I had my first brew on my new brewstand a couple weeks ago. I waited until now to write about it so I could taste the product, and let me tell you it brings a whole new meaning to RDWHAHB. I started building my brewery set up back in May and I waited to brew until it was all done so I could run a full process.
My brewstand is a three tier stand. I wanted something I could use as efficient as possible. Maybe not fast, but I would prefer to let gravity do as much of the work as possible. The only parts that I had to put a pump on were the vorlauf step and the end of boil where i pump the wort through a plate chiller into the corny keg for fermentation.
The day started off pretty hectic having to run to a brewstore in the city to get a hole drilled in my boil pot for the ball valve. After that was run to a different brew store to get my grains and hops, as I'd made a starter earlier in the day. When I added all my water salts for would pre-boil the water for the mash, mash-out and sparge water. Just as a small, easy step to try and control oxygen.
The rest of the day went pretty smooth apart from my running around. At as I began to collect wort I remembered I had not done a vorlauf. I did a quick couple passes by hand and the wort looked pretty clear and I let the wort collect in the boil kettle, and started the boil.
The boil went well and I added all the hops at the right times. When I started to get the pump and chiller ready I could not find my extension cord for the pump. So i had to make due with my Immersion chiller. At this point though it was close to 9pm, and I live in a condo. I turned on the water from the outside faucet and let it chill... until I walked inside and heard how much noise it was making on the wall between me and my neighbor. I couldn't do that so I turned it off and took the whole 5 gallons of boiling hot wort to the bathtub and filled it up and added ice. Let it cool down, added whirlpool hops, let it sit for another 10 minutes before trying to cool it down more and transferring it into the keg. Even then it was too hot, so I waited until the morning to pitch the yeast.
I built a simple fermentation chamber, out of a mini-fridge and a heating pad. So i could ferment at 65, i set it to 63 until the bubbling started to slow down, then i raised the setting on the controller to 68 to hit 70 and shook keg to mix the yeast back into the wort. Bubbling picked up and i let it sit another few days until the bubbling stopped and took a sample.
My OG was 1.060 which was ten point short of my target of 1.070. But i dont think i boiled down to my proper volume ( I still need to make proper volume marks on the kettles). Now my issue is I want to cold crash it so i can add the gelatin, but i cant get the fermentation chamber to drop below 58 degrees no matter what I try.
But the beer tasted great. There were no off flavors. It was exactly as bitter as an IPA should be, and the hop aroma and flavor was perfect. And I know its going to improve as I get the numbers or the recipe to where I want it. No matter how much i stessed over the problems and ran around trying to fix every little thing. At the end of the day. I did the best I could and still made a drinkable beer.
So if you ever think your having a horrible brew day and are stressing over everything, remember to take a breath, control what you can and let the universe do what it does.
My brewstand is a three tier stand. I wanted something I could use as efficient as possible. Maybe not fast, but I would prefer to let gravity do as much of the work as possible. The only parts that I had to put a pump on were the vorlauf step and the end of boil where i pump the wort through a plate chiller into the corny keg for fermentation.
The day started off pretty hectic having to run to a brewstore in the city to get a hole drilled in my boil pot for the ball valve. After that was run to a different brew store to get my grains and hops, as I'd made a starter earlier in the day. When I added all my water salts for would pre-boil the water for the mash, mash-out and sparge water. Just as a small, easy step to try and control oxygen.
The rest of the day went pretty smooth apart from my running around. At as I began to collect wort I remembered I had not done a vorlauf. I did a quick couple passes by hand and the wort looked pretty clear and I let the wort collect in the boil kettle, and started the boil.
The boil went well and I added all the hops at the right times. When I started to get the pump and chiller ready I could not find my extension cord for the pump. So i had to make due with my Immersion chiller. At this point though it was close to 9pm, and I live in a condo. I turned on the water from the outside faucet and let it chill... until I walked inside and heard how much noise it was making on the wall between me and my neighbor. I couldn't do that so I turned it off and took the whole 5 gallons of boiling hot wort to the bathtub and filled it up and added ice. Let it cool down, added whirlpool hops, let it sit for another 10 minutes before trying to cool it down more and transferring it into the keg. Even then it was too hot, so I waited until the morning to pitch the yeast.
I built a simple fermentation chamber, out of a mini-fridge and a heating pad. So i could ferment at 65, i set it to 63 until the bubbling started to slow down, then i raised the setting on the controller to 68 to hit 70 and shook keg to mix the yeast back into the wort. Bubbling picked up and i let it sit another few days until the bubbling stopped and took a sample.
My OG was 1.060 which was ten point short of my target of 1.070. But i dont think i boiled down to my proper volume ( I still need to make proper volume marks on the kettles). Now my issue is I want to cold crash it so i can add the gelatin, but i cant get the fermentation chamber to drop below 58 degrees no matter what I try.
But the beer tasted great. There were no off flavors. It was exactly as bitter as an IPA should be, and the hop aroma and flavor was perfect. And I know its going to improve as I get the numbers or the recipe to where I want it. No matter how much i stessed over the problems and ran around trying to fix every little thing. At the end of the day. I did the best I could and still made a drinkable beer.
So if you ever think your having a horrible brew day and are stressing over everything, remember to take a breath, control what you can and let the universe do what it does.
