Heather's sister Heidi and I have been speaking about brewing together for years. She has an appreciation for good beer and is a creative genius in the kitchen (http://www.101cookbooks.com).
Heidi's expanding her portfolio and entering into the world of fermenting sugars rather than just cooking with them. Heidi will help us formulate recipes, adding a touch of creativity to the process. She's also become an "investor" having just splashed out on a 15 Gallon Mash Tun. Sweet.
Here's our first joint venture brew, a (very) slightly modified brew originally created by Byron Burch of the beverage people. We doubled the hops because, well, they were sitting around doing nothing - and we couldn't just copy a recipe verbatim could we?
Brew Journal below. Kinda bland if you don't know brewing. If you are interested and want explanations about stuff let me know.
It's a 5 Gallon all grain brew.
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Grain Bill -
6 lbs. 2 Row Malt
2 lbs. 6 Row Malt
2 lbs. Rye Malt
2 lbs. Rolled Rye
Hops -
1 oz. Spalt Hop Pellets (60 min.)
1 oz. Spalt Hop Pellets (30 min.)
1 #WLP029 German Alt Yeast
Water treatment -
1/2 tsp. Gypsum
1/4 tsp. Calcium Chloride
2 tsp Irish Moss
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Brew Day Stuff -
12 lbs of grain = 13.2 quarts of water for the mash (3.3 Gallons).
We didn't get a high enough mash-in temperature using the cooler, probably because I'd rinsed the mash tun with cold water before putting the water in. Temperature dropped 25 deg. to 140 once grain was in. This will be the last time I use the cooler method.
Added boiling water, slowly, raising the temperature to around 150 after it sat at 140 for 10 minutes.
We had one boil over, nothing too bad.
Cooled wort down using wort chiller to around 70 deg.
OG was 1.063.
FG (two weeks later) was 1.012.
Fermentation started after around 12 hours. Fermetation was at around 69 for the first 2 days. dropped to around 65 for a day, up to 69 again during a hot spell after one week. stayed around 66 to 67 for the rest of the time. 2 week fermentation
Bottle day it smelled kinda musty in the car boy. tasted OK. Bottling took around 3.5 hours.
7 comments:
Hey Mark, don't give up on the cooler for your mash. I use my 5 gallon model 100% of the time, along with a false bottom that allows me to double it as a sparge vessel.
Just preheat it a bit with your extra mash water (a quart should do it) before you add your grain. I generally add my preheated water to it at about 145 degrees and let it set 5 minutes before dumping it and adding the grain. I actually made a little spreadsheet that lets me input my grain weight and temperature, mash water volume and desired rest temperature to calculate my required mash water temperature. I regularly get it to within 2 degrees of target. For 78 degree grain, I heat my mash water to 157 deg and get a 150deg mash.
Thanks for the comments FP! The spreadsheet approach makes a great deal of sense, smart man.
During this brew day I just didn't have my head in for game for the the basics - preheating the tun is exactly what I used to do! I think that's why i like the all grain approach, it's not easy but when you get it right it's very rewarding.
Do you think there's any concern with heating up the cooler for both mashing and sparging? I'm wondering about "undesirables" from the plastic, which I assume is designed for keeping things colder.
I'd like to have more versatility for a mash tun, an easier way to do a multiple infusion mash to heat the tun direct. I'm also considering double batches in one day, using different mash styles, but I need to get my head around equipment needed.
Thanks again FP, I'll be hunting for the beer on your site when I get home from work.
Sorry for the delayed reply. No, I wouldn't worry about putting hot water in the cooler. Look in any number of catalogues and beer blogs and you'll see the standard, round, 5 and 10 gallon coolers are the norm for the average Joe's homebrew system. I usually limit mine to 180 degrees for the sparge water, just to be safe.
Looking forward to your next post! Be sure and check mine for the latest; Elizabeth jump started me again.
Cheers!
Cheers FP! I did a Kellerbier two weekends ago, I'll get the notes posted up!
You always make the most interesting brews. Was curious as to how the rye turned out? Check my blog this weekend for my first sip of Irish Red (tonight) and my plan for the next 3 brews.
Cheers to you and the family!
Encore! Encore! We need an update...
yes boss! I'll get the writeup in on Sunday!
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