My Monday Brew day, step by step.

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bad coffee

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Today is my first true day off in two weeks, so I'm brewing! A kolsch like beer for the summer. If I get done early I might do a batch of Centennial ale as well. We'll see how time goes. I'd love to have time to take a disco nap before I see Star Trek tonight.

This thread will be a step by step of my brew day. I just realized I should have gotten the camera out early.

5:00 am. Alarm goes off. I says to my self, "Self, what kind of Y^(&*& sadist are you. It's your day off, go back to sleep." I hit snooze instead of off.

5:20. After hitting snooze again and laying there debating about it, I get out of bed and stumble downstairs.

Instead of coffee, I grab a homebrew, an American red ale, if you were wondering. Pretty good breakfast on the day off if you ask me. I pull the pork shoulder out of the fridge to warm up. Two days ago it got a vinegar soak, and a dry rub. Yesterday it got a mustard coat. Today it gets smoked.

I wonder out back, and fire up the smoker. It's a Brinkman R2D2 upright. The Big Green Egg is on my Christmas list every year, but nobody has bought it for me. I'm saving my pennies for it.

Back inside I start the wet mop. Water, brown sugar, honey, cayenne, salt, pepper, cumin and splash of homebrew go into the pot to reduce down.

5:40 The charcoal is nice and hot so the pork and the chunks of soaked wood go on the smoker. Also the liquid goes into the smoker pan. An another splash of homebrew to make it better.

5:45
I head to the basement to check on the batch I brewed Friday. (Sacc's ale from this post. I used S-05 btw.) While I'm down in the basement, I decide to clean up the beer area, and get ready for the kolsch. I figure I might need a temp controller to chill the fermenter. The batch that's down there is sitting at 62* now, before the day warms up. I want to keep the kolsh about 60*. Do I build SOFC, or just an extra ice chiller box with a spare aquarium pump and some tubing? I'd need to buy more styro board, so it looks like the pump idea will be the one.

6:10. It sounds like my roommates are bringing a heard of elephants through the house. I decide to go up and see what's going on.

Two steps up the stairs I hear the squawk of a Motorola and know what's up. I open the basement door to 4 firefighters going toward the backyard.

"Hey Guys. It's a smoker." I follow them outside and open the top to show them the pork. The lead guy gets on the radio and says "Chief, It's just a pork shoulder on a smoker." I think I saw him lick his lips. I look and see there's firefighters in every yard. Our yard and the neighbors' are all separated by fences. So everyone on the block had firefighters tromp through their houses at 6am! I'll have to apologize later. Looks like I'll have to bottle some homebrew for everyone on the block. Except the asshat who called 911. Look to see the source of the smoke first.

6:20. The fire guys leave and I realize I didn't get the camera out yet.

Now it's time to go check the pork, cleanup the kitchen a bit and go back to bed for a few hours.

More later, including pics.

B
 
Sounds like an eventful morning so far. I'm jealous of your day off while I'm sitting at my desk at work...
 
Ummm... sounds like an interesting day. Not quite a "Brew Day", but smoking a nice pork shoulder sounds quite good as well. Good luck with the neighbors!
 
I did go back to bed, but got up a few hours later.

9:10 I drag ass outta bed and make some coffee. Thought about the recipe I made up for the Kolsch-ish. I forgot I had a bag of German Pils, so I could go with all that instead of the belgian/2 row mix. I also decided to make it my first 10 gallon batch.

Here's the recipe:
14# Belgian Pils
4# Wheat malt. It was supposed to be 2# for the 10 gal batch, but I doubled it again. Oops. Had all the grain milled before the lightbulb went off. AKA the coffee kicked in.
1# honey malt
10oz rice hulls (one 2 liter beaker full) Added after the sparge started.

10:?? I turn the gas on and light the burner. POOOOOF. No flames, but I can hear the gas burning in the neck of the burner. Shut off gas, check connections again. Relight it. POOOOF. Same deal. Dammit, why am I not getting enough pressure into the nozzle to shoot the gas up into the main burner? Open all valves fully, and relight. It catches. 8 gallons of mash water go on. I throw a bit more charcoal on the smoker, then I go get another cup of coffee.

10:55Once the mash water hits 166*, Dough in, shooting for 154*. The grain must have been much cooler that calculated because I hit 150*. Decide to take 6 quarts of thin mash out and heat it up over the burner to up the temp a few degrees.

The burner goes POOOOF again. 5 minutes later I get it lit. Heat the 6q. to 169 and dump back in mash. Final mash temp 152*, I'll live with it.

Mash at 152 for an hour in 8 gallons
Here's the brew/smoke area.
IMG_03561.JPG


Mash Runnoff. I think it was 16.7bx. I don't have my notes in front of me. One of these days I should buy software...
IMG_0357.jpg



Collected 6 gallons.
IMG_03612.jpg



Sparge with 7 gallons for ~20 minutes
IMG_03621.jpg



The pork is looking pretty good at this point.
IMG_03552.jpg
 
11:30 Fire up the burner. (yes, it takes 10 minutes to get it to actually work.) Going for a 90 minute boil.

12:30Full rolling boil
IMG_03641.jpg


Hop schedule:
1 oz Perle 9.3 @ 60
1 oz Saaz 3.2 @ 30
~21 IBU

1:30Here's the Saaz going in at :30.
IMG_0369.jpg


Hotbreak in the sight tube.
IMG_0367.jpg


2:00 Start Chillin. This is my smaller 25' IC that was built for my 8 gallon pot. I'm gonna need to build a bigger one, or make due until I have a pump and a CFC.
IMG_03722.JPG


3:00 The pork shoulder hits 190*. It comes off the grill to go inside for a 2 hour rest. The small piece that 'falls' off tastes damn fine.
IMG_03712.jpg


3:15The Wort is down to 69* Whirlpool, then the top 5.5 gals go into the fermenter with 2565 Kolsch Yeast. The runnings are pretty light and clear.
IMG_03751.jpg


Here's my aeration method. I don't even need to put down my beer. With my 1/2" autosyphon, it takes about 20 mins to fill the 5.5 gallons. Rock with foot every 2-3.
IMG_03761.jpg


The rest ~4.5 gals goes into another fermenter with one packet of Notty. The kolsch will hang out in the water bath at about 60*, the Notty will be basement temp 62-68*

5:00 All cleaned up and time for a nap. Dinner at a German place with the hottie, then Startrek on IMAX at 10. We end up back at my place, but those pics won't fly here...

More later once the fermentation gets going.

Overall: A LONG day, I should have napped more.
But the pork is excellent, and the beer should be good.
 
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