My Brew Day (Complete with Disaster)

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Osedax

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I have had a few questions as to how I do my brew days. So, I thought I would post it up for everyone to see. This is just an overview of my day and is not intended to say this is the best way above others. This is just how I do it and I get great results. Let's start! :ban:

My brew "day" isn't exactly a day since I split it up into 2. I always clean, mill, and get the water ready the day before:

DAY 1: Cleaning and Prep

Messy:
x4DctrE.jpg


Milling on my Monster Mill MM2:
Everything is double milled.
Rice is done at 0.025"
Buckwheat is 0.030"
Millet is 0.010"
Flaked grains are never milled.
1UgxBS1.jpg

kz0ECfK.jpg


I am creating a Cream Stout today.
Here are how my specialty malts look after milling:
DcLw3IJ.jpg


Lastly, I cover the malt and fill the hot liquor tun up. I add 2 crushed campden tablets to take care of chloride and let it sit open overnight.

Extreme foreshadowing: During the cleaning, I noticed a slight leak on the sight glass on my hot liquor tun. I fixed it with PVC cement. No worries. However, I didn't fill my kettle with more than 1 gallon of water at this point. This is crucial later.

DAY 2: Brew and Surprise:smack:

First thing I do is add my brewing salts and heat up the strike water:
In this case I am adding some hardness (gypsum) and sodium (canning salt). The salt helps with sweetness perception. It is a Cream Stout after all.
7Wsq6fw.jpg


Strike water is set to give me a rest of 163F:
r2sKwhP.jpg


Doughing in:
You should go water then malt.
VKDQ5iM.jpg

aHGFPfn.jpg


I recirculate this through a small grant and RIMS tube:
I hold the temp of 163F for 15 minutes and then lower it to 155F for 1 hour.
I add 8mL of liquid Alpha amylase and 7mL of Beta amylase. (I can't get this anymore.)

I stir every 20 minutes. After the hour, I sparge into my kettle. No need to vorlauf because I have a RIMS.

Filling my kettle with first runnings:
2 oz of UK Challenger, 2 lbs of lactose, and 2 lbs of dark brown sugar are put in before the runnings start to flow.
R0jp4gG.jpg


After filling, I simply subtract that amount from my total pre-boil I want and add that amount of sparge water to my mash tun.

My sparge temp is 168F:
OUDNPEb.jpg


This is where I ran into problems. I don't have any photos of the accident but, I do have the aftermath.

During the sparging, I noticed a slight drip around my sight glass on the kettle. Sound familiar? Looks like these sight glasses were meant to fail at the same time.

I thought "no biggie", I will dope it up with PVC cement again. Turns out it doesn't work if the liquid coming out is near boiling... :mad:

The drip is now a full on leak. It's flowing out. Thinking quickly, I dump the water from my hot liquor tun and transfer it over. I then switch the lines to make my system think it is heating the kettle when in fact it is heating the HLT.

After all the wort is transferred I gently touch the kettle sight glass:
B9NciuP.jpg


That was close! I consider myself lucky. :tank:

This is after all the wort spilled:
It is a mixture of hose water and wort.
1fAxWUF.jpg


All in all, I think I lost somewhere between 1/2 to 1 gallon of delicious wort. :(

Boil for 90 minutes:
vVXIzef.jpg


Knocking out directly into the fermenters:
tUNU2Jq.jpg


Normally, I whirlpool to cool but, my HLT doesn't have a whirlpool valve...

Sitting happily in the fermentation chamber:
ABN4ydm.jpg

DlwznyC.jpg


I had above average efficiency and my numbers came out to 1.069 @ 9.5 gallons. I would have hit 10-10.5 without the accident.

Also, I pitched US-05 and Mangrove Jack M07. One will be a coffee and cream stout and the other will be a pumpkin pie stout (for the girlfriend).

I hope it turns out great! Thanks for viewing! :fro:
 
Thanks for the run down, and glad the accident didn't result in a complete disaster!

Let us know how it tastes!
 
Thanks for going over your process, this is a great post.
Sorry about the lost wort, but it sounds like your quick thinking kept it from being a much larger loss.
 
Thanks for the post, its great to see your process a bit.

You mentioned you experienced above-average efficiency with approx 10.5 gals at 1.069...What was your total grist weight (not including the 4lbs of adjuncts...)?

I see that you are running a RIMS system...I've heard that some folks avoid RIMS due to channeling issues with millet as a base malt (reducing overall mash efficiency). Is it the intermittent stirring that helps with this? I'm presently running an electric BrewEasy system from Blichmann and using clarity ferm to "clean up" the gluten, but I'd like to use it for GF if I can without additional equipment. I was thinking of adding a mashtun bag like this to filter the mash as the wort is leaving the mashtun into the kettle and pump. Do you think this might work ok as far as process / efficiency goes?
 
I used ~30# in total. Keep in mind that this stout had a lot of dark grain that didn't help much with extraction. Also, I couldn't get an exact measurement due to the leak.

I do stir every 20 minutes or so. I float the recirculation on top to help combat channeling.

I used to use a mashtun bag as well (homemade). It relieves a stuck mash easily. However, it tends to compound the issue. It acts as a fine filter that can limit flow. This can then create air bubbles and can lead to a stuck sparge in and of itself. Just trust your false bottom and rice hulls. Especially, with a Blichmann false bottom.

Hope that helps!
 
BTW what is the device you have coming off the kettle drain? Did you buy or build the RIMS?
 
BTW what is the device you have coming off the kettle drain? Did you buy or build the RIMS?

That's a grant. Basically just a small container with a valve on the top and one on the bottom. It traps lose grain in the bottom. It also allows you to release air bubbles quickly.

I bought the RIMS tube and assembled everything else. Pretty easy design. Bobby does great work.

Let me know if you want more info on either.
 
I used ~30# in total. Keep in mind that this stout had a lot of dark grain that didn't help much with extraction. Also, I couldn't get an exact measurement due to the leak.

I do stir every 20 minutes or so. I float the recirculation on top to help combat channeling.

I used to use a mashtun bag as well (homemade). It relieves a stuck mash easily. However, it tends to compound the issue. It acts as a fine filter that can limit flow. This can then create air bubbles and can lead to a stuck sparge in and of itself. Just trust your false bottom and rice hulls. Especially, with a Blichmann false bottom.

Hope that helps!

Awesome, thanks for the input. Mostly I'm timid because of the high cost of GF grains, want to limit my mistakes as much as possible!

Your process sounds similar to what I already do with the BE using barley. The Autosparge recircs onto the grain bed with 1-2" of liquid on top so the bed is completely covered, and I stir the top third of the mash about every 15 mins to help with even extraction.

I look forward to giving it a go and having some experience to contribute to the GF thread!
 
That's a grant. Basically just a small container with a valve on the top and one on the bottom. It traps lose grain in the bottom. It also allows you to release air bubbles quickly.

I bought the RIMS tube and assembled everything else. Pretty easy design. Bobby does great work.

Let me know if you want more info on either.

Out of curiosity, what ratio of rice malt / rice hulls to millet/buckwheat do you target?
 
Out of curiosity, what ratio of rice malt / rice hulls to millet/buckwheat do you target?

It changes based on recipe but, the below is decent approximation.

65-80% Millet
10-20% Rice
5-15% Adjuncts such as corn or oats
0-5% Buckwheat

I've never really looked into it but, that seems about right.
 
That's a grant. Basically just a small container with a valve on the top and one on the bottom. It traps lose grain in the bottom. It also allows you to release air bubbles quickly.

I bought the RIMS tube and assembled everything else. Pretty easy design. Bobby does great work.

Let me know if you want more info on either.


Did you build or buy the grant? I don't recognize it.
 
That's a grant. Basically just a small container with a valve on the top and one on the bottom. It traps lose grain in the bottom. It also allows you to release air bubbles quickly.

I bought the RIMS tube and assembled everything else. Pretty easy design. Bobby does great work.

Let me know if you want more info on either.


Did you build or buy the grant? I don't recognize it.
 
Osedax,

Did you build or buy the grant? I don't recognize it.
 
It changes based on recipe but, the below is decent approximation.

65-80% Millet
10-20% Rice
5-15% Adjuncts such as corn or oats
0-5% Buckwheat

I've never really looked into it but, that seems about right.

Cool, thanks. Seems like corn would tend to thin the body, and oats would help boost it?

I'm formulating an English Brown Ale recipe, and I've got the following, but it uses quite a bit of buckwheat:

71% Pale Millet Malt
14% Buckwheat
5% Biscuit Rice Malt
3.5% CaraMillet
3.5% Light Roast Millet
1.5% Dark Rice Malt
1.5% Gas Hog Rice Malt

How much Buckwheat does one need for medium body and good head retention? have you ever added maltodextrin in addition to buckwheat?
 
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