First mash

Alrighty, finally got to de-flower lots of the gear that I've been accumulating this afternoon. Haven't been able to brew in about a month and a half, last batch was extract, I've been building mash tuns and wort chillers and the like for probably three months ago. Also trying out my electric turkey fryer, gotta be better than the stovetop, right? It's time to mash, dammit!

I also FINALLY got my Mocha Stout bottled... that damn stuff has the viscosity of Pennzoil.

So, doing a PE/PM version of Papa Charlie's Good Life Pale Ale. Grain bill/fermentables are:

5# Pale Ale Malt
1.6# Munich
0.5# Crystal 10L
2.5# Extra light DME

Hops are:

2.0oz Fuggles (60 minute); book calls for 1.7oz, what am I gonna do with 0.3oz left over?
1.0oz Kent Goldings (30 minutes)
1.0oz Kent Goldings (3 minutes)
0.5oz American Crystal (I think) for dry-hopping; have not purchased yet.

So what did I learn?

1. The electric fryer sucks balls. The settings go up to 400 degrees - uh, no. It could barely bring the wort to a boil (I was boiling about 4.5 gallons to start). Piece of SH*T. Will soon be relegated to a mash-water heater, once I pony up and start kickin' it, propane-style. I eneded up splitting the boil between the fryer and my old, 5 gallon stockpot - each had about 2 - 2.5 gallons, and the stove kicked its a*s Reynolds-style.

2. The Rubbermaid cooler with the stainless steel braid works BEAUTIFULLY. Held temp very well, the braid was easy to use, never in danger of a stuck mash. I have no idea how to check my efficiency, I ended up batch sparging twice to get my kettle volume.

3. My butt-ugly, dual-coil, parallel chiller worked WONDERFULLY, chilling 4 gallons of wort to ~90 degrees within thirteen minutes (I still had to top off with a gallon, so I didn't need to get all the way to pitching temp). I went from boil to pitch within twenty-five minutes. The chiller's not as efficient as I can make it, I can compress the coils down so it fits in the fryer better (well, for as long as I end up using it). Still, worked GREAT.

So, I'll upload a couple of pics, overall it was a great experience. Very, very cool - but now I've got to find me a damn beer keg to convert...


Various gear in my ugly-ass kitchen (it's to be gutted, hopefully in the spring)


My ugly-ass but damn effective immersion chiller.

I'm sorta surprised that big deep fryer didn't work as well as you'd hoped. Generally, they have to be able to get oil to 350 for frying, so you'd think boiling water or wort would be a cinch.

Sometimes you have to improvise to get things done.


Your right...that chiller is ugly.

I am assuming you tried to use the stove top right? I always used one with no problem at all.....never even had gas.

Yeah, I've used the stove top, can't get more than about 2.5 gallons boiled. That's why I went with the fryer, but it can't do any more than that either. Had to improvise and use both.

Thirstyone said:

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That's next on the list of items to be acquired. Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on one without paying an arm and a leg.

the_bird said:

Yeah, I've used the stove top, can't get more than about 2.5 gallons boiled. That's why I went with the fryer, but it can't do any more than that either. Had to improvise and use both.

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You''ve seen this place right? Been having a lot of luck there.

http://www3.telus.net/sockmonkeysandbeer/beer/HowIBrew/howIbrew.html

the_bird said:

ass kitchen

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Isn't there a Doors song about ass-kitchens? Oh wait that's Soul Kitchen, never mind....

Congrats on the big graduation day! I love the dual 1/4" chiller, any reason to use more thread tape is a bonus in my books.

:rockin:

Yeah, I've been there. That's how you brew, right? I knew someone here does AG using two pots on the stove, which is what made me think to split the batch when the fryer couldn't get a boil going.

Chairman Cheyco said:

Isn't there a Doors song about ass-kitchens? Oh wait that's Soul Kitchen, never mind....

Congrats on the big graduation day! I love the dual 1/4" chiller, any reason to use more thread tape is a bonus in my books.

:rockin:

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Didn't MEAN to use the 1/4 copper, but since Depot wanted to sell it to me for about a third of what it was worth, I figured I'd make a way for it to work. And, I was damn impressed with how quickly it was chilling. I had the probe thermometer in the wort the whole time, I could see it dropping. And, I know I can very easily make it a LOT more efficient (appearanced be damned) by compressing the coils so they fit in the pot better. I was planning on having a full 5 gallons in there (thinking the fryer might actually been worth a sh*t), and I was planning on taking the heating element out before chilling, but that proves to be a PITA when everything is hot and sanitized.

Is that a Poder (?) digital probe thermometer in the pix? If so, how's it working for ya?

It's a "TruTemp." Actually has to buy it yesterday morning, our usual theormometer went MIA just as I started heating the mash water; had to make a quick trip to Target before I got brewing. But, worked fine, I like using my probe.