The Continuing Saga

Water problems part 2.

The other day I saw a puddle on the basement floor, like the pooch couldn't wait to go out, so he ran down to the basement to do it there.   

The odd thing about it was the floor was wet behind the tank too. The well tank, to a dog must look like a hydrant, so let 'er rip. How could he resist the temptation.

I mopped up the mess and kept the pooch upstairs, but sure enough, the puddle formed again. 

So today I stopped at the hardware store to get some 3 piece couplings so I can get the well fitting off, in order to inspect the bottom tank connections.  My hunch was the plumber used insufficient pipe dope on the threaded fittings. 

In preparation, we fill two water jugs and four 5 gal buckets with water. Some for coffee and the rest for flushing. I figured there is a good chance the tank rotted through. 

Getting to 1-1/4 pipe nipple off was a real chore. The joint was so tight that I bent the bottom he tank by torquing the nipple so hard.

I cleaned up all the threads to the tank, elbow and pressure switch fitting and started reassembly when I saw this little blister on the side if the tank. I popped it like a water blister you get from raking leaves in the fall. I dried off the spot with a rag and sure enough, it wetted again. 

Son of a B! Now I have to round up a 50 gal tank at the tune of $300. 

On the other hand, Wifey is out of town so now I have an excuse to skip doing dishes. 

Black IPA #33

Brew Date 11/05/14

Once again I found myself at the brew store so I couldn't let an oportunity go to waste. On the spot I figured something dark and hoppy. 

Because I didn't have my grain bucket Chris gave me a 2 row bag. 

I started with 12 pounds. 

Then added two pounds of:

Followed up with a quarter pound of:

For body. 

Then addeded the usual suspects:

What better way to spend a blustery Saturday afternoon than brewing?

 Hops addition:
:00- 1/3 G
:20- 1/3 G, 1/3 UK
:40- 1/3 G, 1/3 UK, 1/2 C
:55 -1/3 UK, 1/2 C
 
 Wifey was needing the kitchen at 5PM, which coincided with the end of the one hour boil, so I put the pot out on the porch to cool. This gave me the idea to try something different, for me. Strain the hops out while transferring the wort to the primary fermenter. Ordinarily I leave the hops in the primary.
 
Another change to procedure was made in sparging. I started with ~4gallons of water at 170 deg which is a little hot for 14.25 lbs of grain. So I started mashing anyway and added ~1/2 gal at 80 deg to bring the temp down to the 140 deg range. Then I heated another ~4 gallons to ~150 deg and added it to the mash before running off the first pass. I ended up with ~7 gal of wort before boiling and ended with 6 gal.

Had the guys over for pool night and stogies. No one didn't finish theirs.