Ramp it up

[RickBeer]

As you start using your Mr. Beer LBK, you'll notice a buildup of trub on the bottom as the beer ferments. This trub is good in that you're making beer but nasty when you go to bottle - it clogs things and is a great laxative...

To keep the trub out of the nozzle, many recommend putting something under the front of the LBK - magazines, block of wood, CD/DVD cases. I did the cases for a while but got tired of any minor overflow getting all over them. I also didn't like how the LBK could so easily slide off them. I kept my LBKs on cookie sheets so picking them up, on the CD/DVD cases, was even more precarious.

Not very handy, I decided to build ramps for my LBKs out of plywood that I had available. Measured the LBK, cut a piece of wood for the bottom to provide the incline, one on each side to stop it from sliding off, and then one position in the back so that the nozzle extends over the ramp. I can now pickup my LBKs, keeping them angled, and move them to the frig for cold crashing or the counter for bottling. I painted them with leftover deck stain. I keep them in a Rubbermaid tub so that I don't have to worry about spillovers or broken spigots (tub shown before I had the ramps. Tip - make sure that the tub is long enough for the LBK mounted on the ramp, and make sure you don't extend the LBK too far over the ramp so that you can't fit the whole thing in the tub.

20130314_142540.jpg (186.54 KiB) Viewed 938 times

20130309_085120.jpg (186.28 KiB) Viewed 938 times

[Gman20]

good idea!! last time i bottled a slug of trub came out when pouriing first bottle...btw all your posts at that other site meat something to me and many others as well too bad not mr. b tho

[RickBeer]

Thanks!

[DirtRacer]

Thanks for sharing Rick. The perfect little project for me to do this weekend.

[duff]

I like that idea. When I was still using my LBK I was using it on a shelf in a bookshelf that I had converted to an open dresser. I put the pegs for the front of the shelf up on hole from the hole the rear pegs were in so that it was at an angle.

[Brewbirds]

I'm waiting for version 2.0 where he gets it go from raising the front to the back on bottling day so we can get that last few ounces of beer out.

[tomtravelino]

Very nice I like that. I have been using scrap wood to prop it up but this looks much more stable than that.

[RickBeer]

Very nice I like that. I have been using scrap wood to prop it up but this looks much more stable than that.

It is more stable - and more importantly you can pick the LBK up on the ramp, carry it to the counter or frig, and not worry about it sliding off or losing the tilt.

[Yankeedag]

Hydrolics is the answer... get great advice from your local ...or is that loco... Low Rider Enthousiast

[BrownstotheBone]

good idea!! last time i bottled a slug of trub came out when pouriing first bottle...btw all your posts at that other site meat something to me and many others as well too bad not mr. b tho

Just tasted my first trub last week. I opened a liter that was the last to be bottled from my first batch (no tilting) and literally threw up into the sink. LOL It was labeled "sediment" if that tells you anything...
I think most of it was mental (I am), but it was nasty. Since then I have done the CD/DVD case method AND started cold crashing and batch priming which really looks to have helped on my 2nd bottling.

I would also like to mention Rick and his posts from "over there". He helped me out with great information numerous times when I was more clueless than I am now, and I truly do appreciate it.
The more I read the more I realize what I don't know. But with a site as fantastic as this one I have the courage to push forward. Whatever baby steps those might be.

[RickBeer]

Brownstothebone:

Thanks for the nice words. Don't forget about mailing 10% of all future brews to:

RickBeer
12 I Will Drink Your Beer Drive
Nothing In Life Is Free, Michigan 48105

[BrownstotheBone]

Brownstothebone:

Thanks for the nice words. Don't forget about mailing 10% of all future brews to:

RickBeer
12 I Will Drink Your Beer Drive
Nothing In Life Is Free, Michigan 48105

It keeps coming back!