2nd New Jersey all grain seminar in the works

Bobby_M said:

It was a great day for sure but I hope I didn't come off as some kind of know it all ******. I think back and realize I was doing a LOT of talking.

To recap the all grain process...
Make oatmeal.
Strain oatmeal.
Boil the result.

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******-free as far as I'm concerned. It was great to have you explain as you went through the process, and I got a lot out of it - I realized I've been doing my partial mashes badly wrong but have gotten away with it because of all the extract that goes in and covers up what is likely woeful efficiency.

Now I'm going to be making better PMs and as soon as I get me one of those big MLTs, I'm going AG - don't care if it's cheaper or not it has to be done!

Many thanks to you for hosting this session. Who knows, couple of months, maybe I'll be spreading the word in south jersey...

it was funny how the whole day changed after the first beer was cracked....

it was like a formal training session for the first few hours.

a beer gets cracked and everybody start scrambling for beers, including myself lol

I went out to eat at fuddruckers later that night, I ordered a yuengling black and tan, had one sip and almost threw up

kinda wish i never got into this brewing hobby, now I have to either make my beer or buy expensive beer

thanks for the training Bobby, I learned a lot

joejaz said:

Bobby, thanks again, great day, very informative. It was suprising how fast the day went. Hope to do our first AG by end of month.

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I know, when someone said it was 3pm, I was floored. I thought it was MAYBE 1pm.

BryanZ said:

it was funny how the whole day changed after the first beer was cracked....

it was like a formal training session for the first few hours.

a beer gets cracked and everybody start scrambling for beers, including myself lol

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I'll make sure I open the first one a little earlier next time

My five was churning by 7am this morning at 68F, how's its brother doing?

By the way, here's the final word.

[size=+2]Ambassador Adams Pale (seminar2)[/size]
[size=+1]8-B Special/Best/Premium Bitter[/size]



Size: 11.50 gal
Efficiency: 91.54%
Attenuation: 73.0%
Calories: 142.99 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.043 (1.040 - 1.048)
|=============#==================|
Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.008 - 1.012)
|======================#=========|
Color: 7.22 (5.0 - 16.0)
|===========#====================|
Alcohol: 4.1% (3.8% - 4.6%)
|==============#=================|
Bitterness: 31.1 (25.0 - 40.0)
|==============#=================|

[size=+1]Ingredients:[/size]
14.0 lb Maris Otter
.5 lb Victory® Malt
.5 lb Caramel Malt 40L
2.0 oz Fuggle (4.8%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
3.0 oz Fuggle (4.8%) - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
2.0 oz East Kent Goldings (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
2.0 ea Danstar 3767 Windsor
1.0 ea Fermentis S-04 Safale S-04

[size=+1]Schedule:[/size]
Ambient Air: 70.0 °F
Source Water: 60.0 °F
Elevation: 0.0 m

00:03:00 Dough In - Liquor: 4.5 gal; Strike: 167.75 °F; Target: 154.0 °F
01:03:00 Sac Rest - Rest: 60.0 min; Final: 154.0 °F
01:28:00 Batch Sparge -

BryanZ said:

I went out to eat at fuddruckers later that night, I ordered a yuengling black and tan, had one sip and almost threw up.

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ROFLMAO! That's a good one.

Bobby_M said:

I think back and realize I was doing a LOT of talking.

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We were there to learn from your experience, so...that seems logical.

Before I forget - question for you Bobby - the cooler is a 48qt, right? And it was maybe half-two/thirds full yesterday for the 10gallon batch.

I'm wondering how big a cooler to get and I'm thinking 40 or 48qt. But I'm going to be doing 5gallon batches, not 10, so I wonder if if making the cooler 48qt will leave too much head space for a good mash - any thoughts? I could go smaller, but everything I've bought so far for brewing has worked out to be too small - don't want to make that mistake again!

Yeah, 48qt/12gal. During the mash, I have 6 gallons total in there including the grain. The sparge infusions brought it up to 8 gallons. So, for an equivelent 5 gallon batch, it would be a bit overkill. In fact, we could have done this beer (5 gallons) in a 5 gallon cooler. However, this is a 1.043 OG beer. I think a 36-40qt is a nice range and will give you room for high gravity 5-gallon batches.

I'm wary at the moment, I'm all over only ever making 5gallon batches right now - but i've said that before, when I was up for your brew day I was never even going to do PMs, now look where we are.

Just seems that for the price of a 40qt, I could get a 48qt, and be in good shape in case, heaven forbid, I ever do make a jump to 10gallon batches. The only issue is whether it's detrimental to have a small volume mash in a large cooler - an issue for heat retention - I can't see any other issue with it.

As long as you get that strike water hot for the cooler preheat, you will have no problems even being half full. I wouldn't worry about it.

Bobby_M said:

My five was churning by 7am this morning at 68F, how's its brother doing?

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It's sitting between 64 and 68 and I had activity by 6am yesterday when I checked. Lookin' good!

Dang, it made it to 1.013 by this evening. I'm shocked S-04 and Windsor had it in them but I'm glad. I worried a little that I didn't drop the mash temp a degree or two in anticipation for Windsor over Nottingham. That's why I doubled up on the yeast. In any case, it tastes great but a little yeasty. I'm gonna let this one go until the weekend after next, cold crash for 3-5 days and rack to keg.

Bobby_M said:

Dang, it made it to 1.013 by this evening. I'm shocked S-04 and Windsor had it in them but I'm glad. I worried a little that I didn't drop the mash temp a degree or two in anticipation for Windsor over Nottingham. That's why I doubled up on the yeast. In any case, it tastes great but a little yeasty. I'm gonna let this one go until the weekend after next, cold crash for 3-5 days and rack to keg.

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I'm at 1.010 today. I'll move it to the secondary mid next week. Tastes like an easy drinker. Will be good for the summer...

Hell, if it goes any lower, I'd be seriously checking my thermometer out or reconsidering how attenuative Windsor really is.

Bobby_M said:

Hell, if it goes any lower, I'd be seriously checking my thermometer out or reconsidering how attenuative Windsor really is.

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I checked it the other day when I finally moved to the secondary it was under 10. Almost as low as 8. It had a hard time reading it. Had a little foam in my test jar. But it was definitely under 10.

Mine stopped at 1.012 last I checked about two days ago. It was almost clear so I racked it into a keg with the diptube cut a little shorter. I haven't started cold conditioning just yet but I will by next week sometime. I'm in no hurry with this one because I want it to last into the hot summer.

Bobby_M said:

Mine stopped at 1.012 last I checked about two days ago. It was almost clear so I racked it into a keg with the diptube cut a little shorter. I haven't started cold conditioning just yet but I will by next week sometime. I'm in no hurry with this one because I want it to last into the hot summer.

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Luckily, I've gotten to the point where I'm in no rush to move things around, so I'll just leave it in the secondary for another few weeks bottle it it mid-May.

I've got an extract Cherry Wheat in a primary, and an apfelwine just starting to ferment, so I'll have some nice stuff for the summer.

(...and a stout in the secondary for the fall, woo!)

How did mine go so much lower than yours? Did you use a different yeast? I seen the recipe had 3 packets of yeast, not sure if that was a typo or not. Did you divide them separately or mix them together then pitched?

I mixed all three packs together in a cup and split it equally. I'm guessing you might have gotten just a bit more yeast and/or our hydrometers are slightly different. Mine might read a point high, and yours reads a point low with maybe a "real" point difference in the beers. Maybe I fermented a couple degrees cooler than you? Who knows.

Did you crack any open yet? THis is the second one I had and wanted to make sure it wasn't a fluke b4 I posted. This beer is great, just as good if not better than the first one we made. Will keep this receipe and will definitely make again.

I have it in a keg but it's sitting at garage temps (60F) with very low carbonation (maybe 1.25 volumes) because I have to wait for one of my five kegs to kick. I sampled it last night and it's going to go pretty fast this summer....er June.

As much as I like variety, I keep going back to my American Blonde and IPAs for my during and after dinner beer. I think this bitter (technically based on the low SRM it's a Summer Best Bitter) is going to replace the blonde in about 2 more pints.

I was right. The blonde kicked last week so I got the bitter in the kegger and it's finally carbed and clear this weekend. Wow, great beer. I'm probably going to brew this one again in the fall now that I have the EKG to spare.

Bobby, can we substitute the EKGs for fuggles?

I think EKG is a pretty good sub for Fuggle. In fact, I only used the fuggle because they were getting a bit old and wanted to use them up.

For a slight variation on this, I'm thinking of either replacing the 40L with 80L or Adding 4 ounces of 120L for some color and complexity.