Yesterday was a long time coming. It came with a day where I brewed my first 10g batch, first all-grain batch, first brew on new brew stand, first use of freshly constructed keggles...many opportunities for disaster to ruin the brew day.
I was nervous since I didn't want to waste the resources...hops and grains for my planned "house IPA".
This addiction is credited to my wife and daughters whom gave me my first brew kit for my b-day this past Christmas (I'm a Christmas Eve baby), that brew went very well and the addiction had been created.
After doing 3 partial-mash, 5 gal batches, all going well, I decided I wanted to go all-grain and build my own piece of brewing sculpture. I pretend that I'm a garage-fabricator, building off-road components for my rigs in my garage. All that means is that I have some cool tools that I'm not afraid to get out and use.
I had some extra 1.5/0.120 DOM round steel tubing and thought it would be fun to use it to make something a bit different. I also wanted a relative small footprint since my garage is already overfull of stuff. I had also decided that I'm going HERMS, 2 propane fired banjo burners, single March pump, all SS quick disconnects and welded in fixtures into the keggles. I'm teaching myself how to TIG weld and decided to weld them in myself.
And the result is:
Now to the brew day.
First all-grain. I've been planning on doing my "house" IPA, finding a Smuttynose IPA clone recipe, one of my very top favorite IPA's. Here is the recipe:
http://hopville.com/recipe/252346/american-ipa-recipes/smuttynose-ipa
Grain Bill
16 lb US Two-row Pale
5 lb Maris Otter
14 oz Crystal Malt 60L
Hops
60 min 2 oz Magnum
30 min .5 oz Simcoe
25 min .5 oz Simcoe
20 min .5 oz Simcoe
15 min .5 oz Simcoe
10 min .5 oz Simcoe
5 min .5 oz Simcoe
1 min post boil 1.5 oz Cascade
dry hop 2.0 oz Amarillo
Yeast
Wyeast 1056
Misc - Irish Moss
OG - 1.061 (1.055-64)
I plugged the recipe into iBrewmaster and away I go. I used the "light body infusion" as my mash plan, strike water @ 155, 150 F for 75 min, sparge @ 170 F in two batches for 15 min each. Pre-boil, 11.25g SG = 1.060, in the ball park.
Brought it to boil and went through the hop schedule without any issues. Post boil volume 9g so I added 1g bottled water, measured post-boil SG = 1.062.
I filled the HLT with 2 bags of ice and 10g of water and started pumping the wort through the HERMS coil. Wound up taking 5 bags of ice to bring the wort temp down to 75 F. I had the yeast in a starter since the day before (~20hrs), dumped it into the keggle and gave it a good stir. Let sit for a few minutes and drained into the 2 carboys waiting.
I put the carboys in the fermentation chamber (set @ 62F) ~5p last night, nice active bubbling, healthy krausen in both carboys this morning. So far, so good.
Notes on my first experience doing all-grain and using my new stand.
Now, the hard part begins again...
I was nervous since I didn't want to waste the resources...hops and grains for my planned "house IPA".
This addiction is credited to my wife and daughters whom gave me my first brew kit for my b-day this past Christmas (I'm a Christmas Eve baby), that brew went very well and the addiction had been created.
After doing 3 partial-mash, 5 gal batches, all going well, I decided I wanted to go all-grain and build my own piece of brewing sculpture. I pretend that I'm a garage-fabricator, building off-road components for my rigs in my garage. All that means is that I have some cool tools that I'm not afraid to get out and use.
I had some extra 1.5/0.120 DOM round steel tubing and thought it would be fun to use it to make something a bit different. I also wanted a relative small footprint since my garage is already overfull of stuff. I had also decided that I'm going HERMS, 2 propane fired banjo burners, single March pump, all SS quick disconnects and welded in fixtures into the keggles. I'm teaching myself how to TIG weld and decided to weld them in myself.
And the result is:
Now to the brew day.
First all-grain. I've been planning on doing my "house" IPA, finding a Smuttynose IPA clone recipe, one of my very top favorite IPA's. Here is the recipe:
http://hopville.com/recipe/252346/american-ipa-recipes/smuttynose-ipa
Grain Bill
16 lb US Two-row Pale
5 lb Maris Otter
14 oz Crystal Malt 60L
Hops
60 min 2 oz Magnum
30 min .5 oz Simcoe
25 min .5 oz Simcoe
20 min .5 oz Simcoe
15 min .5 oz Simcoe
10 min .5 oz Simcoe
5 min .5 oz Simcoe
1 min post boil 1.5 oz Cascade
dry hop 2.0 oz Amarillo
Yeast
Wyeast 1056
Misc - Irish Moss
OG - 1.061 (1.055-64)
I plugged the recipe into iBrewmaster and away I go. I used the "light body infusion" as my mash plan, strike water @ 155, 150 F for 75 min, sparge @ 170 F in two batches for 15 min each. Pre-boil, 11.25g SG = 1.060, in the ball park.
Brought it to boil and went through the hop schedule without any issues. Post boil volume 9g so I added 1g bottled water, measured post-boil SG = 1.062.
I filled the HLT with 2 bags of ice and 10g of water and started pumping the wort through the HERMS coil. Wound up taking 5 bags of ice to bring the wort temp down to 75 F. I had the yeast in a starter since the day before (~20hrs), dumped it into the keggle and gave it a good stir. Let sit for a few minutes and drained into the 2 carboys waiting.
I put the carboys in the fermentation chamber (set @ 62F) ~5p last night, nice active bubbling, healthy krausen in both carboys this morning. So far, so good.
Notes on my first experience doing all-grain and using my new stand.
- under-estimated temp drop, measured ~10 F drop
- find better hop spider solution. The SS "scrubbie" got clogged and I had to dislodge it before I could start the cooling of the wort
- find way to recover wort in HERMS coil. I lost ~ 1/2g by not collecting it better.
- find way to reduce spillage. I was more focused on the process than I was worried about spillage. I probably lost 1 gal downn the drain between spillage and HERMS coil loss.
Now, the hard part begins again...
