Ah, the Kegging has begun

So with these insane amount of hours that I have been putting in, what do I do when I get a free afternoon? I buy a few hundred bucks worth of kegging equipment, so I can finally get the Cider (which molly has dubbed: "Slippin' Cider") and the Chzadech - take 2 out of the carboys.

The cider has really been in the carboy since October. I tasted it today, it has definately mellowed out QUITE nicely. I was actually just about to kill the yeast, when I remembered, my kegs are 5 gallon, and I have just under 6 gallons of cider there. I'm not wasting cider, and I don't want a flat cider, so I'll have to siphon of about a gallon into a second container, add a little bit of priming sugar to that, then bottle that near gallon into some champagne bottles we've been holding onto that happen to fit a beer capper.

The Chzadech - take 2 is the second hash of mine at making a beer that Chad (Morley) designed over a year ago. The first run of it, for whatever reason, just didn't turn out. The beer took 2-3 months to clear up in the bottles, and even then didn't taste quite right. It was drinkable, not terrible, but not what he had intended. (He has since made some very tasty beers, no thanks to me). This is more of a matter of pride, and curiosity that I've made this beer again. I wanted to see if it really was something strange with the recipe (which I've always doubted) or if I really screwed something up (which I've suspected). We'll, I tasted it today before I kegged it... yummy. It is going to turn out to be one of the better beers that I've made.

The kegging equipment that I have is quite simple. I have a very small (18" tall) cylinder of liquid CO2. I have a 60PSI, dual gauge regulator with a shut off valve. Coming off of the regulator I have about 4 inches of plastic tube that joins a plastic T-joint to split into 2 plastic tubes, each of which ends with a female connector for the soda keg. I have 2 5 gallon soda kegs right now. I bought a 7.2 cubic foot chest freezer at the Home Depot, which happened to fit into the back of my Malibu (yes, it's that small). The chest freezer fits exactly 4 soda kegs on the "floor" of the freezer, then there is a shelf on the side where, presumably, the compressor sits underneath, and my CO2 tank fits perfectly on top of. I don't have the camera right now, otherwise I'd upload a picture. For "taps", I just have the very simple ones that are reminiscent of the college keg parties. It will work for now, no real cash involved, and they're easy to clean.

So the bohemian pilsner is kegged and is being carbonated as I write this. It will be ready to drink as early as thursday, 7:30pm, but will be perfectly aged next Tuesday (a week from today). I'm told that a week in a keg is like a month in a bottle as far as readiness. And that's good... I drank my last homebrew yesterday.

Speaking of Homebrew, I've got a beer buddy. Josh Yoder, who moved up here with Molly and I from Madison, WI, is turning into quite the little beer maker. He's made two since I've made the Chzadech. I've "helped" him with both, but the first one, damn it, became a case of the exploding bottles. It's a shame that it happened to him, because its not happened to me (yet). The beer was a Belgium Wit beer, kind of a clone of New Belgium's Mothership Wit. What we drank of it was very, very good. It had a funky smell to it, probably from the coriander, but very tasty. The second beer, that we made on Sunday was a Dubbel. I've been wanting to make one for a long time, and he just decided that it was the one he was doing next... so he beat me to it, darn it! He has already decided he's going to make his the wit beer again, so I'm looking forward to that.

Molly's getting back from Minnesota tonight, late. And I still have about 45 minutes of Wal-Mart work to get done.

Have I mentioned that I cannot wait until Hawaii?