My first AG batch is in the books! Here's the recipe:
SWT Canadian Pale Ale
8# 2-row pale
2# Munich malt
.25# crystal 80
.25# wheat malt
.5oz Galena 60
1oz cascade 15
1oz cascade 2 Total IBU=41
Windsor dry yeast
I started by milling all the grain. I was going to mechanize the process but I found it quite relaxing to sit in the sun and crank by hand. You were right Dude, it's very cathartic. Gives you a bit of calm before the upcoming storm.
My mash temp stabilized at 151, I was shooting for 153, but I'm not too worried about that. I batch sparged with 170 degree water and stopped the runnings at 1.010. This yielded about 7gal of wort.
Then, it was to the boil. Everything to this point had been performing above expectations. The turkey fryer I had wouldn't light! I finally got it going but I had to back the connection to the propane tank off a bit and hold it askew with some electrical tape. Anyone else seen this before? Anyhoo, I got her working and that 60,000BTUs made short work of the boil (when it did, I was ready - not a single drop boiled over.)
The boil was fine and then on to the chilling. I had built a CFC but I made a mistake and used 1/4" tubing instead of 3/8." The chiller worked extremely well, and with full cooling water on the wort exit temp was 42F! I adjusted it and got a more resonable temp. Being that it was only 1/4" tubing it took 2 hours to drain the kettle. Even my wort wizard didn't help, (actually I couldn't really get it to work at all.) Good thing I had HB and Jimmy Page and the Black Crows to keep me company!
All in all, it was great! I can't wait to do it again and share the experience with my friends and family. Unfortunatly, it looks like I'm going to Africa in a week or two, so it'll have to wait. But like the guy at the end of Conan said: "That is another story"
SWT Canadian Pale Ale
8# 2-row pale
2# Munich malt
.25# crystal 80
.25# wheat malt
.5oz Galena 60
1oz cascade 15
1oz cascade 2 Total IBU=41
Windsor dry yeast
I started by milling all the grain. I was going to mechanize the process but I found it quite relaxing to sit in the sun and crank by hand. You were right Dude, it's very cathartic. Gives you a bit of calm before the upcoming storm.
My mash temp stabilized at 151, I was shooting for 153, but I'm not too worried about that. I batch sparged with 170 degree water and stopped the runnings at 1.010. This yielded about 7gal of wort.
Then, it was to the boil. Everything to this point had been performing above expectations. The turkey fryer I had wouldn't light! I finally got it going but I had to back the connection to the propane tank off a bit and hold it askew with some electrical tape. Anyone else seen this before? Anyhoo, I got her working and that 60,000BTUs made short work of the boil (when it did, I was ready - not a single drop boiled over.)
The boil was fine and then on to the chilling. I had built a CFC but I made a mistake and used 1/4" tubing instead of 3/8." The chiller worked extremely well, and with full cooling water on the wort exit temp was 42F! I adjusted it and got a more resonable temp. Being that it was only 1/4" tubing it took 2 hours to drain the kettle. Even my wort wizard didn't help, (actually I couldn't really get it to work at all.) Good thing I had HB and Jimmy Page and the Black Crows to keep me company!
All in all, it was great! I can't wait to do it again and share the experience with my friends and family. Unfortunatly, it looks like I'm going to Africa in a week or two, so it'll have to wait. But like the guy at the end of Conan said: "That is another story"