Sunday, November 29, 2009

All kegged up!

I've had this old Cornelius keg laying around the brewery collecting dust. I stumbled upon it about fifteen years ago, it was beat up on the outside but bright and clean on the inside. One problem--no lid. Eventually I acquired a properly functioning piece, and armed with a new gasket and lid valve I suddenly had a five-gallon system ready to go! By then I'd been using my two-and-a-half gallon kegs for some time. They are convenient and easy to handle, and the five-gallon keg is too tall for the fridge. The poor old thing sat around and collected some more dust. Mark's Pale Ale is occupying the two shorties at this moment and the Fifty-fest needed someplace to go, so today I cleaned off the cobwebs and put Corny to work. I primed the batch with 3 oz. (84 grams) of dextrose in one quart of water and managed to get about 4-1/2 gallons of clean, well-settled beer out of the secondary fermenter. The brew had a dark, reddish-copper color with a final gravity of 1.010 (2.5 ºP). It's potent one, about 6% abv, and should be ready for quaffing over the Xmas holidays!


a.d. III Kal. Dec.

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