Brewing Around the Realm

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Equipment Update Summer 2018

Join me while I discuss all the equipment updates I’ve made recently. Trust me, there are a lot of them. I had originally wanted to post this video as a live stream to answer some viewer questions. Unfortunately that did not work out due to bandwidth limitations. I’ll be attempting to run another live stream in the near future.


Full list of new equipment:

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Music By:
Jason Farnham
World Map
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Intro to Kegging – Setting up a new Ball Lock Keg

After a year of bottling, I’ve given up. I’ve had every bad thing happen that I can think of. What really frustrated me were the times that bottled beer failed to carbonate. That has happened 3 times at this point. After the third time I decided it was time to step in to kegging.


I’ve spent the last 2 months doing research and purchasing equipment when it was on sale. It’s not been an inexpensive journey. Kegging equipment costs more than you think. If you watch, you can find what you need at a discount.

The number one source I’ve found for locating deals is Home Brew Finds. They do a very good job or rounding up all of the deals that surface from Amazon, Austin Homebrew Supply, Adventures in Homebrewing and many others.

Below is a list of supplies from this video with the links to the stores where I purchased them.

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Music By:
Nicolai Heidlas
Get Up!
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Brewing a Belgian Wit (V. 2.5) with WLP500

I have been on a quest to clone Hoegaarden for more than a year. It’s my favorite Summer beer and one that I would really like to make my house beer. The one that I always have on hand. My first attempt was a tasteless extract version that missed the mark. Version 2.0 came about a month later when I made my first attempt at a partial mash version. By the time I brewed this version (2.5) partial mashing was gone and it was all grain.


Changing to all grain doesn’t mean you can’t still make mistakes. Too much coriander. Yeast that is too old. Not using enough orange zest. All contributed to an end product that is no where close to tasting like Hoegaarden.

Since this brew, I have upgraded to creating starters for all brew days. Version 3 of this beer is coming. I’ll be changing out the flaked wheat for German wheat and adding some acid malt. 4 Oz. of orange zest instead of 2. Hopefully that creates a well rounded beer.

Till that brew is ready, here is the recipe I used for version 2.5. The download link is at the bottom.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
5.5 gal 90 min 44.6 IBUs 3.1 SRM 1.046 1.008 4.9 %
Actuals 1.047 1.01 4.9 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Pilsner (2 Row) UK 4.5 lbs 45
Wheat, Flaked 4 lbs 40
Oats, Flaked 1 lbs 10
Munich Malt 8 oz 5

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Hallertauer Mittelfrueh 1 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 4
Sterling 1 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 7.5

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Orange Zest 2.00 oz 10 min Boil Flavor
Chamomile Tea Bags 3.00 Items 10 min Boil Other
Coriander Seed 1.00 oz 10 min Boil Spice

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
Trappist Ale (WLP500) White Labs 78% 65°F - 72°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Mash In 150°F 90 min

Fermentation

Step Time Temperature
Primary 4 days 67°F
Secondary 10 days 67°F
Aging 30 days 65°F

Download

Download this recipe's BeerXML file

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Music By:
Nicolai Heidlas
Real Ride
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