New to forum...and back into brewing!

Hello all!

I've just today rejoined the ranks of homebrewers, having brewed in the past. For various reasons I'd taken a hiatus but I'm currently mashing a pumpkin porter (late for Halloween, I know, but think of it as a "holiday ale"). I've done all-grain in the past to a point, having used BIAB, and also done partial mashes, but this is my first more traditional all-grain batch, using a converted 48 qt rectangular cooler, propane burner, 10 gallon brewpot, etc. I've lurked here for a while, reading up and learning while getting ready to get back into brewing, and figured it was time I joined this friendly bunch.

Hope everyone's brewing up or drinking something delicious today (possibly both)! And here's to 3/4 of a pound of rice hulls preventing that dreaded stuck sparge...

Welcome to HBT, and welcome back to the hobby!

Welcome back. I just rejoined the home brewer ranks after a 15 year hiatus myself. Best decision I've made for myself in a long time. I'm more educated, more patient and more determined this time. (More money helps alot too) I've never made better beer now that I've switched to all grain!

mozart4898 said:

Hello all!

I've just today rejoined the ranks of homebrewers, having brewed in the past. For various reasons I'd taken a hiatus but I'm currently mashing a pumpkin porter (late for Halloween, I know, but think of it as a "holiday ale"). I've done all-grain in the past to a point, having used BIAB, and also done partial mashes, but this is my first more traditional all-grain batch, using a converted 48 qt rectangular cooler, propane burner, 10 gallon brewpot, etc. I've lurked here for a while, reading up and learning while getting ready to get back into brewing, and figured it was time I joined this friendly bunch.

Hope everyone's brewing up or drinking something delicious today (possibly both)! And here's to 3/4 of a pound of rice hulls preventing that dreaded stuck sparge...

Click to expand...

Welcome to HBT! You found a great place to hang out and learn what you have been missing!..

Cheers
Jay

For us Zapap users, the way to prevent a stuck sparge is to make sure a vacuum never forms. If you will attach a length of tubing from the bottom of the inside bucket to the top, there will always be air available to circumvent a stuck sparge.
I think I invented the idea as no one has said differently.

Little update on this one - despite the rice hulls the sparge still was awfully rough. Post-boil gravity was 1.057, which was slightly below what I was hoping for (I'm not sure how much the pumpkin really contributed, I used somewhere between 7-8 pounds). Plenty of pluses though - first off, I used Belma hops for my bittering charge and man, do those hops smell wonderful! I can totally see them as a flavor/aroma hop in beers that don't call for a traditional "C hop" type of flavor. Also, I seemed to nail my spice amounts from what I've smelled from the airlock - the sucker smells JUST like fresh baked pumpkin pie. The gravity sample prior to fermentation seemed to have a nice spice character too, although it's hard to tell anything about flavor at that point (I've always found preferment samples to taste just plain awful because of the overwhelming sweetness...truthfully this one wasn't TOO bad).

I know that it's NOT an indication of fermentation, but airlock activity has already more or less ceased after only 48 hours. This wasn't an overly big beer, fermenting in the mid to upper 60s, using S-04, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's just about done, but I'll leave it go another 5 days or so before even checking the gravity.

So I'm off and running again! Tomorrow, brewing 5 gallons of Honey Rye Saison to lay down for a couple months (shooting for OG 1.066), might even dose it with Brett. Using 3711 with a 1 quart starter.