An annotated brewday

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jds

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Location
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I decided yesterday to photograph and document a "typical" AG brewday for me, so I could share it with those who are interested in stepping up to AG brewing. In the next few posts, I'll be walking you through a "typical" brewday at the jds home.

First off, let me say this: Brewing is a craft. There are a whole lot of different ways to make beer, and most of them work. I'm not using this to tell you how you should make beer. I'm telling you how I make beer.

So, first off, the recipe. I wanted to make a full-bodied pale ale with some german character. I started with my American Rye recipe, which makes a dandy pale, replaced the carapils with Melanoiden malt, and bumped them mash temperature to about 155F for 45 minutes, to keep the beer more full-bodied. The recipe looks like this:

[size=-1]BeerSmith Recipe Printout - BeerSmith Brewing Software, Recipes, Blog, Wiki and Discussion Forum[/size]
[size=+2]Recipe: Full Fall Pale Ale[/size]
Brewer: Joe S
Asst Brewer:
Style: American Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (45.0)

Recipe Specifications

Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 7.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.059 SG
Estimated Color: 7.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 43.0 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 78.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
Code:
Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU      
8 lbs         Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)            Grain        66.67 %       
3 lbs         Rye Malt (4.7 SRM)                        Grain        25.00 %       
8.0 oz        Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)     Grain        4.17 %        
8.0 oz        Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM)                Grain        4.17 %        
1.00 oz       Sterling [7.50 %]  (60 min) (First Wort HoHops         33.5 IBU      
1.00 oz       Williamette [5.50 %]  (15 min)            Hops         5.4 IBU       
0.50 oz       Sterling [7.50 %]  (15 min)               Hops         4.1 IBU       
0.50 oz       Williamette [5.50 %]  (0 min) (Aroma Hop-SHops          -            
1.00 tsp      Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min)                Misc                       
5.50 gal      Denver, Colorado                          Water                      
1 Pkgs        Safale US-05 (Fermentis #US-05)           Yeast-Ale

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 12.00 lb
Code:
Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time     Name               Description                         Step Temp     
45 min        Mash In            Add 15.00 qt of water at 167.9 F    155.0 F

My mash and lauter equipment is pretty simple: A five-gallon drink cooler, a keggle and burner, and a few buckets for moving liquids around. I'll ferment this in a 6-1/2 gallon carboy.

So, let's get started brewing, shall we?
 
brewday_001.jpg

This is my setup. I really like the wok burner as a boiler support -- it's just the right height for brewing.

brewday_004.jpg

After buying and milling my grains at my LHBS (Beer and Wine at Home in Denver), I got ready to brew. Notice that I'm checking the temperature of the grain. It had been in my car for a couple of hours on a sunny day, and was several degrees warmer than ambient. If you want to hit your temperatures, this is an important step.

brewday_011.jpg

Next, I needed to preheat my mash-in water and MLT to temperature. Notice that this is hotter than the 168F I need to mash-in at. I preheat the water hotter than required, fill the MLT to the correct level, then adjust if necessary using cold water. I think it's a lot easier to adjust temperatures DOWN than up.

brewday_013.jpg

After some minor adjusting, I had my MLT and water at the correct temperature and volume, so I could dough-in the grain
 
brewday_015.jpg

I doughed-in the grain, plus a tablespoon of pH 5.2 buffer and a couple of large handfuls of rice hulls. My method is to add a bit of grain, stir it in, add a bit more and stir, etc etc. This helps make sure all the grain gets wet and that there aren't hot or cold spots. 12 Lb of grain plus rice hulls is about all I can mash in this cooler at a ratio of 1.25 quarts / lb.

brewday_017.jpg

After doughing-in, I add a floating thermometer to the mash and seal it up. Yes, this thermometer says 152F. I find that the indicated temperature comes up a few degrees once I put the lid on and the mass equalizes in temperature.

Now, I start my sparge water heating while the mash proceeds. I also played some frisbee with my daughter while the enzymes did their magic.

brewday_018.jpg

After 45 minutes elapsed and the sparge water was up to temperature, it was time to start sparging.

brewday_019.jpg

Here's my "HDPE lauter grant" charged with an ounce of Sterling hops for the first wort hop addition. Yes, it has a bottling spigot on it. No, it doesn't matter -- the bucket is just a leftover.
 
brewday_023.jpg

And so the sparging begins. I batch-sparged to collect about 8 gallons of runnings total. Yes, Beersmith says 7.5 gallons, but I know the hops will absorb some of that, so I was looking for 8 gallons. For batch sparging, I first drain the MLT, add water to the top, let it sit for a few minutes, then drain until the wort runs clear, with no particles. Cloudy wort goes back into the MLT to be filtered through the grain bed. It usually takes 2 or 3 additions of water to get the correct amount of wort.

brewday_029.jpg

With 8 gallons of wort collected, it was time to start a boil. Preboil would be the time to take a gravity reading for efficiency. Today, I didn't. With this process and crush from the LHBS, I usually get 75-78% efficiency. Note the nice head of bubbles. I try to boil as vigorously as possible, and I can tell from experience that it is actually possible to boil over a 15.5 gallon sanke keg with a five gallon batch of beer.

brewday_030.jpg

Hops and irish moss were added per schedule, and the immersion chiller was added with ten minutes left in the boil.

brewday_032.jpg

Here's what was left after chilling. See how high up the sides of the keggle the hops are? That's how much foam I was making. I nearly boiled this batch over after my neighbor came over and I ran downstairs to get a couple of beers.
 
brewday_034.jpg

Finally, it was time to charge the fermenter. This doohickey on the end of the sanitized siphon tube is intended to entrain air into the wort as it flows through the nozzle to improve aeration.

brewday_036.jpg

The fruits of my labor: About six gallons of wort, ready to ferment. Pleas notice that the fermenter is in a milk crate. I do that to provide a good place to grip when transporting close to 70 lb of beer and glass fermenter.

After that, I moved the fermenter to the bsement, cleaned up, and pitched an evelope of Safale US-05 yeast. This morning, it's bubbling merrily along.

Like any brewday, a few things went wrong. To wit:

I got impatient early on and didn;t heat my strike water quite high enough to get to 168F when added to the cooler, so I had to reheat it.

I couldn't find my hydrometer. Not wanting to take the time to drive to the LHBS, I brewed without it. Assuming I hit my normal efficiency, this beer should work out to about 1.060 OG*

With a few minutes left in the boil, a miller moth decided to commit hara-kiri into my boil kettle. Now, it's Miller beer.

*of course, I found my hydrometer this morning, just in time to not be able to get an OG reading.
 
When you bottle this or keg you should definitely make a Mock Miller label, but don't explain it to people And I'll delete my interrupting post.:D
 
Thanks! this really helps!

brewday_034.jpg

Finally, it was time to charge the fermenter. This doohickey on the end of the sanitized siphon tube is intended to entrain air into the wort as it flows through the nozzle to improve aeration.
Details on the doohickey?
 
Haha, nicely done...I enjoyed the comical interruption! :D


jds...also, nicely done! Thanks for the detailed account of an AG brew session. I like your little adapter for the end of your siphon tubing to help aerate the wort. Looks like part of a broken racking cane with holes drilled into it? I might need to make one myself.
:mug:
 
When you bottle this or keg you should definitely make a Mock Miller label, but don't explain it to people And I'll delete my interrupting post.:D

No worries. I was thinking "Miller's Demise" for a name.

Details on the doohickey?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-aeration-gadget-68218/

I like your little adapter for the end of your siphon tubing to help aerate the wort. Looks like part of a broken racking cane with holes drilled into it? I might need to make one myself.
:mug:

That's exactly what it is, but instead of drilling, I just heated the end of a paperclip in a flame until it glowed, then burned the holes through. It took all of about three minutes.
 
...but instead of drilling, I just heated the end of a paperclip in a flame until it glowed, then burned the holes through.

That sounds a heck of a lot easier! After I posted that I was thinking how you would drill hard plastic like that without breaking it...I think I'm going to have to make one!
 
Good job on the tutorial! I just got my gas cooker in today (early christmas) so I am super excited about getting to it.

Is your MLT 5 or 10 gallon?
 
The Miller references are completely lost on me...Did I miss something?
He said that a Miller Moth commited suicide in boil kettle with a little time left.

Complete nood to AG question. How do you keep from clogging the drain in the MT with grain?
You have a manifold of some sort. Look around at Mash Tuns in the Equuipment section. There are several varieties people use ranging for SS Braid, to Copper, to CPVC to SS False Bottoms in Keg MLTs
 
Complete nood to AG question. How do you keep from clogging the drain in the MT with grain?

That particular 5 gallon MLT has the https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/ on it. It's basically the stainless braid from a toilet or sink water supply line, and a through-wall bulkhead, connected to a ball valve.

I also have a 60 quart rectangular cooler for the big brews. The large cooler uses a CPVC manifold with lots of little holes in it. Either type of lauter manifold works fine, as long as you batch sparge. For fly sparging, the braid manifold is reported to be less effective.
 
Lol , kamakaze Miller. Thanks for the post. Looks like you have a system dialed in well. Thanks for the time . I like the little doohickey , thingamabob .
 
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