Brew Day 9-13

[Snafu]

Brewing my last of the summer beers for the SHMBO today. A american wheat with sweet & bitter orange. Mash is heating, so far so good. :rockin:

 

[Snafu]

Just finished milling the grains... still waiting on mash water..

 

[nealf]

woot, just started heating the strike water.. 10 gallons of ordinary bitter here we come!

 

[JamieT]

I'm 31 minutes into the mash (27lb grain bill) for the Great Pumpkin Ale!!!

 

[Petey]

Just 5 minutes into the mash on a Irish Red over here.

 

[Snafu]

mash sitting at exactly 155, should hold for an hour. Mashed in at 172 and had to add a .5 gal water to drop it a little. (Metallica playing in the background)

 

[Snafu]

looking like a great brewday guys!

 

[Snafu]

Man I almost did an Irish Red today, but SHMBO gave me her opinion.lol

 

[JamieT]

Sparging now.. This rig is too automated I think.. Almost bored..

 

[Snafu]

Just checked my sparge water temp in the cooler, 169.5 and still have 19 mins left in the mash. Should end up right at 168.

 

[Snafu]

Well, just discovered my Snafu for the day. I thought the mash was a little thin. Dough in should have been with 4 gals, with a two gallon addition at mash out. Well I doughed in with all 6 gallons. Any ideas?

 

[JamieT]

Let it ride...

 

[JamieT]

Man I am sweating the boil on this batch.. I usually boil 12 gallons for these l10gallon batches, which is already pushing the limits of the 15g Blingmann.. I have 8lbs of pumpkin going in this one as well.. Can anyone say boil over?

 

[Snafu]

Let it ride...

Just skip the mash out and do the sparge?

 

[JamieT]

Thats what I would do.. I didnt mash out this pumpkin ale..

 

[JamieT]

the boil has begun

 

[Snafu]

OK, skipped it. Started the fly sparge. So far using the refractometer its looking like I may have hurt my eff a little. looking for a OG of 058, its looking like 052 but I'll check it again when the sparge is done.

 

[JamieT]

I was just a tad short.. looking for 080.. Got 078..

 

[Snafu]

Half way done with sparge, here's how it looks

 

[Snafu]

 

[Snafu]

starting to get thin now, .015

 

[JamieT]

dunno how the hell I did it, but managed to get past the hot break without a boil over..

 

[nealf]

Time to start draining the first runnings!

 

[JamieT]

Sweet! another player!

 

[Petey]

Nearly through collecting here. Contemplating makin today a double brew day. We don't get too many cool rainy days here. Seems almost to good to pass up.

 

[chefchris]

I'm fixing to mash in on my Vienna/Centennial SMaSH.

 

[Snafu]

ok pre-boil gravity should have been 041 & I ended up with 035. oh well, its still ber

 

[Snafu]

chick beer lol

 

[JamieT]

Thats funny..

 

[nealf]

My preboil should have been around 1.033... it came in at 1.043...