My Third Batch of Beer

[coffearobusta42]

Yay! It's brew day. My 3rd batch, my 1st partial mash and my 1st 5 gal batch.

Bought a dry Irish stout kit from J&M in Novato. Nice guys there.

The kit has:
3 lbs light DME
2 lbs Marris Otter
2 lbs flaked barley
1 lb black roasted barley
2 oz of Kent Golding for 60 min
1 whirlfloc tablet

I think I'm going to add 1.5 lbs sparkling amber DME that I have onhand to boost the maltiness and the abv.

For yeast I bought Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale

Just cleaned and sanitized. Now heating water. yikes that's a lot of grains - I don't have another kettle big enough. Can't I just do the soaking and sparging all in the main kettle?

Toying with the idea of adding a spiced ginger tincture at bottling.

 

[Yooper]

Yay! It's brew day. My 3rd batch, my 1st partial mash and my 1st 5 gal batch.

Bought a dry Irish stout kit from J&M in Novato. Nice guys there.

The kit has:
3 lbs light DME
2 lbs Marris Otter
2 lbs flaked barley
1 lb black roasted barley
2 oz of Kent Golding for 60 min
1 whirlfloc tablet

I think I'm going to add 1.5 lbs sparkling amber DME that I have onhand to boost the maltiness and the abv.

For yeast I bought Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale

Just cleaned and sanitized. Now heating water. yikes that's a lot of grains - I don't have another kettle big enough. Can't I just do the soaking and sparging all in the main kettle?

Toying with the idea of adding a spiced ginger tincture at bottling.

Yes, you can mash all of the grains together in whatever vessel you have. When I did partial mashes, I'd line my bottling bucket with a great big mesh bag and mash in there. You want to hold it at 150-155 degrees for 45-60 minutes, so wrap whatever vessel you use with a sleeping bag to hold heat, and add a little boiling water as needed if it cools too much.

Since you have 5 pounds of grain, you will want to use about 7.5 quarts of water in the mash. (1.5 quarts/pound). I'd start with water at 165, and add that to the grain and that should get you in the ballpark.

 

[coffearobusta42]

Thanks Yooper. Yep I basically made use of whatever vessels I have on hand. I was able to mash in my main kettle and hold it in a 150 degree oven. I then used my bucket fermenter to sparge in. Added that to the kettle and then boiled as usual. Chilling wort now. Is it wrong that I'm pretty excited?

 

[coffearobusta42]

Holy smokes!

Brewed on Sunday and when I went to bed no signs from the airlock on the bucket.

Wake up 4:30 on Monday and the pressure was so great it blew the lid of the bucket. Lots of foam. No stopping it.

Get home from work that evening and it's the complete opposite. No visible signs of activity.

Tuesday morning I take a sample that measures 1.017 (OG was 1.054). Wow! That much in so short a time. Yeast are amazing.

 

[coffearobusta42]

Sample tastes good, btw. Dark color, sweet. Lighter than I expected and may lack for bitterness. May be good base for winter spices.