I know you’ve all been patiently waiting for us to update you on Friday night, so here it goes.

We didn’t brew, but we bottled our wheat. Remember when I posed the question, “did we turn a beer making corner?”

We did.
A hard right turn.
Hold on tight kind of turn.

We’re back baby! Our wheat, although not even carbonated yet, was amazing! The color was perfect! The flavor was perfect! The alcohol content was perfect! It is exactly what we’ve been waiting for! Exclamation points for everyone!!!!!!

We can’t wait to taste this bad boy again in about two weeks. More to come!

In a previous post I had sung the praises of our workhorse brew pump. Check her out now!

While the pump had always been an awesome tool in our brewing arsenal, up until now it has left much to be desired in its ability to achieve and maintain prime. As such we would constantly have to disconnect and reconnect hoses, often spewing boiling wort or water all over the place. At best this would leave us with a very sticky floor. At worst, second degree burns to the hands and arms. Either way, this kinda sucked.

As such, we made a few changes to our pump plumbing, and I for one could not be happier with the result.

First, we reconfigured the pump head to a vertical alignment with the intake at the bottom. This makes it much easier for air bubbles in the line to vacate the system. Less air in the lines=easier prime. Secondly, we added valves for each of the intake ports. This gives us much more control over the flow of liquid and also seems to drastically reduce the amount of air that finds its way into the system.

The end result? A much more efficient brew process and a lot less mopping.