Tuesday, July 7, 2009

If It Ain't Broke...

... fix it 'til it is.

Things keep breaking with gusto. This past week it was an outlet near the ceiling that fried. This was old circuitry installed by the former denizens of the building, who had intended to use them to proudly power Oregon Lottery Machines. I was home at the time, trying to get a few things done such as fix my motorcycle and take a 20 minute nap. When informed via telephone that the breaker was off and the circuit was safe for the time-being, I opted to just stay home and fix the thing in the morning. The nagging feeling that something important was also on that circuit was fortified in the morning when it was discovered that the sandwich prep table, chock full of prepared and neatly organized foodstuffs, was refrigerating its contents at 65˚. Fortunately all was not lost - the cheese survived and a few of the veggies. Circuit fixed - table working by opening hour.

Next was the HVAC system in the brewery and kitchen. It had been vigorously pumping ambient air all day without a care for rendering it COOLER, which was the directive from the thermostat. A brave inspection under THE PANEL in the heat pump outside revealed that 240V was getting to the compressor and fan, but neither were functioning within any reasonable tolerance of spec, i.e. they weren't spinning and they smelt a little odd. Being holiday weekend, getting ahold off Phil the HVAC guy was to be difficult. Two days later and the unit is back working. Fortunately the offensive piece of technology was a starter cap, and not the entire unit which would've cost me a tidy bundle.

This means that I can brew again. It looks like it will be another batch, number 9, of Union Dew. Mountain Bike Oregon is a week and a half away and I'm sponsoring free beer, so I need to stock up.

"Whatever" IPA, the first cask, was on this weekend. It is gone now, three days later. It came out a bit cloudy, which was unusual as I have a working finings regimen down these days. It also tasted a little green, but that is the price one pays for being anxious. I will be putting another one on for the weekend, along with the last cask of The Movie Star, a ginger bitter brewed almost a year ago, and the new batch of La'al Rye'un, a light rye mild. It should be a decent weekend with the Cascade Creampuff mountain bike race and a large class reunion going on.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

What's in "Whatever"?

Did you steal a recipe from somebody who had in turn stolen it from somebody else? Perhaps the interpretations make a major difference and the result is nothing like the original?

Just curious

Brewers Union Local 180 said...

"Whatever" was made up on the spot, after having called you at the most inopportune time for the recipe to Zippy Red IPA.

M/O: 200 lbs.
Torrefied Wheat: 10 lbs.
Crystal 15L: 50 lbs.

Sorachi: 0.5 kg @ 01:00
Glacier: 1.0 kg @ 01:00
Cascade: 1.0 kg @ 00:15
Cascade: 1.0 kg @ 00:10
Cascade: 1.0 kg @ 00:05

200 g dry Windsor yeast

Dry hopped with 25 g Glacier in the cask

Unknown said...

Getting on for 5kg of hops. Wow!

Sounds good.

Get some Centennial hops. I think they compliment the Cascade.

Are you using pelletised hops? I suspect that might cause your cloudiness. Although easier to clean the casks I think the way that the hops are ground to make the pellets possibly produces a slurry that causes the finnings to have a hard time. In my opinion.

But patience will help, I suspect.

Brewers Union Local 180 said...

I have mostly pellets, and there is a soon-to-be-published-half-finished post tucked away here somewhere about that (with pictures), but the Cascades were leaf. The bottom of the cask was starting to dispense bright. I will be putting the next one on this coming weekend.

Dave A said...

You could have called me for the Zippy recipe! Haha. After pulling some beer for you next weekend, I look forward to trying copious amounts of that IPA as well as the La'al Rye'un....for a certified hop head.....I can't believe how much I like that Rye beer!