Lemon Coriander Weiss and Keg Time

I had been wanting to make a batch that was going to be refreshing and light in honor of summer's arrival. I also wanted something that would be quaff-able enough to put into my kegerator and have a picnic outside with. This was the beer I chose - a Lemon Coriander Weiss. The kit was from Midwest, and it offered a twist with the additions of coriander in the boil and lemon zest in the secondary. The boil went well, no surprises. After having 20+ batches u
nder my belt, my concerns are generally in the cold side of the brewing - yeast getting finicky is far more hazardous than boiling wort at 5 degrees higher than recommended.

When applying fruit or vegetables to the carboy, one should always try and keep as few outside contaminants from getting in. This includes anything from cat hair to drool to pesticides. Similar to the damages to your body, chemicals that are intended to kill bugs should not be included in your beer as they will kill your yeast. Always buy organic, or better yet, grow it yourself! Zesting far more lemon than called for the in the recipe, I wanted this beer to be as crisp and citrusy as possible. The other hazard in adding fruit, vegetables, hops, etc. to the secondary is the risk of clogging your siphon. Small particulate matter or large chunks of food can really be annoying when trying to get the beer into its next receptacle. That includes from bottle to glass and tap to glass. Many brewers have debated the strategies of dry-hopping their ales with as minimal interference to the segues as possible. The last thing you want is a dip-tube or keg-line clogged with a cluster of bitter hops, unless your into that sort of thing.


Primary Secondary Kegging

Once you enter the realm of gauges and explosive materials, lookout. Things seem much more complicated and impractical for something as simple as beer. But then the luxury of technology can do many things, including cutting down your bottle conditioning by about 2 weeks! Im in. Not to mention ridding yourself of the pain in the ass of washing, rinsing, sanitizing, storaging all those bottles. But theres also nothing quite like bringing a bottle of your own somewhere. My mini-keg lets me bottle about a third of the batch and rest goes to the keg. Because it was my first kegging experience, I rushed it. I wanted that beer to be ready sooner than it should have been. The sugars were not completely dissolved, and both the few bottles I stored and the kegged beer lacked overall carbonation. The sweetness was ever present and the beer was cloudier than I had hoped. The lemon and coriander were great, but not enough yeast knocked down and not enough time for the fermentation.

Keg Time

Brave new world. It was only a matter of time before I decided to put a bit of cash to the next step in this recent-past-time, the experience of draft beer. Thanks to Forrest Whitesides' article in Brew Your Own on building a portable kegerator, it was made easy and very achievable without the extra costs that a ready made setup would set you back! As you can see, the finished project photo has me looking like a proud parent.


The portable kegerator is composed of 4 parts:
-3 gallon cornelius keg
-5lb co2 tank
-Chrome Single Faucet Column (2.5 inch diameter) 11.5" tall.
-70qt/66litre cube cooler (roller?)

I was only able to build this rig because I was in the states which, it must be said, has an appallingly fantastic selection of any kegging equipment/cooler size you could want in comparison to Winnipeg. The entire set was a bit costly, but is much cheaper than if you were to buy a pre-made 5 gallon cooler kegerator with a chill plate (a flat metal device that is made cold and allows the beer line to run through it before going to the faucet which cools the beer on contact as it passes through). In total the price was around $400 dollars. You can choose to make it swanky or basic depending on your ability to find a used 2.5 gallon or 3 gallon Corney keg, economic faucet with tower which is made of black plastic, and not to mention the option of buying a smaller cooler without luxurious wheels and pull-handle as if heading to the airport for a 32,000 ft keg stand.

For a simple tutorial on how to prepare a keg and rack into it, as well as pressurize and force carbonate the beer, Northern Brewer TV has a good video here. As I have never done this before, my curiosity lies in the areas of 'how much pressure should be applied for specific styles?' and 'how do i prevent yeast from being tapped with the beer if the keg cane is sunk into the sludge?' and 'how to I clean my keg lines when the ball locks are fastened onto the hosing?' These answers will be found through trials by fire and will keep posting in relation to them as they arise. In addition to the basic equipment I also got a few extras such as the keg faucet cap which is intended mostly for the picnic sitch to keep bees and flies out of the nozzle. Also I picked up a keg freeze pack jacket because the biggest task with this system will be keeping the beer cold. Because there is a lot of space in the cooler, the more ice or cold items will have to be jammed in there to keep it consistent as temperature change over time is taxing for the yeast.

My next batch, a Lemon Coriander Weiss (which will be a nice light summery brew intended for picnic kegging), will be made this weekend and fermented as usual in the primary and secondary. The major difference is when kegging your beer, you don't bottle and you don't add bottling sugar 'thusly'. However, because my keg is only 3 gallons out of the total 5 being made, I am going to bottle the remaining amount. Because of the C02 that is used in kegging, the yeast only sits to further mature rather than eat additional sugars which would normally be used to add carbonation to the bottle of beer. The keg needs 2-3 days to be thoroughly mixed with the CO2 being pumped into it once it is racked from the secondary. Looking forward to this new challenge.