I am a quarter of the way through the boil on this beer right now. 42 minutes remaining.
I bought this recipe kit from midwestsupplies.com.
I am confident this beer will come out fine. I will update this thread when its carbonated.
I used all distilled water for this batch. 7 gallons total. I got close to 6 gallons in the boil pot. My pot is 24 quarts and I filled it to within a half inch.
I added some brewing salts.
Starting Water (ppm):
Ca: 0
Mg: 0
Na: 0
Cl: 0
SO4: 0
CaCO3: 0
Mash / Sparge Vol (gal): 4 / 3
RO or distilled %: 100% / 100%
Total Grain (lb): 11
Non-Roasted Spec. Grain: 0.5
Roasted Grain: 0.5
Beer Color (SRM): 3.99
Adjustments (grams) Mash / Boil Kettle:
CaSO4: 3 / 2.25
CaCl2: 4 / 3
MgSO4: 3 / 2.25
NaHCO3: 3 / 2.25
NaCl: 0 / 0
CaCO3: 0 / 0
Lactic Acid (ml): 0
Sauermalz (oz): 0
Mash Water / Total water (ppm):
Ca: 117 / 117
Mg: 18 / 18
Na: 54 / 54
Cl: 127 / 127
SO4: 188 / 188
Cl to SO4 Ratio: 0.68 / 0.68
Alkalinity (CaCO3): 118
RA: 23
Estimated pH (room temp): 5.59
I neglected to get a gravity reading post boil. sigh...
the recipe sheet says this brew should have a SG of 1.030-1.050
I checked my gravity reading at room temp around 75F, it was 1.060 15.25 brix, with an estimated ABV of 8%
Does that mean my efficiency is over 100%?
Who's the brew master!! LOL
Here is a photo of my cold break and what not...
In this video I am collecting my sweet sweet wort...
In this photo I am pinching the tube end coming from the mash tun creating a dual stream to maximize aeration...
Look at the clear 3.99SRM stream of deliciously sweet wort!
Boil-over mess on the side of my pot...
Chilling the wort...
My only flaws are as follows:
I failed to properly heat my tun to prevent heat loss during mash, however I did remedy this and continued to mash for an hour after I added my brew salts which I had forgotten to add at the very beginning, so the mash was resting in distilled water for 30 minutes or so before I added the minerals and reheated wort to fix the temp. I drew off around a half gallon of wort from the mash and heated it to 165F and stirred. This brought the mash up to 154F and stayed above 152F for the entire hour. I don't know how this effected my water profile above, but I ended up mashing all 11Lbs of grain with 4 gallons instead of 3, and I sparged with 3 gallons.
My next fail was a bit of hot side aeration. I collected my wort into my fermenting bucket and then poured it into the pot.This cause some aeration, not a vigorous proper aeration, but I want to avoid this next time anyway.
I also had some trouble putting water into my airlock. This is the first time I had this kind of trouble. This is a new fermenter. I finally decided to add the water after inserting the airlock. But a few drops of spring water did drop into the beer. I am sure this will be unnoticed in the finished product because there is not a serious risk of infection as the spring water is UV filtered .
I am sure I will have more to add later, so keep posted for changes if you are interested in this post.
The major thing I am taking away from this batch is that I got over 100% efficiency and I only used 3 gallons of sarge water. I guess if you mash it the way I did there is nothing left to rinse from the grain bed.
I bought this recipe kit from midwestsupplies.com.
I am confident this beer will come out fine. I will update this thread when its carbonated.
I used all distilled water for this batch. 7 gallons total. I got close to 6 gallons in the boil pot. My pot is 24 quarts and I filled it to within a half inch.
I added some brewing salts.
Starting Water (ppm):
Ca: 0
Mg: 0
Na: 0
Cl: 0
SO4: 0
CaCO3: 0
Mash / Sparge Vol (gal): 4 / 3
RO or distilled %: 100% / 100%
Total Grain (lb): 11
Non-Roasted Spec. Grain: 0.5
Roasted Grain: 0.5
Beer Color (SRM): 3.99
Adjustments (grams) Mash / Boil Kettle:
CaSO4: 3 / 2.25
CaCl2: 4 / 3
MgSO4: 3 / 2.25
NaHCO3: 3 / 2.25
NaCl: 0 / 0
CaCO3: 0 / 0
Lactic Acid (ml): 0
Sauermalz (oz): 0
Mash Water / Total water (ppm):
Ca: 117 / 117
Mg: 18 / 18
Na: 54 / 54
Cl: 127 / 127
SO4: 188 / 188
Cl to SO4 Ratio: 0.68 / 0.68
Alkalinity (CaCO3): 118
RA: 23
Estimated pH (room temp): 5.59
I neglected to get a gravity reading post boil. sigh...
the recipe sheet says this brew should have a SG of 1.030-1.050
I checked my gravity reading at room temp around 75F, it was 1.060 15.25 brix, with an estimated ABV of 8%
Does that mean my efficiency is over 100%?
Who's the brew master!! LOL
Here is a photo of my cold break and what not...
In this video I am collecting my sweet sweet wort...
In this photo I am pinching the tube end coming from the mash tun creating a dual stream to maximize aeration...
Look at the clear 3.99SRM stream of deliciously sweet wort!
Boil-over mess on the side of my pot...
Chilling the wort...
My only flaws are as follows:
I failed to properly heat my tun to prevent heat loss during mash, however I did remedy this and continued to mash for an hour after I added my brew salts which I had forgotten to add at the very beginning, so the mash was resting in distilled water for 30 minutes or so before I added the minerals and reheated wort to fix the temp. I drew off around a half gallon of wort from the mash and heated it to 165F and stirred. This brought the mash up to 154F and stayed above 152F for the entire hour. I don't know how this effected my water profile above, but I ended up mashing all 11Lbs of grain with 4 gallons instead of 3, and I sparged with 3 gallons.
My next fail was a bit of hot side aeration. I collected my wort into my fermenting bucket and then poured it into the pot.This cause some aeration, not a vigorous proper aeration, but I want to avoid this next time anyway.
I also had some trouble putting water into my airlock. This is the first time I had this kind of trouble. This is a new fermenter. I finally decided to add the water after inserting the airlock. But a few drops of spring water did drop into the beer. I am sure this will be unnoticed in the finished product because there is not a serious risk of infection as the spring water is UV filtered .
I am sure I will have more to add later, so keep posted for changes if you are interested in this post.
The major thing I am taking away from this batch is that I got over 100% efficiency and I only used 3 gallons of sarge water. I guess if you mash it the way I did there is nothing left to rinse from the grain bed.
. Keep that spray bottle handy and spritz 
.
