Brew Day 7-11-09

Ok starter made, equipment cleaned. Just about to crush the grains and fired up the keggle to pre-heat the Mash & lauter tuns. Making a simple American Pale Ale today, should be a good day!

Heres the starter I made Thur, its pretty active. Maybe I added too much food, i dunno.

question, its calling for 2 tbl spoons of gypsum. should I add that to the boil or prepare all my mash water with it?

I believe you add that too the boil ...kind of like irish moss.

some people put it in their mash though so i guess its up too you. I hear gypsum is really good for ipa's.

- I normally put it in the boil.

Starting protien rest aiming for 127 for 30mins, ended up at 128

heres the crush.

protien rest

I'm brewing an APA today as well. What's your recipe? Mine's

10 lbs 2-row
.5 lbs Crystal 40L
.75 oz Magnum 60 min.
1 oz Amarillo 10 min.
1 oz Amarillo 0 min.
2 oz Willamette dry-hop 1 week in primary
No secondary, leave in primary for 4 weeks

Have a good day!

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - BeerSmith Brewing Software, Recipes, Blog, Wiki and Discussion Forum
Recipe: East Coast Americam Pale Ale
Brewer: Paul Ledford
Asst Brewer: SWMBO
Style: American Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 7.78 gal
Estimated OG: 1.047 SG
Estimated Color: 7.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 53.0 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 94.44 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 5.56 %
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -
1.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 21.3 IBU
1.00 oz Cluster [7.00 %] (60 min) Hops 24.1 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (30 min) (Aroma Hop-SteeHops -
0.75 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (20 min) Hops 7.7 IBU
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
2.20 tsp Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [StartYeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Double Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 9.00 lb
----------------------------
Double Infusion, Medium Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
30 min Protein Rest Add 2.25 gal of water at 139.9 F 127.0 F
60 min Saccrification Add 1.20 gal of water at 197.5 F 148.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 2.00 gal of water at 209.1 F 168.0 F

mash out was a bit short, came in at 164. 10 mins and then start the sparge.

setting up

What kind of thermometer in your mash? I'm looking for a new one.

mash out. I'll give it one more good stir, filter it, then start the sparge

Edit: removed by Snafu

shecky said:

What kind of thermometer in your mash? I'm looking for a new one.

Click to expand...

I use several, but the one you see is a Big Red, extremely accurate & waterproof!

anyone know how much 2 tsp of gypsum weighs in oz's or grams?

well, just had my first snafu, I left the valve open on the keggle so when I poured in my first runnings from the sparge, some hit the floor. "muttering"

Sparge sample, looks pretty clear!

One must enjoy a home brew while brewing. It pleases the beer gods! (its a rule ya know)

Sparge is taking a bit longer than I wanted, its been an hour.

ok estimated pre-boil gravity was .040, it was actually .037 Not bad!

Made it to the hot break, yeah, it was real close to boil over!

Ok, already added 2 additions of hops, and just added the last one. It needs to steep for 30 mins then start the chiller.

Just about done, OG ended up 1.044, was aiming for 1.047

Oh that looks good, doing an Arrogant Bastard clone tomorrow.
I hope it comes out to be the best I have ever made in decades.

I did a Kona Fire Rock pale yesterday. Bubbling along nicely now.

Looks like it was a mighty productive day!!

Dang, I just noticed this ended up just out of the style. 045 is the minimum. Oh well, guess i'll have to force myself to drink it all up and try again.

Can we get a link for the thermometer??

If the gypsum is being added to adjust water parameters I think the gypsum should be added to all of your water...mash/sparge/boil. Although I think the most important is to add it to the mash water.

And +1 for a link to that thermometer.

boredatwork said:

And +1 for a link to that thermometer.

Click to expand...

+2, 3 and 4, pretty please.

Ok heres my local HBS Wine & Beer Equipment Accessories the part # for the thermometer is 11760