Photos of SMaSH Brew day and Bottling day

I have high hopes for this beer, waiting 2-3 weeks for it to carb up is going to be hard! Here is what went into it for a 5 gallon batch:

-10.0 lbs Briess Pale Ale Malt
-1.0oz Cascade Hops (60 mins)
-1.0oz Cascade Hops (15 Minutes)
-1.0oz Cascade Hops (10 Minutes)
-1.0oz Cascade Hops (Dry Hop in Primary, days 7-12)
-0.5 Whirlfloc Tabs (10 Minutes)
-1 packet dry yeast, Nottingham

-OG = 1.046
-FG = 1.010 (5.0% ABV)

Crushed Grain Measured Out and Ready for Mash



7.5 Gallons of water with my paint bag binder-clipped to the side of my brew kettle



Cascade hops, whirlfloc and Notty yeast ready for post-mash



Kettled wrapped in an old blanket, mashed in at 155, dropped 3 degrees over an hour, with me checking it every 15 minutes. My first AG had mash temps vary wildly, so I checked up on this one a lot. Next time I won't mess with it as much and should only drop 1-2 degrees.



Cold outside on brew day



So I put an extra bucket of water outside to help chill post-boil



After 60 minute mash I mashed out by raising the temp to 170 over 8 minutes (aiming for 10) then pulled the grains and drained into another pot through a colander





Getting up to a boil!



Hops all ready to go



Rinsed the mash bag and used as hop bag for the boil



Chilling in the sink after 60 minute boil



RDWHAHB while waiting, tasty porter from my 2nd batch



Bottling day photos coming up shortly!

I love pictures!!! Keep 'em coming! :rockin:

Looking great!

I want to know how this comes out.

Rinsed out and de-labeled some new bottles at 5am on bottling day, got the dishwasher loaded up with bottles to sanitize at 7:30, went back to sleep for 2 hours, got the fermenter setup on the counter (left bucket) bottling bucket is cleaned and sanatized (right bucket), bottles are sanatized and bottling is ready to rock :rockin:



I'm trying to use more and more 22oz bottles. The amount is perfect for some frosty mugs my in-laws got me as a gift, and it means capping almost half as many bottles. I'm only up to 13 so far...guess I'll just have to get some more beer

Sorry for the sideways photos...


Some sanatizer prepped, I also usually give the entire counter area a wipedown before starting. Plastic jug is in place of a 2qt mason jar for my first attempt at yeast washing.



So maybe I'm paranoid, but I typically take a zip-lock baggie and zip it around the spigot after sanatizing the whole bucket. I ran out of baggies...soooo, foil? Maybe I should have shaped it like a swan.



First time opening primary since dry-hop 5 days prior. It was my first dry-hopped beer, I just threw pellets in directly and am trusting in gravity, the auto-siphon, and bottling spigot to keep any floaters out of the bottles.



Siphon is going. I made my first 2 batches without an auto-siphon, it was the single worst step of the entire process to me. Maybe the best $10 I ever spent.



Beer goes in



Beer goes out



Bottling bucket setup above the now clear dishwasher, bottles arranged where I can reach them, fill them, and set them aside all while sitting.



Sad bottles all lined up with nothing to do...



Hmmm...



Happy bottles ready to go out spread delicious beer to my family, my friends, and myself!



Got pretty much all the beer I wanted, I don't *think* any hop bits or anything made it into the bottles.



Oh, did someone say yeast washing?



We'll see how it goes in about a month. I don't have the best rig for it, I poured from the bucket, into the opening on the apple juice bottle. I actually didn't spill that much



I'll try and post some pics of the first good pours, I'm guessing 2-3 weeks. It smells good, I tasted a tiny sip, it was maltier than I expected, but I think it will taste radically different after a couple weeks aging, carbed up and then chilled.

Now most importantly, I get to brew something similar to this again tomorrow (Sunday). I think it will just substitute willamette hops, and use 12lbs of grain for a little more heft (eventually I want to find a good, but simple, cascade/willamette IPA recipe). Everything else I think I will keep the same, I was pretty happy with the whole process this batch. I will then have 4oz each of cascade/willamette and about 25-30 lbs of grain to blend on 2 more batches, just to sort of experiment.

I love this hobby!

Thanks HBT, you are my #1 resource for brew questions!

Cool pictures!

Seeing all these bottles makes me glad I started kegging . Nice job though, it looks like you have a pretty good system going