Coeface

To Keg or not to Keg

2011-10-26T10:16:00.000-04:00

Back in June my lovely wife bought me a Cornelius Keg for my birthday, which I had told her I wanted. These are 5 gallon capacity kegs that are generally used in restaurants to dispense soda, but you can usually buy them pretty cheap (around $40-$50 used) from various websites. The biggest difference between Cornelius (Corny) Kegs (left picture) and your "standard" Sanke Keg (right picture) is that you can actually pop the lid off the Corny Keg and fill it up with whatever you want. Obviously, my plan was to fill er up with my tasty homebrews, thus eliminating the need for the bottles.

So my birthday came and I opened up my awesome new keg and I rushed downstairs to my He-Den to look at the keg and kegerator all together...and I realized the connections didn't match up. That was some poor planning on my part. So I googled and searched and communicated with the fine folks at Midwest Supplies and I found this little kit:

This is about $30 at Adventures in Homebrewing and the shipping was very fast. So these random parts showed up at my house and I had no idea what to do with them. I received the following instructions with the set, which left me kind of baffled as I am not the most mechanically skilled guy around:

I put the project on hold for a while for a few reasons-

1) I was scared of my lack of skills
2) I hadn't cleaned my keg beer lines in forever, so I wanted to take care of that first. But a beer line cleaning kit was roughly $40, and I thought beer kits and actual beer was a better way to spend my money
3) My next brew was set to be my Pumpkinface and I didn't want to screw anything up in the kegging process (forced carbonation?!?!?! what?!?!?!)

So fast forward to this past Friday. I searched how to make a homemade beer line cleaner and I saw a method using a $6 garden hand pump plus the proper fittings and I decided that was the route I was going to take. So I went to KMart, bought the hand pump and returned home. I opened it up, saw it was used, and decided I wasn't going to use that in my kegerator.

While driving to the store to return the pump, I had an epiphany. The best, easiest, and most logical way to clean my beer lines is to install the conversion kit, fill my new keg with sanitizing solution, then run the solution through the lines. So now the only thing holding me back was my inability to grasp the concept of what I was doing with the conversion kit. Then I found this website Keg Conversion Kit, which breaks it down so simply, even a dolt like myself could understand it.

I had some free time last night so I decided to turn on Gremlins and have a go at the kit. It took about 10 minutes and the hardest part was installing the barbed fitting into the beer line. I then added a few gallons of water to my keg, hooked it, turned the gas on, and let it run for a few minutes to make sure there was no leakage.

Currently fermenting is my Imperial Babyface Milk Stout, so unfortunately I won't be able to keg that because I don't have the proper Stout tap. I think I'm going to brew a kit soon, maybe a Christmas beer, that's relatively quick and easy-- something that's one stage fermentation and doesn't need to age.

Now the only question is how am I supposed to sit through work when all I wanna do is play with my "new" kegerator??

Publish Post

2011-06-21T09:53:00.000-04:00

I've been talking about brewing my own beer for a few years now. I don't really know how I got interested in it-- I tried using a Mr. Beer kit 5 or 6 years ago after I saw it for super cheap at Macy's, but that was a major fail. I think my interest was rekindled about 2 years ago when I first started drinking the occasional Craft Beer and when I found out my brother in laws father makes his own.

Anyways, after I decided I wanted to do it, my next move was convincing my wife. My wife is by no means opposed to drinking, she just prefers Bud Light Lime, Miller Lite, or wine. Her biggest bone of contention with me brewing my own beer is the undeniable fact that I'm a slob. It's true. Everyone that has ever known me knows that I don't really care about tidying up. Things will just get messy again, right? So how am I supposed to overcome this? Clearly I wasn't going to be able to change who I am-- when we look at the same shelf and it's unorganized, she sees a mess and I see easy access to anything on the shelf. Also, I wasn't going to appeal to the beer drinker side of her. As I mentioned above, she is a strict Lite/Light girl and I have no intention of changing her mind. It won't work.

So I appealed to the financially conscious side of her. So like any other blue blooded American, I wasted time at work and created this slide show for her:

Admittedly, this didn't have the desired effect on her. She just kind of laughed and brushed it off. But I tried. And that's what matters. Right?

Well Hello Again

2011-06-16T10:10:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been several months now since I've updated this blog. I'm awful. Anyways, Coeface Brewing Company is currently between batches and I couldn't be more excited. The first batch, Dogface Blonde Ale, turned out pretty well. The few people I gave it to really seemed to enjoy it (so they say) and I'm excited about starting the next batch and fixing a few things I KNOW I did wrong last time-- like spilling it a few times all over my kitchen trying to get the hydrometer readings, being more efficient at the bottling stage, keeping the fermenter at the proper temperature, etc. I also want to work on making more than 5 gallons at a time, but that's down the road.

Right now I'm thinking about my next batch and my batch after that. Unfortunately, brewing beer isn't something that you can start tomorrow and reap the benefits of a few days later. Fermentation and carbonation (you can force carbonate with a keg system which cuts time significantly, but that's a different blog post) can often take months to complete, so you always need to think about what you will want to be drinking next month, the month after, or even six months later some times. Right now it's mid June so I could potentially start a Summer brew, but I'd rather take my time and work on something I can let "marinate" properly. I'm thinking my next beer will be Pumpkin and, if I can get some more equipment, maybe I'll start a darker, heavier beer for this winter.

Speaking of equipment, an issue I've run into is needing some random supply last minute. I needed a floating thermometer last time and I completely slept on it until I was laying out all of my stuff the day of the brew. I typically get my supplies from Midwest Supplies which has everything you could possibly think of. But since I needed it that day, online ordering wasn't an option. Luckily, we have a home brew store about 30 minutes from my house, Annapolis Home Brew, which has a strong selection of equipment as well as recipe kits, grains, hops, etc. So I went, got my thermometer, and it only pushed my timeline back by an hour or two.

Recently, a friend of mine told me about a liquor store nearby that has started selling home brew supplies, as well. I had forgotten about this until my friends over at Monocle Brewing had mentioned they were about to bottle but had run out of bottle caps. I mentioned to the Co-Head Brewer at Monocle that a buddy of mine had mentioned this place, but I couldn't vouch for the store and their stock. So she ended up calling the place to verify they did indeed have HB supplies and they had caps in stock. I was pretty excited about checking out this new store, so I detoured on my way home from work.

When I first walked in, it took me a minute to find the HB section. Yes, it's that small. Even though it's a small section, I was happy to see there's another option if you need something in a pinch.

The above picture shows muslin bags, wort chiller, carboy bungs (in the red Tupperware), cleaners, hydrometers, thermometers, etc.

This picture shows their selection of recipe kits, bottling buckets, cappers, brew kettle, flavor additives, and HB Kit. Again, there's not much of a selection.

This pic shows a few books, including Dave Miller's Home Brewing Guide and a few recipe books, grains, malt extracts, and small buckets.

This picture shows open grains-- I guess you're supposed to help yourself. Although, I didn't notice any bags. At first I thought this was pretty cool...until I started wondering if they leave it open like that all the time. Like when they're gone for the night. And if they have any nighttime visitors of the rodent kind. This store is conjoined to a pub, which has a lot of greasy food...so it's not out of the realm of possibility. So I think I'll stick to getting my grains from somewhere else, where I don't think about rat contamination.

So even though Londontowne Wine and Spirits has a VERY limited supply, I appreciate the fact that there's another option if I need something quickly. Their prices, just like Annapolis Home Brew, aren't very good, but I suppose the convenience factor makes up for it. If you're looking for something that's more than $10 or you can wait a week, just get it online. For example, the book I mentioned above by Dave Miller was $20 at Londontowne, but you can get it on Amazon for $11. It's good to support local businesses, but not at twice the price!

I'll try to update this more frequently, but for now I have to scoot. Seeeeeya

mmmm

2011-04-12T11:45:00.000-04:00

After nearly a month of patiently waiting, I decided on Saturday noche to pop open the very first Coeface Brewing Company Ale, which I have affectionately named Dogface Blonde after my families beloved pup.

Who wouldn't want to drink a nice cold beer on a warm Spring evening with this on the label??

I've posted a picture of my Coeface Blonde next to a picture of a similar beer for a comparison. What do you think? I think mine looks just as good as the Dirty Blonde.

I bottled my beer on April 2 and only gave it a week before trying it. It's supposed to stay in the bottle for 2-4 weeks to allow enough time for proper carbonation, etc. I was pleasantly surprised with the aroma and flavor of the beer because I was nervous as hell that I had messed something up along the way because of all the warnings I've read about the possibility of contaminants and oxygenation. Anyways, so far so good. I'm going to give it another week or two before I start drinking them en masse...that'll be a fun day :)

The Announcement You Have All Been Waiting For...

2011-03-13T20:00:00.003-04:00

Anheuser-Busch

MillerCoors

Coeface Brewing Company

That's right, ladies and gentlemen. I have spent the last decade researching and tasting beer FOR YOU. Finally, after years of labor, I have decided to brew the world's greatest beer for the people. It will be ready in a few weeks. Thank me then.