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The stove is a 36 inch 5 burner. I can fit three 8 gal kettles on there staggered. The burners are slightly off center, but it does the job. They're two 15k and one 18k btu. That's plenty to get them up to temp indoors especially if the lids are on. The 8 gal kettles have thermometers in the...

Just because my process is non standard by most people's routine doesnt mean I'm disorganized or haphazard in my mashing or brewing. I'm actually fairly fastidious in my timing and temps. I'll walk you through it. First I measure out the grain into three homer buckets. Then I'll mill the three...

I completely accept tgat theres room for improvement on my process, But blaming the crush size and mash thickness does not explain why one had perfectly reasonable efficiency. They were mashed identically next on one another.

Yes, I suppose it HAS to be process. However, I dont know why two batches of teh same grain would preform markedly differently. Both the 10 pounder as well as the 50 lb sack were both Great Western 2-row pale. Both were un-milled. Both went through the same milling and mashin process. One...

Welp, I dont think it was a problem with the 2-row. I just did a small test batch, with one pound of 2 row and 1.62 quarts, and mashed in a sauce pan on the stove for an hour. I did iodine and refractometer samples every 5 minutes. It still looks like there was some starch even at 60 minutes...

No dough balls. Mash is relatively loose, and a couple of stirs with the mash paddle, and everything is well mixed. Its obviously working well enough to get the 65% efficiency on a least the one good batch, and Ive been deep in the 70's in the past. I don't think the answer is as simple as...

No top off water. The beer smith calculations for mash and sparge volumes are pretty dialed in now. I do add water to grain instead of the usual doughing in, but Ive been using the method for a while without issues, and it worked for the good batch this past brew session too. The strike water...

Corona mill is that cheap plate mill everybody buys when theyre too cheap for a roller. :) It doesnt really open up much over time, and you feel the loss of resistance in the drill if its not crushing. Anyway, on visual inspection, the grain looked like it was cracked well, without being too...

Stored in basement, sealed, for maybe a month or so? Bought from morebeer.com, and I assume drop shipped direct from great western or somewhere in CA, so who knows what temps it hit on the truck to NY. The 10 pound bag was uncrushed, so the crush was the same. Its a corona mill, but ive been...

So yesterday I had my first real mash failure on 2 of the 3 batches I brewed. Im talking super low efficiency in the ~30% range. All three batches were done concurrently (3 MTs, 3 kettles, etc.) The only difference that stands out is that the batch that hit my target spot on was primarily...

Yeah, I had run the mash calculators before and saw similar numbers. I regular exceed 12 lbs, so im glad I went the way I did. The round cooler would probably be easier to store when not in use, but the 10 gallon rounds are so expensive. I guess the rectangular ones are the obvious choice...

I have a nice stainless kettle with welded fittings, and two $20 aluminum tamale steamers with weldless thermometer and spigots. I use all three concurrently when brewing, and do not favor the stainless over the aluminum in any way. Just don't clean the aluminum with anything other than water...

How much grain do these hold? I was steered away from the 5 gallon rounds thinking they wouldn't hold enough, and I went with two 48 quart rectangular ones instead.

I bottled the two lower gravity beers; the Island IPA and the Oatmeal Porter. Both really need to mellow for a while before I can really reach a verdict, but these finished much drier than anticipated. Island IPA went from 1.058 to 1.006, and the porter went from 1.060 to 1.008. My mash temps...

Whether I do one batch or three concurrently, its always 5 to 6 hours for me. I highly suggest buying another MT and kettle, and simply doing two batches as the same time, or at least slightly staggered if you need to share a burner.

While I have also had luck with older pre-crushed grains, I started buying larger quantities uncrushed, so that they would keep longer. A corona mill, a drill, and a few modifications to increase hopper size, and catch basin will make quick work of crushing grain for future brews.

I think I'm gonna give this recipe a shot, since I'm in need of an easy to drink, and easy to produce APA. What are your feelings about substituting cluster for perle, since I still have nearly 2lb of cluster on hand?

Well, ideally id like it to be a clamp on type device, so I can walk away while it cools. Maybe a hand held immersion blender, or even a modified cake mixer that could be clamped onto the side might work.

I say two wire hangers, straightened out, but leaving the hook part at the end, like a long candy cane. Try to hook each hanger around the silicone bits and pull them across one another to close the tongs up, as you pull them up towards the opening.

Just wondering if theres any small device that will circulate the wort in the brew kettle to increase the flow and heat transfer to the immersion chiller? Sure, I could stand there for a half hour moving it in tiny circles, but it not only burns my delicate hands, I also keep knocking into the...