My kegerator has been in hibernation. It's lonely. Every so often it clicks on in a cooling hum at me as if trying to get my attention. I figure it's time to stop wasting money on electricity to run the poor empty bastard and do something about it. I went down to the local fermentation supply place earlier today to fix this problem. No fucking clue what to brew. The response I got from my girlfriend was "HOPPY makes me happy. Happy gets you laid." Hoppy it is. Let's do an IPA, but nothing crazy like a Russian River Pliny. I flip through a recipe book only to find the perfect recipe for the job. The Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA. Partial mash. Bingo.
While I paid the seventy and some odd dollars for the ingredients, I was chatting with a fellow brewer about leaky kettle issues. I mentioned having problems with getting a good seal with the valve on my brewing kettle. During the boil, it's always at a slow yet constant leak. Sure, I don't lose much in the end, but fuck me it's annoying. I've tried replacing washers and rubber seals, but to no success. What he suggested doing is putting a metal plate underneath the valve area of the kettle while brewing, as the heat from the burner may be causing the seal to fail. It makes sense to me. I'll be testing out his hypothesis on this batch. Now if I could just get a fuckin' day off...
Cheers Hopheads! Cheers
