Psyched for my next batch

My first batch is bottled, sitting in the basement carbing up (hopefully!).  I have been checking out the bottles every couple of days, though I don't really know what the hell I am looking for since it was the first time I have ever done this.  I am excited, however, to take all the things I have learned from the first batch and hope my 2nd batch will be much improved!

New Process and Equipment

As I noted in an earlier post, I went on a bit of a homebrew shopping spree for this next batch.  The one thing I haven't yet received is my immersion chiller.  I was able to find this bad boy on Amazon

Immersion Chiller, sold by HomeBrewStuff, image from Amazon

This is the only thing I am waiting on right now before I start my next batch.  I'm also planning on making a 1L starter with this batch, fermenting in a Better Bottle, controlling my fermentation temperatures, as well as a turning my spare racking cane into a venturi device.  This is something I just read about which is neat and basically free. 

I asked a question on the HBT forums about aeration; for this next batch my primary will be a 6G Better Bottle instead of my plastic bucket so I can't exactly dump the wort from my kettle directly in.  The cheapest easiest way to get air into the wort was to use SCIENCE!



Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill!



The Venturi Effect

The Venturi effect is a jet effect; as with a funnel the velocity of the fluid increases as the cross sectional area decreases, with the static pressure correspondingly decreasing¹

Basically what this means is if you have wort whizzing past a little hole in a tube, the speed of the fluid will suck air into the mix - automagically aerating it without having to splish splosh or roll around afterwards. 

You can get this effect by either heating up a straightened out paperclip and poking holes in your tubing, or using a small drill bit.  Obviously you would only want to do this racking from the kettle to the primary as you don't want O2 introduced after primary fermentation!

Better Cooling

I also ordered a Cool Brewing cooler off Amazon, which will better allow me to control my fermentation temperatures.  I didn't really control temperatures at all on the first batch, and it tasted OK going into the bottle.  I wouldn't say it was great, but again it was my first batch.  I am hoping that with some more careful temperature control, I will remove any off flavors that might have gotten into my brew and make for a better finished product.  I'll post a review here, as well as on Amazon and let the folks at HBT know my experiences as well.  As far as I can tell, Cool Brewing is a startup who just got into business within the past 3-4 months, so if this is a solid product I want to help the guy out!

New Style

My first batch was a kit called "Oompah Altbier" from HomeSweetHomebrew in Philly.  It is described as a "Traditional malty Dusseldorf style Copper Ale" - we'll see how it actually turns out.  I didn't like the other kits that HSH had, so I bundled a kit in with my equipment order from Midwest Supplies².  The kit I got is their cream stout - a sweet stout recipe.  I plan on adding a couple of vanilla beans to the secondary as well to give it a little somethin somethin.

All in all I'm pretty excited about everything for the 2nd batch.  If I am able to get the chest freezer from my mother's house in a timely manner, I'll pick up kegging equipment because bottling sucks.

Cheers!

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venturi_effect
2. As an aside, MWS was awesome.  They packed and shipped out my order within hours of it being placed on their website.  Everything arrived in a single box, packed very nicely, and as I noted in my website security post - they are one of the few vendors who actually seem to give a shit about it.  I will definitely be ordering from these guys again!