Doing Austin's Honey Brown Ale mini-mash

Ok, still refining my PM techniques. Doing things a little differently this time, more like the AG techniques I've read about here. Some changes:

• Used a finer crush
• Added the water to the Igloo before dumping the grain in then stirred up the grain
• Didn't knot the grain bag but draped it over the sides and held it in place with the lid
• Instead of lifting the grain bag out and pouring sparge water over it in a strainer, I'm going to use the spigot and do a vorlauf, drain the wort, then sparge right in the Igloo.
• Increasing sparge water volume from 2qt to 1-2gallons. Haven't decided exactly how much yet.

So far, so good. I nailed my strike temp right at 155F. It's mashing now. I'm going to be doing a late addition of extract, and am going to cut down on the initial bittering hops by about 1/4 and add them at 30 minutes instead.

Will keep posted

-Joe

Well, not my best brewday, but certainly not the worst

After the mash (2 gallons of water) I drained the wort out through the spigot using a rubberband and doodad to press down on the spigot button. I saw someone else who had done it and it looked like a fine idea.

It ran for about 10 seconds and stopped. I had to pull the grain bag slightly away from the spigot to get the wort to flow. So much for an effective recirc.

No worries. I've never done a vorlauf before, so it's not the end of the world. Got that in the pot then added 2 gallons of 170F sparge water. Stir well, let sit 10 minutes. Start heating the wort in the brewpot.

Now it's time to get the sparge water out. Again, I needed to hold the bag away from the inlet of the spigot. No big deal until my rubberband snaps and my doodad falls into the wort. At this point I surrendered and poured the remaining sparge liquor into the brewpot.

The rest of the boil went uneventfully. Added the extract in two steps at 60 and 15 minutes, remembered the hops (3/4oz at 60 minutes, 1/4oz at 45) and added Irish moss at 15 minutes.

Got the pot downstairs and put the IC in. It had been sitting in my Star-san bucket, just to make sure it was squeaky clean. Temp came down under 90F in just 8 minutes!

Put 1 gallon of cold water in the bottom of my Better Bottle and poured the wort through a stainless strainer. Towards the end it started to clog up as I would expect, and I had a sanitized spoon ready to scoop the sediment off to the side. Unfortunately, I managed to give the funnel a good bump and pour wort and sediment all over the place. Whee! I only lost a half pint or so, but what a mess.

OG came in a little low at 1.057 after topping up with 1 1/2 gallons. I did shake the bejeesus out of it before taking a reading. The recipe calls for 1.060. I'm not sure if it's my crush or steeping/sparging methods. But either way I'm not going to sweat it. There's always a next time

I may just go back to pulling the bag out of the water instead of bothering with the spigot. I don't think at this point it's buying me much.

-Joe

Hooray, signs of fermentation already. Thanks, US-05

-Joe

Today's SG was 1.010. Great! It's a nice mahogany brown. The initial smell is roasty, but not overpowering. The flavor is awesome, just a bit on the sweet side. I'm looking forward to getting this one carbed up and ready!

-Joe

Just so you know SOMEBODY is reading LOL

Brewing is so much fun!!

LOL Thanks. As much fun as it is talking to myself

-Joe

Any updates on this recipe? Been looking for a Honey Brown and curious how this turned out..

I just kegged it yesterday. So it was 3 1/2 weeks in the primary. I won't be carbing it for a few more weeks at least, just because I've got 4 beers in the fridge ahead of it.

It's a gorgeous dark brown color. I didn't taste another sample, but the sample I took two weeks ago was delicious. I'm definitely looking forward to it. I may push it ahead of my stout so I can try it first

-Joe

Love to hear how it came out.

Have you attempted an All-Grain batch yet? I recently went from PMs to All-grain and it's definitely a better process. I'm not saying I'm getting better beer because of all-grain but it's nice not having to deal with mixing in extract at all. PMs are a lot more work than all extract or all grain I feel. It's the combination of both parts that you have to deal with. All-grains take more time but it's a more relaxed process.

Happy New Year! Just put this guy on the gas tonight. Full report in a week.

-Joe

Carbonation is perfect, quality of the beer is spot-on. Delicious, clean flavor with just a bit of sweetness and maltiness. Mmm mmm good!

-Joe