GRABASS Brew Fest

[the_bird]

Looks like a great time - MAN, I can't wait for us Northern boys to have our little get-together next month. Be nice to finally be able to brew with people who know what they're doing (unlike me!)

 

[Dude]

Tard boy got everything figured out last night, but I literally fell asleep while uploading the pictures to my webserver.


http://www.digitalninja.org/beer/brew_orgy/

Wow, looks like a great time boys!

The bacon wrapped jalapeno things--YES, please share recipe.

Billy, beautiful little one there!

Walker, so how did the inagural go? Didja hit your mash temp?

 

[the_bird]

Oh, and that's a damn cute kid - Baron, that's you, right?

 

[Walker]

Walker, so how did the inagural go? Didja hit your mash temp?

My efficiency was low. I haven't calculated yet, but I was few points shy and and halg gallon shy.

Mash temp? Yeah, I eventually hit it... right about the time Billy was finishing his sparge.

 

[todd_k]

Nice pics!

my personal favorite is the down towards the bottom, looks like BB had a few too many.

 

[Walker]

I have a few additional items in my lost-and found box.

1 long plasrtic mash paddle (ths is Richard's)
1 long plastic spoon with gallon markings on it.
1 metal measuring spoon (tablespoon).

I also realized something while cleaning a few things up. I never put my gypsum OR irish moss in yesterday.

I guess I drank too many beers.

 

[Boston]

I still have a sh!tload of leaf hops in the freezer from our bulk purchase last spring. Time to use 'em or lose 'em. Let me know what you need.

CASCADE
COLUMBUS
CHINOOK

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Yep, that's me and Olivia. She was a little freaked out from all the hullabaloo, but I'm glad everybody got to meet her.

Richard, I thought it was a little old when you left without a shirt on, but I wasn't going to be the one to say anything.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I have a few additional items in my lost-and found box.

1 long plasrtic mash paddle (ths is Richard's)
1 long plastic spoon with gallon markings on it.
1 metal measuring spoon (tablespoon).

I also realized something while cleaning a few things up. I never put my gypsum OR irish moss in yesterday.

I guess I drank too many beers.

The hops (you've already noted) and tablespoon are mine. I'm really only interested in the hops.

I forgot to toss in a whirl-floc tablet, too. But I've forgotten on my last three brews...having the kegerator renders it somewhat unnecessary.

 

[nosnhojr]

Yep, that's me and Olivia. She was a little freaked out from all the hullabaloo, but I'm glad everybody got to meet her.

Richard, I thought it was a little old when you left without a shirt on, but I wasn't going to be the one to say anything.

It was you who told me I didn't need to worry about the sun until I was full of alcohol... or something like that.

 

[Boston]

I forgot to toss in a whirl-floc tablet, too. But I've forgotten on my last three brews...having the kegerator renders it somewhat unnecessary.

I just realized I forgot to to toss my moss in the sauce. No big loss.

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

I just realized I forgot to to toss my moss in the sauce. No big loss.

All this time I've been tossing my sauce in the moss! Who knew?

 

[the_bird]

How'd the Randall work out? As good as advertised?

 

[Boston]

How'd the Randall work out? As good as advertised?

The Randall needs some tweaking. Big time tweaking.

 

[the_bird]

That's too bad.

I found out that the brew pub I've needed to hit in Amherst has a Randall. Another excuse to find a sitter and head over the mountain for an evening.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I missed most of the randall drama (at least the non-human kind) since I had to make a hops run (always make a list when doing a remote brew), but I will say the few sips I did have were very hoppy and very nice.

 

[Boston]

When Dude has us up to VA for a group brew I think we're gonna need to rent a U-Haul. You don't realize how much homebrew crap you have until you have to transport it.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

When Dude has us up to VA for a group brew I think we're gonna need to rent a U-Haul. You don't realize how much homebrew crap you have until you have to transport it.

Or you could help me replace the transmission seals in the pickup!

 

[Dude]

The Randall needs some tweaking. Big time tweaking.

What happened?

The thing I've seen with the Randalls is the extreme foam, but that is inevitable. What was your malfunction?

Walker--here's a hint--strike temp for your mash water should be 11-12 degrees higher than your target mash temp. SwAMi and I use the same exact coolers and we hit pretty much right on every time now.

For efficiency, check your crush. With that mash pad and false bottom, you should be close to 80% even with a batch sparge. Try stopping the flow halfway through the batch sparge, stir, and recirculate again. Your efficiency will rise 5 points.

 

[Boston]

What happened?

The thing I've seen with the Randalls is the extreme foam, but that is inevitable. What was your malfunction?

1. All foam, no beer
2. Hops backflowed to keg
3. Should have used fresher and /or different hops (I thought the Cascades were "grassy")

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

Where was your pressure restriction? The majority of your balancing pressure should come after the randall. That way you can keep it under enough pressure to eliminate flashing when it goes through the orify and depressurizes into the filter body. Ideally you want the randall to be the same pressure as the keg.

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

Come to think of it, if you could rig a randall together with a counter-pressure filler you'd be stylin'. No flashing across all those changes in pressure=no foam, because there is almost no change in pressure.

 

[Sean]

Wow, that looks like a blast. Hope some good brew came out of it

 

[Walker]

Walker--here's a hint--strike temp for your mash water should be 11-12 degrees higher than your target mash temp. SwAMi and I use the same exact coolers and we hit pretty much right on every time now.

Yeah, I got that part... I guess I should have said that my problem was getting the strike water to the right temp. First too hot, so I cooled it. Then too cool, so I added boiling water. I ****ed with it for about 45 minutes before I had the right temp.

After it was in the cooler and all the grain was in, I came out at a flat 150°F.

For efficiency, check your crush. With that mash pad and false bottom, you should be close to 80% even with a batch sparge. Try stopping the flow halfway through the batch sparge, stir, and recirculate again. Your efficiency will rise 5 points.

Billy and I had our grains milled at the LHBS. I think the crush was fine.

Mash pad.... wtf is that thing and how do I use it? I thought it was a piece of insulation for if I was using the fly-sparger, so it never got pulled into action this weekend.

-walker

 

[Walker]

Assuming that that I remembered how to use a hydrometer correctly on Sat, it looks like my efficiency was about 64%.


edit: wait a second. I forgot to account for the near half hallon of wort that was lost in the kettle's deadspace and in Billy's CFC.

That pushes me up to 67%.

 

[Dude]

Yeah, I got that part... I guess I should have said that my problem was getting the strike water to the right temp. First too hot, so I cooled it. Then too cool, so I added boiling water. I ****ed with it for about 45 minutes before I had the right temp.

After it was in the cooler and all the grain was in, I came out at a flat 150°F.



Billy and I had our grains milled at the LHBS. I think the crush was fine.

Mash pad.... wtf is that thing and how do I use it? I thought it was a piece of insulation for if I was using the fly-sparger, so it never got pulled into action this weekend.

-walker

Crushing at the HBS is your first problem. I'd almost guarantee it isn't crushed enough. Once I started crushing my own grain my efficiency went up almost 15 points (fly-sparging). Make Jeff crush for you from now on--it'll make a difference.

Put the mash pad directly on top of the false bottom. Then your grain and water. It'll do wonders for recirculating.

 

[the_bird]

Assuming that that I remembered how to use a hydrometer correctly on Sat, it looks like my efficiency was about 64%.


edit: wait a second. I forgot to account for the near half hallon of wort that was lost in the kettle's deadspace and in Billy's CFC.

That pushes me up to 67%.

That's pretty close to what the efficiency was on my first batch. I got up to 70% on the second, I'm going to try the pause-the-sparge, stir, re-vorlauf trick next time and see if I can get closer to 75%.

 

[Walker]

Crushing at the HBS is your first problem. I'd almost guarantee it isn't crushed enough. Once I started crushing my own grain my efficiency went up almost 15 points (fly-sparging). Make Jeff crush for you from now on--it'll make a difference.

I'll have my own grain mill in the very near future, but I'll try Jeff's or Billy's mills if I brew again before getting my own.

Put the mash pad directly on top of the false bottom. Then your grain and water. It'll do wonders for recirculating.

Hmmm... Ok. I'll try that. When I first went through all that gear you delivered, I was trying to figure out what that was for. It seemed too clean (pristine white with no husk or anything stuck to/in it) to have ever been in contact with grain, so I thought it just went above the grain. It's got a center hole cut in it with foam that can optionally be removed, and I thought that the sparge sprinkler went through this hole... or... sparge water was trickled on top of the foam to disperse it better.

Now that I know wtf it is, I'll use it next time.

-walker

 

[Walker]

Some other news-worthy tidbits from the brew bonanza:

(1) Everyone got baptized with Holy Grail porter as I attempted to vent the pressure in my keg from the dip-tube side. Aftermath pictures are here:

• http://digitalninja.org/beer/brew_orgy/IMG_1010.jpg
• http://digitalninja.org/beer/brew_orgy/IMG_1009.jpg

(2) I think we used about 6,000 gallons of water between the four brewers. My back yard has officially been declared a swamp by the town of Cary, NC.

(3) Billy is a AG speed brewing guru. I think he finished his AG stout in about the same amount of time that Richard finished his extract Hefe.

(4) When the brewing was done, my wife took over some of the gear (a 5 gallon pot and propane burner) to do a low country boil for dinner; potatoes, sausage, shrimp, crayfish, corn, onions, etc. Good stuff.

 

[Walker]

When Dude has us up to VA for a group brew I think we're gonna need to rent a U-Haul. You don't realize how much homebrew crap you have until you have to transport it.

No kidding.... That's going to take some planning for sure.

If hauling gear looks like it will be a problem, we might have to serialize the brews and just take a single mash tun and keggle up.