April 11, 2009 Circle City Brew Day

[The Pol]

So... today has been pretty good. The sight gauge on the MLT, after a period of about 30 minutes DID get some grains clogged in it during the recirc as the grain bed got set. No biggie... it is really only used to measure strike infusion qty. If I do a step mash, I will use the HLT sight gauge to measure how much I have pumped over into the MLT since the pump, hoses and coil will all be full at that time anyway.

I am drinking some of my Orange/Cascade v2.0 right now, staring out at a 60F degree day in the neighborhood, loving life and the reflecting on how blessed I am to be able to delve into such stimulating hobbies.

Oh, mashout is reached, so I am beginning the sparge!

 

[The Pol]

The flows are matched up... going to grab a bite. Be back later!

 

[G-E-R-M-A-N]

Water temp. yes... the flexing of the cooler walls probably. This is why IMHO it is always imperative to have the electrical connections potted.

Not to dilute your brew thread, but yes I noticed the higher the temp the more it leaked. Maybe 1 cup total no big deal.

And your right potting the electrical connections are mucho important.

The flows are matched up... going to grab a bite. Be back later!

This is the part I was paraniod about when brewing. About how far are your valve handles open?

I think it helps to have some point of reference on the inside of the MLT, that way you can peek in and make an adjustment. I really wish rubbermaids gallon marks were darker.

 

[The Pol]

Not to dilute your brew thread, but yes I noticed the higher the temp the more it leaked. Maybe 1 cup total no big deal.

Dilute? Hey, it is all about brewing on this system, that is why I do this stuff. I will have plenty of pics and a video later!! This is a freaking awesome brew day!

 

[humann_brewing]

congrats on the successful brew day and that you were able to brew today period. My brew was successful yesterday too, about to pitch the yeast soon.

 

[The Pol]

Pre-boil voume of 7.8 gallons at 1.028 That is about 82-85%... We will see what post boil looks like.

60 minutes into the boil, PBW wash going on the MLT and HEX coil

 

[LooyvilleLarry]

Hey Pol, it's good to be back home. I had to go to KC on April 1st when my mother was involved in a very serious accident. She is doing better, and will move out of ICU on Monday.

Can't wait to get that element replaced and brew up again.

 

[The Pol]

Nice to see ya Larry! Sorry about mom! I will have some pics and video up later!

 

[The Pol]

About 10 more minutes left! The last kettle hop addition is in, the "cube" hops are in the "cube" and it is awaiting some sweeeet wort!

 

[planenut]

I don't think I'm familiar with "the cube". Is this a new addition to your system? If so, What is "the cube"?

 

[The Pol]

It is my "no chill" HDPE cooling tank/fermentor!

Transferring to it now in fact! You will see it when I get my pics uploaded.

 

[The Pol]

FWIW the PID is monitoring the temp of the wort as I transfer it to the "cube" and it began at 189F and is now at about 184F as the last couple gallons are transferred.

This is good to know, because there is a temp. curve on which hop utilization takes place. Anything below 170F is pretty negligible.

This is why I moved my 35 minute hops to 15 min and my 20 minute hops, to the cube. I am assuming about 20 minutes worth of utilization STILL taking place in the cube.

 

[The Pol]

The cube is filled, it was 5.5 gallons at 1.040, so 82% eff.

Not to shabby for 4.5 hours this afternoon. SWMBO is cooking some enchiladas for me, the cube is cooling, my starter wort from the boil is cooling so that I can get my 24 hour starter churning. Good brew day!

 

[The Pol]

I did what I am going to call a "RWS" It stands for Real Wort Starter.

Basically this is what I did.

Prior to transferring my hot wort to the container, I drained 1 qt into a SS sauce pan. I chilled it in a cold water bath, and took my OG.

Once I did this, I poured the OG sample wort back into the sauce pan and boiled it again to make sure it was good and sterile.

Then cooled in a cool water bath to 65F and transferred to a 1 gal. carboy.

I rehydrated my S-05 as usual in warm water, then transferred it into my 1 gal. carboy to make my 24-hour starter.

No DME, and the yeasties get accustomed to the same worth they are going to get pitched into, tomorrow!

 

[The Pol]

I am working on the video now...

Here is a teaser!

 

[planenut]

I don't remember the notches cut out of your mash tun by the handles... Is that new and what is it for?

 

[The Pol]

I don't remember the notches cut out of your mash tun by the handles... Is that new and what is it for?

Always been there, that is from Brew Beast 1.0, when I had a built in sparge arm.

 

[The Pol]

Here is the video!!

 

[The Pol]

Some quick stats on this brew!

Water needed was 10.25 gallons, this accounts for 1.5 gallons of loss in the system prior to the kettle. It also accounts for .4 gallons lost in the kettle to hops/trub.

The mash temp. varied by about +/- .5F during the 60 minute mash.

Mashout took 20 minutes with the grain bed reaching 167F.

Ran the HLT dry during the sparge

Ran the MLT dry during the sparge, ended up with exactly 7.75 gallons pre-boil at 1.029

Performed a 90 minute boil with the PID set at 70%. This seemed to be necessary with the large starting volume in the BK.

Boil off was at a rate of 1.5gal/hr. The post boil volume was 5.5 gallons at 1.040.

Efficiency was 82% today

Transferred wort at 189F to the HDPE container.

I took a 1 qt. sample of REAL WORT for the OG reading and to create a starter for the yeast. I call this a "RWS"... Real Wort Starter, it is new for me.

This starter will be pitched after 24 hours, once the wort has cooled to 65F.

FWIW, the 1 quart starter has a 1.5" krausen only 3.5 hours after pitching the yeast!

 

[The Pol]

Okay, I have never seen this before, but the starter has a 3" krausen on it 6 hours after the pitch! My DME starters generally had a very small krausen, but did the job just fine. Odd, but the krausen has more volume now than the starter itself!

 

[MacBruver]

Man, that is SUCH a good idea about the RWS... makes total sense and it is a real benefit of no-chill. Congrats on the successful brew- I have been watching your posts in the BIAB thread and waiting for the day to come! I'm stuck in an apartment and itching to start up with all grain, and BIAB is going to make it possible for me.

How does the efficiency compare to your normal brew methods? What sort of mash schedule to you typically do?

 

[The Pol]

Well as you can see, I do not do BIAB, but I am trying the no chill method. I generally do a 2qt/lb mash, but I may back that off a little, to say 1.75qt/lb to increase my sparge volume a little.

The RWS is really quite awesome, most of my beers dont start fermenting for 12-24 hours anyway, no chill gave me the excuse to do it really. Now I can get a healthy cell count in there, I will post how quickly it takes off.

My eff. runs about 80-85%, BIAB I hear is close to 70%, which is not bad considering the simplicity

My starter, 12 hours after pitching, has a 6" krausen on it.

 

[The Pol]

Krausen is dropping on the starter and the fermentor is reaching 77F 14 hours after transferring to it.

 

[The Pol]

I will easily be able to pitch within 24 hours... the starter is ready and the wort is cooled.

BTW I used my PID to keep my PBW wash in the kettle up at 150F for a couple hours... WOW shiney!!!

 

[planenut]

Do you think the high krausen is from such a large cell count in the relatively small volume of wort?

 

[The Pol]

Dunno, done starters before with dry yeast and never had a real krausen, it was freaky, I almost needed a blow off!

 

[MacBruver]

Well as you can see, I do not do BIAB, but I am trying the no chill method. I generally do a 2qt/lb mash, but I may back that off a little, to say 1.75qt/lb to increase my sparge volume a little.

Ah.. I saw the 2qt/lb and couldn't see your sparge volume anywhere, so I thought you had done a "no sparge" BIAB-style mash along with the no chill, for the full aussie effect. I'll be trying it out as soon as I have fermenter space.

 

[The Pol]

Yeah, I have the HERMS, so I doubt I will ever do BIAB... the HERMS is already there and so easy to hit temps and times with.

 

[The Pol]

Pitched my yeast... 22 hours after the end of the boil it reached pitching temps.

Now, time to watch the show.

 

[planenut]

Did you shake to aerate before pitching with this method?