chrislehr

Recipes 

I am sure I am missing a few things, but I was doing this checklist from memory this morning.. feel free to let me know any other tips or process oriented things you would do or change in this. This is for mini mashing.

Also, I really would like a section LIKE this for kegging - still reading/learning on that process.

thezepster

Recipes 

looks good to me! I was planning on doing this exact same thing when I do my first AG. glad someone else did it first!

Maltose

Recipes 

do yourself a favor and either buy a Better Bottle or put a racking valve on your carboys for transfer. i would NEVER blow into a racking tube. some people say that the chance of contamination are minimal, but the fact remains that there is still bacteria in your mouth. small investment for a big gain.

chrislehr

Recipes 

Valid point. I actually bought a siphon starter 2 days ago, so I think I may have already fixed that

Hopheader

Recipes 

Wow, what a GREAT idea--you're well ahead of the pack if you are a 'somewhat inexperienced' brewer with that list. Something I never made when I started... That's years ago and I'm still saying, sometimes, did I ........

And congrats on the siphon starter. I used to blow/suck siphon hose and then just dip it into starsan, but the $20 investment for the proper auto siphon has been peace-of-mind much better..........now if I can just find out how the heck I'm getting my phenolics/chlorophenols, hahahaha.

Couple things I'm seeing>>>
A) I like your re-use/green brewing by feeding spent grain and adding stuff to compost. Doing anything with your 'grey water'?--for me, the worst part about cleaning and brewing, all the water use.

B) Use of dishwasher for sanitizing--with any cleaner/chemical or just the hot water/steam? I'm assuming your bottles are actually CLEANED before this step--assuming you rinse a few times after consumption and drip dry, etc. store upside down, etc. so nothing gets in / aren't using 'donated bottles'---I've asked friends to not bother giving me bottles anymore unless they look like I could drink from them right away, just not worth my time brushing and scrubbing and soaking.

C) adding priming sugar and AERATING??? Whoa, Nelly! The ONLY time you aerate your beer, should be aerating the WORT just before pitching yeast. You want to aerate the crap out of it at that stage with whatever method you use.

When transferring/racking/ you want to have the end of your hose (the output) below the surface of liquid at all times (...as much as possible...), never splashing. And certainly not aerating (I'd be curious to find out where you heard/learned that one, personally---my BJCP classes and reading could be wrong but doubtful) at the finished stage.

Simply add your liquid sugar priming mix first and siphon on top of it; the natural motion of the liquid will combine it.

Good luck! Keep on' brewin'!

__________________
Primary: Dunkelweizen
Secondary: BrewHouse IPA
Forgotten about: Samichlaus
Keg: Special Bitter
Keg 2: American Barleywine

SumnerH

Recipes 

I assume you're using dry yeast or that the YEAST = a starter. If the former, you missed a rehydrate step in here somewhere.

1. Move the "bring water to boil" step to the top of this list. That takes a long time; you can get your other stuff together and prep the sanitizer while that's happening. (remember, nothing that's going into the boil kettle needs to be sanitized. It's anything that's going to touch the wort after you flame out that needs to be sanitized).

2. 155-160 might be a little low of a strike temp, depending on how much grain you have.

Before this, check temp and make sure it's in the 153Fish range.

I'd modify this for efficiency: Use a gallon as sparge (cooled to 170F) and set the grain bag in it for 15 minutes, then drain and add to the boil kettle.

But your way will work okay, too.

I find it easier to buy a 2.5 gallon of spring water than to mess around boiling water and trying to get it cooled down in time to chill things well, but if you don't have chilling issues your way is cheaper.


When I do extract, I can successfully mix it in without turning off the flame, so I just start mixing it in once the kettle's up to 200F or so--I stir like mad for 10-15 minutes, but it saves time.

But your way's less risky, and the time savings is only a few minutes.

I wait for the hot break to happen first.

After you do the first hops addition, you generally have a big block of down time--this is a good time to clean up anything you can clean (less for later) and mentally double-check your list.

Yep. Then I'd:
1) Sanitize anything I'm going to use, including the fermenter
2) Prep the ice bath (assuming I don't have a chiller)

If using an immersion chiller, add it to the boil at 15 minutes so it has time to heat sanitize.

If I had a wort chiller, I'd do a full boil instead of a partial boil; your stove may not permit that, but see how much of a boil you can do.

Now you oxygenate (shake the carboy for a couple of minutes).

I don't do this for 90% of beers.

Use an autosiphon. If you don't have one, fill the hose with sanitizer, keep it full, and use that to start the siphon--obviously discard the runnings of sanitizer.

Be careful not to oxygenate the wort (keep the end of the hose in the secondary as low as possible).

DO NOT AERATE! Avoid aeration as much as possible at all times after you've pitched the yeast (technically the first couple of days it's okay, but certainly avoid oxygen after primary is done).

Or longer.

Almost identical to racking to secondary (the keg is the secondary), but once it's closed up you can purge the headspace with CO2 (attach gas briefly, detach, pull release valve, repeat a few times). Then hit it with the gas to seat the lid.

When you're ready to carb, throw it in the kegerator, hook the gas up at serving pressure, and wait a week. Or read around for force carbing instructions.

__________________
On deck: Little Bo Pils, Bretta Off Dead (Brett pale)
Secondary: Oude Bruin, Red Sky at Morning (Sour brown ale)
On tap: Saison Duphunk (sour), Amarillo Slim (IPA), Earl White (ginger/bergamot wit)
Bottled: Number 8 (Belgian Strong Dark Ale), Eternale (Barleywine), Ancho Villa (Ancho/pasilla/chocolate/cinnamon RIS), Oak smoked porter (1/2 maple bourbon oaked, 1/2 apple brandy oaked)

chrislehr

Recipes 

Thanks!!
Wort chilling water goes into a rain barrel after chilling the wort. The grey water from sanitizing has too harsh a chemical for most green stuff, so that goes to the sewers. BTW, chickens LOVE the spent grains. They go completely ape**** for it.
I do rinse and bottle brush first. Then I do a "sanitize" and "heat dry" run on the D/W with the bottom rack full. I do 1/2 brewvint and 1/2 regular d/w soap. The bottles come out hot as heck, need a cool down in there, but it's like a 3 hour run and cool cycle so it kills most anything in there I think. Plus, its nice to just flip down the d/w door and do all my filling there, when I am done, I close it up and that's all folks!
This might have been a mis-step on my part - will change my ways here.

chrislehr

Recipes 

Starters here, sorry didn't specify. Never done a dry yeast.

Learned that this weekend - edited.

Is there a calculator or recommendation on grains versus temps?

Not a bad idea on the water. I am leaning towards full boils anyhow. I think with that, I will wort chill and ice bath down to 80 and then rack.

I could do that, but steam burns scare me.

What is hot break? N00b question, ill google it.

Never thought of that one, excellent idea.

I have a Bayou burner - I can boil a LOT.

As above, my poor memory was giving me aeration ideas. Will change my ways there.

so hard to wait...
Thank you, sir!

HokieBrewer

Recipes 

I'd skip secondary - unnecessary and greater chance for infections. Unless it's a BIG beer than needs some bulk conditioning time that is...

SumnerH

Recipes 

http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

If you're doing full boil, you don't have cold top-off water so you want to chill all the way down to your pitching temp (which is almost always below 80).

It's when all the proteins from the grain coagulate. Not a big issue with all-extract, but even with specialty grains it's worth waiting for IMO. Google for pics; it happens pretty soon after you reach full boil.

__________________
On deck: Little Bo Pils, Bretta Off Dead (Brett pale)
Secondary: Oude Bruin, Red Sky at Morning (Sour brown ale)
On tap: Saison Duphunk (sour), Amarillo Slim (IPA), Earl White (ginger/bergamot wit)
Bottled: Number 8 (Belgian Strong Dark Ale), Eternale (Barleywine), Ancho Villa (Ancho/pasilla/chocolate/cinnamon RIS), Oak smoked porter (1/2 maple bourbon oaked, 1/2 apple brandy oaked)