Will It Ever Run Again?

This is what happens when you lend your equipment. The last time I used the snow blower it was running. Then I sent it over to the neighbor so he could clear his drive way. The snow was heavy and the motor seemed to be over revving. It was returned with a seized engine.

 

For grins I tore it down the night before the giant snowstorm.

I found a bunch of broken parts in the oil sump. The oil slinger broke off and the governor threw two counter weights & broke a few teeth of the gear. So, when did it break?

The main shaft seems to have wiped but it's not totally gone. If I can get replacement parts I will reassemble it and see if I can get it to speed regulate again. The smaller shaft with the larger gear is the cam shaft. There are two cams that operate the intake and exhaust valves.

Now I have to check the forums to see if this is how the timing marks are aligned. I sure do hope that I don't need this thing to be running tomorrow because I don't know if I can improvise the oil slinger and I don't want to run without a governor.

The Imperial Blackness Is A Winner

Black IPA

Some people don't believe in mixing roasted malts with a lot of hops. I don't have any such prohibitions and as a matter of fact, I think I just knocked the Rye IPA out of my top favorite slot.

You can see one of my new Ikea quart bottles. I think I will convert to entire fleet over to this stopper type because having quart bottles in the fridge is a cool thing.

Rinse

Regarding the Hops: This time I strained most of the the hops from reaching the primary because I had two pretty good high alpha varieties and I didn't want to go too hoppy. A lot of the small stuff made it through the strainer but I would say 50% was leafy and so it didn't make it to the primary.

When I tasted this one at week one  knew I had a winner although with all the yeast in there it was hard to tell what was going on with the three layers of roasted barley and wheat. Now that the bare minimum time has past I can tell this one is really something. The spray malt has made this very sweet and would be  likely to continue to ferment if I didn't drink it all before it could reach perfection. The high alcohol content is noticeable I would guess it's at 8% and will go higher at time passes.

I think my next round will be minus the 3 lbs of spray malt and maybe use 14 lbs of 2 row. Every thing else can be the same assuming hops are available.

Imperial

Imperial

Happy Yeast

That extra 3 lbs of spray malt must really be giving the yeast something to chew on. Using the five gallon rules of thumb: 2 lb grain per percent, and 1 lb spray malt per percent, will put us in the land of 9% abv. I better put this in small bottles.

Yeast Is Still At It

This time around it had to switch things up a bit. Normally I put the hops into the primary but this time I strained them out, the big stuff that is. The find stuff still makes it thru and leave a small deposit of sediment.

With a 90 minute boil the hop additions went like this:

0       1/3 Galena
20     1/3 Galena    1/3 Chinook
40     1/3 Galena    1/3 Chinook
60     1 Cascade    1/3 Chinook
70     1 Cascade
80     rest on burner
90     remove from burner and chill

Some recipes call for hops to be added at the end of the boil, only to be strained out immediately.  I figured since I am straining them, I may as well have some time in the mix.

Black IPA #26

Brew Date: 10/27/13

12 lb two row
1/4 lb caramel malt
1/4 lb carafa 1 500 LB
1/4 lb carafe 2 1000 LB
1/4 lb choc wheat
3 lb amber spay malt

1 oz galena @ 13.2%
1 oz chinook @ 12.1%
2 oz cascade @ 7.1%

safale us-05 yeast

Uncle Jim's Mash Tun

When I was up in NY I asked Uncle Jim if he would be brewing any time soon. He said no so I commandeered his mash tun. This is the same tun I posted about many moons ago. Well I can tell you it sure make sparging much easier but I think clean up is more troublesome.

When I first opened the valve the wort overshot the pot and went straight to the floor. And I can neither confirm nor deny the use of the kitchen sink sponge was used to clean the floor.

Hops and Extra Malt

I figure we will go for the higher gravity and to get there we are using an extra 3 lbs of spray malt. Even though I have the 10 gal tun, the 5 gal boiling pot is still a limitation for getting a full grain imperial brew.

Grist Remains

The conversion was top notch. It felt like all empty hulls. The little black specks are tiny bits of chocolate wheat.

Roo Pads

Re-soldered Post

 The horn is around 15 years old and it finally hit the ground. This post was bent half way off so I soldered it back. I cut the little dots off with a razor blade so there are two little shiney dots to mark the spot. I also buffed out some of the tarnish.

In Order Ready to Measure

I lined all the keys up in order they appear on the horn. The side keys might not be in perfect position but that doesn't  matter. I just wanted to get the measurements in roughly the correct order, for future reference.

Roo White Pads

I decided I would try these new Roo Pads. They went in fairly easily and not too many required shims.
The horn is back together and plays well although low B and Bb still need to be floated in.

Jalapeño IPA #25

Monday Night Brewing Demonstration.

I had company over last Monday evening to show them how to brew. Or better yet, how I brew. Somewhere in the middle of the process Randy said 'My wife would never let me do that in her kitchen'. Then Walt replied 'My wife would never let me bring that bucket in the house, let alone into her kitchen'. 

The interesting thing about showing people about brewing is that it is all a big controlled accident. And, you can do what ever you want, like add jalapeños.

Saturday When I saw how many pepper varieties the market had it was very difficult to decide if I wanted to stick to the original plan. So on the spot, I decided to stick with the primary plan but veer slightly off course when bottling. The little dried chili peppers will be quartered and bottled. I will probably roast them for sanitary purposes.

Wifey suggested I use parchment paper to roast the jalapeños on, so I did, at 350 deg F for ~25min. I usually set the stove timer as a reminder for hop additions. So the peppers roasted between stops. Because I didn't want to boil away any pepper flavor, I added them to the boil at T minus 5 min. 
 

 I used the wort chiller to get the temperature down to about 90 deg and because it was so late, I pitched in the morning. I needed a new method to get all the yeast in the carboy so I have started to use a piece of white paper rolled into a tight funnel to get the yeast all the way in. Grab the paper out of the center of the ream in order to be sure no one has touched it.

 

We brewed on Monday evening and I taste tested on Friday evening. There seems to be the perfect amount of heat and the pepper taste really quite interesting. Wifey said 'This is what the local microbrewery should be doing'. I agree.

The usual trub rinse is the next step and I don't want to keep the peppers in there any longer so I had to figure out how to fish those babies out. Simple enough, turn the carboy on its side after adding the rinse water and they floated right over to be scooped out.

Early indications: I hit the pepper target I was looking for. Will keep you posted. 

Update: This brew wakes you up and then lights you up. You either love it or hate it. Needless  to say, it is gone. Next round is seeds only. Leave out the pulpy madness.

Jalapeño IPA On Deck

Looking up Jalapeño recipes. Really, all I'm gonna do is add peppers to a Rye IPA. Just have to figure out when to add them and how much.

Via photo-dictionary.com

Update:

After casually surfing the web, here's what I'm gonna do:

10 lb 2-row
1lb Oatmeal for silky smoothness
1/4lb Chocolate Wheat for color
2 lb rye for dryness

1 oz Galena
1 oz Kent
1 oz Sterling

safale us-05

Add 6 Jalapeno, slit in half, at last 5 min of boil. Leave it all in the primary for a week. On bottling day, quarter and roast 6 peppers at 350 def F for 25-30 min. Put a piece of roasted pepper in each of ~24 bombers (24 oz bottles).