geoff_tewierik
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 11/11/07
- Messages
- 677
- Reaction score
- 1
Last weekend I planned on buying a keg fridge and taps from Ross @ Craftbrewer, but unfortunately some scrag decided to run into the back of my car on the Expressway, so I needed to keep my cash in case something popped up, like needing to hire a car while mine got fixed. So instead of picking up a fridge I picked up some grain and yeast instead.
Today the stars aligned, the moon was past full, the sun was shining, the wind was from the north, the missus was occupied (very important
), basically I got my shit together and brewed a beer
Now, for those that dont know me, brewing all grain beer is something Ive done before, a stint at Burleigh Brewing company last year while I was between jobs saw me brewing 4,500L of all grain beer in a batch. But doing a home brew sized batch of all grain beer is not something Ive managed to do.
Ive been gathering equipment for a while now, and its only been today that Ive managed to actually do a brew that involved all my bitz. The grain I picked up from Craftbrewer last weekend was for Dopplebock, based on the recipe on page 89 of Jamils Brewing Classic Styles.
I bought a Fowlers Vacola Sterliser Urn from The Big Burper up on Bribie to use as a HLT. Today I found it holds 28L with the lid on (could fit 30L without) and takes 1.5hrs to heat from 20C to 78C. The HLT also has a minor drip through the tap, thatll need some seeing to prior to the next brew.
I chose not to take up Ross offer to grid the grain, knowing I had a Millmaster at home that was yet crush a grain in anger. Unfortunately Ive not yet been able to motorise the mill, even after two tries, one day itll happen. It took me a good bit of time to crack all 9 and a half kilos of grain required for the batch by hand. I used a 1mm gap, and produced plenty of crushed grains and flour, probably more flour than Id have preferred. With all the hand cranking Im sure Ill be paying for that tomorrow
My mash tun is a Cosmoplast Keep Cool 36L Esky with a twisted stainless braid, that today required a bit of tightening here and there to minimise leaks. Theres something about a curved wall and a flat silicon washer that will always lead to leaks. However mine were minimal, thankfully. The hot water from the HLT, was a little hotter than I would have liked, so I had to add an extra couple of litres of cold water to the tun to bring the temperature down, I would have added more but there was no more room in the tun. I closed the lid at 72 degrees (was supposed to be 68C and came back to it an hour later (after making a trip to Freedom and a second furniture store with the missus to spend her stimulus), and it was still above 70 degrees, so Im sure to get that full bodied beer Im after.
The draining of the tun into the kettle took a hell of a lot longer than I would have liked. I dont know whether it was the triple twist stainless braid, or the excess flour in the grist, but the draining of the tun took forever, at one stage I even had to disturb the upper layer of the mash to allow wort to get past the layer of flour covering the grist. Something Ive never seen before.
I didnt have exactly the right AA hops for the job, but used 50g of 6.9%AA Hallertau Pacific hops Id received from Wayne @ Beerbelly when I purchased my kettle from him. I went with 2/3rds at 60mins and 1/3rd at 20mins, hopefully thatll suffice.
I didnt bother with chilling the beer, instead dropping the wort into a cube for later fermentation. Hopefully Ill get the car sorted by the end of this week and can pick up the keg fridge next weekend and then ferment the beer in it, as my current keg fridge is not something Id like to ferment in.
Cheers,
GT
Today the stars aligned, the moon was past full, the sun was shining, the wind was from the north, the missus was occupied (very important
), basically I got my shit together and brewed a beer Now, for those that dont know me, brewing all grain beer is something Ive done before, a stint at Burleigh Brewing company last year while I was between jobs saw me brewing 4,500L of all grain beer in a batch. But doing a home brew sized batch of all grain beer is not something Ive managed to do.
Ive been gathering equipment for a while now, and its only been today that Ive managed to actually do a brew that involved all my bitz. The grain I picked up from Craftbrewer last weekend was for Dopplebock, based on the recipe on page 89 of Jamils Brewing Classic Styles.
I bought a Fowlers Vacola Sterliser Urn from The Big Burper up on Bribie to use as a HLT. Today I found it holds 28L with the lid on (could fit 30L without) and takes 1.5hrs to heat from 20C to 78C. The HLT also has a minor drip through the tap, thatll need some seeing to prior to the next brew.
I chose not to take up Ross offer to grid the grain, knowing I had a Millmaster at home that was yet crush a grain in anger. Unfortunately Ive not yet been able to motorise the mill, even after two tries, one day itll happen. It took me a good bit of time to crack all 9 and a half kilos of grain required for the batch by hand. I used a 1mm gap, and produced plenty of crushed grains and flour, probably more flour than Id have preferred. With all the hand cranking Im sure Ill be paying for that tomorrow
My mash tun is a Cosmoplast Keep Cool 36L Esky with a twisted stainless braid, that today required a bit of tightening here and there to minimise leaks. Theres something about a curved wall and a flat silicon washer that will always lead to leaks. However mine were minimal, thankfully. The hot water from the HLT, was a little hotter than I would have liked, so I had to add an extra couple of litres of cold water to the tun to bring the temperature down, I would have added more but there was no more room in the tun. I closed the lid at 72 degrees (was supposed to be 68C and came back to it an hour later (after making a trip to Freedom and a second furniture store with the missus to spend her stimulus), and it was still above 70 degrees, so Im sure to get that full bodied beer Im after.
The draining of the tun into the kettle took a hell of a lot longer than I would have liked. I dont know whether it was the triple twist stainless braid, or the excess flour in the grist, but the draining of the tun took forever, at one stage I even had to disturb the upper layer of the mash to allow wort to get past the layer of flour covering the grist. Something Ive never seen before.
I didnt have exactly the right AA hops for the job, but used 50g of 6.9%AA Hallertau Pacific hops Id received from Wayne @ Beerbelly when I purchased my kettle from him. I went with 2/3rds at 60mins and 1/3rd at 20mins, hopefully thatll suffice.
I didnt bother with chilling the beer, instead dropping the wort into a cube for later fermentation. Hopefully Ill get the car sorted by the end of this week and can pick up the keg fridge next weekend and then ferment the beer in it, as my current keg fridge is not something Id like to ferment in.
Cheers,
GT
