Siborg
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- 6/2/10
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Well, I just pitched my yeast a day after a full-on AG brew day. It was hard work, but I feel satisfied that I've finally done it, and can probably do it better next time. Here's a bit of a run down as to how my day went:
9:00 Got out of bed, watched telly and had a coffee.
10:00 Started cleaning and inspecting all my gear. Set up a stand out of pavers and bricks for the mongolian burner, on loan from beerbelly.
11:00 Get paranoid about my manifold coming apart during the mash. Crimp all the pieces a little, then can't get it back together.
12:00 after alot of swearing and cursing, start heating up strike water for mash in.
1:19 Taking it carefully, mash in with 14.5L of water and got 64 degrees. Added another 1.4L of 73 degree water, and got it up to 65 degrees. Stirred with mash paddle, put the lid on and waited.
2:20 Mash out with 8L of boiling water. Got mash out temp of 72 degrees. Aiming for 77, I ran inside the house and grabbed the boiling 1.7L from the kettle and added that. I only got it up to 75 degrees, for a mash out, but I had no other way of quickly raising temp, so I left it.
2:35 Start recirculating first runnings. Did this 4-5 times until it was nice and clear. This was the most tedious part for me.
2:50 The mash is stuck! Stir and recirculate, continue draining.
3:05 Add 16.5L of 75 degree sparge water. Stir and recirculate.
3:20 Drain. Didn't get stuck this time.
3:30 Add 14L (nearly) of 75 degree (give or take a couple degrees (take). Ran out of water in my kettle. Stir and recirculate
3:40 Drain. Mash is stuck AGAIN. Stir and *sigh* recirculate.
3:50 poured runnings into boil kettle and turned flame to 11
4:41 Boiling. Boiled for 15mins to drive of DMS. Get scared look from my brother as he rocks up from work.
4:56 Added 20g of amarillo
5:10 Get look of disaprooval from mum as she gets home from work
5:36 added 20g of amarillo
5:46 Added 1 tablet of irish moss.
5:56 Flame off. Whirlpooled, and drained into sanitised cubes. Followed instructions from the no-chill article.
6:10 Off to a nice restaurant to eat something (thats right... I forgot to eat!)
I was knackered by the end of the day. The stuck mashes pissed me off, and I was sick of recirculating by the end of the day. I ended up pitching the yeast an hour or so ago and the wort temp was 21 degrees. Should drop a little overnight. I have the ice on stand by just in case it heats up tomorrow arvo. I have 22L of AG wort sitting in the fermenter. I took a reading and it was 1041. Its a little, on the low side, but if the yeast attenuates as much as it did in the last brew, I should end up with a 4-4.2% ABV beer. I was tempted to add a little LDME, but I decided against it, as I wanted this to be full AG. I have to look at what I can do next time to get a better effiencey. I ended up with another 9L bucket of sparged wort, and I wasted a little in the mash tun and at the bottom of the boil kettle.
By the way, when I took a gravity reading, I had a taste, and it was nice and bitter. I will see if it needs some hops for aroma later on and might do what brendo suggested with the french press.
Thanks to everyone for the advice so far. Thanks especially to beerbelly for lending me the equipment I needed to get going.
Pics:
9:00 Got out of bed, watched telly and had a coffee.
10:00 Started cleaning and inspecting all my gear. Set up a stand out of pavers and bricks for the mongolian burner, on loan from beerbelly.
11:00 Get paranoid about my manifold coming apart during the mash. Crimp all the pieces a little, then can't get it back together.
12:00 after alot of swearing and cursing, start heating up strike water for mash in.
1:19 Taking it carefully, mash in with 14.5L of water and got 64 degrees. Added another 1.4L of 73 degree water, and got it up to 65 degrees. Stirred with mash paddle, put the lid on and waited.
2:20 Mash out with 8L of boiling water. Got mash out temp of 72 degrees. Aiming for 77, I ran inside the house and grabbed the boiling 1.7L from the kettle and added that. I only got it up to 75 degrees, for a mash out, but I had no other way of quickly raising temp, so I left it.
2:35 Start recirculating first runnings. Did this 4-5 times until it was nice and clear. This was the most tedious part for me.
2:50 The mash is stuck! Stir and recirculate, continue draining.
3:05 Add 16.5L of 75 degree sparge water. Stir and recirculate.
3:20 Drain. Didn't get stuck this time.
3:30 Add 14L (nearly) of 75 degree (give or take a couple degrees (take). Ran out of water in my kettle. Stir and recirculate
3:40 Drain. Mash is stuck AGAIN. Stir and *sigh* recirculate.
3:50 poured runnings into boil kettle and turned flame to 11
4:41 Boiling. Boiled for 15mins to drive of DMS. Get scared look from my brother as he rocks up from work.
4:56 Added 20g of amarillo
5:10 Get look of disaprooval from mum as she gets home from work
5:36 added 20g of amarillo
5:46 Added 1 tablet of irish moss.
5:56 Flame off. Whirlpooled, and drained into sanitised cubes. Followed instructions from the no-chill article.
6:10 Off to a nice restaurant to eat something (thats right... I forgot to eat!)
I was knackered by the end of the day. The stuck mashes pissed me off, and I was sick of recirculating by the end of the day. I ended up pitching the yeast an hour or so ago and the wort temp was 21 degrees. Should drop a little overnight. I have the ice on stand by just in case it heats up tomorrow arvo. I have 22L of AG wort sitting in the fermenter. I took a reading and it was 1041. Its a little, on the low side, but if the yeast attenuates as much as it did in the last brew, I should end up with a 4-4.2% ABV beer. I was tempted to add a little LDME, but I decided against it, as I wanted this to be full AG. I have to look at what I can do next time to get a better effiencey. I ended up with another 9L bucket of sparged wort, and I wasted a little in the mash tun and at the bottom of the boil kettle.
By the way, when I took a gravity reading, I had a taste, and it was nice and bitter. I will see if it needs some hops for aroma later on and might do what brendo suggested with the french press.
Thanks to everyone for the advice so far. Thanks especially to beerbelly for lending me the equipment I needed to get going.
Pics:
All up it takes me 35 minutes to make an all grain beer (not counting "waiting periods"). I record movies and motorsports events and watch them during brewing.
