ThatGuyRyan
Well-Known Member
Here is a little background on this brew. I was planning on doing this a few weeks ago when I would have had some help. Unfortunately my order for my 15 gallon fermenter was lost or misplaced so they say but it finally came just almost a month later. So anyway I really wanted to get this bad boy under my belt and it was now or hold off for another month so I decided what the hell. I listened to the show on TBN a few times and studied all the recipes that I could find and they were all really almost identical. I really wanted to do a 10 gallon batch but with the shipment problem with the fermenter I held off picking up a larger pot. But when it came time to brew there was no way in hell I was brewing this by myself and only doing a 5 gallon batch so I decided to push my system to the limit. This is probably not the best beer to test your systems limit but hey isn’t that half the fun? So I decided to try a 7.5 gallon batch. Doing so I had to make due with what I had and let me tell you this was a basement, kitchen stove and out side brew all at once!
I had the do this over two days since the total process took about 12-13 hours. Here is my step by step for day one. I didn’t take a pic of me making my own amber malt but I did it by just slow roasting some 2-row per instructions that I found online slowly increasing the temp in the stove for about an hour and 45 minutes.
My starter was a big one since I started it almost two weeks earlier expecting my fermenter. After a week on the stir plate it was off to the fridge. Then once the fermenter arrived I took the starter out and decanted ¾ the liquid and let it warm to room temp. Once room temp I added another quart of wort and back onto the stir plate. And within an hour I that I was going to have to use a blow off on my flask it started up so vigorously.
Maxed out the cooler with 25lbs of grain.
Had to use two pots for strike water and sparge water one pot was filled twice.
Really wish I had a pump this one took forever to get clear running’s. I used a decoction on this also a first for me! Stike was at 128 to end up at 120.
Pulled 6qts off boiled and returned to raise mash to 135. Then pulled 7 qts boiled to reach 146. Held at 146ish for 60 min.
By this time I was tired! So I decided to sparge on the fly since everything else was a first for this why not fly?
Realizing that I could not get all 11 gallons of preboil in my bucket and also since I didn’t have a kettle to hold 11 gallons neither I decided to rig up a splitter so each bucket got equal running’s. This concluded day one besides clean up both sanitized fermenters were filled to 5-1/2 gallons and put on the back porch since the temp was at a nice 35 degrees. I also cooled both in the buckets with my wort chiller. I don’t think it was really necessary but why not.
I had the do this over two days since the total process took about 12-13 hours. Here is my step by step for day one. I didn’t take a pic of me making my own amber malt but I did it by just slow roasting some 2-row per instructions that I found online slowly increasing the temp in the stove for about an hour and 45 minutes.
My starter was a big one since I started it almost two weeks earlier expecting my fermenter. After a week on the stir plate it was off to the fridge. Then once the fermenter arrived I took the starter out and decanted ¾ the liquid and let it warm to room temp. Once room temp I added another quart of wort and back onto the stir plate. And within an hour I that I was going to have to use a blow off on my flask it started up so vigorously.
Maxed out the cooler with 25lbs of grain.
Had to use two pots for strike water and sparge water one pot was filled twice.
Really wish I had a pump this one took forever to get clear running’s. I used a decoction on this also a first for me! Stike was at 128 to end up at 120.
Pulled 6qts off boiled and returned to raise mash to 135. Then pulled 7 qts boiled to reach 146. Held at 146ish for 60 min.
By this time I was tired! So I decided to sparge on the fly since everything else was a first for this why not fly?
Realizing that I could not get all 11 gallons of preboil in my bucket and also since I didn’t have a kettle to hold 11 gallons neither I decided to rig up a splitter so each bucket got equal running’s. This concluded day one besides clean up both sanitized fermenters were filled to 5-1/2 gallons and put on the back porch since the temp was at a nice 35 degrees. I also cooled both in the buckets with my wort chiller. I don’t think it was really necessary but why not.