Tapping kegs, pressure bottling, and our first competition

The last few weeks have been busy for us. We tapped three new brews: Headless Horseman the third, Milksteak Stout, Barrel Roll IPA, and Firm Richard’s Orchard Champagne (Dry sparkling cider). We also played with some new toys. Pirate Mike bought a counter pressure bottle filler. We’ll get to that later. Finally, we packaged up some brews and sent them to our first competition.

We made a screen filter for the keggle so we could pipe to the bottom and drain every last bit of wort out.

The whole system was in action while making a new brew. The latest addition to the stable is American Slammer Jammer, and American Pale Ale.

Perhaps the biggest news of all. The pirates are making moves at starting a brewery. What initially started as a 5 year goal has turned in to a 2 year plan. There are a lot of things to be done before we’re there but I’m happy to say we’ve begun the process.

We filled the kegerator again, time to drain it. We actually had a small tasting party and most of the headless horseman and milksteak stout are gone. We’re planning to brew Friday to reload. One of the reasons we drained the kegs so fast is because we filled some bottles for competition. The counter pressure bottle filler is a pretty simple system. CO2 flows from one side and beer from the other. You start by sealing the bottle, then pump CO2 in to make sure there’s no Oxygen to spoil your beer. After that, pump in beer until full. Then you turn off any flow and remove the filler, then quickly cap the bottle.

We made four submissions to our first competition. The Cider, the Milk Stout, and the Pumpkin Ale in two categories.

Looks like our beers are ready to go. Wish them luck!

I’ll try and keep you guys posted on the competition results and other brew related adventures as we approach the holidays. I’m also assembling parts for a new keezer (kegerator made from a chest freezer) that I’m building in January. I’ll definitely take a lot of pictures and do a write up when it’s finished.

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