Osedax
Well-Known Member
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!
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:
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.
I am creating a Cream Stout today.
Here are how my specialty malts look after milling:
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.
Strike water is set to give me a rest of 163F:
Doughing in:
You should go water then malt.
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.
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:
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...
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:
That was close! I consider myself lucky.
This is after all the wort spilled:
It is a mixture of hose water and wort.
All in all, I think I lost somewhere between 1/2 to 1 gallon of delicious wort.
Boil for 90 minutes:
Knocking out directly into the fermenters:
Normally, I whirlpool to cool but, my HLT doesn't have a whirlpool valve...
Sitting happily in the fermentation chamber:
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:
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:
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.
I am creating a Cream Stout today.
Here are how my specialty malts look after milling:
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.
Strike water is set to give me a rest of 163F:
Doughing in:
You should go water then malt.
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.
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:
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...
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:
That was close! I consider myself lucky.
This is after all the wort spilled:
It is a mixture of hose water and wort.
All in all, I think I lost somewhere between 1/2 to 1 gallon of delicious wort.
Boil for 90 minutes:
Knocking out directly into the fermenters:
Normally, I whirlpool to cool but, my HLT doesn't have a whirlpool valve...
Sitting happily in the fermentation chamber:
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: