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Final stats from my brew day:
Efficiency: 80% (highest ever, previous best was 68%)
Time: about 7.5 hours
In the carboys: 2 gallons of barley wine, 5 gallons of high-grav Hob Goblin clone, 5 gallons of low-grav chocolate porter
Well, I'd been staring at my brew sculpture long enough. It has a 4-port water manifold hooked up to the garden hose. I built it so I can turn the CFC, sprayer, and hose on and off from a single point on the brew stand. It's got a dumper system for the MLT. Just hold a trash bag over the MLT, pull the handle, and it dumps all the spent grains almost effortlessly- and you can then use the manifold to turn on the sprayer attachment and remove the rest of the debris. The CFC is largely built in. It's got a cooler high up for an MLT and two burners, either of which can be used as a hot liquor tank or brew kettle as the moment requires.
I'd been hesitant to use it, unsure of how well it would work. Well, last night, I took the leap. I had it set up and started to brew around 9:30pm and finished, with three batches completed, partigyle style, by 0500. Three batches in 7.5 hours? Not bad. And I could've shaved some time off if I had had my sculpture all set up to begin with. I realized I could've done a batch continuously every 75 minutes without any problem from there forward.
For the efficiency, I cranked down my mill. I mean, cranked it down until I could barely see any light through the rollers. And my efficiency gained about 15 points as a result. I came out at about 80% for my grain bill, so thanks for all the help you guys gave me on that a few months ago.
So here's my brew day....
16 lbs 2-row
2 lbs Munich
1 lb aroma malt
Pulled 2 gallons out of the first runnings at an OG of 1.088. Cut it down with water to 1.070 and used it as the basis for my barleywine, anticipating one or two later additions of higher-gravity brew down the line to boost the ABV.
Then I added 2 more lbs of 2-row
1/2 lb crystal 60
1/3 lb chocolate malt
and pulled out 6.5 gallons of Hob Goblin Clone. I added the 2-row only because I was afraid my gravity would be a little low. Turns out, I over compensated. After boiling down to 5 gallons, it came out to a starting gravity of 1.070. Wow! Then I added...
1/2 lb carapils
1/4 lb black patent
1 lb munich
3/4 lb chocolate
and ran some more water through. I came out with 7 gallons of wort at 1.024. I boiled it down to 1.032
For those of you who get lousy efficiency, I had an epiphany. Partigyle brewing, or Party-guile brewing (my term where you add more grains as you go) definitely boosts efficiency. By anticipating the use of lower-grav runnings to make a small beer, you can squeeze more out of the grains. I mean, really, who wants to spend all day taking their runnings down to 1.008 and then wasting propane to boil that down to a meaningful starting gravity? On the other hand, if you plan on a brew with an OG of 1.030, suddenly those runnings have some use.
So far, the low-grav chocolate porter and hob goblin are bubbling away. No signs of life from the barley-wine-to-be.
Cheers!
Efficiency: 80% (highest ever, previous best was 68%)
Time: about 7.5 hours
In the carboys: 2 gallons of barley wine, 5 gallons of high-grav Hob Goblin clone, 5 gallons of low-grav chocolate porter
Well, I'd been staring at my brew sculpture long enough. It has a 4-port water manifold hooked up to the garden hose. I built it so I can turn the CFC, sprayer, and hose on and off from a single point on the brew stand. It's got a dumper system for the MLT. Just hold a trash bag over the MLT, pull the handle, and it dumps all the spent grains almost effortlessly- and you can then use the manifold to turn on the sprayer attachment and remove the rest of the debris. The CFC is largely built in. It's got a cooler high up for an MLT and two burners, either of which can be used as a hot liquor tank or brew kettle as the moment requires.
I'd been hesitant to use it, unsure of how well it would work. Well, last night, I took the leap. I had it set up and started to brew around 9:30pm and finished, with three batches completed, partigyle style, by 0500. Three batches in 7.5 hours? Not bad. And I could've shaved some time off if I had had my sculpture all set up to begin with. I realized I could've done a batch continuously every 75 minutes without any problem from there forward.
For the efficiency, I cranked down my mill. I mean, cranked it down until I could barely see any light through the rollers. And my efficiency gained about 15 points as a result. I came out at about 80% for my grain bill, so thanks for all the help you guys gave me on that a few months ago.
So here's my brew day....
16 lbs 2-row
2 lbs Munich
1 lb aroma malt
Pulled 2 gallons out of the first runnings at an OG of 1.088. Cut it down with water to 1.070 and used it as the basis for my barleywine, anticipating one or two later additions of higher-gravity brew down the line to boost the ABV.
Then I added 2 more lbs of 2-row
1/2 lb crystal 60
1/3 lb chocolate malt
and pulled out 6.5 gallons of Hob Goblin Clone. I added the 2-row only because I was afraid my gravity would be a little low. Turns out, I over compensated. After boiling down to 5 gallons, it came out to a starting gravity of 1.070. Wow! Then I added...
1/2 lb carapils
1/4 lb black patent
1 lb munich
3/4 lb chocolate
and ran some more water through. I came out with 7 gallons of wort at 1.024. I boiled it down to 1.032
For those of you who get lousy efficiency, I had an epiphany. Partigyle brewing, or Party-guile brewing (my term where you add more grains as you go) definitely boosts efficiency. By anticipating the use of lower-grav runnings to make a small beer, you can squeeze more out of the grains. I mean, really, who wants to spend all day taking their runnings down to 1.008 and then wasting propane to boil that down to a meaningful starting gravity? On the other hand, if you plan on a brew with an OG of 1.030, suddenly those runnings have some use.
So far, the low-grav chocolate porter and hob goblin are bubbling away. No signs of life from the barley-wine-to-be.
Cheers!