the spigot. When I water-tested the assembly, the backpressure was enough to blow the thing apart, so I plan on checking out threaded bushings. Failing that, I will glue one bushing in and strap the whole thing together.

Starting a Brewclub

In January Adrienne and I moved from San Jose, CA to Bryan, TX. The Bay Area has a thriving homebrew culture and I was a member of the Silicon Valley Sudzers. Club meetings and outings are something that Adie and I both enjoyed and we left a great group of people behind. Sadly, the Bryan/College Station metro offers no clubs.

Last month I started looking for interest in starting up a club. In my research I came across a Yahoo! group from a club that had been active in the early part of the century (last post 2005). I believe that there are enough brewers in the area to support a club so, with the help of Adrienne and two or three other brewers, I am founding a B/CS club.

We do not have a name yet, but we do have a first event: a brew-in on April 5th. The first order of business is to publish the event in the various electronic media, and track interested people.

Watch this blog for my experiences starting a club. I have some solid resources back with the Sudzers, the Draft Board, and the Mad Zymurgists.

WTFAMH Kölsch

The temperature dropped into the low 30's F for a few nights last week. On one of the last such nights I put the kölsch out overnight to crash cool in preparation for transfer to a keg. That crash, three weeks of sitting and a little Irish moss have done their job. I was rewarded with a clear yellow beer.
The kölsch turned out great. Pours clear and golden with a lingering thin white head. It has a medium-light body balanced to the malty side with enough bitterness to be barely noticeable. Since it was in the fermenter for so long the FG dropped to 1.009 and it tastes just a little over-attenuated. My only gripe with it is that I only got 3.5 gallons of it.

Where the Fuck Are My Hops Kölsch

First brew-day in Texas! There is no LHBS in B/CS so I ordered a Kölsch and a Bitter from Northern Brewer. I figured Kölsch is a good way to ease any megaswill-drinking new friends into good beer. Last night I went through boxes of packed equipment and retrieved what I need to brew. I had a nice starter ready. Everything looked set to go.

The recipe from NB:

Fermentables

• 9 lbs Durst Pilsen
• 1 lbs. Weyermann Pale Wheat

Hops

• 1 oz. Argentina Cascade (60 min)
• 1 oz. Argentina Cascade (30 min)

Wyeast #2565

I started the strike water around 11:30 (central time) just as a couple of my friends showed up to watch the process. When I went go get the ingredients from the cupboard I discovered that the hops were missing. Either I misplaced them or NB didn't ship them.... This was the perfect opportunity to introduce the guys to the homebrewer's creed: "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew." Lacking homebrewed beer, I pulled out some Fancy Lawnmower ale from St Arnold's Brewery (a kölsch) and went for the ingredients from the bitter. EKG, Target, Magnum.... This won't quite make the BJCP standard definition of kölsch.

Hops

• 0.75 oz 8% AA Target 60 mins
  
• 1.00 oz 5% AA E.K. Goldings 30 mins

I also couldn't find my depth meter (an aluminum ruler), so I had to eyeball the amount of strike water. It turns out I had too much, leaving me with a dilute mash and not enough sparge water. My efficiency is way off because in the end I collected about 4 gallons of 11% brix wort.

I am glad to be making beer again, glad to have six or eight new friends (enough to start a homebrew club) to share the process with (in no small part because of the beer for them). I'll probably find those hops tomorrow.

Makin' Glögg

Glögg is a Swedish drink that we make yearly. Only last year, however, did we get serious about storing the finished product. Because of the added sugar it begins a very sweet drink - too much for me, but after a month becomes drinkable. Two weeks ago I opened 2006's batch. With age, it becomes smooth and spicy.

Last year I followed the recipe we have saved in the folds of The Joy of Cooking, but this year that book and recipe is packed away in preparation for our January move to Texas. Good thing Adie has an online copy.

I want to record the recipe I used this year so I can look back at it next year. I had to stray a little because the grocery store was out of a few things this morning (big surprise, Christmas Eve...)

In a saucepan mix:

• A bottle of dry red wine. This year I used a $3 bottle of merlot.
• Peel of a navel orange
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup prunes
• 12 cinnamon sticks
• 12 whole cloves
• About a teaspoon of ground cardamom

Simmer for 15 minutes, then add

• A bottle of ruby port
• 1 c chopped almonds

Reduce heat to low, cover. In a pan heat over a medium flame

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 bottle Aquavit

Ignite the aquavit and burn until the sugar is dissolved. Add the remainder of the aquavit and cover to extinguish. Add this mixture to the mulled wine.

I left the glögg covered over low heat while I cleaned up, about 30 minutes. Strain out the mulling ingredients, bottle and label.

Skål!