Aqua Vitae

…or at least the easy part.
The completed “easy mash”:

leak free on initial testing.

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The parts hunt is complete, 3 hardware and 1 auto parts stores later.

3/8″ brass hose barb
3/8″ brass ball valve
16mm I.D. stainless steel washers (x2)
3/8″ I.D. auto o-ring
3/8″ to 3/8″ compression fitting adapter
5″ 3/8″ copper tubing
1/2″ stainless steel pipe clamp
Aluminium window screening

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Tonight I transferred the Golden Ale to the secondary fermenter. The recipe called for adding 1 lb. of corn sugar boiled in 1 pint of water to the beer during transfer. I assume that this serves two purposes:

Provide sugars for some further fermentation.
Add some body back to the beer after primary fermentation.

The amazing thing is, […]

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The one very exciting note from brewing last night, was the absolute success of using the wort chiller. My one experiment with cooling 4 gallons of boiling water showed that it took about 30 minutes to hit 80 degrees. So, based on this I decided to use a cold water bath in conjunction with the […]

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Last night I brewed a Belgian Strong Golden Ale. The recipe is a clone of Duvel that I got from the book Clone Brews. I don’t think of this brew as a Duvel clone per se, but more as a Duvel-inspired brew. I mean let’s face it, who knows how the finished product will really […]

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The ESB’s conditioning has progressed well. The bottles have been conditioned in the basement at 55-65º.
At 2 weeks the beer was quite bitter and only slightly carbonated and very hazy, with little yeast settled out.
At 4 weeks the bitterness has now mellowed nicely and the head has really developed, still at a typical carbonation level […]

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